Source: Reuters A court in Mannheim ruled on Wednesday that Microsoft infringed Motorola Mobility’s patents and ordered Microsoft to remove its popular Xbox 360 gaming consoles and Windows 7 operating system software from the German market. However, Microsoft said that the ruling did not mean that its products would be taken off retailers’ shelves because...

Source: Reuters Standard & Poor’s raised Greece’s credit rating out of default territory on Wednesday, as expected after Athens slashed its debt by about a third by completing the biggest sovereign debt restructuring in financial history. But the firm kept Greece firmly in the junk category with a CCC rating and warned that a deep...

Source: AFP Spain has tipped back into recession, an official estimate confirmed Monday, even as the government pressed ahead with unpopular spending cuts to rein in burgeoning debt. Spain’s economy shrank by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, equalling the slump posted in the final quarter of 2011, according to preliminary data...

Source: Bloomberg   Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos ruled out seeking a bailout hours before Standard & Poor’s cut the country’s credit rating to three levels above junk and a report showed unemployment jumped close to a record. “Nobody has asked Spain, either officially or unofficially” to turn to Europe’s bailout mechanisms, he said...

Source: AFP Standard & Poor’s cut Spain’s sovereign debt rating Thursday by two notches, warning that the government’s budget situation is worsening and that it is likely to have to prop up its banks. S&P cut the country’s rating to BBB-plus and added a negative outlook, saying it expected the Spanish economy to shrink both...

Source: AFP Britain’s economy sank back into recession in the first quarter, when it contracted by 0.2 per cent amid ongoing state austerity and the eurozone debt crisis, official data showed on Wednesday. The British economy has now returned to a technical recession, defined as two successive quarters of contraction, after shrinking by 0.3 per...

Source: AFP Royal Dutch Shell on Tuesday announced it had agreed to buy Cove Energy, a London-listed company with key operations in East Africa, for GBP1.12 billion (EUR1.37 billion, or US$1.81 billion). The cash offer worth 220 pence per Cove share is an improvement on Shell’s informal bid worth 195 pence per share made in...

Source: Reuters   Swiss food group Nestle is to buy US drugmaker Pfizer’s infant nutrition business for US$11.85 billion, beating out French rival Danone in the battle for dominance of baby food in fast-growing emerging markets. Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, was already seen as likely to win the battle due to its deep...

Source: Bloomberg Portuguese bond yields, the highest after Greece’s among countries using the euro, will gradually decline as the country meets the targets of its international aid plan, Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar said. Portugal will stick to its current goals and does not plan to seek more lenient terms, Gaspar said. The country’s banks are...

Source: AFP International Airlines Group has completed its takeover of Lufthansa unit bmi, and agreed to purchase its low-cost and regional operations at a “significant” discount, IAG said on Friday. “IAG has completed the purchase of bmi from Lufthansa. It is planned that bmi mainline will be integrated into British Airways and consultation has begun...

Source: Bloomberg     German business confidence unexpectedly increased to a nine-month high in April, adding to evidence that Europe’s largest economy can weather the resurgent sovereign debt crisis. The Munich-based Ifo institute said Friday its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, rose for a sixth straight month to 109.9 from...