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pLONDON (Reuters) – Cadbury turned up the heat in its defense against a takeover from Kraft as its Chairman Roger Carr said it was an unappealing prospect being absorbed into Kraft’s low growth conglomerate business model./p pIn the letter to Kraft’s Chairman and CEO Irene Rosenfeld on Saturday, Carr reaffirmed the British confectionery group’s rejection of Kraft’s bid, initially valued at 10.2 billion pounds ($17 billion), as it fundamentally undervalued Cadbury./p pUnder your proposal, Cadbury would be absorbed into Kraft’s low growth, conglomerate business model, an unappealing prospect which contrasts sharply with our strategy to be a pure play confectionery company, Carr said in the letter seen by Reuters./p pU.S. food giant Kraft launched its cash and shares bid for Cadbury Monday in an attempt to create the world’s largest confectionery group. Read full post…

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Gold prices settled at a new record high of $1,006.50 on Friday, rallying ahead of the $1,000-an-ounce mark for the third time this week. /ppGold for December delivery rose $9.60 Friday and settled ahead of the previous record high of $1,003.20 that was posted March 18, 2008. /ppMuch of the gains this week have been driven by the U.S. dollar, which has fallen out of favor./ppThe dollar index, which tracks the greenback against the euro, yen and four other currencies, hit a one-year low this week, hitting 76.511 on Friday. /ppThis is new significant level for the dollar, said Kathy Lien, director of currency research for Global Forex Trading. The dollar hasn’t been this weak since September 2008. Read full post…

Show potential customers that you follow green business practices and you could reap more green on your bottom line. Green marketing isn’t just a catchphrase; it’s a marketing strategy that can help you get more customers and make more money. But only if you do it right./p pFor green marketing to be effective, you have to do three things; be genuine, educate your customers, and give them the opportunity to participate./p p1) Being genuine means that a) that you are actually doing what you claim to be doing in your green marketing campaign and b) that the rest of your business policies are consistent with whatever you are doing that’s environmentally friendly. Read full post…

pNEW YORK (Reuters) – Stock index futures pointed to a weaker open on Wednesday after a three-day run-up and commodity prices flattened after driving the market in recent days./p pShares of health insurers will be in focus ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech to Congress in which he will provide specifics about his vision for overhauling the healthcare system./p pGold and oil prices were little changed after gains in commodities helped boost equities in the previous session. Oil slipped below $71 a barrel as OPEC ministers were set to meet and were expected to leave official output unchanged. Gold eased back after breaking through the $1,000 mark for the first time since February on Tuesday./p pSP 500 futures were off 0.30 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Read full post…

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — John, Paul, George and Ringo are getting the band back together, in a manner of speaking, with a new Beatles-themed video game and digital upgrade of the group’s entire catalog both released Wednesday. /ppThe Beatles: Rock Band,i /iwhich was produced by MTV Games and Harmonix, allows players to sing and play along with 45 of band’s songs using simulated guitars, drums and a microphone. /ppAlso out Wednesday are digitally re-mastered versions of all 15 Beatles albums. The entire catalog will be available as a 16-disk set with special features including album art, liner notes, rare photographs and short documentary films. Re-mastered versions of each album will also be sold individually./ppNot that The Beatles, nearly four decades removed from their last performance together, need the exposure. Read full post…

PAMD (NYSE: AMD) led the tech sector higher on Tuesday, soaring nearly 15 percent on an upgrade.P Barclays analyst Tim Luke said an improving PC market, new products and legal progress against Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) are among the factors that could lead to AMD’s resurgence, while AMD foundry partner ATIC’s acquisition of Chartered Semi (NASDAQ: CHRT) also boosted AMD shares.P The rest of the chip sector was up more than 2 percent on the day, while Morgan Stanley upgrades boosted shares of QLogic (NASDAQ: QLGC) and Lexmark (NYSE: LXK), as the Wall Street firm made a bullish call on the hardware sector. Read full post…