Abbott Laboratories looks to consumer for growth.

Amazon looks to produce its own TV programming.

BMW reports higher profits and more investments in future.

Best Buy sees departure of global CMO.

Caribou launches sparkling teas.

Chesapeake Energy goes on damage control after CEO apologizes for personal financial arrangements.

GM says profit strained by European losses.Continue reading...

AT&T bid for T-Mobile comes under scrutiny in California.

Abbott Laboratories gets federal pushback on cholesterol-drug trials.

Amazon takes a do-over on flubbed Lady Gaga promotion.

Baidu plots overseas growth.

Delphi IPO signals automotive rebound.

Facebook beefs up lobbying team in Washington.Continue reading...

Abbott Laboratories pulls diet drug Meridia over concerns about heart risks.

Beverly Hills expands brand into the perfume and beauty business.

Cnooc, the oil giant based in China, invests in Texas.

CVS Caremark is bullish about business prospects from U.S. health-care reform.

Disney faces marketing and ethics scrutiny over disappointing opening-weekend box-office for Secretariat.

Focus Brands acquires soft-pretzel chain Auntie Anne’s.

Gawker Media chief Nick Denton is profiled in the New Yorker.

Glee beats Beatles singles record.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola retains its lead in Interbrand's 2010 Best Global Brands (visit www.bestglobalbrands.com for the full report).

Abbott Laboratories receives split FDA decision on Meridia.

Boeing plans to fly tourists to space. Separately, the World Trade Organization says it received illegal assistance from the U.S. in its continuing battle with Airbus.

Carrefour sets a strategy to become the “IKEA of groceries.”

FedEx reports more than doubling of fiscal first-quarter profits, but trims outlook and announces job cuts.

Forest Laboratories settles claims that it marketed Celexa antidepressant drug to children.

Goldman Sachs faces a lawsuit alleging widespread sex bias.Continue reading...

The activity of brands in China lately is something akin to the California Gold Rush of the 1840s and 1850s. It seems like every major brand is scrambling to get a piece of the world's most robust economy.

China's consumer population is a tantalizing market for virtually every industry. China is already challenging America's Silicon Valley for technology supremacy. Fashion and luxury brands are flocking to the country, revving up operations and opening new stores.

In just the past few weeks, we've reported on Apple, Burberry, GM, Hermes, and Pabst beer making new inroads into mainland China.

Add drug companies to that list. Merck is forming a joint venture to market its vaccines in China.Continue reading...

Chalk this one up to a supercharged political environment that now attaches suspicions to cereal-box labels as well as virus vaccines: Kellogg has just announced that it is backing away from the “Immunity” claim on its Rice Krispies and Cocoa Krispies cereals.

As we reported Tuesday, critics recently scored Kellogg for emblazoning the claim, “Now Helps Support Your Child’s IMMUNITY” on the front of the packages after boosting the daily value of antioxidant vitamins A, C and E in the cereals to 25% last spring, from the earlier 10%.

San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera protested that Kellogg’s claim implied that its cereals could help protect kids against the swine-flu epidemic, and might mislead parents -- though Kellogg had been developing the line for more than a year, well before the advent of the H1N1 scare, and rolled it out in May.Continue reading...