NYSE Euronext is in merger talks with the IntercontinentalExchange. (Update: Sold!)

Foursquare starts using Facebook data for recommendations.

General Mills announces more than 100 new products for 2013.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos among retail leaders honored by NRF.

Apple feels heat in Brazil over iPhone brand and sees "pinch to zoom" patent rejected.

Barack Obama pledges to take action on gun control.

Best Buy digital chief resigns.

Darden takes new tack to spur U.S. restraurant brands.

Deutsche Bank image remake suffers.

Disney raises bar on customer experience with new Fantasy Land.

eBay stops advertising inside mobile apps.Continue reading...

Google releases new map app for Apple iPhone, shuts down shopping search in China, and makes porn harder to find, as CEO defends tax avoidance.

Apple settles European e-book price-fixing probe with publishers.

Applebee's interviews creator of #HireKevin campaign.

BMW and Boeing plan to collaborate on making carbon fiber.

Barclays joins industry cost-cutting wave, eliminating 2,000 jobs.

Berkshire Hathaway plans rare buyback of holder's stock.Continue reading...

Four dogs owned by American visionary John McAfee, the founder of the namesake anti-virus company of the same name, were found poisoned to death near his home in Belize more than a week ago. McAfee’s neighbor, US citizen Gregory Faull, was found dead in his home soon after, a bullet wound in his head.

McAfee was suspected, though he claims he didn’t do it. So what does he do to help prove his innocence? The 67-year-old eccentric, who resigned from McAfee back in 1994, decided to put on some disguises and go hiding along with his 20-year-old girlfriend Samantha — who has “helped (him) evade detection by grabbing (him) and kissing (him), in public, in a fashion that causes passerby's to feel embarrassment at the thought of staring and by creating emotional scenes that cause the curious to momentarily forget what they were looking for.”

How do we know such intimate details from a man who is supposedly keeping himself out of sight? Well, McAfee is blogging the whole Hollywood-esque caper, whoismcafee.com, so he could shre his thoughts about the search for him, whatever facts he can dig up in his own investigation into the murder, and his anger toward the police, the media, the Belizean government, and pretty much everybody else except Samantha and his old pal Chad Essley, the director of Portland, Ore.-based Cartoon Monkey and the man who is created the blog that McAfee is posting to, according to CBS News. It's also a huge PR nightmare for his former company.Continue reading...

Bravo fires four Real Housewives of New York cast members (update: Jill Zarin says she's still in talks).

Pepsi fattens up "skinny cans" in UK.

Yahoo meets with potential bidders, as exec confirms talks with AOL and Microsoft for ad sales deal to counter Google.

Adidas and Reebok bring My Coach shoe to India.

Apple TV rumors heat up.

BlackBerry owner RIM earnings plunge by more than half.

Citigroup only hiring "critical" jobs.

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf makes New York debut.Continue reading...

Apple and Samsung tablet war reaches Australia.

Facebook facial-recognition feature is ruled as violating German privacy laws as comScore and Nielsen introduce metrics for measuring Facebook ads.

Google+ tops 25 million users, growing at 1 million users daily.

Jaguar is rumored to unveil sports-car concept at Frankfurt auto show.

Kirin acquisition intends to tap into Brazil’s boom.

McAfee uncovers evidence of massive "Operation Shady Rat" hacking ring targeting governments and organizations.Continue reading...

Nikkei slips as another earthquake hit Japan Sunday, as Tepco head pressured to quit after costing shareholders $26 billion; fear of radiation and shortages drives panic buying of Japanese goods; auto industry suffers as Toyota, Honda and others stand to lose billions in revenue; and Wal-Mart reopens 12 quake-hit stores.

Google to launch in-app billing for Android; woos celebs to create themed channels on YouTube; and works on mobile payments as near field communications battle looms. CEO Larry Page, meanwhile, is working on cutting red tape and fostering internal communications.

BlackBerry-maker RIM is in "slow-motion decline," says WSJ, while acquires mobile tool developer.

Facebook is reportedly in talks to hire former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs; and updates Questions in boost for brands.Continue reading...

Apple's App Store nears 10 billion app downloads (the most popular? Facebook) as iPad gets high-profile endorsement from Kathy Giffords.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt to get $334M as he cedes role to cofounder Larry Page and moves to chairman position on April 4.

HP shakes up board of directors.

IBM is giving non-executive employees $1,000 in stock.

Intel nears EU approval for McAfee deal.

KFC is China's favorite import.Continue reading...

Amazon exceeds Kindle sales estimates.

American Airlines allowed to exit Orbitz partnership.

Burberry CEO rewarded for bumper year.

Cisco eschews cloud services.

Comcast, Verizon and other US cable/telco broadband operators must abide by new net neutrality rules.

Deutsche Bank settles tax shelter case.

FDA powers broaden in new US food safety bill.Continue reading...