Deutsche Telekom raises bid for MetroPCS.

The Masters begins at Augusta National today with Tiger Woods again among the favorites.

Toyota and other Japanese automakers recall 3.4 million vehicles over Takata airbag.

Applebee's led first-quarter social media engagement by restaurants.

Barnes & Noble rebrands self-publishing platform PubIt! as Nook Press as it continues to invest in future of Nook brand.

Justin Bieber backs a debit card for teens, from parents.

ConocoPhillips suspends Arctic drilling plan.

Daimler says worsening Europe puts its 2013 profit outlook in doubt.

Dell plans to double sales outlets in China.Continue reading...

It has to hurt when your chief competitor tweets, "We empathize with our @BurgerKing counterparts. Rest assured, we had nothing to do with the hacking."

The LulzSec pranskster hacktivists are claiming credit for Monday's hacking of the official Burger King account, which entailed subbing in McDonalds' golden arches and changing the name of @BurgerKing to McDonalds at a little after noon ET on Monday. BK confirmed to the Associated Press that it asked Twitter to take its @burgerking account offline while it repaired the damage.

Update: @BurgerKing went back online around 10pm EST Monday night, leaving a few of of the hackers' retweets intact:

Other fake BK tweets during the hack included, “We just got sold to McDonalds! Look for McDonalds in a hood near you," and the background picture changed to McDonald's new Fish McBites menu item. And subsequent tweets used the hashtag #OpMadCow and, "if I catch you at a wendys, we're fightin!"Continue reading...

BlackBerry shows new signs of life as co-founder sells stake.

Apple challenges iPhone trademark loss in Brazil.

Carnival tries to cruise away from brand disaster as passengers mull legal options.

ABC, NFL and Call of Duty get top marks for consumer engagement.

Airbus drops lithium-ion batteries from latest jet.

Applebee's expands test of Express Lunch service.

Best Western focuses on its people, not perks, in new campaign.Continue reading...

Recent social media blunders by two major brands contain lessons for others in how not to behave online, experts say. Take these two rather dramatic examples:

In St. Louis, an Applebee’s waitress loses her job for a post showing a receipt from a pastor who left a snarky note instead of a tip. (Since she gave God 10 percent, the pastor wrote, why should she give the waitress 18?) 

Fellow employee Chelsea Welch takes a picture of the receipt (at right), uploads it to Reddit — then loses her job for violating a customer’s privacy. The firing creates an Internet firestorm, angry groups form on Facebook, and the chain's on widget tracking the twitterverse shows nonstop attacks on the chain. (The controversy came two weeks after Applebee's itself exposed the name of a pleased customer on its Facebook page, then began tagging and arguing with other posters over the issue in the middle of the night.)

Meanwhile in the U.K., as struggling music retailer HMV begins laying off 190 employees, its community manager Poppy Rose begins live tweeting how it feels as "the company you dearly love is being ruined."Continue reading...

Barclays CEO vows to improve bank's ethics as company sets aside $1.6 billion for legal costs following exec shake-up.

S&P and McGraw-Hill sued by U.S. over controversial mortgage bond ratings.

KFC parent Yum! Brands suffers after China scandal.

Applebee's sees social media firestorm after employee posted customer receipt online.

AT&T introduces $1 mobile hotspot (with contract).

Axe broadens men's grooming portfolio.

Amazon and Samsung unseat Apple in customer engagement ranking.

Boeing finds experts stumped over Dreamliner's faulty batteries.Continue reading...

Google releases new map app for Apple iPhone, shuts down shopping search in China, and makes porn harder to find, as CEO defends tax avoidance.

Apple settles European e-book price-fixing probe with publishers.

Applebee's interviews creator of #HireKevin campaign.

BMW and Boeing plan to collaborate on making carbon fiber.

Barclays joins industry cost-cutting wave, eliminating 2,000 jobs.

Berkshire Hathaway plans rare buyback of holder's stock.Continue reading...

The heads of more US restaurant brands are taking out their frustrations on Obamacare, with David Overton of the Cheesecake Factory becoming the latest. And even if you agree with their plaint, their actions prompt the question: Are they only hurting themselves by making a campaign out of their oppostion to the Affordable Care Act and to the new costs it places on their chains, however onerous they may be?

Instead of promoting, say, his chain's holiday campaign to give away 2013 cheesecakes on Facebook, Overton aired his grievances on CBS This Morning, saying that "for those businesses who don't cover their employees [with health insurance already], they'll be in for a very expensive situation." He noted that the Cheesecake Factory already provides some health insurance, but he warned that the costs of complying with Obamacare would be passed on to customers by the industry.Continue reading...

Microsoft denied "Killer Instinct" trademark, as Microsoft-Google patent fight rests on "fairness" definition and Motorola is denied injuction against Microsoft in patent suit. Microsoft-Intel push to combat Apple in tablet space, meanwhile, seen as "sputtering."

American Suzuki forges ahead with incentives amid US wind down.

Apple wins six new design patents, sees increasing pricing tension with retailers and Steve Jobs bio pic starring Ashton Kutcher heading to Sundance.

Applebee's plans to open "green" restaurant in New York's Harlem where Hot Bread Kitchen is a rising local brand.

Balenciaga hires designer Alexander Wang as creative chief.

Baxter agrees to buy medical-equipment maker Gambro in company's biggest acquisition.Continue reading...