Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China’s biggest e-commerce company, will begin the process of filing for an initial public offering in the US that may be the biggest since Facebook.

Allergan chief executive David Pyott said he probably won’t follow other drugmakers in making an acquisition in Ireland as a way to lower the company’s corporate taxes.

Deutsche Bank, Europe’s biggest investment bank by revenue, has barred multi-party chat rooms at its fixed-income and currency trading businesses, as regulators continued punishing banks for alleged rate-rigging.

Eight global banking giants have been fined a combined €1.7 bn by the European Commission for forming illegal cartels to rig benchmark interest rates.

Europe’s largest engineering company Siemens will axe 15,000 jobs globally to help rescue a cost-cutting programme that cost the previous CEO his job.

BlackBerry Ltd’s announcement that it will consider takeover bids followed almost a year of advisers unsuccessfully canvassing potential buyers in search of a deal, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co’s first-quarter profit rose 33% to a record, beating analysts’ estimates on cost cuts and an improvement in consumer credit quality that let the bank reduce loan-loss reserves.

The decision by Zurich- based UBS to cut as many as 10,000 jobs and retreat from its capital-intensive trading businesses will help position Switzerland’s largest bank to return more funds to its shareholders.

PepsiCo, the world’s largest snack-food maker, reported third-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates as it boosted prices.

Warner Chilcott Plc, a drugmaker specialising in women’s health and dermatology, saw its share price decline the most in nine months after it ended efforts to find a buyer for the company.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest US bank, said it had lost $5.8bn (€4.7bn) in 2012 from disastrous credit bets and that traders might have tried to conceal the extent of the losses earlier this year.

Facebook’s initial public offering is getting less friendly with each passing day.

Facebook raised $16bn (€12.6bn) in the biggest initial public offering by a technology company in history, pricing the shares at the top end of an increased range.

The FBI has opened a probe into trading losses at JPMorgan Chase & Co, stepping up the pressure on the bank after the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Reserve said they were also looking into the wrong-way bets that led to the losses.

The chief investment officer at the US’s biggest bank is to step down after it unveiled shock $2bn (€1.55bn) losses last week.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest US bank by assets, says it has suffered a trading loss of at least $2bn (€1.53bn) from a failed hedging strategy, a shock disclosure that hit financial stocks and the reputation of the bank and its chief executive Jamie Dimon.

Dublin-headquartered Covidien Plc is to buy Oridion Systems Ltd, an Israeli maker of devices for patient breathing safety, for $346m (€260m).

Manchester United, the record 19-time English soccer champion, is revisiting plans for an initial public offering in Singapore as stock markets recover, said five people with knowledge of the matter.

Medtronic Inc, the world’s biggest maker of heart-rhythm devices, said fiscal third-quarter profit increased 1.2% as rising global demand for pacemakers eased a slump in sales of defibrillators and spinal products.

Deutsche Bank AG, Germany’s largest bank, said fourth-quarter profit fell 76%, more than analysts estimated, as Europe’s debt crisis curbed trading and the company wrote down holdings.

Boston Scientific Corp will reserve most of the $1 billion (€760 million) in free cash it expects to generate in 2012 for acquisitions, with plans to use 25% to buy back shares, chief financial officer Jeff Capello said.

Facebook, the social-networking website that began eight years ago in a university dorm, last night filed to raise $5bn (€3.8bn) in an initial public offering.

Some of the world’s top bankers are increasingly hopeful that the eurozone’s debt crisis can be resolved, and confident of a deal to ensure Greece’s now inevitable debt default will be orderly.

IRELAND plans to become the first European nation to sell sovereign sukuk — Islam-approved financial certificates — as its equal tax treatment for Islamic-finance products attracts investors.

RATING agency Standard & Poor’s has downgraded the creditworthiness of the eurozone’s bailout fund by one notch to AA+.

CITIGROUP reported higher third-quarter earnings yesterday as the bank set aside less money to cover bad loans and recorded an accounting gain banks can take in turbulent markets.

OIL dropped for a second day in New York as US equities declined on a decrease in JPMorgan Chase & Co’s earnings and crude supplies increased more than forecast.

The wildest week in Wall Street history ended with a second day of gains.

K1 GROUP founder Helmut Kiener has been convicted of defrauding investors with a €345 million Ponzi scheme and sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison.

EIRCOM Group may ask lenders to write off more than €1 billion of debt, according to sources.

New York: Morgan Stanley’s first-quarter profit dropped nearly 50%, hurt by a decline in fixed income trading revenue.

Oxford: Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband is to join Oxford Analytica as a senior global adviser, five months after he was beaten by his younger brother for the leadership of the Britain’s opposition Labour Party.

London: JPMorgan Chase & Co, the second-largest US bank, bought the former offices of Lehman Brothers Holdings in London’s Canary Wharf district for £495 million (€583.9m) to use as its investment bank’s European headquarters.

THE group of G20 nations have failed to agree on a proposal to impose a global tax on banks aimed at making the financial industry shoulder the cost of bailouts, settling instead for a common set of guidelines.

New York: Wall Street firms, facing pressure from lawmakers and shareholders to rein in pay, may report smaller bonus pools because of lower fourth-quarter revenue and mounting public outrage, analysts say.

US stocks ended a strong week with a flash of selling after Bank of America and General Electric signalled that businesses and consumers are still struggling to pay off their debts.

Wall Street found enough in the latest earnings reports to keep its six-week rally alive.

Creditors of collapsed Lehman Brothers have asked a US judge to allow an investigation into whether JPMorgan played a role in weakening the investment bank as it headed towards bankruptcy.

Financial markets remained tense tonight after the Bush administration’s proposal for a 700 billion-dollar banking bailout ran into opposition from Republican politicians.

American International Group will be allowed to use $20bn (€14bn) of assets held by its subsidiaries to provide cash needed for the troubled insurer to stay in business.

Stocks made a stunning comeback today, as investors snapped up some of the financial sector’s stronger players and pumped money into the materials and transportation sectors. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 160 points.

US stocks made a stunning comeback today, as investors snapped up some of the financial sector’s stronger players and pumped money into the materials and transportation sectors. The Dow Jones industrial average rose more than 160 points.

Stocks reversed a steep sell-off to end mostly higher today as fears about a worrying jobs report gave way to bargain-hunting in sectors like financials and consumer staples.

Stocks sank in thin trading today as worries about American International Group touched off broader concerns that continued tightness in the credit markets will usher in another round of trouble for financial companies.