AB InBev reached a tentative agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice over its disputed $20.1 billion acquisition of Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo, which faces inquiry over Mexico worker deaths.

GE to buy Lufkin for $3 billion in oil-and-gas-industry play.

PepsiCo seeks to patent novel high-protein nutrition beverages.

Adidas stops controversial sale of t-shirts around injured Louisville player Kevin Ware.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong to be honored for pro-women Makers series.

Apple's former advisor to Steve Jobs admits brand screwed up iPhone naming system.Continue reading...

Spaniard Ferran Adria has been considered one of the world’s top chefs for decades, but it wasn’t clear what would happen with his famed gastronomic skills once his famed restaurant elBulli closed its doors in 2011. 

Now all those hungry for such information have got the scoop: Adria has founded “the nonprofit elBulli Foundation, a culinary think tank and visitor center,” which is scheduled to open in 2015, according to Bloomberg.

"We want to promote innovation using food as our channel," said Adria—who's a consultant on food innovation to PepsiCo, which calls him "the world's greatest chef" and put his face on a limited-edition Pepsi can, below—to Bloomberg.

“We have two missions," he added. "One is to keep the elBulli legacy and the knowhow and the buildings. The second is to create the creators. I hope one or two of the 30 creative people we get each year will be the next generation of leaders of the culinary revolution.”Continue reading...

The year 2009 was a bad year for the international art market, with sales at Christie’s down a whopping 29 percent. Hardest hit were contemporary artists, with sales down 59 percent, as collectors instead flocked to “old masters” and 20th-century classics.

However, the demand for such works has never been greater, and while newer and less established artists are continuing to show declines, classic pieces are garnering record sums, instilling much needed funds – not to mention lifeblood - into an industry that just a year ago was seen as dead in the water.

This past week, Alberto Giacometti's "Walking Man I" sold at Sotheby's for $104.3 million, the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction (it had been predicted to fetch $20 million).Continue reading...

Sotheby’s and Christie’s Hong Kong auction houses are enjoying roaring sales in art, expensive jewelry and fine wines. Luxury companies that pander to the super-wealthy, such as yacht and custom-made luxury car makers, are also experiencing increases in sales in China.

The New York Times notes that China's rich are splashing the cash despite the recession:

In December 2008, when the credit squeeze set off by the collapse of Lehman Brothers was at its most severe, Christie’s raised $33.5 million at its jewelry sale in Hong Kong, more than at any of the other jewelry auctions it held elsewhere that season.

China’s wealthy have cash to burn, and want others to know it. For a wealthy Chinese buyer, a product's quality matters less than how much it cost.Continue reading...