Financial News

Fans will have their first chance to play Tomb Raider Legend when it hits stores in Europe next Friday followed by its debut in North America four days later.Tomb Raider is one of the most successful games in history, selling more than 28 million units and giving rise to two Hollywood films featuring Angelina Jolie. It was acquired by SCi when it bought rival Eidos in May. SCi said the game was on ...

Asian stocks ended higher Friday, led by gains in South Korea and Taiwan, while Japan's Nikkei held near six-year highs to close the financial year above 17,000. Shares in Singapore closed at a fresh six-year high, while Shanghai and Sydney gained slightly. Hong Kong's benchmark index fell, ranking as the biggest regional decliner. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 Average ended up 14.32 points, or 0 ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retirees of Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday the U.S. government should not approve Lucent's proposed merger with France's Alcatel (CGEP.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) unless their pensions will be protected. "No one should want a foreign company to own a $34 billion (20 billion pound) pension fund -- worth more than twice Lucent's market value -- unless safeguards are in place to protect the pension and benefits of 235,000 retirees  ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Whirlpool Corp. on Friday closed its acquisition of Maytag Corp. -- its main rival in appliances -- in a deal that combines the top two producers of the nearly 18 million laundry machines sold in the in the U.S. last year. But it's a union of two companies headed in opposite directions. Despite a commanding market share for the combined entity in some appliance catego ...

Leading US equities lost ground this week as investors fretted over a build-up of inflationary pressure in the world’s largest economy, but still managed to record their strongest first quarter for seven years. // Any hopes investors had harboured that the Fed might adopt a more dovish stance on interest rates under the new chairmanship of Ben Bernanke were quashed on Tuesday. The central bank ra ...

By Mathieu Robbins LONDON (Reuters) - A senior executive of Citigroup criticised governments on Thursday for resorting to protectionist measures that could stifle the recent boom in mergers and acquisitions and hurt some economies. William Mills, chairman and chief executive of Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said the current boom in crossborder ...

By Mark Meadows LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE 100 closed sharply lower on Friday with broadcaster ITV slipping after rejecting a revised bid, but the index still enjoyed a 6 percent rise in the first quarter. Big mining stocks such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton also weighed as investors took profits from another upbeat quarter for the sector, although Kazakhmys continued Thursday's steep rally with a gain of 3 percent. The stock was still buoyant after reporting a bigger-than-expected rise in u ...

LONDON (Reuters) - SCi Entertainment (SEG.L: Quote, Profile, Research) , the country's biggest computer game publisher, said on Friday the cost of launching new games such as "Championship Manager" had more than doubled first-half losses but it was on track for its profit target. SCi, which bought larger rival Eidos in May last year and whose titles include the Lara Croft "Tomb Raider" series, said it made a loss of 10.9 million pounds before exceptionals in the six months to December 31 under  ...

By Adam Pasick LONDON (Reuters) - A private equity consortium gunning for control of ITV (ITV.L: Quote, Profile, Research) walked away on Friday after the company rejected its revised takeover offer. Stock in the country's biggest commercial broadcaster fell as much as 5.4 percent after the consortium -- made up of Apax Partners, Blackstone Group and the private equity arm of Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) -- said it would not proceed further with its proposal. The board of  ...

By Louise Heavens LONDON (Reuters) - Shares fell on Friday as big mining stocks like Rio Tinto (RIO.L: Quote, Profile, Research) and BHP Billiton (BLT.L: Quote, Profile, Research) eased as investors locked in some of the sector's stellar progress as the quarter draws to a close. But the fall was cushioned by gains in Man Group (EMG.L: Quote, Profile, Research) after the hedge fund manager said it expected to beat profit forecasts and Marks & Spencer (MKS.L: Quote, Profile, Research) after  ...