P&G sees results boosted by sale of snacks division as its Tide brand turns to Betty White for advertising help.

Sony attributes weak financials to PlayStation sales slump.

Chick-fil-A braces for GLAAD's Friday "kiss-in" protest.

ABC and Good Morning America finally overtake NBC and The Today Show in key demographic.

ADM profits slide on higher corn costs.

Amtrak losses examined by Congress.

Apple requests sanction for Samsung as court battle heats up.

AT&T to acquire NextWave Wireless.

Beyonce plans to direct and star in film about her life.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...

When the Pope visited Britain last year, it was estimated to cost taxpayers around 10 million pounds ($16 million).

So Spain is taking a different tack. The Pope is supposed to visit the country in late August for World Youth Day 2011 and the organizers have sold a number of sponsorships to such companies as Coca-Cola, Telefonica, Santander and Iberia, according to Reuters.

The news agency notes that there are number of priests, who have sworn themselves to poverty, who are not happy about the sponsorship situation.

Reuters notes that 120 priests signed their names to “a rare joint letter” to Archbishop of Madrid Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela to let him know that they objected to the sponsorship deals.Continue reading...

Anheuser-Busch plans to slim down Super Bowl advertising and feature Stella Artois brand.

Bank of America posts loss.

British Airways name replaced on London Stock Exchange with IAG ticker with Iberia merger.

GE CEO Jeff Immelt will lead President Obama’s council on jobs and competitiveness, replacing Paul Volcker. Meanwhile, GE’s  earnings jump, indicating “momentum.”

Google co-founder Larry Page re-takes the reins, indicating an effort to restore the company’s start-up spark.

Guinness becomes first official bear of Six Nations rugby tournament.Continue reading...

Apple's iPad eats into global PC market.

Big East conference adds Texas Christian University in 2012.

Bing search trends: The Year of the Kardashian (even as sisters cut ties with prepaid credit card).

British Airways and Iberia agree to £5bn merger amidst strike action.

Cadillac returns to PGA sponsorship following two-year break.

Clinique tops L2 Digital IQ study on beauty.

Disney may make Tangled its last animated fairytale feature.Continue reading...

In a business where the product has become somewhat of a commodity and competition is brutal, airlines are always looking for better, more efficient ways to get and retain more customers. For some airlines, the best perceived strategy is a merger, as in the recent hook-up of Continental and United. 

For others, however, collaboration is preferable, because the airlines can retain their own identities yet benefit from each other. That's why British Airways, Iberia, and American Airlines just announced an agreement to code share — airline language for sharing routes, as well as coordinating schedules and fares. Passengers will be able to purchase tickets on each other's websites and essentially switch carriers as the need arises. 

While collaborations aren't unusual in the airline industry, this one brings together three well-known brands from different countries and ultimately will provide transatlantic passengers with greatly expanded choices.Continue reading...

AIG faces break-up with US Treasury.

AOL shifts emphasis with three acquisitions yesterday: TechCruch, 5min and Brizzly app-maker Thing Labs.

Borders will open 25 temporary stores for the holidays.

BP's incoming CEO Bob Dudley shakes up top management, creates new safety division.

British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia sign $7 billion pact.

Dell is launching a 7-inch tablet.Continue reading...

The big airline news this week may have been the United-Continental merger, which will result in the largest airline in the United States. But there's another airline merger that's creating an interesting flap in Europe.

The recently announced union of the UK's British Airways and Spain's Iberia is spawning a new holding company with the innocuous name of International Airlines. However, the new company is being incorporated in Spain with a Madrid address. Technically, that means the new airline is Spanish.

Why is that a problem? Because normally, it would mean British Airways would be de-listed from the FTSE 100, the prestigious European stock listing not unlike the S&P 500 in the U.S. And according to FTSE rules, the company is Spanish, not British.Continue reading...