business news stories on Newser

10 Celebs Who Burst Into Business

Dustin Lushing — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 14:29:05 CDT

Celebs are excellent at promoting themselves, so why not move into other products? Here are 10 stars who were bitten by the entrepreneurial bug, courtesy of the Street .

Boss Divvies Up $15M to Surprised Employees

Dustin Lushing — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:51:10 CST

The boss of an Australian bus company dished out $15 million in bonuses to his employees. Ken Grenda sold his company and used the proceeds to give an average $8,500 to every one of his 1,800 workers. Grenda, 79, attributed his generosity to the typically enormous gap between...

Rolls-Royce Hires in—Get This— High -Wage Countries

Dustin Lushing — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 16:35:16 CDT

The British industrial behemoth Rolls-Royce is increasing its revenue by way of an unorthodox strategy: moving operations into high-wage countries with highly skilled workers. The plan contradicts the wisdom of rivals, who are moving production into low-wage areas in Asia and Latin America, reports the Wall Street Journal . The tactic...

Online Apartment-Hunter Finds Pads With Facebook

Neal Colgrass — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 18:53:40 CDT

Your mind-numbing hunt for an apartment may have gotten a little bit easier. A new apartment-matching engine called ApartmentList personalizes listings by connecting to your Facebook page and scanning your activities and those of your friends, TechCrunch reports. It also asks questions like, "Do you have money in the stock...

Many Succeed in Business School Without Really Trying

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:03:37 CDT

A senior accounting major at one Virginia university only goes to class to take tests or give presentations. On weeks he doesn't have a test, he may not crack open a textbook. If he has a take-home test, he can usually Google the answers. In a typical day, he says,...

10 Industries the US No Longer Rules

247wallst — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:17:05 CST

When it comes to business, Americans have long been used to being on top—but oh, how the mighty have fallen in some arenas. 24/7 Wall Street breaks down the top 10 industries in which "Made in the USA" doesn't dominate as it once did: Autos —High labor costs and...

Latest Korean Crisis: Cheap Fried Chicken

John Johnson — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:46:05 CST

One of South Korea's biggest supermarkets began selling a bucket of fried chicken for about four bucks this week, which wouldn't ordinarily seem like a big deal. But "few food products have left so much turbulence in their greasy wake, or revealed so clearly the insecurities that haunt Asia's fourth-largest...

Trader Joe's: The Biggest Small Store

Evann Gastaldo — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:02:15 CDT

Green eaters will probably be dismayed to hear that Trader Joe’s, that enclave of cage-free eggs and organic veggies, also sells pita chips…made by FritoLay. But that’s the most damning revelation in Fortune ’s look at the company, which has managed to maintain its “neighborhood store” feeling even as it...

Japan Cultivates 'Rice Farm' Bra

Mary Papenfuss — Fri, 14 May 2010 03:16:25 CDT

Japan is drawing abreast of cutting-edge green design with a bizarre "rice farm" bra that doubles as a field of dreams. The bra cups (presumably bigger than A's) double as recyclable plastic pots that can be filled with soil and rice seedlings. The wearer waters the crop with a hose...