ESPN apologizes for comments by commentator after NBA player announces he's gay.

Honda recalls almost 46,000 Fits in North America.

Chrysler sees profit tumble on poorly executed product launches.

Alibaba and Sina form alliance of China online businesses.

Apple files for new technology that tells whether to text or call friends.

Asos prepares marketing drive to grow global brand.

BP reviews safety after oil leak in North Sea.

Best Buy sells Europe unit back to Carphone Warehouse.

BlackBerry CEO questions future of tablets (which brand doesn't have).Continue reading...

In-N-Out Burger caused a "frenzy" last month when it popped up with a stealth five-hour pop-up in London. Now Five Guys, the US burger chain so-named in honor of the male half of the founding couple and their four sons, is about to make its first foray out of North America and into the UK, and it's planning to stick around a little longer.

The word from UK's Marketing magazine is that Five Guys, which has a thousand locations in the U.S. and Canada, is expanding to the UK thanks to a deal that Five Guys has made with Sir Charles Dunstone, the founder of Carphone Warehouse.

The plan is for Dunstone to open a few Five Guys in the UK next year with the first of them being a flagship store in London. And no, Barack Obama's beloved Five Guys won't rebrand as "Five Chaps" for its UK arrival, and we doubt they'll start calling their menu's mainstay "burgers and chips."Continue reading...

Despite ambitious plans to expand in the UK, Best Buy has shuttered its stores there in response to Carphone Warehouse and other competitors. Best Buy's UK Managing Director Steve Jensen bid farewell to his now-former employees with a video send-off (above) that references its 2010 "We love what we do" launch campaign in the market. Read his letter below.Continue reading...

Best Buy has decided to pull a $1.3 billion wad out of its pocket and buy out British partner Carphone Warehouse Group Plc “from a profit share of their Best Buy Mobile venture in the United States and Canada, which has been benefiting from soaring demand for smartphones like Apple's iPhone,” according to Reuters.

With the move, it is shutting down its 11 pilot "big box" Best Buy stores in the U.K. to refocus its European strategy on 2,500 profitable small box stores, according to a press release.

As a result, some 1,100 "blue shirts" or employees are facing the dole, according to the Guardian — the same Brits who spent nine weeks training at Best Buy's UK academy and who were the focus of the company's "We Love What We Do" advertising campaign (starring a happy chap called Jack) in the market.Continue reading...

Best Buy stores to close in the U.K. as Carphone Warehouse sells its stake for $1.3 billion. In the U.S., BB will join post-Thanksgiving "Black Midnight" frenzy.

IAG, owner of British Airways & Iberia, pursues Portugal's TAP airline after agreeing to buy bmi (British Midland International) from Lufthansa.

Barnes & Noble expects to prod Amazon's Kindle with new Nook Color.

All Nippon Airways probes glitch in Dreamliner landing as Airbus tries to exploit longer-than-expected training time for the new Boeing plane.

Apple hit by piracy claim by leading computer scientist as brand rewards top executives to try to retain them for the post-Jobs era and threatens Google with new Siri "personal-assistant" search technology.Continue reading...