Ford plans to sell Volvo and BMW may be the buyer, according to Swedish newspaper Goteborgs Posten. The paper reports that BMW is in the process of studying the implications of a possible deal, and the Financial Times also reported that BMW is talks to buy the brand. Ford has already sold luxury brand Aston Martin and Merrill Lynch expects the company could raise another $9 billion by selling the remaining brands in its Premier Automotive Group.
Avaya, the $6 billion telecom equipment maker, is considering a leveraged buyout offer from private equity firm Silver Lake, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Other potential bidders include Cisco Systems and Nortel Networks of Canada. Avaya's data and telephone switching technologies are used in virtually all major U.S. corporations.
Toshiba announced today that it will end its exclusive vendor relationship with Intel and put AMD microprocessors in about 20 percent of notebooks to be sold in the U.S. and Europe. The Nikkei business daily newspaper reported that Toshiba notebooks equipped with AMD chips will sell for about $80 less than comparable Intel-equipped models.
U.S home prices fell 1.4 percent in the first quarter compared to a year earlier, marking the first year-on-year decline since 1991, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index released today. Moreover, the housing industry was reshaped today as Tishman Speyer partnered with Lehman Brothers to acquire the second-largest U.S. apartment owner, Archstone-Smith, for $13.5 billion.