Business Blog

US technology giant Apple is welcoming its new retail chief, Angela Ahrendts, with a pay package which includes $68m in shares.

Jobseekers could be stripped of their benefits for turning down certain zero-hours contracts without good reason, the government says.

Germany's Bayer agrees to pay $14.2bn (£8.4bn) to buy US rival Merck's consumer care business, which owns the Coppertone and Dr Scholl's brands.

Tesco is to launch its first own-brand smartphone later in the year.

Balfour Beatty chief executive Andrew McNaughton has quit "with immediate effect" at the same time as the firm issued a profit warning for 2014.

Barclays' first-quarter profits fall 5% to £1.69bn, following a slump in revenue at its investment bank.