Billion | featured news

The M&T Bank Corporation has agreed to buy Hudson City Bancorp for $3.7 billion in cash and stock, expanding M&T's reach on the East Coast.

Apple’s $1 billion court win against Samsung is translating into a much bigger jump in its market value. Apple shares are up $19, or 2.9 percent, at $682.22 in premarket trading Monday. That boosts Apple Inc.’s market capitalization by $18 billion.

The huge number, triple that of 2010, was largely driven by sales to Persian Gulf nations looking to shore up their defenses against Iran.

Apple Inc. scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung on Friday as a U.S. jury found the Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the U.S. company $1.051 billion in damages.

European private-equity firm Permira said it would buy Japanese sushi chain Akindo Sushiro for around $1 billion, making a bet that the popular restaurant brand can expand beyond Japan.

Mitt Romney’s promise to restore $716 billion that he says President Obama “robbed” from Medicare has some health care experts puzzled, and not just because his running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan, included the same savings in his House budgets.

A report says the U.S. Postal Service wasted $1.2 million by selling less than a third of its 1 billion "The Simpsons" commemorative stamps. Bloomberg's Angela Greiling Keane writes that the inspector general of the money-losing USPS singled out overproduction of commemorative stamps as one example of not properly gauging the needs of customers.

Aetna will buy Coventry Health Care for $5.7 billion as the insurance industry realigns itself to better navigate the massive government health care overhaul....

Heineken agrees to buy Fraser and Neave's controlling stake in the maker of Tiger beer in a deal worth 5.6bn Singapore dollars (US$4.5bn, £2.8bn).

Before the presidential campaign hurtles off to the next skirmish, take a moment to notice what happened this week: Mitt Romney vowed to increase the national debt by $716 billion, and no one so much as blinked.