Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:
- Texas Pacific Group, a US buyout company, agreed to buy British Vita Plc, the UK’s largest maker of foam rubber.
- Global recorded music sales halted a four-year slide last year as digital downloads made up for a 1.3% decline in sales of compact discs.
- General Motor’s borrowing costs rose to the highest in almost two years after the world’s largest carmaker lost financial support from General Electric.
- Oracle Corp. won the takeover battle for Retek with a $643.3 million bid, beating SAP AG.
- ChevronTexaco Corp. may invest more than $1 billion to begin oil production in Brazil, capping six years of exploration and seeking to boost by a third its output from Latin America.
- IBM agreed to pay as much as $400 million to Compuware to settle lawsuits over software and patents.
- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Blackstone Group are among buyout firms that are increasingly teaming up to acquire bigger companies and avoid competing with each other.
- Wyeth, the maker of the antidepressant Effexor, said today that first-quarter profit excluding some items will exceed analysts’ estimates and reaffirmed its full-year forecast of $2.70 to $2.80 a share.

The Wall Street Journal:
- American International Group and a unit of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway reversed at least half of a transaction that is being probed by US and state regulators.
- International Business Machines plans to use new technology to fight junk e-mail by sending back spam to the computer and the account that sent it
- TXU Corp., the largest Texas power producer, is taking advantage of deregulation to boost fees and rates and disconnect slow-paying customers.
- The US Consumer Product Safety Commission issued the largest civil penalty in its history, against Newell Rubbermaid’s Graco unit, a maker of car seats, cribs, and other children’s products.
- IGN Entertainment, a closely held maker of video games, may be sold for more than $800 million.
- The US Postal Service asked its governing board for permission to increase all rates by 5% to 6%.

The New York Times:
- The European Union delayed removing an arms embargo on China because of US pressure as well as China’s authorization to use force if Taiwan tries to secede.
- The New York Jets offered the state $720 million for the Manhattan site where the NFL team wants to build a $1.7 billion stadium.

Interfax:
- Primorsk oil port, Russia’s largest, exported 60% more crude in January and February than in the same period last year.

Vilaggazdasag:
- Motorola’s venture capital business wants to invest in East European technology development companies.