AOL cuts jobs following HuffPo acquisition

Web portal says layoffs amount to about 900 workers in U.S., India

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — AOL Inc. began layoffs Thursday that will involve a little more than 900 workers — amounting to about 20% of its workforce — as the company continues to transition into an online media business.
A spokesman for AOL /quotes/comstock/13*!aol/quotes/nls/aol (AOL 18.92, -0.11, -0.58%)  confirmed the layoffs on Thursday morning, which were originally reported late Wednesday on the All Things Digital blog owned by The Wall Street Journal.
The job cuts will involve about 200 workers at

Good-Bye To The $1 Bill?

Government Accountablity Office Wants To Get Rid Of The $1 Bill
 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Never again would people have to struggle to get the vending machine to accept crumpled bills. If it were up to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, people would

ECB - govts have yet to convince on consolidation

FRANKFURT, March 10 (Reuters) - The European Central Bank said on Thursday that debt-strained euro zone governments are yet to be convincing about the seriousness of their deficit cutting efforts and may be weakening on their commitments.
"Overall, current (consolidation) policies and plans give rise to concern for a number of reasons," the ECB said in a section on fiscal developments in

Auction of ING Direct USA Heating Up

The auction process for ING Direct USA is gathering speed, a day after the Dutch financial services company ING confirmed it was seeking to sell its online American division.
ING is in talks with several parties to merge or divest the unit, a person familiar with the matter said. Potential bidders include Citigroup, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, as well as the

BoE set to keep rates at record low -- for now

(Reuters) - The Bank of England looks set to keep interest rates at a record low of 0.5 percent on Thursday, judging that Britain's recovery is currently too fragile to sustain a spiral of rising prices. It is not a foregone conclusion, however. Some policymakers are growing increasingly nervous about the threat of inflation, and the European Central Bank gave a

Prosecutor: NYC Hedge Fund Relied On Inside Tips

NEW YORK -- Even with the economy in a free fall in the summer of 2008, federal prosecutors say, Raj Rajaratnam managed to give new meaning to turning a quick profit.

The high-flying hedge fund manager made $1 million with a massive trade that took all of seven minutes. The prosecutors allege he had to cheat to do it.

The transaction was a glaring example of how Rajaratnam "exploited a corrupt group of people to get access to secret corporate information and then traded on it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Streeter said in opening statements Wednesday at

Morgan Stanley Tells Brokers to Text Away

NEW YORK—Morgan Stanley Smith Barney to its brokers: U can text now.
The rule change, delivered in a memo earlier this year, allows brokers with firm-managed BlackBerrys to use them for texting. It was prompted by