In an unusual approach to public relations, Noble, a commodities group based in Hong Kong, described a rival offer from America's Peabody Energy for an Australian coal-mining company as an "opportunistic grab" that "ruined our Easter weekend." Noble said "the Americans charged into town on a Gulfstream jet" and it would like them "to go back home." Peabody retorted that it had built the first big export mine in Australia, and found it odd that a Hong Kong-based company would mention corporate nationality. The Americans also raised their offer.
In a judgment that has wide implications for Internet regulation in the United States, an appeals court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission overstepped its authority when it censured Comcast for slowing traffic associated with a popular file-sharing service that took up bandwidth. The decision is a setback for "network neutrality," the notion that Internet service providers are meant to treat all network traffic equally.
AOL disclosed that it is considering either selling or shutting down Bebo, a social networking website it bought for $850 million in 2008. Bebo has struggled to compete in a market dominated by Facebook and MySpace.
The Canadian dollar continued to climb, touching parity with the American greenback for the first time in nearly two years. Investors have been turning to the loonie in part because of the rosier outlook for Canada's economy compared with that of its neighbor south of the border. This week the OECD forecast that Canada's GDP would grow faster than any other G7 country during the first half of 2010.
Renault and Nissan, which have a working alliance and share the same chief executive, formed a partnership with Daimler to cooperate on the development of small cars, vans and engine technology. As part of the venture Renault and Nissan will each acquire a 1.55 percent stake in Daimler, and the German carmaker will take a 3.1 percent holding in each of them.
Separately, Daimler agreed to pay $185 million in combined civil and criminal penalties to settle bribery charges brought by American authorities. The allegations centred on improper payments made by Daimler and three subsidiaries to officials in 22 countries.
British Airways and Spain's Iberia sealed their merger that was announced last year. The new company will be called International Airlines, but both carriers will retain separate brands. More consolidation was in the air when it emerged that United Airlines and US Airways have restarted their merger talks.
Political economy Timothy Geithner, the U.S. treasury secretary, postponed the publication of a report on international exchange-rate policies that was expected officially to declare that China manipulates its currency. Geithner wants first to use a series of high-level meetings to press China further to move "to a more market-oriented exchange rate." Some economists estimate that the yuan is undervalued by as much as 40 percent, benefiting Chinese exporters but hurting others.
