NEW YORK -- Oracle Corp. said Wednesday it will pay its new co-president, Mark Hurd, an annual salary of $950,000 and that he could receive a bonus of up to $10 million. The offer letter, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, comes after software developer Oracle announced late Monday it would hire Hurd, and about a month after his controversial departure from Hewlett-Packard, where.. more

NEW YORK -- Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman banked a $1 billion profit in 2008 on MBIA after waging a multiyear campaign against the municipal bond insurer. No one expected him to replicate his performance anytime soon. But in 2009, Ackman made what he called the "best investment he's ever made." He invested in the equity and bonds of then-bankrupt General Growth Properties (GGP), one of the larg.. more

NEW YORK -- One of the Internet's most iconic images -- Google's search screen -- is being overhauled. On Wednesday the company launched Google Instant, a live-updating service that aims to shave seconds off the typical search time. The update began hitting users' computers about an hour before a scheduled Google press event to unveil the change. Now, when users search Google, the results are r.. more

NEW YORK -- Does allowing the jobless to get nearly two-years of unemployment checks give them an incentive to not work? When Congress debated whether to extend unemployment to a record 99 weeks, some Republicans said that the unemployed are staying home collecting benefits when they could otherwise be working. "[An unemployment extension] doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continui.. more

NEW YORK -- Have you looked at how big bank stocks have done in the past few months? If so, you can be forgiven if you break into a cold sweat and start worrying about a repeat of the fall of 2008. Shares of the top four U.S. commercial banks, JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), have all taken a sha.. more

NEW YORK -- The economy continued to grow at a sluggish pace through the summer months, although there are now "widespread signs of deceleration," the Federal Reserve said Wednesday in its latest snapshot of regional economic conditions. Economic growth continued at a modest pace in 7 of the central bank's 12 districts, according to the September edition of the Fed's Beige Book. The western dis.. more

NEW YORK -- Government transportation spending is full of costly boondoggles. President Obama is proposing a way out of that. As part of a wider spending program he detailed Wednesday that includes tax breaks for businesses and $50 billion in infrastructure spending, the president is floating the idea of an "infrastructure bank." An infrastructure bank is designed to leverage public money with .. more

NEW YORK -- Stocks rose but pared back gains from earlier in the session Wednesday, after a report from the 12 Federal Reserve districts showed widespread signs of slower economic growth. Wall Street is also listening in on President Obama's speech unveiling a $350 billion jobs recovery plan. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) rose 24 points, or 0.2%, the S&P 500 (SPX) gained 5 points, or .. more

NEW YORK -- Hewlett-Packard has filed a lawsuit against Mark Hurd, its former chief executive, to block him from joining Oracle as co-president. Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500) announced late Monday that it had hired Hurd, and that he will sit on the company's board of directors. In court documents filed on Tuesday in California, HP said it believes Hurd has put its "most valuable trade secrets and c.. more

FORTUNE -- With the home stretch in sight, 2010 is shaping up to be a weaker U.S. auto market than predicted, probably closer to 11.5 million new-vehicle deliveries, rather than the 12 million that automakers and forecasters had figured - and hoped - would be sold. And 2011 isn't looking any too promising for a rebound toward the 16 million to 17 million annual sales total that nourished the worl.. more