Micron will issue 140 million shares to Numonyxs investors — Intel Corp., STMicroelectronics NV and Francisco Partners — according to a statement yesterday. Boise, Idaho-based Micron will also give as many as 10 million additional shares to Numonyx shareholders if a decline in the stock price pares the deals payout.
The transaction vaults Micron into the market for Nor-type flash chips, which go into mobile phones. Chief Executive Officer Steve Appleton is using the acquisition to lessen the companys dependence on personal-computer memory and step up competition - - - - >

The worlds largest automaker plans to recall at least 270,000 of the gasoline-electric hatchbacks in Japan and the U.S., one person said, declining to be identified as the information isnt yet public. Juergen Stolze, a Toyota spokesman in Germany, said the carmaker will decide whether to recall Prius cars in Europe by Feb. 10.
A Prius recall may further tarnish Toyotas reputation after the Toyota City, Japan-based company lost about $33 billion in market value amid expanding global recalls of other models to repair defects linked to - - - - >

The automaker expects net income of 80 billion yen ($880 million) in the year ending March 31, compared with an earlier forecast for a 200 billion yen loss, it said in a statement in Tokyo today.
President Akio Toyoda, 53, predicted sales of 503,000 vehicles in North America in the three months ending March 31 even as Toyota has been forced to take its top-selling models off the U.S. market. Global recalls of almost 8 million vehicles due to reports of unintended acceleration will dent demand by - - - - >

Corporate America has a habit of low-balling the earnings forecasts used by analysts to determine their estimates. That way, the bar is lower, and companies can easily jump over when the quarters results are announced - even if profits and revenues have fallen off a cliff.
“Over the last decade, theres been a distinctive tendency for companies to underpromise and overdeliver,” says Dirk van Dijk, chief equity strategist of Zacks Investment Research. “Lately companies are being even more cautious. They realize investors can very harshly punish any company that disappoints.”
Beating expectations generally gives share prices a quick lift, but the news - - - - >

At Fifth Avenue and Fifty-Ninth Street, the noon-day line on Aug. 11 snaked out the front door. More than a dozen people waited to buy an iPhone, which runs from $99 to $299, plus at least another $70 a month for a service plan. Every computer, seat and station was occupied by a visitor to midtown Manhattan.
Apple, based in Cupertino, California, increased revenue at its stores by 2.5 percent in the first six months of the year to $3 billion as the rest of the retail - - - - >

The beefed-up central bank would monitor the health of the financial system, setting capital requirements and leverage limits, and police individual lenders. A Financial Policy Committee would be established with the same stature as the banks existing interest rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee.
The measures are more aggressive than Prime Minister Gordon Browns plan to tighten banking regulation and would track closely with the proposals President Barack Obamas administration made in the U.S. They would mark the biggest overhaul for U.K. financial services industry since Brown took supervision - - - - >

Jobs, a cancer survivor, went on medical leave in January after saying he wanted to take himself out of the limelight and focus on his health. He had a liver transplant about two months ago, according to a person familiar with the matter.
While Apples directors dont need to give updates on Jobss health while he is on leave, that could change if he comes back as CEO, said Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. - - - - >

Jobs, 54, was considering the procedure as a result of complications following his 2004 surgery to remove an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor, Bloomberg News reported in January, citing people who were monitoring his illness. Apple reiterated yesterday that Jobs plans to return to the Cupertino, California-based company at the end of the month.
Apples board sought legal advice on how the company should deal with disclosures about Jobss health, according to people familiar with the matter. The boards handling of the situation may be acceptable, especially since - - - - >

The Pre wowed visitors at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this January with its WebOS operating system and wireless charger, winning the events top honor and pushing the stock up more than 80 percent over two days. Palm may ship 2.6 million in the first year, according to the median estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Apple sold 6.1 million iPhones in the year after the 2007 debut, before the worst economic slump in a quarter-century sapped consumer spending. Palm, whose sales fell 71 - - - - >