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Wolseley, the troubled building materials supplier, today announced it will axe a further 2,300 workers, bringing the total number of British job losses to over 20,000 in less than a week. The co...

Medical device maker Medtronic Inc. announced Tuesday morning that profit for the second quarter declined 14% from last year, hurt primarily by charges related to a patent dispute with Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and inventory write-offs. Excluding items, earnings per share for the latest quarter rose 16%, but missed analysts' consensus estimate by four cents, while quarterly revenues increased 14% and also missed expectations. Separately, Medtronic also announced a cut in its earnings and revenue g

Wolseley, the world's biggest trade distributor of plumbing and heating supplies, said today it was cutting 2,000 jobs in the UK as the economic downturn continues to bite.The group, which ealier this year said it was cutting more than 5,000 jobs, mainly in the US, warned the cost cutting programme involved the closure of some 200 of its 1,700 UK branches. Overall Wolseley employs around 14,000 people in the UK.Wolseley is the latest in a string of UK companies to announce plans for UK job losses, including BT, Yell, Virgin Media, GlaxoSmithKline and JCB.Wolseley said that in the three months to the end of October profit before tax, exceptional items, amortisation and impairment charges was down 45% while net debt was up 8% at £2.7bn because of adverse currency movements.Chip Hornsby, chief executive, said: 'While these results reflect a further deterioration in the business environment in the first quarter it was not unexpected, and, we continue to react swiftly to market conditions

Lonmin announced plans to close uneconomic mines and slash capital spending as new chief executive Ian Farmer sought make the platinum mining group more profitable

Bowing to shareholder complaints over its capital-raising plan announced last month, Barclays said it will give existing shareholders access to some of the lucrative terms offered to its Middle Eastern investors.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of theLawyers' Committee for civil rights of the San Francisco Bay Area todayannounced the appointment of Lateefah Simon as its new ExecutiveDirector. A MacArthur Fellow and a nationally recognized civil rightsactivist, Simon joins the organization as it celebrates its 40thanniversary....

Computer and printer maker Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) announced preliminary results for the fourth quarter on Tuesday, releasing an earnings figure that beat the expectation of market analysts, despite the tough economic environment.

AUBURN, WA--(Marketwire - November 18, 2008) - Zones, Inc. (NASDAQ: ZONS) announced today thatit has entered into an amendment to the merger agreement that it previouslyentered into with Zones Acquisition Corp. ('ZAC'), which is owned by FirozH. Lalji, Zones' chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer andmajority shareholder. The amended merger agreement provides that each shareof Zones common stock (other than those held by Mr. Lalji and certain ofhis related parties) will be converted into the right to receive $7.00 incash, without interest and less any applicable withholding taxes.Following the closing of the merger, Zones will become a private companywholly owned by Mr. Lalji and certain of his related parties.

MACAU, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The GSMA, the global trade group for themobile industry, tonight announced the winners of the Asia Mobile Awards2008 in a glittering ceremony at the Mobile Asia Congress, in Macau SARChina....

COVINA, CA (MARKET WIRE) Biofriendly Corporation announced today that Jose Niño has joined the company's Board of Directors. Niño, who served as the Hispanic Business Advisor to President George H.W. Bush, is currently the President of El Niño Group in Washington.