JCPenney seeks to raise $1 billion as Martha Stewart loses a round in JCP-Macy's case.

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg launches FWD.us with Silicon Valley heavyhitters on immigration reform.

Apple agrees to settle suit on iPhone and iPad warranties.

Argos plans digital "store of the future" to fight Amazon.

Bibigo Korean food brand partners with Psy.

Bitcoin finds Winklevoss twins rise in digital money as crash continues.

BlackBerry looks to apps and China for growth.

Burger King CEO leaves to take top job at H.J. Heinz.

Douwe Egberts goes to JAB for $9.8 billion.

Eli Lilly plans to lay off 30 percent of sales reps in major restructuring.Continue reading...

HP board shakeup and chairman exit gives CEO Meg Whitman a chance to shake off troubles.

BP faults Deepwater Horizon claims overseer, launches first brand-wide fuel loyalty program.

BMW prepares X4 crossover for U.S. market, makes vehicles greener with fewer cylinders, less gasoline.

Al Jazeera America hires CNN's Ali Velshi as anchor.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos leads $5 million investment round in Henry Blodget's Business Insider.

Apple reportedly signs music labels for streaming service as Google's YouTube clinches deal with Universal Music.

Best Buy may have turned the tide on showrooming Amazon.Continue reading...

Arthur Frommer buys back travel book brand from Google, which acquired it with big plans last August.

Facebook readies for rumored phone event today.

Apple's futuristic campus project runs late and $2 billion overbudget.

BlackBerry turns mobile website into "test drive" of new Z10 phone, kills off BBM music service.

CVS and Rite-Aid target allergy season.

ConAgra boosts ad spending as commodity costs drop.

Detroit Electric launches Tesla rival.Continue reading...

Mobile companies are in a tough battle for market share and survival, and brands including Blackberry and T-Mobile are anxious to increase their piece of the pie.  

BlackBerry, the one-time darling of smartphone users has struggled to re-discover its place in the market next to stiff competitors like Apple and Samsung. The brand pinned its hopes on the Z10 that it introduced in January, and so far, results look good as it helped the company to its second consecutive quarter of profit. 

The phone has only been on the market for about a month and hasn’t set the world aflame but while it continues to roll out, the company formerly known as Research In Motion has announced that it will soon produce a few more mixed-price phones, the Wall Street Journal reports.

"I don't think anyone expects BlackBerry to dominate like they once did," said Al Hilwa, an analyst at industry consultancy IDC, to the Journal. "But the company can survive and even prosper with a microbrew of a platform, with 5 percent to 10 percent market share, if it can execute well and at the right scale."Continue reading...

Subway named top QSR brand in new study. 

Google tests same-day delivery business.

Amazon plans to acquire Goodreads book site.

AOL teams up with coach Phil Jackson to punk Twitter.

Apple faces heightened oversight in China.

Audi aims at Mercedes-Benz CLA with new A3 sedan.

Deutsche Telekom runs into opposition over proposed merger of T-Mobile with MetroPCS.

eBay says it is "now playing offense."

FX pitches new FXX channel at Millennials.Continue reading...

BlackBerry reports surprise profit after cutting expenses.

Twitter ad revenue projected to approach $1 billion next year as report says it agreed to allow censorship in Russia.

Chevron cuts executive compensation after string of accidents.

Belgium looks to EU for copyright protection of Belgian chocolate brand.

Best Western opens luxury hotel in Haiti, the first U.S. brand to break ground there. 

CBS could make TV Guide Network an "ESPN of celebrity gossip."

Comcast scores court victory in Philadelphia.

New Dentyne Ice campaign gets its message across with icy alphabet.

EADS gets backing of makeover plan by shareholders.Continue reading...

In the past week, two second-tier mobile companies have made their move to get to the top. Blackberry (the mobile company formerly known as Research In Motion) just released its Z10 smartphone in the U.S, which didn’t cause too much fanfare out on the open market. That isn’t good news for the company, whose stocks tumbled after the debut flopped. 

T-Mobile on the other hand, is hoping for a much better return on its latest brand efforts. Long the resident of fourth place in the U.S. mobile market, the German company not only announced this week that it will offer bargain plans with no contracts but also started to roll out is 4G LTE service and announced that it will start offering the iPhone 5 to consumers on April 12.Continue reading...

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg unveils $12 million ad campaign (above) for Mayors Against Illegal Guns that lobbies for background checks to reduce gun violence, while NYC's municipal data geek squad makes headlines.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz defends same-sex marriage support to shareholders as brand expands loyalty rewards to other retailers.

PepsiCo shares jump on Mondelez merger speculation sparked by Telegraph story which Pepsi "downplays."

Apple acquires indoor GPS startup WiFiSLAM for mapping, patents iPhone drop protection technology and faces EU scrutiny following iPhone and iPad distribution complaints — and may report first quarterly dip since 2003.

FTC "pay for delay" generic drug case, set to go before US Supreme Court on Monday, will be closely watched by pharmaceutical industry and economists.

Below: BlackBerry, Blockbuster, Dell, Diageo and other brands in the news —Continue reading...