NEW YORK (AP) -- Yahoo Inc. began pressing a case to major shareholders Monday that its board and management deserve a chance to prove they made the right move when they rejected a $47.5 billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp.

The missed opportunity to sell to Microsoft infuriated many Yahoo shareholders, prompting activist investor Carl Icahn to agitate for replacing Yahoo's nine directors and reviving negotiations with Microsoft. If he gains control of the board, Icahn intends to fire Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang as chief executive.

In response, Yahoo has assembled a 32-page presentation for shareholders to elaborate on the points it has been emphasizing since Microsoft withdrew its bid May 3.

Investors will decide the dustup in a vote scheduled Aug. 1 at Yahoo's annual meeting. That leaves another month for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company and Icahn to disparage each other.

And with Yahoo shares sliding back toward $19.18 -- their value before Microsoft's bid -- Yahoo's management is facing even more pressure to end the financial malaise that triggered the takeover bid in the first place. Yahoo shares fell 67 cents Monday to close at $20.66.

Icahn didn't respond to a request for comment Monday, but he wrote on his blog last week that he would share his latest opinions on Yahoo "shortly."

Yahoo argues that entrusting the company's fate to Icahn would be foolhardy because his strategy

NEW YORK (AP) -- The price of crude oil hit yet another record on the last day of a tumultuous first half, spurting past $143 a barrel before ending lower on demand fears and a resilient dollar. Crude has shot up nearly 50 percent since the start of the year, in large part on the dollar's troubles, and analysts expect that trend to remain intact as the second half of 2008 begins.

A government report lowering oil and gasoline demand estimates and a dollar hanging tough nullified investor concerns over supply, a fragile global economy and continued tensions in the Middle East.

"What this shows is that demand destruction in the U.S. is a lot larger than previously thought," said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago. "There are more signs that demand is deteriorating."

Light, sweet crude for August delivery lost 21 cents to settle at $140.00 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In early electronic trading, the contract hit a record $143.67.

The Energy Information Administration reported that oil usage in April was lower than previously estimated, falling to 4.2 percent to 19.768 million barrels per day from 20.631 million. That was 3.9 percent lower than in April 2007 and the lowest level for the month in six years.

The price of oil, which began 2008 at $96 a barrel, has risen in part on expectations of higher demand in China and other developing nations. But its almost relentless advance has also forced consumers and

These simple steps will ensure your retirement and insurance money ends up in the right hands.

As you may already know, June is the most popular month in this country for weddings. So now that the marrying month is almost over, I thought it might be a good idea to turn the focus to - what else? - divorce!

I don't mean to be a downer about it, but the reality is, the divorce rate in America has hovered pretty close to the 50% mark for years now. And while there are lots of financial (not to mention emotional) complexities related to divorce, financial planners say one of the most common mistakes people make after getting un-hitched is simply failing to update the beneficiary forms on their retirement accounts.

And that can lead to all kinds of unintended financial consequences years, or even decades, down the road.

Here's why: if you get divorced, you'll probably make a point of updating your will to exclude your ex-spouse. But what you may not realize is that your will has no bearing whatsoever on who inherits any money sitting in your qualified retirement accounts - including an IRA, 401(k), 403(b) or traditional company pension plan - at the time of your death.

And that means you might unwittingly be enriching your ex-spouse - while simultaneously cutting off the people you really want to leave your money to. "It happens all the time," says Howard Hook, a CPA and

The big spender who won this year's "Power Lunch with Warren Buffett" charity auction with a record high bid of $2,110,100 is Zhao Danyang of the Hong-Kong based Pure Heart China Growth Investment Fund, according to a spokesperson for San Francisco's Glide Foundation.

I spoke with Zhao by telephone late tonight. He told me his investment philosophy is very similar to Buffett's and he has "lots of questions" to ask him. He's especially interested in Buffett's opinion on China and its economy, in light of the fact that country has "grown up" very quickly.

An article in Asia Times Online last February described Zhao as an early investor in China's class-A shares, who liquidated all five of his firm's mainland funds to lock in profits from that market's enormous gains. That decision, says Asia Times, was "like a stone thrown into a quiet lake" because Zhao had been praised for establishing a China fund in 2004 "when the market at the time was dominated by bears."

Zhao told me he decided to sell when price to earnings ratios grew too high and he started having trouble finding "cheap and good" stocks.

Zhao says he sold before Buffett's own decision to eliminate his stake in PetroChina last fall based on its massive price appreciation.

Pure Heart's website includes a page on its investment philosophy headlined "Abandon Pure Technical Analysis and Adhere to Company Fundamentals."

Glide is also a big winner tonight as it gets 100 percent of the proceeds from the eBay Charity Works

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Conglomerate Siemens AG, wracked by a wide-ranging corruption scandal, will cut up to 4 percent of its work force worldwide, or about 17,200 jobs, a pair of newspapers reported Saturday.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the Munich-based company was set to shed the jobs -- mostly white-collar and administrative -- without citing any sources. The Wall Street Journal also reported a similar figure, citing a person who was familiar with the matter.

Siemens did not comment on either report, only to say that it did not comment on market rumors.

The German paper said that of the cuts to the company's global work force of approximately 435,000 staffers, some 6,400 could come in Germany, where it employs around 136,000 people.

Both papers said the company cited the rough economic conditions worldwide as one reason for the cuts, but Siemens CEO Peter Loescher warned earlier this year that the company faced a bumpy road.

In March, Siemens issued a profit warning saying that weaker-than-expected performance in its major business projects this quarter was going to pull earnings down by approximately $1.41 billion.

The warning was a surprise for the conglomerate, whose diverse products include trams, turbines and telecommunications equipment, given that it had said in January that sales were expected to double the

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil futures shot above $140 Thursday after OPEC's president said crude prices could rise well above $150 a barrel this year and Libya said it may cut oil production. The advance raised the likelihood that gasoline prices would also extend their march higher, and that prices of goods and services throughout the economy would also keep rising.

Light, sweet crude crossed the $140 level minutes before the New York Mercantile Exchange closed Thursday, then retreated slightly to settle up $5.09 at a record $139.64. In after-hours electronic trading, prices rose as high as a record $140.39.

Oil's latest milestone came as Chakib Khelil, president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said he believes oil prices could rise to between $150 and $170 a barrel this summer. Khelil also said prices will decline later in the year, and aren't likely to reach $200 a barrel.

Khelil joined a long list of forecasters who have made bold oil price predictions this year. Each new forecast -- such as Goldman Sachs' recent prediction that prices could rise as high as $200 -- causes a jump in prices as speculative buyers are drawn into the market.

Meanwhile, the head of Libya's national oil company said the country may cut crude production because the oil market is well supplied, according to news reports.

"Shokri Ghanem, the nation's top oil official, declined to say when a decision would be made on whether to

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Anheuser-Busch Cos. rejected an unsolicited $46 billion purchase offer from InBev Thursday, just hours after the Belgian brewer appeared to set the stage for a hostile takeover bid.

Anheuser-Busch Chief Executive August Busch IV sent a letter to InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito saying the offer greatly undervalued the largest U.S. brewer, calling the $65-a-share price "financially inadequate" and not in the best interests of its shareholders.

"From your standpoint, we see that now could be opportunistic timing for you to make this acquisition, given the weak U.S. dollar and sluggish U.S. stock market," Busch said in the letter. "From the standpoint of the Anheuser-Busch shareholder, however, a transaction with InBev at this time would mean forgoing the greater value obtainable from Anheuser-Busch's strategic growth plan."

Earlier in the day, InBev filed a suit in Delaware court, where Anheuser-Busch is incorporated, seeking to officially declare that shareholders can remove all 13 members of Anheuser-Busch's board. Such a declaration could be the first step to rally Anheuser-Busch shareholders to accept InBev's offer, even if management is opposed to it.

"This is an extremely aggressive step," said Douglas Cogen, a mergers and acquisitions attorney with the Fenwick & West law firm in San Francisco.

In most acquisitions, a rejection from the target company's board of directors might draw out a sweeter

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo Inc. is setting up a new chain of command amid the turmoil triggered by the embattled Internet icon's snub of Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover bid.

Under the new pecking order announced Thursday, Yahoo executive vice presidents Hilary Schneider and Ash Patel are being given expanded responsibilities over the Sunnyvale-based company's products and sales teams.

Schneider, a former newspaper executive, has been moving up the ranks since she joined Yahoo in September 2006. Patel has played a key role in developing many of Yahoo's most popular products, including its finance section and instant messaging service, since joining the company 12 years ago.

Yahoo also is reorganizing its technology division in an effort to use its computing power more effectively and improve the coordination between its product developers and engineers.

This is the third time in 19 months that Yahoo has redrawn its management chart as it tries to snap out of a financial malaise that has ravaged its stock price, jeopardized its independence and demoralized employees.

In the other two shake-ups since November 2006, chief operating officer Dan Rosensweig and Chief Executive Terry Semel resigned.

This time, both of Yahoo's top executives -- co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang and President Susan Decker -

Work often stops unexpectedly. You'd better be prepared with a financial plan.

Paulette Geller thought she had her retirement all figured out. Geller, 64, planned to work until 66 or 67 to boost her Social Security check. Then, after successful foot surgery last year, she was in the hospital being wheeled to her car to go home when she had a stroke.

The stroke caused Geller to lose some technical skills and vision, keeping her from continuing to work as program director for older adults at the Winter Park (Fla.) Health Foundation. "I honestly thought I wasn't going to ever stop working. I was going to cut back to half time or quarter time because I loved my job," Geller says. Suddenly, "I couldn't do my job anymore, but it wasn't on my timeline and I wasn't in control." Now Geller gets disability payments that amount to 60 percent of her former salary and pays for COBRA health insurance coverage.

The vast majority of baby boomers want or plan to work in some capacity as long as they can. Eighty-four percent of people between the ages of 51 and 70 expect to work after they formally retire, and nearly two thirds say they can't see themselves ever retiring completely, according to a survey by management consulting firm McKinsey Global Institute. The McKinsey analysis also indicated that 60 percent of boomers will need to work in order to maintain something like their current lifestyle.

But retirement is something that can happen while you're making other plans. "It's far more commonplace for retirement to come earlier than expected than for it to happen according to some plan," says Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of the think tank Civic Ventures and author of Encore: Finding Work That

NEW YORK (AP) -- American Express Co. has ended another round of litigation with a rival card company, but still faces serious headwinds from its customers.

After announcing Wednesday that it will be getting $1.8 billion from MasterCard Inc. in settlement of an antitrust suit, the credit card lender -- known for catering to jet-setters and the well-heeled -- revealed that it has again underestimated how quickly its cardholders are falling behind on their debt.

"Business conditions continue to weaken in the U.S. and so far this month we have seen credit indicators deteriorate beyond our expectations," said AmEx Chief Executive Kenneth Chenault in a statement.

The rocky consumer climate comes amid a tough legal period for credit card companies, which are battling among themselves and with federal authorities around the world over various rules and fees. Wednesday's settlement was seen by industry experts as positive for both companies -- mainly because the $1.8 billion figure was close to expectations, and because the two companies can now put the litigation behind them.

MasterCard shares rose $9.42, or 3.4 percent, to $289.79 Wednesday. American Express had accused the Purchase, N.Y.-based credit and debit card processor of conspiring to discourage some banks from issuing its credit cards.

MasterCard said it agreed to make 12 quarterly payments of $150 million to American Express, and plans

CHICAGO (AP) -- Two of America's oldest agricultural companies laid the foundation for a new $30 billion-a-year ag and food colossus Monday with the announcement that Bunge Ltd. is buying Corn Products International Inc. in a $4.4 billion stock deal.

While neither boasts a brand name universally known to consumers, the combination will vault White Plains, N.Y.-based Bunge into the Fortune 100 by adding Corn Products' sweeteners, starches and other ingredients to its portfolio of agribusiness, fertilizer, edible oil and milling products.

Bunge, which also agreed to assume $414 million of Corn Products' debt as part of the deal, hopes the acquisition will help provide a buffer against volatile commodity prices by branching into another area as well as a healthy cash flow.

The global market for starches and sweeteners alone is growing about 5 percent each year, and Corn Products has some of the biggest beer and food makers in the world as clients.

"Both of us look at this as an ag and food company," Sam Scott, chairman, president and CEO of Westchester, Ill.-based Corn Products International, said in an interview.

The news sent the companies' stocks in opposite directions. Shares of Corn Products rose $7.85, or 18.3 percent, to $50.75 after reaching a 52-week high of $54.96 earlier in the session. Bunge shares fell $11.47, or 9.4 percent, to $110.70, although remaining up more than 30 percent from a year ago.

ATLANTA (AP) -- UPS Inc., the world's largest shipping carrier, lowered its earnings expectations for the second quarter on Monday because of slowing U.S. economic growth and high fuel costs.

The Atlanta-based company said it expects earnings per share for the second quarter to be within a range of 83 cents to 88 cents, compared with the 97 cents to $1.04 the company originally anticipated.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting UPS earnings of 97 cents a share in the second quarter.

UPS, also known as United Parcel Service, said the slowing U.S. economy and record fuel prices have resulted in lower-than-expected U.S. package volume and reduced use of premium air products.

UPS' second quarter ends June 30. It will report its results for the three-month period on July 22.

UPS is able to pass higher fuel costs on to customers in the form of a fuel surcharge on shipments. However, the surcharge increases haven't kept pace with rapidly rising fuel prices.

In April, as part of its first-quarter earnings release, UPS lowered its earnings guidance for the year and projected the weak U.S. economy would continue to affect the company in the second quarter. It acknowledged Monday that the current quarter has been even tougher than it anticipated just a few

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc is considering a reorganization to centralize its mail, search and homepage divisions into a global product organization, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, quoting people familiar with the matter.

It said President Sue Decker is behind the move, in an attempt to improve coordination between product and global sales groups.

The move comes as Yahoo, which has ended talks for a tie-up with Microsoft Corp in favor of a search deal with Google Inc , tries to convince investors it will substantially improve its business.

It also comes as senior executives leave the company.

Vish Makhijani, general manager of Yahoo's Web search business, and Brad Garlinghouse, who oversaw services including e-mail and instant messaging, are leaving, according to technology and investment blog TechCrunch.

Qi Lu, the top engineer for Yahoo's Panama search marketing platform, was also leaving the company, TechCrunch said.

And Yahoo said at the beginning of the week that Jeff Weiner, recently executive vice president of the

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The head of Mexican beer company Grupo Modelo is stepping down from the board of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. as the remaining directors of the iconic American brewer of Budweiser are considering a $46 billion takeover offer from Belgian brewer InBev.

The resignation of Carlos Fernandez, president and chief executive of Grupo Modelo SAB, was announced Friday -- the same day the Anheuser-Busch board met in St. Louis to consider InBev's $65 a share offer for the nation's largest brewer.

Anheuser-Busch said in a statement its board did not respond to InBev's proposal after Friday's meeting, but would "continue to review and consider the proposal." InBev declined comment.

Anheuser-Busch shares slipped 38 cents to $60.67 Friday. The stock price has risen sharply since rumors of InBev's interest began earlier this spring.

St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch did not say why Fernandez resigned. His departure leaves the board with 13 members.

"Carlos has always provided great value as a member of our board, with insights into the business," Anheuser-Busch president and chief executive officer August A. Busch IV said in a statement. "He remains a respected colleague."

Grupo Modelo said in a statement that Fernandez resigned from the Anheuser-Busch board "to avoid the

NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices dropped sharply Thursday after China said it will raise fuel prices, a move that could dampen the booming Asian nation's oil consumption.

Prices also were given a downward push by the Iraqi Oil Ministry's announcement that it is close to signing oil service deals with several major Western oil companies in an effort to boost its crude output.

Retail gas prices, meanwhile, slid overnight.

Light, sweet crude for July delivery fell $4.75 to settle at $131.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

China disclosed that it will raise prices for gasoline and diesel fuel 16 percent and 18 percent, respectively, beginning Friday.

Growing Chinese demand for oil has underpinned the multiyear rally in oil prices, but higher prices could crimp that demand. Concerns about spiking Chinese demand for diesel due to cleanup operations in the aftermath of last month's earthquake contributed to oil's recent run-up.

"This could change the psychology of the market completely," said James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla.-based trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com.

Lower demand in China "would be a major factor in driving prices down," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at