NBC closed its deal to merge with the Universal entertainment businesses today, creating a new media conglomerate that will take its place alongside giants such as Time Warner and Viacom.

General Electric said first-quarter profit rose, helped by acquisitions in businesses including healthcare and consumer finance and a rebound in orders at some industrial units.

THE European Parliament passed a contentious directive yesterday to crack down on the piracy of products including football shirts, video games and CDs.

VIVENDI Universal’s dream of landing a $14 billion cash-rich deal for its US entertainment empire is fast evaporating with final bids likely to fall short of the mark, sources involved in the auction said.

Media giant Vivendi Universal announced a net loss of €23bn last year - the largest in French corporate history.

Share prices were up sharply across a range of blue chips in afternoon trading, rallying from opening lows as investors covered short positions made ahead of this morning's string of discouraging European corporate earnings, dealers said.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services affirmed its long-term single-A and short-term A-1 ratings on Vodafone Group PLC and said the outlook is stable, following Vodafone's announcement that it has agreed to acquire BT PLC's and SBC Communications Inc's stakes in French fixed-line and mobile telecommunications company Groupe Cegetel SA for €6.3bn.

Alcatel announced today that Jean-Pierre Halbron, President of Alcatel and a member of the Board of Directors, will retire on December 31, 2002.

Stocks rebounded today after a report on US unemployment showed unexpected improvement, and Intel predicted third-quarter chip sales would fall less than analysts had anticipated.

Telecoms giant Vodafone is preparing to bolster its size in Europe with a £8bn (€12.6bn) bid for French mobile group SFR, it was reported today.

By Brian O’Mahony, Business Correspondent

London shares edged higher in midmorning trades, underpinned by another positive session on Wall Street last night, and fuelled by a resurgence of interest in technology stocks following Dell's Q2 figures overnight, dealers said.

Investors on both sides of the Atlantic were rattled today after the US Federal Reserve failed to deliver a cut in interest rates.

Share prices were lower mid-afternoon as the positive impact of in-line July US retail sales data was countered by US futures markets pointing to a negative opening in New York, dealers said.

Universal Music Group is poised to put a large part of its music library online.

The future of Vizzavi - the £1bn (€1.56bn) internet joint venture between Vivendi Universal and Vodafone Group PLC - was uncertain this weekend as the cash crisis at Vivendi worsened and the online group was forced to appoint an emergency chairman, it was claimed today.

Investors coming back from their Fourth of July break sent share prices soaring on Wall Street yesterday, pushing the Dow Jones industrial average to its strongest gain since September.

Jean-Marie Messier, the much-maligned chairman of Vivendi Universal, has been formally removed from his post and replaced by Jean-Rene Fourtou, of the pharmaceutical giant Aventis.

British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC said it has no plans to acquire Vivendi Universal's Canal Plus pay TV channel.

Persistent worries about corporate accounting scandals sent stock prices sharply lower again today as a new probe into the books of WorldCom worsened an already dismal climate of distrust in corporate America.

An Italian pay-per-view television business is to be sold to a group of investors headed by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation for €1bn (£646m), it was announced.

Share prices closed sharply lower, particularly among Dassault Systemes and other high-tech names as consolidation in the sector picked up pace this afternoon with a drifting performance by the Nasdaq composite, dealers said.

Microsoft Corp said the sale of its stake in Expedia Inc to USA Networks Inc has been delayed as a result of the television company's deal with Vivendi Universal.

London shares ended a six-session run of successive losses when it closed up today boosted by a recovery in telecom stocks, strength in oils - led by an update from Shell - and gains in the heavyweight banking sector after Royal Bank of Scotland issued an upbeat trading statement, dealers said.

Napster, the former US music industry bad-boy, has struck a distribution deal with three major record labels that are launching a music subscription service this summer.

The Footsie index of 100 leading blue-chip shares is up 41.8 points at lunchtime to stand at 5851.4, with new economy stocks leading the way.

Sony chairman Nobuyuki Idei says the potential of third-generation mobile phones is overestimated.

Record bosses in the US are warning websites offering Napster-like services they could be charged with copyright offences.