Amazon bolsters challenge to Netflix with CBS deal, nabs top spot on Harris annual brand reputation survey and mobile retail satisfaction survey.

Alitalia considers giving up independence to stay viable.

American Express tests Twitter purchases by hashtag.

Apple CEO Tim Cook gets VIP invite to President Obama's State of the Union Address; Apple to webcast Cook's conference remarks today.

Auntie Anne's Pretzels can't get Chinese to bite.

Barclay's plans to cut 3,700 jobs and change focus.

BNY Mellon releases research about insurance industry challenges.

Carnival sees engine fire disable cruise ship in Gulf of Mexico.

Coca-Cola profits rise on higher case volume.Continue reading...

Delta buys 49% of Virgin Atlantic, as Virgin's Aer Lingus hookup mocked by Ryanair and Branson bets on future of the brand. American Airlines, meanwhile, says decision on pursuing US Airways merger is coming soon.

HSBC to pay record U.S. penalty on money laundering.

Diageo terminates talks on "future" of Jose Cuervo.

AIG shares yield $7.6 billion to U.S. government, boosting taxpayers' overall profit to nearly $23 billion.

AOL postpones premiere of hip-hop-inspired TV ad.

Boeing faces revived concerns about 787.

Burberry launches Christmas events and global review.

Burger King expands digital marketing.Continue reading...

General Motors is out in full force at the LA Auto Show this week, where it's not only showcasing 2013 models, but the futuristic Volt Squad, described as "a new electric vehicle system to meet the challenge of a highway system now brimming with cutting edge technologies."

If the current love for its Chevrolet Volt brand persists, GM should be sitting pretty by the time these concept cars hit the highway. Chevy Volt may not have caught on with the American general public as initially hoped, but its manufacturer can take solace in one very important attribute of the Volt brand: The people who buy the car really love it and would make the same purchase again. Now if only there were a cutting edge technology to create more fierce brand loyalists.Continue reading...

Procter & Gamble invented modern marketing, some would argue, in its 175 years. And now the company is hoping to reinvent it by leveraging digital assets, boosting marketing productivity and more narrowly focusing on the company's key brands in their most important markets.

As the company continues to come up off the mat from its criticized performance earlier this year, CEO Bob McDonald hasn't let his foot off the gas — or let up on his determination to continue to overhaul P&G so that it doesn't get caught flat-footed again.

During an analysts' presentation last week, McDonald said that P&G plans to cut more than twice as many non-manufacturing jobs as it already had planned, a further sign that McDonald continues to heed analyst and investor criticism over the company's bloated cost structure.Continue reading...

Apple is poised to sell 10 million iPhones in smash debut but sparks backlash by unseating Google maps from its platform.

Adidas cuts Reebok revenue forecast.

Walmart drops Kindle in slap at Amazon, as Amazon Fresh makes grocers nervous.

BASF buys U.S. seed-technology company Becker Underwood.

BlackBerry hit by service outage across much of world in another setback for RIM smartphone brand.

BSkyB deemed fit to hold license by U.K.

CKE delays IPO of parent of Hardee's and Carl's Jr. brands.Continue reading...

Can’t wait for the North American International Auto Show to kick off on January 9th in Detroit so you can see the next version of the Ford Fusion? Well, you don’t have to.

Ford has released an app for the iPhone and Android that is simply activated by pointing the mobile device at a Ford logo, whether it’s on a car, online, or on a piece of paper, Mashable reports.

The app, which can be found on the Ford Fusion Facebook page, allows users to go for a drive in the new car on a variety of courses and gives them the ability to view the bare bones of the new car from 360 degrees.Continue reading...

Two events have turned the US auto industry on its head, or at least quite a bit cockeyed: the rise of $4-a-gallon gasoline, and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Small cars are enjoying a combination of rising demand and tight supply because of those two still-unfolding developments.

And they are two big reasons why Ford was able to post a robust, $2.6-billion first-quarter profit on Tuesday, even though the US auto market is still operating at volumes several million units below annual sales of just a few years ago.

There were two other contributors as well to quarterly results that had Ford CFO Lewis W.K. Booth “feeling pretty good” on Tuesday.Continue reading...

Talk about a pain point: Is there any purchase that feels worse these days than pouring gasoline into your car at prices of around $4 a gallon? 

Well, Ford is ready to help with the 38-highway-mpg new 2012 Focus and other fuel-efficient models. And it has found a way to remind you of the cars’ very friendly fuel economy exactly when you’re most open to the message: while filling the tank of the lower-mileage vehicle that you actually own.

Working with GSTV, which has a network of pump-side TV screens at more than 1,100 gas stations across the country, Ford has launched a campaign to highlight Ford’s Focus, Fusion and Fiesta with what the partners call Echo ads.Continue reading...