Stanley Works agreed to buy Black & Decker Corp for $4.5 billion in stock, in a move that will help the two tool-makers cut costs.

Both, Stanley and Black & Decker expect that the recent deal would save them $350 million per year. Both the tool-makers have suffered hard blows of recession.

Under the deal, Black & Decker shareholders will receive 1.275 shares of Stanley for each share they have.

UK's fragile economy may see Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group getting smaller as these banks has plans to sell off some of their existing business.

European Commission has asked RBS and Lloyds to sell some parts of their existing business as remedied for getting state aid.

RBS, which is 70 per cent owned by the taxpayer, may sell branches in England and Wales, and its Churchill and Direct Line insurance unit.

The Office of Fair Trading has referred the acquisition of Friends Reunited by Brightsolid to Competition Commission, saying the acquisition could harm the online genealogy market. Earlier in August, Brightsolid had agreed to buy the networking site Friends Reunited for £25 million form ITV.

However, CEO Chris van der Kuyl of Brightsolid, which is a division of newspaper and magazine publisher DC Thomson, claimed that the deal would not harm competition in the market.

The Communication Workers Union has threatened the state-owned postal service Royal Mail with legal action over the recruitment of 30000 temporary staff.

The CWC, which resorted to strike over pay, working conditions and modernization, said Royal Mail hired 30000 temporary workers to break the strikes.

But, the Royal Mail said were dealing with the backlog of post and preparing for the Christmas rush.

Mobile operator Orange on Monday unveiled its tariffs for Apple's iPhone, but dashed consumers' hopes for a price war over the new handset.

Orange, which announced almost indistinguishable tariffs for its iPhone from O2's existing one, will start offering the much awaited handset from November 10.

Orange will offer a standard 3G iPhone free of cost to customers taking a 2-year contract at £30 per month, slightly less than O2's contract.

According to figures revealed by Tonight Show which is broadcast on ITV1, Chief Executive of Royal Mail, Adam Crozier received wages worth a whopping ?1 Million last year alone. The huge figure earned, despite the crunching economic situation, has made him the 2nd highest earning executive in the public sector.

In times when postal strikes over wages and benefits have been causing trouble for a long time now, Crozier's pay figures have shocked everyone. Taking over an exact pay check of ?

Shares in Australia's largest department store chain Myer Holdings Ltd. plunged 8.5 per cent on their stock market debut.

Shares in Myer started trading at $4.10-a-share on Monday, but closed at $3.75-a-share, losing 35 cents.

Speaking his mind, Karara Capital’s Akshay Chopra said, “It might put a bit of pressure on the valuation band, and pricing that is expected or achieved, for investors to be persuaded.”

Myer’s main rival David Jones closed at $5.25, down 2 per cent.

Australian house prices were stronger than expected in the September quarter, owing to growing demand and shortage of property for sale.

As per figures compiled by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, house prices in the eight regional capitals jumped 4.2 per cent during the third quarter as compared with the last quarter.

House prices jumped 6.2 per cent from the same period of 2008.

Market experts had projected an increase of 2.75 per cent from the previous quarter.

Telecoms firm Cable & Wireless is reviving its plan to de-merge its business into two viz. UK and International businesses.

Cable & Wireless had postponed the de-merger plan in November 2008 as the conditions of the financial market were extremely volatile at that time.

But, now improving conditions of the market have encouraged the company to revive its de-merger plan.

Company’s investors believe that the division of the company into two, will lead to a special dividend payment.

UK house prices edged ahead for the third consecutive month during October, backed by dearth of property for sale.

As per figures compiled by the research company Hometrack, the average cost of a home in England and Wales 0.2 per cent during October, though average house price is still 4.2 per cent lass as compared with last year figures.

Prices were strongest in London where they jumped 0.4 per cent.

Property suppliers are now getting an average of 92.9 per cent of the asking price as compared with 92.4 per cent in last month.

Figures released by the British Retail Consortium reveal that consumer confidence jumped to its highest level in the last 18 months in October, though labour market is still down.

The BRC consumer confidence index jumped to 75 points in October, representing a gain of 10 points on the all-time low of 65 in April. However, the index is still much below levels recorded two-three years ago.

Justin Sargent, MD of market analyst Nielsen, said, "This latest poll shows that the confidence of the nation continues to improve."

An increased number of Brits will be out of work by November next year.

As per estimates made by accountants BDO, as many as 2.75 million people in Britain will be unemployed this time in 2010 as compared with 2.47 million at present.

BDO said its employment index stood at 93.6 in October, almost the same as in September.

Unchanged employment index showed that firms were not shedding their staff as they were waiting for the recovery.

But, the recovery is unlikely to boost the employment sector.

China Monday imposed upto 35 per cent anti-dumping duty on a chemical from the United States, in a move that could add to trade tensions between the two countries.

China's Ministry of Commerce announced Sunday that China would China would impose five-year anti-dumping tariffs, ranging from 5 per cent to 35.4 per cent, on imports of adipic acid from the United States, Europe and South Korea.

The tariff will take effect on Monday this week.

Shares in Japan's major consumer lenders jumped Monday owing to reports that suggested that government might ease regulations, which have crippled the industry by raising hurdles for small businesses to get loans.

Shares in Aiful gained 20.3 per cent to 160 yen-a-share, while shares in Takefuji jumped 23.1 per cent to 427 yen-a-share.

Another lender Promise Co. soared 17.1 per cent to 685 yen.

Illinois-based fertilizer company CF Industries Holdings has revised its takeover offer for Terra Industries Inc., offering around $200 million more as compared with the earlier offer.

CF Industries Holdings Inc has offered $32 in cash and 0.1034 of a CF share for each Terra share.

The revised offer is 80 per cent cash as compared with previous bids which were all-stock offers.

CF said its revised offer provided 40 per cent premium on Terra shares, which closed at $31.77-a-share on Friday.