Business News

Reynolds American Inc., the producer of Camel and Pall Mall cigarettes, agreed to buy rival Lorillard Inc. for $27.4 billion including debt in a deal that reduces the 400-year-old U.S. tobacco... industry to two major competitors.

A small village in eastern Ukraine looks like something from the post-apocalypse after a month of heavy fighting between the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian fighters.  The village of... Semenovka, located on the outskirts of the major city of Slaviansk, has been extensively damaged by the renewed Ukrainian push to retake control of the east of the country. Slaviansk had been one of the most important Russian-backed rebel strongholds in the country, and the Ukrainian military's capture of the city and its outlying regions earlier this month was hailed as a major symbolic victory.   However, nearly three months of fighting has left its mark on the region.  The Ukrainian military retook Semenovka on July 7.  The military had reportedly...

"Transformers: Age of Extinction" is currently dominating at theaters.  The Michael Bay-directed sequel is now the top-grossing movie of the year with more than $750 worldwide, and that's only... after two weeks of release. It's one of a few Hasbro brands that has been adapted to the big screen alongside G.I. Joe and Battleship.  With several more brands set to get the movie treatment in the next few years, we spoke with Hasbro Chief Marketing Officer John Frascotti to find out exactly how the company selects which of its toy lines get adapted to the big screen and how you can possibly turn a board game into a movie. "We look for those brands that have story and character at their foundation because inevitably for any type of storytelling format, whether it's a movie, a...

About 20 years ago, I traveled around India for several weeks. It was a time in my life when I was very unhappy, when I spent a lot of time alone, lacking confidence and worrying about my future. But... travelling around India had a revelatory effect on me. I loved the crazy intensity of the country, even though it was sometimes overpowering, as if my senses were being bombarded with too much information. However, I was also shocked by the terrible poverty I encountered. In the city of New Delhi, there were thousands of people sleeping rough on the streets, and many people-including young children-who were so thin that they looked as if they hadn't eaten for days. There were people with illnesses and conditions like leprosy and rickets, which have largely disappeared from the affluent Western...

Between unexpected repairs, late rent checks and difficult tenants, being a landlord is not always an easy job. But these days, it is absolutely worth it, according to data released by CNN Money and... and real estate analytics company RealtyTrac. The findings, which looked at annual income on 3-bedroom rental properties across 370 major U.S. counties, among other factors, shows that landlords across the country stand to earn double-digit returns of sometimes 10 percent or more. Fueled largely by millennial and baby boomer migration and settling, the landlords on the top-listed city, for example, are raking in a whopping 15.3 percent on their rental properties. Talk about return on an investment. Here are the cities that came out on top. Source: Home prices from RealtyTrac sales deed data and...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The price of gold has changed direction, and after adding more than $90 to its value since the end of May, gold kicked off the week with more than a $30 fall. This decline... also dragged down the leading gold exchange-traded fund -- SPDR Gold Trust -- which is trading at $126.10, a 2.1% drop since the beginning of the week. Other gold investments have fallen, too. For instance, shares of Goldcorp , a Canadian gold-mining company, have declined by 1.3% to $28.04 Will gold's recent fall continue? Lower margins at the CME One of the reasons for last week's recovery of gold is the recent decision of the CME Group to slash the gold margins by 10%. SanDisk Is a Winner, and It's Just Getting Started GE Hopes Transformaton Brings Energy Back to Its Shares Will...

On May 14, a regular guy named Chris Scott sent a tweet out to his 1,000 or so followers. "Oh hi Becky who refused to kiss me during spin the bottle in 6th grade & now wants to play "FarmVille,"... looks like tables have f*cking turned," the tweet read, referring to the Facebook-based game that encourages its players to relentlessly invite their friends to play along with them. The tweet was retweeted and faved a handful of times, as many funny tweets are, and then, Scott said, he kind of forgot about it. Just a few months later, the tweet has been retweeted over 18,000 times, plagiarized by dozens, and Scott, 30, was even accused by a widely followed comedian of stealing the joke from an MTV show called "Guy Code," a program Scott had never heard of or seen. Oh hi Becky who refused to...

The luxe electric car company Tesla Motors is not very happy with the Obama administration. Last Friday evening, the White House rejected a petition asking it to "allow Tesla Motors to sell directly... to consumers in all 50 states." The company responded with a statement of its own criticizing the White House's response as "disappointing" and "timid." Tesla has been battling multiple local governments over its direct sales model. The position calling on the White House to support the company was posted June 5, 2013 and earned the 100,000 signatures necessary for a White House response within its first month. The White House response, which was written by Dan Utech, a special assistant to the president for energy and climate change, said, "as you know, laws regulating auto sales are...

College costs can vary widely across the country, with the price of education going up drastically in certain states. To chart this range, we found the most expensive college in each state, based on... their overall direct costs for the upcoming academic year. California's Harvey Mudd College is the most expensive college in the country, with an overall price tag of $64,527 for the 2014-15 academic year. On the other end of the spectrum, the most expensive college in Alaska — the University of Alaska Anchorage — charges only $27,645. Business Insider recently revealed that at least 50 colleges in the country charge more than $60,000 per year. We found these numbers by examining the average cost of tuition, fees, room, and board that an incoming student would face over the...

Shares of bankrupt Crumbs Bake Shop fell more than 58 percent on Monday, closing at 27 cents, after investors digested the news that a white knight investor's proposed purchase of...

New Yorkers awaiting the arrival of Lyft services in the Big Apple will have to wait a little longer as the ride service still needs to comply to some government regulations.

Citigroup didn't have a prayer. The Department of Justice announced Monday that Citi agreed to pay $7 billion in fines for misleading investors about how toxic its home loans were...

Stress is a basic fact of life. But that needn't be as depressing as it sounds. Think about it — a certain amount of anxiety about getting the job done is often the motivating factor that... actually gets college students to buckle down and study for exams, or gets journalists to finally send something to their editor. Stress, with the increased focus that it brings, gives a surgeon the edge and alertness that's essential for performing emergency open-heart surgery. It's only when we experience more stress or anxiety than we can handle that it becomes a problem. But it's possible to get better at dealing with stress, making it easier to keep life in that optimal range where we have just enough stress to stay motivated but not so much that we get overwhelmed. Stress itself is just a...

The 6-month-old anonymous gossip app reportedly raised $25 million in its most recent round of funding.

Schwab finds individuals granted out more this year as stocks soared and tax changes hit home.

Banking institutions are in a race to provide the newest online and mobile features to their users, as retail banking branches lose their relevance fast. That's because banks know that these services... are how they will win over their next-generation of client. This is particularly important in the banking industry because bank customers tend to be extremely loyal. So, capturing the attention of younger adults — and, in particular, millennials — when they're first choosing their bank can lead to a long-term market advantage. BI Intelligence been closely tracking evolving trends in the payments industry, and how mobile is one of the biggest disruptive threats to legacy businesses, including merchant service providers, payment terminal providers, big financial institutions,...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Intel  reports second-quarter earnings after the market closes on Tuesday, and here's what analysts are expecting from the tech giant. The consensus estimate calls... for earnings of 52 cents a share on revenue of $13.69 billion. The company reported earnings of 38 cents a share in the last quarter, which edged the consensus estimate of 37 cents a share. The stock was down 0.51% to $31.33 in afternoon trading ahead of the earnings report. Must Read: Warren Buffett's 25 Favorite Stocks STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates INTEL CORP as a "buy" with a ratings score of B+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say...

In a world where professional titles help people advance their careers, earn more money and gain stronger social status, Zappos.com - an online retailer that has made headlines before for being... innovative in their business strategies - is saying goodbye to what so many professionals work so hard to gain... job titles.

Trump Entertainment Resorts, Inc. has announced plans to close down one of its Atlantic City casinos by August 31, costing around 1,000 people their jobs. Trump Plaza's revenue fell 28% to $74 million... in 2013, and a further 27% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2014 (1QFY14).

3D technology reduces the time, money, labour and pollution to make airplane parts.

Sprint-T-Mobile merger in the works with basic agreement between SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom, awaits DOJ and FCC approval. Is this Sprint's chance at market domination?

Microsoft acquires InMage, a business continuity providing service. The deal will open possibilities to further integrate the company's Azure Site Recovery service with InMage's Scout technology.

Multinational telecommunications group ZTE Corporation says crime levels are horrific and projects take longer to complete because of political protocols

Attorney general sues settlement firmsAfter injuring her back on the job and getting a stomach illness, Sharone Brown of Chicago had trouble making her student loan payments, even after she sold her... condo.

While I get why a late stage investor would ask the question when the valuation is in the $250 million range, I really don't understand why a seed investor would ask this question when the valuation... is in the $5m range.