IBS

Mar 29th 2007 | HONG KONGFrom The Economist print editionAre foreign firms as keen on Asia as they claim to be? THE announcements come in bold headlines. On March 26th Intel trumpeted plans to build a $2.5 billion chip plant in China. This follows deals in various other industries, including…

Mar 29th 2007 | FRANKFURTFrom The Economist print editionA forthright boss decides that small is not always beautiful after all WENDELIN WIEDEKING, the punchy boss of Porsche, the world's most profitable small carmaker, has often described his firm as a David amid the industry's Goliaths. In 2002…

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE The drama for control of the Tribune Company intensified last night as two Los Angeles billionaires put in a last-minute bid, topping an offer from the Chicago real estate magnate, Sam Zell, by a dollar a share. The two billionaires, Ronald W. Burkle and Eli Broad,…

By ELAINE SCIOLINO PARIS, March 29 — France’s presidential campaign has been seized by a subject long monopolized by the extreme right: how best to be French. The conservative candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy, wants to create a ministry of “immigration and national…

By JOHN MARKOFF SAN FRANCISCO, March 28 — Intel said Wednesday that it was on track or even ahead of schedule in developing a new generation of chips that would achieve a significant increase in performance without consuming more power. The new processor families — Penryn,…

By ANDREW MARTIN In what animal welfare advocates are describing as a “historic advance,” Burger King, the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, said yesterday that it would begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that did not confine their animals in cages and…

By MICHAEL BARBARO and STEVEN GREENHOUSE Wal-Mart to New York: fuhgeddaboudit. Frustrated by a bruising, and so far unsuccessful battle to open its first discount store in the nation’s largest city, Wal-Mart’s chief executive said yesterday, “I don’t care if we are…

By STEVEN LEE MYERS and ANDREW E. KRAMER MOSCOW, March 26 — Only a few visible traces of Yukos Oil remain in Nefteyugansk, a remote Siberian town so inseparable from Russia’s energy wealth that it has neft, or oil, in its name. Here and there, workers’ barracks, trucks…

By HEATHER TIMMONS and ERIC DASH NEW DELHI, March 26 — Under pressure from shareholders, Citigroup is planning to shed thousands of jobs and sharpen its focus on its operations outside North America. The colossal bank will get most of its growth from its international operations,…

By EAMON QUINN and ALAN COWELL BELFAST, Northern Ireland, March 26 — After years of mutual hostility and recrimination, the leaders of Northern Ireland’s dominant rival groups, Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and the Protestant leader, the Rev. Ian Paisley, met today for their…