General Electric to restructure lending unit GE Capital

CONGLOMERATES

GE lending unit to be restructured

General Electric Co. said it was reorganizing its GE Capital unit to save $2 billion next year, a move it said would lead to job cuts as it restructured and shrank the lending unit battered by the credit crisis.

GE Capital Chief Operating Officer Bill Cary said the unit, which provides commercial and consumer loans, had "evolved to the point where we think we are going to be smaller in 2009."

GE Capital will reduce its workforce, currently around 75,000 employees, by an unspecified number, Cary said.

PHARMACEUTICALS

Avastin linked to vein-clotting risk

Genentech Inc.'s Avastin, widely prescribed for colon cancer and some lung tumors, was linked to significantly higher rates of vein clotting in an analysis of earlier studies.

Patients who got the drug were 33% more likely to have blood clots develop in their veins than those who didn't receive it, said researchers led by Shenhong Wu, a cancer specialist at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y.

Avastin, Genentech's top-selling drug, with $2.3 billion in 2007 U.S. sales, bears a warning for high risk of clots in arteries. Genentech is based in South San Francisco.

INTERNET

Web sales growth slowest since '01

Online spending for October grew at the slowest pace since at least 2001, an Internet research company said -- the latest evidence that Web shopping is being dragged down by the deteriorating economy.

According to the ComScore Inc. report, online spending increased a meager 1% last month from the year-earlier period, marking the slowest sales pace for any month since the company began tracking the data seven years ago.The results exclude business from auctions, autos and travel.

TECHNOLOGY

Microsoft cuts prices for Zunes

Microsoft Corp. cut prices on some models of its Zune music player by as much as 24% amid a stalling economy and competition with Apple Inc.'s iPod.

The 4-gigabyte version of the device will cost $99, down from $130, while an 8-gigabyte model will drop to $139 from $150, a spokesman said.

TiVo to cut jobs to lower costs

TiVo Inc., the pioneer of digital video recorders, will cut jobs as part of a program to reduce expenses.

The company will incur expenses of about $1 million in the fiscal fourth quarter, mostly stemming from the firings, Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo said.

CASINOS

MGM Mirage names CEO

MGM Mirage, the casino company majority-owned by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, named Jim Murren to replace Chief Executive and Chairman Terry Lanni.

Murren, 47, is the Las Vegas company's chief operating officer and was Lanni's pick to succeed him. The appointment is effective Dec. 1, an MGM spokesman said.

BEVERAGES

Clydesdales' reins pass to Belgians

InBev formed the world's largest brewer Tuesday when it completed its $52-billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch Cos.

The new company, named Anheuser-Busch InBev, will be headed by InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito and will be headquartered at Leuven, Belgium.

-- times wire reports