General Electric reported a 12% drop in quarterly profit, meeting a forecast the conglomerate had lowered two weeks ago, as the credit crisis crimped results at its financial services business

Britain's largest banks were on Thursday locked in meetings with regulators, officials and investors as they attempted to work out the implications of the government's £400bn bail-out package

Japan's Yamato Life Insurance, an unlisted midsized insurer, has failed with $2.7bn in debt, the first Japanese financial institution to collapse due to global market turmoil stemming from the subprime crisis

One of Russia's biggest steelmakers has outlined plans to drastically cut production this month in the latest sign of the sharp downturn hitting the world steel industry

Around 450 managers are to leave British Airways as part of the group's latest efforts to cut costs, as its profits plunge. The airline had offered voluntary redundancy to up to 1,400 managers.

Vodafone's strategy of seeking to boost growth by expanding its presence in emerging markets took a big step forward last night when it announced a R22.5bn ($2.5bn) offer for a controlling stake in Vodacom, South Africa's biggest mobile phone operator

Alan Sugar, the millionaire founder of Amstrad computers purchased a 3.88 per cent stake in Woolworths through his Amsprop vehicle

Mediceo Paltac, Japan's largest pharmaceuticals wholesaler, is to buy its biggest domestic rival in a $2bn deal designed to combat falling drug prices

Wells Fargo looked set to acquire Wachovia in a $11.7bn all-share deal after Citigroup pulled out of the bitter battle for the US sixth-largest bank because it did not want to buy the lender's bad assets portfolio without government help

Blaming a drastic recent downturn in revenues, Channel 4 announces a policy reversal and pulls out of a consortium in which it is the majority shareholder

General Motors lost almost a third of its market value amid concerns about the carmaker's ability to continue funding its operations in the face of the credit crunch and weakening sales

Baugur, the Icelandic group, was seeking on Thursday night to clarify the status of its interests in large chunks of the high street following the collapse of the Icelandic banking system

The sharp fall in the share prices of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch this week is not expected to derail the merger between the two US banks

The UK life and general insurer said it had strengthened its hedging against equity market turbulence and could withstand a further 40% fall in global share prices

The Federal Reserve threw another financial lifeline to AIG, agreeing to provide up to $37.8bn in additional liquidity to the stricken insurer