Facebook and Yahoo have agreed to settle a patent dispute, averting a potentially lengthy battle over the technology running two of the Internet's most popular destinations.
In dropping the lawsuits, the companies agreed to license their patents to each other. They are also agreeing to an advertising alliance that expands their existing partnership.
The advertising alliance could help Yahoo recover some of the revenue that it has been losing as marketers shift more of their spending to a larger and more engaged audience on Facebook's online social network.
Friday's settlement involves no exchange of money and comes after a months-long patent squabble between the two Internet icons.
PHARMACEUTICALS
Pfizer accused of delaying generic drug
Five large drug and grocery chains are suing Pfizer and a second drugmaker, alleging they conspired to delay sales of cheaper generic versions of the blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor.
Lipitor, the world's top-selling drug ever, had peak sales of nearly $13 billion a year several years ago. Sales dropped sharply after it got U.S. generic competition on Nov. 30.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday by Walgreen, Kroger and three other retailers in U.S. District Court in Trenton, N.J., claims generics should have been available nearly two years earlier, when Lipitor's original patent expired.
RETAIL
Best Buy laying off 2,400 workers Electronics retailer Best Buy is laying off 600 staffers in its Geek Squad technical support division and 1,800 other store workers as it seeks to restructure operations and improve results.
The cuts amount to about 1.4% of the company's total staff of 167,000.
Best Buy spokesman Bruce Hight says the layoffs are part of the company's "ongoing turnaround plan."
ENERGY
Dynegy files for bankruptcy protection Dynegy said Friday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection as part of a plan to reorganize after years of wrestling with falling electricity prices.
The Houston power company, which operates and sells electricity on the open market, said the Chapter 11 filing won't affect its primary assets. Dynegy's coal and natural gas-fired power plants are owned by separate subsidiaries that aren't part of the bankruptcy filing.
Friday's filing is part of an ongoing plan to manage its debts that surpassed $5 billion last year. One of its subsidiaries, Dynegy Holdings, filed for bankruptcy protection in November.
BANK
British fraud office probes manipulation Britain's Serious Fraud Office said Friday that it has formally opened a criminal investigation of the manipulation of a key market interest rate that has shaken Barclays.
The bank was fined $435 million last week by U.S. and British agencies for making false reports of its borrowing costs between 2005 and 2009, specifically of the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR, which influences the costs of a range of financial instruments including home mortgages.
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