Ancestry.com acquires Archives.com for $100 million.

Anheuser-Busch warns UFC about fighters' inappropriate comments.

Apple now gets one-fourth of its revenue from China as CEO emerges from Jobs's shadow.

Bausch & Lomb shifts focus from contact lenses.

Bottega Veneta launches personalized fashion.

Burberry passes New York Times critique of designer lines for kids.

Burger King faces higher costs after decision to go cage-free.

Chrysler quadruples first-quarter profits and slow-walks investment in China.Continue reading...

Amazon.com tests "more airy" website redesign, as delivery locker test with 7-Eleven looms.

Apple designer Jonathan Ive enters a new era, as iPhone 5 speculation mounts and brand announces first store in Hong Kong.

Baidu taps Dell for mobile push.

Bank of America shares decline (despite Warren Buffett's $5 billion injection) in tandem with global banks.

BMW tests 1,000 times brighter laser headlights.

Cantor Fitzgerald's post-9/11 recovery is in the spotlight this week.

Carlyle Group files for IPO.

Coca-Cola will invest $4 billion with Chinese bottling partners to spur China sales.Continue reading...

With no apologies to Jeff Immelt, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is joining the General Electric CEO's offensive against fellow CEOs who aren't confident enough in the economy and in their own companies to begin hiring more people. The iconic coffee brand's co-founder also has issued a warning to politicians.

Specifically, Schultz is calling on fellow business leaders -- and all Americans -- to stop donating to political campaigns until the solons in Washington, D.C., show the wherewithal to agree on substantive improvement of the nation's fiscal situation, not just papering things over, as with the short-term debt agreement earlier this month. Schultz believes that cutting off the "lifeblood" of politicians will get their attention.

The voluble Schultz is urging fellow CEOs to do what they can to grow their companies, including hiring more workers who are now part of the nation's 9.2% unemployed. But Schultz is taking a different tack from Immelt, who recently chided fellow CEOs for whining about Washington and also called for increased hiring. Schultz's twist is to suggest fellow business leaders "stop waiting for Washington," a message that is subtly -- but, perhaps, effectively -- different.Continue reading...

The longer America’s economic doldrums continue, and the debt-ceiling talks drag on, the more that Corporate America feels compelled to speak out, both in criticism and defense of the man in the middle of the maelstrom: President Obama.

Last week’s berating of America's corporate chieftains by GE head Jeff Immelt amounted to a sort of defense of the president and his policies. Immelt, a key figure on Obama’s jobs council, told his fellow CEOs to stop whining about the economy and the dire employment situation and to create jobs within their companies.

And earlier this week, a group of CEOs were convened for an education roundtable (at top), evidently eager to meet with President Obama to help him figure out how industry-led partnerships can help improve the prospects for America's youth — the foundation of all future job growth, of course.Continue reading...

He may be a captain of industry, but General Electric chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt isn't getting any salutes from other C-Suite comrades this week. They're feeling miffed that Immelt has been taking them to task, beating down US CEOs for not doing more to spur job creation.

In speaking out against corporate America, Immelt further infuriated conservative commentators who can’t abide his cozy relationship with President Obama.

Maybe Immelt didn’t get a Dale Carnegie course in winning friends and influencing people as part of his Harvard MBA, Class of ’82. In any event, earlier this week, the chair of Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness called out his fellow capitalist titans for being stingy about creating jobs at a time of rising unemployment in the US.Continue reading...

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch made a big name for himself in the annals of American business by forging a record of success and a distinct management style that established his own leadership brand.

Now, his successor, Jeff Immelt, seems to be well down the pathway toward creating a different kind of personal brand: The corporate chieftain who’s concerned about American competitiveness — and who’s trying to do something about it.Continue reading...