After having concluded a review of Google's search engine business in January, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has now initiated a new antitrust investigation against the company, over its contentious practices with regard to display ads.

With Google's rivals having complained that the company apparently thwarts competition by using its dominance in the online advertising arena, the federal investigators will probe whether Google's powerful position in the online advertising market is actually being misused for the purpose of stifling competition.

Drug manufacturer Wockhardt has announced that the US Food & Drug Administration's (FDA's) import alert on one of its plants could cause a sales loss of $100 million (Rs 550 crore).

The US food watchdog has recently expressed concern on Wockhardt products produced at the company's export-oriented plant in Aurangabad, India.

The company however added that it expected that it would be able to restore most of that sales loss within the next 6-9 months by shifting production to some other facility.

The Bank of Spain has estimated that the debt-ridden country's banks will have to put aside additional provisions of up to _10 billion to cover loans that borrowers will not be able to repay their debt on time and fully.

The central bank's estimate of _10 billion is the first official estimate of the possible impact of bank's new approach towards refinanced loans.

As per released figures, Spanish banks rolled over loans of more than _200 billion before their expiry date as borrowers were unable to repay.

The implementation of proposed export-parity pricing (EPP) for calculating subsidy will be disastrous for refiners, analysts believe.

Government-backed Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) sell refined products like diesel at controlled prices. Therefore, their profitability numbers are generally notional unless the government compensates them via subsidy.

Gross refining margins, which determine the refiners' profitability, will get completely wiped off in case the government implements the EPP for calculating subsidy.

On Tuesday, a Kickstarter crowd-funding campaign for the Agent smartwatch was launched, with the funding goal of $100,000 which has already been reached - in less than 12 hours - and exceeded by nearly
30-percent; with 29 days still to go.

Under the Kickstarter Agent smartwatch campaign, an amount of $149 or more has to be pledged by the backers of the device. While this amount will include free shipping of the smartwatch within the US, overseas backers have to pay an additional $15 for shipping.

The world's second largest mobile operator, Vodafone recorded a fall of 4.2 per cent in organic service revenue during the fourt quarter of the financial year 2012-2013.

The company has indicated that it will retain 2.1 billion pound dividend from tis US division due to weaker results in the quarter. The company is also planning to sell the US unit in a major financial deal in the sector. The drop of 4.2 per cent is the largest fall since the company began the measurement in 2003.

Officials have said that the Spain's King Juan Carlos wants to give his 21-million-Euro yacht to the government. The 41.5-metre yacht was named Fortuna and was donated to the king in 2000, but it left the king to receive flak during hard times in Spain.

According to the Spanish press, each refueling of the yacht costs more than 20,000 Euros. The luxury yacht is owned by the state including the royal places and managed by the national Heritage for the use of the 75-year-old king and his family.