Apple dodges $9 billion in US taxes with bond deal.

Google named Advertiser of the Year. 

Volkswagen makes $10 million donation to the National Mall.

Adidas sales drop on weakening Reebok brand.

Barnes & Noble begins support of Google apps on Nook.

Beam sales rise because of "formula run" on Maker's Mark.

Diet Coke slims down its vending machines.

Ford adds jobs and raises capacity to make pick-up trucks.

Geritol seeks new life with younger consumers.

Huffington Post brings rapid-response "native" ads to its home page.Continue reading...

NBA star Jason Collins comes out as the first openly gay active male athlete in American sports.

Primark is first retailer involved in Bangladesh factory collapse to offer aid to victims. 

Chrysler earnings plunge on model changes. 

Samsung reveals 7-inch Galaxy Tab 3.

Burger King tweaks menu and message after first-quarter sales decline.

BYD of China plans to sell "made in USA" buses.

Bayer pays $1.1 billion for birth-control company.

Boeing returns Dreamliner to the air but must reassure passengers, as China is deemed likely to approve the plane in May.

Canon crowdsources short films.

Honda scores so far with mid-cycle remake of Civic.Continue reading...

AOL plans to distribute Discovery channels as its Huffington Post flip flops on Goldman Sachs.

Animal Planet finds room for Geico and other advertisers in annual Super Bowl "Puppy Bowl."

Ann Taylor brings back actress Kate Hudson as ambassador and designer.

Apple plans to offer broader guidance on earnings as it must fight to maintain dominance of iPhone.

Audi releases Super Bowl commercial with alternate endings for YouTube voting.

Boeing faces of extended inquiry by authorities into Dreamliner fires.

Bristol settles Hepatitis C claims.

Burger King drops firm that supplied horse meat in UK.Continue reading...

Apple plans limited US manufacturing as it lands back in court with Samsung and baffles Eric Schmidt.

Starbucks agrees to pay more UK tax, capitulating to criticism.

Rolls-Royce is caught in bribery probe in UK.

AmEx works on social engagement that closes the loop with consumers.

AT&T is on track for record smartphone sales.

Barclays Africa is sold to Absa in $2.1 billion transaction.

Bob Marley trademark spat settled as 'relaxation drink' comes under fire.

Deutsche Bank is probed by SEC.

Dish will start selling mobile phones at its Blockbuster movie rental stores.Continue reading...

AOL Inc. calls itself the "brand company, committed to continuously innovating, growing, and investing in brands and experiences that inform, entertain, and connect the world." Now the brand company is without a branding head.

Jolie Hunt, AOL's chief marketing officer and communications head since July, is leaving the company less than five months after being hired away from head marketer at Thomson Reuters. According to the Wall Street Journal, the travel-loving Hunt's departure comes one week before AOL unveils a $10 million branding campaign and marks the fourth top AOL marketing and communications executive to leave this year. The company announced back in February its intention to launch a branding campaign to get consumers to care about AOL again.

Hunt — who was responsible for "AOL’s global communications strategy, including internal and external communications; social media; corporate social responsibility and cause related initiatives; corporate events (and) AOL’s global brand development, partnerships and consumer marketing initiatives" — had previously served as SVP and global head of brand for Thomson Reuters.

In June, Maureen Sullivan, the SVP of brand, marketing and communications, was reassigned to GM of women's content and lifestyle brands. Instead of of filling the CMO role, AOL is now looking for a new chief communications officer, as AOL CEO Tim Armstrong told Ad Age today. Hunt's departure and the restructuring have yet to be announced, meanwhile; the only exec announcement was a new business development head for three of its tech properties.Continue reading...

The Huffington Post Media Group and OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) have launched HuffPost OWN, a vertical focused on motivation, inspiration and fulfillment.

Selections will include this year’s crowd- and brand-pleaser, Oprah’s Favorite Things, a franchise that was a gift-tastic Super Bowl for Oprah's fans when she had her daytime talk show. The tradition returns with a holiday gift guide featured in the December issue of O magazine, along with Favorite Things trivia, a video montage of the best Favorite Things moments from “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and an inside look at Oprah’s celebrity gifts short list.Continue reading...

Coca-Cola announces Global Fund donation at Clinton Global Initiative meeting, teams up with Segway creator on clean water project and launches corporate blog.

GE's Jeff Immelt joins the few brave CEOs on Twitter.

IBM targets Amazon in the cloud.

AirAsia creates child-free quiet zones on flights.

Arby's sees gains under new owners.

Barnes & Noble plans to launch Nook video service.

Chase Bank tops customer-satisfaction study.Continue reading...

NowThis News is hoping to put the likes of CNN, ABC News, the Washington Post and Huffington Post on notice with a new model of how to report and distribute the news — one, not coincidentally, staffed by a team of newshounds who came from those old school media outlets and who are eager to reinvent their business.

Formerly known as Planet Daily, NowThis News (don't call it NTN) describes its mission as a post-TV, post-newspaper and post-website newsgathering operation, "A brand new video network built from scratch for people who get their news on mobile devices and through social streams."

The startup has emerged from stealth mode with a Tumblr, a Facebook page and Twitter feed — not to mention details on its executive team helmed by former CNN executive Eason Jordan as GM, Ed O'Keefe from ABC News as editor-in-chief and Washington Post vet Katharine Zaleski as managing editor.

“We’re creating NowThis News to meet straight on the inevitable and rapid changes happening in news consumption: digital, mobile, social and video," Kenneth Lerer, Partner of Lerer Ventures, co-founder of NowThis News along with business artner Eric Hippeau, said in a statement.

“It makes no sense for me, at all, to produce what’s already on TV,” said Lerer to AllThingsD. “We’re going to produce short video pieces that will hopefully be very viral and very social, one at a time.” Jordan added, “There’s an abundance of talk. We intend to report the news.”Continue reading...