Automaker's board approved certain agreement contracts for the planned merger with German sportscar builder Porsche, taking the two one step closer to completing the deal.

Automaker plans to release full restructuring plan for Opel and Vauxhall units in mid December, but didn't specify the cuts to capacity and jobs it would seek.

German carmaker Volkswagen AG says it will buy some assets of German contract carbuilder Karmann GmbH to create a new manufacturing subsidiary.

Chinese maker of parts for solar cells said it completed the sale of a 15 percent ownership stake in a polysilicon plant in China for about $219 million.

Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. said Thursday it will temporarily idle production at its two smelters in Italy, affecting about 2,000 workers.

An early indicator of consumer price inflation, German producer prices fell 7.6 percent in the year to October, due mainly to cheaper fuel and energy.

Auto production was down 6.7 percent in October compared to a year ago, the smallest year-on-year drop of 2009, an industry group said Friday.

World's largest mobile phone maker said Friday it is axing 330 jobs at research and development units in Finland and Denmark as it continues to struggle to cut costs.

Regulators said Friday that they have extended until Jan. 27 a deadline to wrap up their antitrust review of Oracle's $7.4 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems.

Amid pressure from customers to get the plane airborne, Airbus hit a milestone in its long-delayed A400M military airlifter program, testing all four turboprop engines together.