Reuters - Microsoft's plan to establish a strong footing in online advertising suffered a big blow on Thursday as merger talks with Yahoo finally, formally failed and Yahoo said it would let Google sell search ads on its site.

Reuters - Thornburg Mortgage Inc , a specialist in jumbo home loans that nearly went bankrupt in March, posted a $3.31 billion first-quarter loss on Thursday as the value of mortgages and other securities it owns plummeted.

Reuters - InBev began courting Anheuser-Busch owners and staff on Thursday and its stock rose strongly after it made a $46.3 billion bid to add Budweiser to its own Stella Artois and Beck's beers and create the world's largest brewer.

Reuters - Yahoo Inc and Google Inc will make a joint announcement on Thursday afternoon, the technology blog TechCrunch reported, citing an unidentified source close to one of the companies.

Reuters - Stocks rose on Thursday after government data showed a sharp increase in retail sales last month, calming worries about the profit outlook, while news of a $46 billion takeover bid for brewer Anheuser-Busch boosted optimism about share valuations.

Reuters - Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc said on Thursday it demoted its chief financial officer and chief operating officer, days after the investment bank said it expected to post a $2.8 billion quarterly loss.

Reuters - Cash from government stimulus checks helped push U.S. retail sales up at twice the rate expected in May but the strength could be fleeting as households contend with soaring prices and the worst housing slump in decades.

Reuters - U.S. businesses have faced rising costs in recent weeks but retailers have had only "mixed results" trying to raise selling prices with the economy still weak, the Federal Reserve said in a report on Wednesday.

AP - The economy remained "generally weak" heading into summer as rising costs for energy and food pounded consumers and forced some companies to push their own prices higher.

Reuters - In a blow to Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit, the bank plans to close a hedge fund he co-founded and will buy what is left of its assets, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Reuters - Starbucks Corp is boosting its European presence with plans to license 150 new locations in Britain, France and Germany over the next three years in a deal with UK group SSP, Starbucks said on Thursday.

Reuters - Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt on Wednesday detailed his theory of competition in the Web industry while saying Google's famous mantra of "Don't be evil" is often misunderstood.

Reuters - Shareholders of American International Group Inc are demanding changes to the management and board of the world's largest insurer, which has been struggling with the fallout of the subprime mortgage mess.