BMW projected to beat Mercedes-Benz for US luxury crown.

PepsiCo reportedly mulls layoffs and salary freeze to appease Wall Street.

Kodak bankruptcy report in WSJ slams stock price.

Apple hires Adobe exec to oversee iAds, threatens to sue company behind Steve Jobs doll and rises at Foxconn's expense.

Australia's Commonwealth Bank crowdsources customer ideas.

Arm & Hammer ordered to pull TV commercial criticizing cat litter competitor.

Audi's China sales outstrip Germany.

Boeing closes premier factory in Wichita.

Burberry is now the most popular luxury brand on Facebook, as YouTube, MTV and Coca-Cola lead in FB engagement.Continue reading...

News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch kicked off the new year in a surprise move, for an executive who has been suspicious of social media in the past — he has joined Twitter, where he's been tweeting as @rupertmurdoch since Dec 31st. 

Confirmed by a News Corp. spokesperson and already spoofed by Taiwan's faux news service, NMA TV, so far Murdoch is following four accounts (Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Google co-founder Larry Page, Amshold Group chairman Alan Sugar and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus) and has weighed in on such matters as the new Steve Jobs bio, promoted his Wall Street Journal team (for an op-ed on Ron Paul) and FOX Studio (for releasing We Bought a Zoo), and praised Michael Bloomberg as "the best mayor" in New York City history. The Guardian posted Twitter tips for Murdoch, including not being so self-promotional.

Update: The Guardian also reports that Murdoch's wife, and self-appointed Twitter czar, Wendi Deng is also on Twitter, where she's been flirting with Ricky Gervais and defending her husband. Update2: It's not Wendi, even though Twitter verified the account.

“The virtual cow is the new cash cow of Wall Street,” writes the New York Times of Zynga's blockbuster IPO today.

Even as its first-day performance is closely watched, Zynga's public debut is being seen as a coming of age for the gaming industry; the largest tech IPO since Google in 2004 and the biggest in gaming history, and an exoneration of sorts for CEO Mark Pincus, who persisted in his vision of the ‘freemium’ model (free basic play with incentives to pay for upgrades) despite derision from investors and critics of his company’s relentlessly hard-driving corporate culture.

Founded in 2007, Zynga now has 230 million monthly active users on Facebook and is a lead player in an explosive virtual goods market worth $9 billion last year.

“Zynga embodies a confluence of trends in the gaming industry. Its whimsical games cater to casual users, who may not own a console like a PlayStation 3. Its games, which are available on Facebook and mobile devices, also use social networks to allow players to share activity with their friends,” summarizes the Times.Continue reading...

Zynga prices IPO at $10/share (which CEO Mark Pincus played early). Its $7 billion valuation could lift all social gaming.

BlackBerry crisis mounts as troubled RIM co-CEOs announce they're deferring smartphone relaunch until late 2012.

Amazon reports selling more than 1 million Kindles a week.

Apple struggles to take a bigger bite of China.

Covidien to spin off pharmaceutical unit.

Dell abandons netbooks.

eBay counters Amazon's shopper incentive.Continue reading...

AOL reorganizes into four business units.

Apple softens stance to lure mobile ads, as iAds seen as rare failure for Steve Jobs.

AT&T deal with T-Mobile granted a delay by judge.

BBC to make World News available through Comcast.

China Mobile tops Millward Brown ranking of Chinese brands.

Deloitte sees gamification as one of the top tech trends of 2012.

Facebook seen as not needing Wall Street to go public; tests private messages between people and pages.

HP dumps its iPad rival on eBay.

IHOP opens fast-casual IHOP Express.

Ikea sues Irish home retailer for allegedly copying prints.

Intel tells customers they can turn up the heat in server rooms.

Interbrand named branding agency of the year by Marketing magazine.Continue reading...

American Airlines parent AMR bankruptcy could foist huge losses on key creditors.

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs honored with exhibition highlighting his patents and trademarks.

AT&T blasts federal critique of T-Mobile deal, as AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile deal with Carrier IQ privacy concerns.

Barnes & Noble continues to struggle financially with digital transition.

Chili's drives menu changes and sales with retrofit.

Disney raises dividend to highest level in 20 years.

Fiat closes plant as European demand falls.

GM offers to buy back Volt from owners.Continue reading...

Adobe acquires web marketing firm.

AT&T and T-Mobile explore joint venture as Plan B to merger.

Burger King launches QSR fries battle as Wendy's moves closer to topping the chain in market share.

BMW and Toyota will cooperate on diesel engines and green research.

Boeing makes peace with labor.

Coca-Cola gets frosty reception for white holiday cans; partners with (RED) for World AIDS Day.

Foursquare rolls out new buttons for publishers.

Google+ enhances brand pages.

Intuit to offer free tax advice on the phone.

McDonald's finds way around Happy Meal toy ban in San Francisco.

NBCUniversal plans second Harry Potter theme park.Continue reading...

It’s only fitting that the world’s dominant social network will reportedly go public in the second quarter of 2012 in what could be the largest IPO by any technology or Internet company in history. Facebook hopes to raise $10 billion through a limited IPO that would value the company at an astounding $100 billion.

Of the thirteen IPOs completed at a value higher than $10 billion, three are U.S. companies according to Dealogic: Visa at $19.7 billion in 2008; General Motors at $18.1 billion in 2010; and AT&T Wireless Services Inc. at $10.6 billion in 2000. The largest U.S. Internet IPO to date was the $1.9 billion offering of Google shares in 2004, which valued Google at $23 billion.

Facebook will cross the 500-shareholder limit within the next month, triggering SEC requirement to publically disclose financial information by April. While 2011 saw promising debuts of online brands like Groupon and Pandora, maintaining those leads has underwhelmed expectations.Continue reading...