Microsoft and Yahoo! have signed a ten-year search and advertising partnership in an attempt to rival market-leading search giant Google.  Under the terms of the agreement, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft will handle the search technology and Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo! will drive the sales for search advertising.  MicrosoftÔÇÖs recently-released Bing search engine will be the search and paid search platform for Yahoo!ÔÇÖs sites.   Google currently holds more than 70 percent of the global market for paid search results. Yahoo!

Cadbury plc, the worldÔÇÖs second-largest confectionery maker, has almost tripled its net profits in the first half of this year, it announced yesterday.

Sprint Nextel has agreed to purchase Virgin Mobile USA for $483 million, in a bid to strengthen its position in the fast-growing prepaid cell phone market. Kansas-based Sprint, the third-largest US wireless carrier, already has a 31 percent stake in New Jersey-based Virgin Mobile USA, which will now become a prepaid Sprint brand.

Spanish banking group Santander has reported a 30 per cent jump in pre-tax profits for its UK arm in the first half of this year.

Global life and material sciences company Royal Dutch DSM has sold its wholly-owned subsidiary DSM Energy to Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) for an enterprise value of Ôé¼285 million, it was announced today.

Biotechnology group Amgen has signed a deal with UK pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), it was announced yesterday.  Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen will team up with GSK to jointly commercialize Amgen's hotly-anticipated experimental osteoporosis drug denosumab in Europe and emerging markets. The deal marks a significant move into primary care drugs and international markets for Amgen, which is attempting to increase sales following criticism for over-pricing.

First-quarter net profits for Irish airline Ryanair have leapt a massive 550 per cent on the back of lower fuel prices, it announced yesterday.

US biotechnology group Amgen has signed a deal with UK pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), it was announced yesterday.