Apple value dips as Google soars.

Facebook sued over bungled IPO.

HSBC, now Europe's biggest bank, sheds personal loan assets.

Carmakers at Geneva Auto Show express fears on European recovery.

AARP ramps up YouTube marketing.

Ally Financial says U.S. is probing its retail-financing practices.

Amazon launches first TV effort, for fashion unit; leads mobile retail sales.

American Suzuki gets OK of bankruptcy plan by U.S. court.

Baileys slims down its bottle.

BBC Worldwide reportedly in talks to sell Lonely Planet stake.

Best Buy and Facebook focus on next-generation mobile marketing.

Boeing expects to move fast to get Dreamliner back into the air after FAA approval of fixes.Continue reading...

It's not exactly James Bond and his Aston-Martin. But British TV star Damian Lewis is just fine with playing a co-lead role with the new Jaguar F-Type sports car in a new promotional mini-movie for the new model.

Called Desire, the film is being made in collaboration with director Ridley Scott and features music by Lana Del Rey. Appearing alongside Golden Globe winner Lewis, who stars stars in Homeland, will be American actress Shannyn Sossamon. Jaguar is slowly revealing aspects of the mini-movie with behind-the-scenes featurettes, the latest of which (above) was posted this week.

The production echoes how BMW innovated in branded content about a decade ago with an online-only series of short films for the web.Continue reading...

Tata Group long has been one of India's most successful enterprises, a family-owned industrial conglomerate with its fingers in many aspects of a booming Indian economy. That included Tata Motors, which made (mostly) inexpensive little cars, including the "world's cheapest," the Nano.

But when Tata took over Jaguar Land Rover by buying the double-headed bastion of Britishness from Ford for $2.3 billion in June 2008, few western analysts gave the company a chance of succeeding where a huge American auto company had not been able to. Previous forays by powerhouse companies from emerging markets buying western outfits hadn't fared well, including Tata Steel's own acquisition of Corus Steel in 2007.

Doubters sniffed that Tata Chairman Ratan Tata, a car buff, had become too enamored of buying global brands, as Tata acquired Tetley Tea, Daweoo Commercial Vehicles, and the Pierre Hotel in New York. But Tata Motors has confounded those skeptics.Continue reading...

Apple rumor created by Swedes as a prank goes viral.

BP nets $2.5bn in deal to sell Californian refinery business and Arco brand.

Canada's media ownership concentration criticized in new report.

Chad Johnson negates powerful personal brand as VH1 series cancelled.

Cosmopolitan founder Helen Gurley Brown passes, remembered, at 90.

Dewar's global brand ambassador chats with the New York Times.

Ford banks on 2013 Fiesta.

GE and Chobani take gold in Ace Metrix Olympics ad ranker.

HarperCollins plans pop-up record store to promote new book.Continue reading...

Tata Motors may produce the world's cheapest car, the Nano. But it is going to take more than just showing up for the Indian-owned auto-maker to penetrate the increasingly difficult European small-car market.

Tata executives have said that they're planning to launch customer clinics in Europe next year and to decide as early as 2013 on whether to expand the product portfolio and market presence of the Tata brand in Europe. They told Automotive News Europe that the smallest sub-segments of the market are the ones that will see the most growth in Europe.

But maybe not for awhile. Tata, which last week announced that its global sales were up 35% year-on-year in November, shouldn't be in any hurry to move metal into the European market because all of the economic anxiety permeating the eurozone is holding back auto sales on the continent.Continue reading...

Anheuser-Busch InBev tries a tea-lemonade "light alcohol" drink for Michelob.

Ann Taylor woos younger women by featuring stylish students.

Avon replacing Andrea Jung as CEO.

Best Buy finds that deep discounts sacked profits.

Canadian Tire buys house in Toronto just for webisodes.

China plans to impose duties on U.S.-imported cars, ratcheting up trade tiff.

Chrysler picks up sales and financial momentum while parent Fiat treads cautiously.

CNN rehires Christiane Amanpour, who will continue to contribute to ABC News.Continue reading...

When the Frankfurt Auto Show officially opens to the international press on Tuesday before it opens to the general public later in the week, there will be lots of buzz about the huge variety of new production models and concept cars that all are meant to demonstrate essentially one thing: driving fuel-efficiently doesn't have to be boring.

New offerings especially from the home teams of Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz are aimed at capturing the imagination of the industry and of future car buyers in a way that the most recent Frankfurt show — two years ago, in the teeth of the Great Recession — couldn't.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola cuts websites to expand on social media outreach (explained above) such as its Open Happiness tour.

Accor Group demerges core businesses, rebrands Accor Services to Edenred but keeps Accor Hotels.

Disney spends $1 billion overhauling theme park in Anaheim, CA.

Ford Explorer rolls out inflatable seatbelts for kids and seniors this summer.

GM kills Chevy as a brand nickname for Chevrolet.Continue reading...