Heineken to assume control of Tiger Beer producer Asia Pacific Breweries for $4 billion.

NASA sees $2.5 billion Mars Rover "Curiosity" successfully land, Twitter explodes.

Unilever sets sights on overtaking Skinny Cow with Magnum brand.

London 2012 Olympics boosts personal brands of Usain Bolt, Jessica Ennis, Michael Phelps, Gabby Douglas, and Andy Murray. 

Abercrombie & Fitch leads brands entering India via web partnerships.

Apple iPad grabs 68% of global tablet sales.

Applebee's woos late-night diners.

AT&T plans to phase out 2G networks.Continue reading...

China is the second latest economy in the world, every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse!); but who's got the time?! Check out our weekly hotpot of reads that will make you look like a keen China observer during any conversation about China. Above, a 2012 Comic-Con promo for DC Comics' three-part series, Batman in Shanghai, ahead of The Dark Knight Rises Aug. 30 opening in China. And below: the iPad makes a quiet arrival, Adidas no longer "Made in China," the NBA, "House Slaves," robots (ROBOTS!) and more.Continue reading...

Nokia plans to cut 10,000 more jobs, or one in three staff, and sheds CMO as it loses market share to Apple and Samsung and threatens mobile aspirations of Microsoft.

Disney spends $1.1 billion to spruce up its Disney California Adventure theme park, including a brand-new 12-acre Cars Land and Avengers plan.

Microsoft takes a page from Gmail in email revamp as Gmail gets a facelift, too.

AOL wins proxy fight over its content strategy.

Abercrombie & Fitch takes credit for Carly Rae Jepsen's Justin Bieber-fueled viral smash.

Apple expands "emoji" with LGBT consumers.Continue reading...

London’s Savile Row has long been the home of some of the world’s finest tailors. Everybody from Winston Churchill to Elton John and MI5's dashing James Bond has gotten their clothes made there. The street has been around since the early 1730s but didn’t become a tailoring hub until the early 1800s.

It got a shot of cool and street cred back in the ‘60s when the Beatles opened its Apple Records studios, but it’s still better known as the place for the monied classes to secure their waistcoats, cutaway tails, and other tailoring needs for hundreds of years.

A recent change on the “golden mile of tailoring,” however, has got a few bespoke knickers in a twist. Abercrombie & Fitch just opened a children’s store along the Row and some folks weren't happy, as evidenced by a flash mob protest against A&F that was organized by the wannabe dandies at The Chap magazine on that bastion of British fine tailoring.Continue reading...

American consumers are still struggling on the whole to make ends meet and a new pair of fancy jeans aren’t in the budget of most households so Western apparel makers are following the lead of plenty of other businesses and trying to establish themselves in China, where some discretionary dollars are still being spent. But they aren’t just setting up stores but changing their product for the market.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that “Western apparel makers are infusing their clothing lines with Asian sensibilities in look, feel and size while embarking on aggressive store campaigns in this part of the world.”

Last year, Levi Strauss became the first Western clothier to launch a new line of clothing, called dENiZEN, in China before introducing it into the States in August of this year at Target.Continue reading...

Abercrombie & Fitch tells investors it discounted prices too much.

Accenture calls on clients to help make a statement.

American Airlines and union plan to return to talks.

Apple's iPhone passes BlackBerry as business favorite.

BP faces charges over Alaska spill.

Chrysler plans to invest heavily in building Jeeps in Toledo, Ohio.

Corona brings back long-time holiday spot.

Delphi prices IPO at $22 a share.

DirecTV unveils dramatic man-vs.-wolf action in new spot.

GE bets on software development.Continue reading...

Fourteen top clothing brands have traces of toxic chemicals that are harmful to human health and the environment within them, Greenpeace has discovered, according to Agence France Presse.

Traces of the chemicals, known as nonylphenol ethoxylates or NPEs, were found in such brands as Adidas, Uniqlo, Calvin Klein, H&M, Abercrombie & Fitch, Lacoste, Converse and Ralph Lauren, Greenpeace reported in its study, “Dirty Laundry 2,” according to the AFP.Continue reading...

Abercrombie & Fitch "Situation" is mulled.

Exxon fights with U.S. government over control of big oil find.

Facebook stiffens defense against man alleging part ownership.

Honda names former Chrysler exec to run its marketing in shakeup.

IBM announces chip that acts more like the human brain.

Kimberly-Clark faces tricky positioning with female-incontinence product.

Kraft and Sara Lee battle over Oscar Mayer and Ballpark weiner claims.Continue reading...