Your update of the most important business news from dozens of respected news sources, selected by the editors of BusinessWeek.

Late Edition August 13 2008 at 02:49 PM Chi-Chu Tschang and Cristina Lindblad

Genentech Spurns Roche Offer

Genentech's board has rejected Roche's $44 billion offer for the 44% of the company it does not already own. The American biotech, often touted as the world's most successful in the field, said the offer undervalues the company.

Roche's bid for Genentech may spur other drugmakers to launch their own takeovers of prominent biotech players, such as Amgen, Gilead Sciences and Biogen Idec. Big pharma is desperately searching for a cure to a debilitating ailment: A weak pipeline of new treatments.

Source: Wall Street Journal

U.S. Retail Sales Fell in July

With American consumers shouldering the double burden of high food and gas prices, sales at U.S. retailers fell 0.1% in July, compared with the previous month. That constitutes the first actual drop in five months. Factor out cars and sales rose 0.4%.

Source: Associated Press

Large Number of U.S. Companies Not Paying Taxes

Two out of three American companies paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005. So says a new report from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress. The study also found that large companies were more likely to pay taxes than small ones.

Source: New York Times

Facebook More Worldly than MySpace

Facebook has vaulted over rival MySpace in worldwide audience growth, thanks to tools that translate content into many languages. According to new data from Net tracking outfit comScore, Facebook had 132 million unique visitors in June, a 153% increase from the same month last year. MySpace logged 118 million visitors during the same month, but that amounted to just a 3% increase over the previous year.

Source: BusinessWeek

Japanese Economy Shrinks

Japan's economy contracted at an annualized rate of 2.4% in the second quarter, the government announced Wednesday. It's the first decline in a year and is another indication that the world's second-largest economy is feeling the strain of high oil prices.

Source: Associated Press

Best Buy to Become First Independent iPhone Retailer

The biggest consumer electronics chain in the U.S., Best Buy, will begin selling the iPhone in September. The Richmond, Minnesota-based retailer, which has 965 stores nationwide, will become the first retailer other than AT&T and Apple to offer the iPhone.

Source: Star Tribune

Russian steelmaker buys U.S. pipemaker

Steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel has become the latest Russian company to make a major acquisition in the U.S. The London-listed Novolipetsk has announced a $3.53 billion deal for John Maneely Co., the largest independent tubular-steel manufacturer in the U.S. The Carlyle Group is a member of the group that currently owns John Maneely, which has 11 factories in the U.S. and Canada.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Aussie Company in $3.1 Billion U.S. Bio Deal

CSL, the world's second-largest maker of blood plasma products, announced it will buy Talecris Biotherapeutics for $3.1 billion from Cerberus Partners and Ampersand Ventures. The Australian company, which also earns royalties from Merck for the cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, reported a 30% increase in profits to 702 million Australian dollars ($608 million).

Source: Australian

Next up for Russia: Ukraine?

Now that Russia has punished Georgia, Kremlin leaders may now be ready to target another pro-American neighbor that wants to join NATO, Ukraine. "The Moscow authorities will use this opportunity to remind Ukraine of the damages of allying itself with NATO,'' said Geoffrey Smith at Renaissance Capital investment bank in Kiev.

Source: Bloomberg

Letter Shows UBS Execs Knew of Risky Activity

Peter Kurer, chairman of UBS, wrote to other executives last year about concerns that several bankers with the Swiss financial giant were in possible breach of U.S. securities law. The Justice Department, now investigating UBS, has the letter. UBS said Kurer investigated the allegations and introduced measures to ensure employees implemented procedures properly.

Source: Financial Times

Yahoo Ready to Put Former Viacom, Nextel Execs on Board

As part of a deal with Carl Icahn to settle the investor's proxy battle with Yahoo, the Internet company is in the final stages of approving the appointments of Frank Biondi, former CEO of Viacom, and John Chapple, former CEO of Nextel Partners, to its board of directors. Both are on a list of nominees submitted by Icahn. Yahoo is likely to name them to the board by the end of the week, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Source: Reuters

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