JPMorgan Chase reaches nearly $6 billion in losses on "whale trades" but posts multi-billion-dollar quarterly profit.

Digg, a social-media pioneer, sells for pittance and gains new CEO.

Richard Branson takes on Stephen Fry in new Virgin UK campaign.

Axe replaces bikini-clad women with Kiefer Sutherland in new spot.

Coca-Cola launches Hispanic campaign for Olympics and reintroduces controversial drink colors in Freestyle dispensing machines at UK Burger Kings.

Olive Garden owner Darden to buy Yard House for $585 million.

Facebook starts automating home-page ad buying and monitoring chats for criminal activity.Continue reading...

LVMH acquires storied French luxury brand Arnys.

Nokia to cut 10,000 jobs, sells Vertu luxury brand.

GM plans to close Opel factory in Germany.

Amazon and Google rush to wrap up new gTLD domain-name suffixes with ICANN.

Applebees sees franchisee's new marketing campaign diverge controversially from corporate brand.

Aung San Suu Kyi warns investors off Myanmar's state oil and gas firm on historic visit to Europe.

Coca-Cola renews sponsorship of BET's 106 & Park.

Facebook launches real-time bidding for "Marketplace" ads.

GE promotes new refrigerator in online-only video.Continue reading...

AOL faces crossroads with shareholders at annual meeting.

Airbus may take eight weeks for A380 wing fix.

Apple rumor mill churns ahead of WWDC announcements this week as it beats Google for loyalty of app developers.

BBC hires marketing chief from Diageo.

BMW and Audi post record sales as China boom continues.

CNN reportedly close to acquiring Mashable.

Domino's overseas business now beats U.S.

Facebook already appears past days of wild user growth.Continue reading...

Apple will use Baidu search engine on phones in China and gets on fast track in court to block Samsung Galaxy phone as iPhone 5 speculation mounts ahead of WWDC, while marketing head Steve Schiller gets a Bloomberg Businessweek profile. Also, Apple will pay $2.5 million to settle false advertising suit in Australia over 4G iPad claims. 

Audi plant expansion tests ability to maintain quality.

Boeing hits milestone on 787 Dreamliner.

Burger King plans to expand in Russia.

Cannes Lions to honor Dan Weiden of Weiden+Kennedy.

Carnival Cruise loyalty program members are up in arms.

CBS chief Les Moonves says "partisanship" is part of journalism now.Continue reading...

As the UK stops all the clocks to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee — yes, the Queen of England has been wielding her Royal Tea Cozy for 60 years now — don’t think the Brits don’t know how to celebrate. There was a 1,000 boat river pageant on Sunday, and a star-studded concert on Monday.

From a McQueen fit for a future Queen to jubilant Marmite to Cadbury's Dairy Milk to much, much more, there's one subtle branded tribute that actually comes from an American brand. The city of London now boasts a new lighting system across its Tower Bridge that went live in time for the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The lights burn a particular "diamond" color to help pay respects to Her Royal Highness.Continue reading...

As GE celebrates a decade in the wind power business, there's finally some global recognition for companies commiting to wind energy.

WindMade is the world's first global consumer label for companies, events and products using wind power. Backed by the UN Global Compact, participating companies must obtain at least 25% of their electricity from wind power.

“Every time you pass this (above) video along, you are bringing more wind energy to the world. For each view WindMade will source wind energy equivalent to 500 times the amount of power consumed by watching this one video.”

The WindMade label has the dual purpose of letting companies communicate their commitment to renewable energy, and providing consumers the choice to do business with companies and products using wind power.Continue reading...

“Gold, silver, what’s the difference? One centimeter after a kilometer of competition,” says Dr. Bill Moreau, the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) managing director of sports medicine, in the video above. “Our job is to help that athlete to find that last little piece that makes them the best in the world.”

Team USA is taking no chances preparing for the looming 2012 Olympics. The USOC will be using electronic medical files for the first time with help from GE to digitize records for the more than 700 athletes heading to London for the Summer Games.Continue reading...

The way the world communicates with one another is ever-evolving as new technologies continue to appear and social media continues to introduce new avenues of expression. With that, brands are always finding new ways to touch their customers and all of the classic branding rules are being tossed out the window.

Olympic sponsorship has long been a way for major brands to reach consumers every few years, but international Olympic executives are looking to possibly shift how the model works in order to embrace this new world.

The sponsorship model now in place brings in $1 billion, according to the Financial Times, but the IOC is planning to “take a step back” and re-assess the sponsorship strategy going forward.Continue reading...