Air France replaces CEO, Mercedes-Benz USA CEO is ousted in Daimler exec shuffle, and Olympus shares plunge as its CEO is fired.

Apple sells 4 million iPhone 4S units in first weekend, as Samsung sues to block the device in Japan and Australia and HTC loses Apple patent case in US. Steve Jobs' Silicon Valley memorial service reportedly filled with humor and music, as company prepares to honor late co-founder and report earnings on Tuesday. Starbucks and Apple are also partnering in the UK on free music downloads.

Mattel eyes UK's HIT Entertainment, home to Thomas the Tank Engine and other kids' properties.

Bank of America posts $6.2 billion quarterly profit, while Goldman Sachs reports $428 million loss.

BlackBerry customers receive free apps and tech support to make amends for outages.Continue reading...

BMW and Mercedes outpace rivals in China, as Shanghai auto show opens and a new report shows the most popular brands in China are predominately foreign. Ford's China JV execs mull own brand, while Volkswagen reveals the new Beetle at events in Shanghai, New York and Berlin today. The Volkswagen Group also saw record first quarter sales as China deliveries boom.

VH1 woos female viewers with new programming, while siblings BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nick, and Spike remain holdouts on Time Warner Cable's iPad app due to Viacom lawsuit, although Cablevision's iPad app gets only grumbles.

Toyota resumes production at all Japan plants for first time since tsunami, as its Lexus brand slips behind rivals in the US. TEPCO also laid out a plan for shutting down nuclear reactor.Continue reading...

Advertising spends are becoming increasingly fragmented, with online media sucking up larger and larger percentages of the allotted total. Everyone agrees this trend will continue for the foreseeable future. But hardly anyone agrees on is how online advertising should be measured.

Gawker Media, however, has just announced a game-changing proposal that suggests a whole new direction for online advertising metrics. Gawker calls it "branded traffic," and it's worth paying attention to because Gawker has rarely been in the wrong when it comes to the online media business.Continue reading...

According to a Luxury Institute study conducted in August, currently summarized in a two-part AdWeek state-of-the-market series, 77% of high-end shoppers "agreed that luxury is less important in today's economy." So, I should return that Fendi baguette I bought last week? Shucks.

Surprisingly, the majority of affluent consumers aren't big luxury shoppers. Pre-recession, most of the luxury market's power came from lower-income aspirational buyers. Now they can no longer afford to shop that way, so luxury brands are looking for new ways to sell to the actual wealthy.

According to the survey, many affluent consumers said that they're primarily interested in quality and service, which they consider hard to find in luxury goods.Continue reading...