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Unemployment in Germany fell for a 23rd straight month in May the Federal Labour Agency in Nuremberg said on Tuesday.
 
The decline in unemployment is said to be largely due to increased spending by consumers and businesses and export driven growth according to the agency.  
 
Numbers fell to 2.96 million or 7 percent from April’s 7.3 percent, reflecting a drop of 118.000, to reach the lowest since records began for a reunified Germany in 1991.

Japanese car manufacturers Honda and Toyota reported on Friday a global production drop of around half for April compared to figures the same period last year.

Toyota reported a 47.8 percent slump in April to 308.555 vehicles while Honda announced a 52.9 percent drop year-on-year.

The car manufacturers said the production decrease was due to a shortage of parts which was triggered by the supply chain disruption following the March earthquake and tsunami.

According to Honda, production volume in Asia and Oceania is likely to start picking up in July as the supply of parts from Japan gradually increases.

French finance minister Christine Lagarde late on Wednesday formerly launched her bid to lead the IMF as managing director.
 
Lagarde, a former corporate lawyer, is the favourite to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn who resigned following sexual assault allegations.
 
Augustine Carstens, the governor of the Mexican central bank, is another key contender for the position.
 
The IMF executive directors representing BRICS on Tuesday called for a “transparent, merit-based and competitive process”, saying that selecting a European as managing director undermined the legitimacy of the IMF.

Australia’s largest pay-TV provider Foxtel has made a $2.02bn cash takeover offer for regional operator Austar United Communications, the company said on Thursday.
 
Following months of negotiations Foxtel offered $1.52 for each Austar share.
 
Austar, which offers subscription TV in non-metropolitan areas, considered the offer price by Foxtel ‘appropriate’ for a change of control transaction.
 
Foxtel said: “A successful transaction would bring together two of Australia’s major subscription TV service providers, creating one of Australia’s largest media businesses.”
 
“Austar intends to work with Foxtel over the coming weeks to satisfy the conditions upon which the proposal has been made so the parties can enter into a definitive transaction,” Austar said in a statement.

The head of Greece’s conservative party, Antonis Samaras, announced late on Tuesday that he would not back a further €6bn austerity measure to reduce the country’s deficit.
 
The political stalemate over austerity measures is threatening to jeopardise the country’s next tranche of a €110bn bailout worth €12bn, which is due in June.

Greece announced on Monday the immediate sale of state assets including the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki, and shares in OTE, Greece’s telecom operator.
 
Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou pledged to go ahead with the drastic privatisation plan in an attempt to reduce its elevated debt level.
 
In a televised speech to his ministers, Papandreou said: “Through our decisions and the sacrifices of the Greek people we avoided bankruptcy last year. We now need to take the necessary decisions to avoid the danger once and for all, and to change the country.”

Electronics giant Sony announced late on Monday a revised surprise $3.18bn net loss for the fiscal year that ended in March. It originally posted a profitable projection of $857m in February.
 
The company said the loss was triggered by the production disruptions due to the March earthquake and tsunami and the cyber attack on its online gaming service.
 
Sony estimates the April hacker attack, which forced the site to stay offline for 23 days and involved the theft of personal data from over 100 million users, will cost around $171m to fix.
 
The electronics company was not scheduled to report final earnings until Thursday but a rule imposed by the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which requires companies to inform investors of missed earnings targets of 30 percent or above, meant it had to announce preliminary results three days early.

Low cost airline Ryanair posted a 26 percent profit increase to €401m in the year to March compared to €319m the previous year.
 
Revenue rose 21 percent to €3.63bn from €2.98bn year-on-year due to a 12 percent jump in airfares, the company said on Monday.
 
“We were pleased to deliver a 26 percent increase in profits and eight percent traffic growth, despite higher oil prices, the global recession, and volcanic ash disruptions in Q1 last year,” CEO Michael O’Leary said.
 
The no frills airline also reported an eight percent increase in passenger traffic with a total of 72.1 million passengers. However, O’Leary warned that traffic growth is expected to slow to four percent in 2012 from last year’s eight percent.

He said: “Since we have limited visibility on bookings, we remain concerned at the impact of the recession, austerity measures, and falling consumer confidence on fares.”
 
“Despite these concerns we cautiously expect that our average fares will rise by up to 12 percent this year due to a better mix of new routes and bases, slower traffic growth, and higher competitor fuel surcharges,” O’Leary added.

Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant hit by the tsunami in March, announced on Friday an all time high $15bn net loss due to the disaster which destroyed four of its reactors.
 
The news was followed by the resignation of Tepco’s president Masataka Shimuzu, and the head of the nuclear division, Sakae Muto, who were both criticised for their handling of the nuclear disaster.
 
“We feel sorry for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami. At the same time we want to sincerely apologise for our nuclear reactors in Fukushima causing so much anxiety, worry and trouble to society,” Shimuzu said at a conference.
 
Shimizu will be replaced by the company’s managing director Toshio Nishizawa.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned as head of the IMF according to a statement issued late on Wednesday by the global finance body.
 
Strauss-Kahn, who faces charges of sexual assault and attempted rape in New York, said in his resignation letter: “I deny with the greatest possible firmness all of the allegations that have been made against me.”
 
He added: “I will devote all my strength, all the time, and all my energy to proving my innocence.”
 
John Lipsky has been appointed by the board of directors as the interim head of the IMF and will replace Strauss-Kahn at the G8 summit in Deauville on May 26.

Texas-based technology company Dell reported late on Tuesday that its Q1 profits had almost tripled due to stronger than expected big business sales.

Net income according to the company jumped to $945m from $341m a year earlier and revenue rose 1 percent to $15bn. The technology stalwart saw operating income reaching $1.2bn, while enterprise solutions and services revenue was up 5 percent to $4.4bn led by a server revenue increase of 11 percent.

“We’re off to a solid start in our fiscal year 2012. Our substantial profit increase demonstrates that our strategy is working and our execution is improving,” said chairman and CEO Michael Dell.

The company now expects mid-single digit revenue growth in Q2, slightly above its normal, and sequential seasonal growth of 2 to 3 percent. Dell’s updated outlook for fiscal 2012 includes revenue growth of 5 to 9 percent and an increase in non-GAAP operating income growth of around 12 to18 percent.

CFO Brian Gladden noted: “We have built an $18bn enterprise solutions and services business with exciting growth potential and our execution in the core client business continues to be very good.

BP’s attempt to gain a grip in Russia’s Arctic oilfields through a £10bn share swap deal with state controlled company Rosneft has collapsed after BP failed to address a dispute and reach an agreement with its partner TNK before the midnight Monday deadline.
 
The Russian half of the Russian-British TNK-BP joint venture had threatened in April to file a law suit for up to $10m against its parent company BP, saying BP breached its shareholder agreement for going straight to state oil company OAO Rosneft rather than through TNK-BP.
 
Rosneft and BP signed a share swap deal in January which agreed the joint development of the Russian Arctic shelf and entitled Rosneft to five percent in BP in exchange for nine percent of its own shares. The deal however was blocked by AAR, the company representing the interests of four billionaires in TNK-BP, because it felt the contract with Rosneft had broken their own agreement.
 
TNK-BP claimed losses due to BP’s actions, saying it had lost an opportunity to explore within the Russsian Arctic and would therefore be seeking damages.

In a deal valued an estimated $3.7bn or $49.50 a share, a group of Canadian pension funds and banks collectively known as Maple Group Acquisition, confirmed late on Sunday that it has submitted a tender to buy all of TMX Group’s shares.

The bid by Maple Group to buy the operator of the Toronto Stock Exchange was 20 percent higher than the bid by LSE and was submitted by the group in the hope of derailing a planned merger between the LSE and TMX.

Canadian banks had previously criticised the potential transatlantic merger, saying it could lead to foreign control of Canada’s capital markets and lessen Toronto’s position as a financial hub.

Investors in Maple Group include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Alberta Investment Management, Fonds de solidarite des travailleurs du Quebec, Scotia Capital, Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, CIBC World Markets, National Bank Financial, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, and TD Securities.

The Japanese government endorsed a scheme on Friday to help Tepco, Asia’s largest utility company, compensate victims of the disaster at its tsunami-stricken nuclear power plant and save it from financial collapse.

Naoto Kan, Japan’s prime minister, approved the plan to create a new body to facilitate funds to utilities companies expecting to pay nuclear accident compensation claims to victims.

It is said that a government committee will for a brief period take over the control of management at Tepco to monitor its restructuring measures.

The detailed compensation plan has yet to be released, but compensation is estimated to reach trillions of yen primarily from Fukushima residents living in the vicinity of the power plant.

Google’s advertising system is under investigation by the US Justice Department and it has put aside $500m to settle any potential charges, the Internet search engine revealed on its website on Wednesday.

The charge decreased the net income to $1.8bn, or $5.51 per share for Q1, Google said in a filing with the SEC late on Tuesday. It had earlier reported net income of $2.3bn, or $7.04 a share for Q1.

Google said: “In May 2011, in connection with a potential resolution of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice into the use of Google advertising by certain advertisers, we accrued $500m for the three month period ended March 31, 2011.”

The company said it cannot predict the ultimate outcome of this matter but believes it will not have a material adverse effect on its business, consolidated financial position, results of operations, or cash flows.

US software giant Microsoft is in late stage negotiations to buy Internet phone service provider Skype in a deal that could be worth 8.5bn dollars, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.

Confirmation of the deal is expected later on Tuesday but sources warned the deal may still fall apart. Microsoft and Skype declined to comment.

The $8.5bn Skype deal would be the largest acquisition in the 36-year history of Microsoft. In 2007, Microsoft paid around $6bn for online advertising firm aQuantive, which until now was it’s biggest deal.

Skype is said to have an estimated 663 million users of its Internet telephony and video calling worldwide. It was founded in 2003 by the creators of file sharing technology Kazaa, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. In 2005, the company was sold to eBay for $2.6bn in cash and stock.

International consumer electronics giant Apple has beaten search engine Google to the top spot as the most valuable global brand, according to a key study published by Millward Brown.
 
Apple, which produced products including the iPad, iPod and iPhone, moved up from third place in 2010 to the top position after its brand value grew year-on-year from $83bn to $153bn, according to the study.
 
The value of Apple’s brand has increased by 84 percent over the last 12 months, surpassing other brands such as Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM and McDonald’s, said the agency.
 
The Google brand, which held the top spot for four consecutive years, slipped two percent to $111.4bn.
 
Nigel Hollis, chief global analyst at Millward Brown, said: “Apple and Google have different business models, with Google focused on free services and open systems, while Apple eschews the open model in favor of what it calls the integrated model.”