Cars zoom
US auto sales for September looked set to have jumped about 13 percent to 14.8 million vehicles from a year ago, beating analyst estimates of 14.5 million.
Holiday$
The National Retail Federation said it expects sales during the winter-holiday shopping period in November and December to rise 4.1 percent this year, more than a percentage point lower than the past two years.
All relative
Permira Advisers has emerged as the front-runner to take genealogy website Ancestry.com private, ahead of Hellman & Friedman and TPG Capital, in a deal that could top $1.5 billion.
’Soft news
Microsoft will make a multi-million dollar investment to launch a “decent-sized media operation” later this month, including original content, as part of its revamped MSN site.
Scareware
A US federal court has ordered a $163 million fine against Kristy Ross, Innovative Marketing and ByteHosting Internet Services, operators of a “scareware” scheme that tricked computer users into thinking their PCs were infected and then sold them a “fix.”