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Vivendi has officially become a thorn in the side of Comcast Corp.'s takeover bid for NBC Universal. Vivendi and GE are said to be at an impasse in their negotiations for GE to buy back the 20% stake that Vivendi retained after selling the majority of Universal Studios to GE in 2004. As of last week, it looked like Vivendi was primed to sell that stake, after the French telco giant struck a $4 billion deal to purchase Brazilian telephone company GVT (Daily Variety, Nov. 16).

We are not forced to do anything. We could just say no   -Philippe Capron

 

Natural gas prices have dropped by more than 12 percent in the past month as the country continues to sip at its energy reserves and a balmy November allowed homeowners to leave the heat off. Retail prices for natural gas, or what many consumers will pay to heat their homes, are expected to be substantially lower this year. The recession has kept natural gas demand low most of the year.  

This is Emma Pagcaliwagan's first Veterans' Day without her Joe. Emma is clinging to Joe's portrait at the Veterans' Day remembrance at the War Memorial in downtown Syracuse. She was a rotary student living in the home of the Rotary's district governor George Goldstein. The couple met while attending Syracuse University.  

Meanwhile Oprah has no money worries. Forbes reports she had a net worth of $2.7 billion, which she got from her stakes in various shows. She also has a new show hosted by frequent guest Dr. Mehmet Oz.  

Oprah Winfrey is a smart cookie. I am guessing she knows all too well that you can make more money in cable than you can on a TV network. If it's like other cable networks, her new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which she co-owns with Discovery Communications ( DISCA ), will be much more profitable than the TV networks.  

Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China plans to build an assembly line for its homegrown C919 jetliners in Shanghai, the latest step in the country's ambitions to become a leader in world aviation. The company announced the showcase project following a signing ceremony Wednesday with officials of Shanghai's Pudong district, where the plant will be located. China is counting on the narrow-body, single-aisle C919, China's newest and biggest homegrown commercial jetliner, to compete against Western rivals in  

As Dr Shetty pulls the thread tight with scissors, an assistant reads aloud a proposed agreement for him to build a new hospital in the Cayman Islands that would primarily serve Americans in search of lower-cost medical care. The agreement is inked a few days later, pending approval of the Cayman parliament. Dr Shetty, who entered the limelight in the early 1990s as Mother Teresa's cardiac surgeon, offers cutting-edge medical care in India at a fraction of what it costs elsewhere in the world.

On one level, it's a damn good idea. My only issue with it comes from the fact that if you pursue wholesale volumes, you may give up something -- which is usually quality   -Amit Varma

 

India has launched a big initiative to woo medical tourism from Canada, showcasing the country's high-end and much cheaper healthcare industry to Canadians. The Indian Medical Travel Association (IMTA) launched the three-day 'India: Medical Tourism Destination 2009' conference here Thursday - the first such initiative abroad by the Indian healthcare industry. November 20th, 2009 more images more imagesAntigenics pulls European Oncophage applicationLEXINGTON, Mass. — Biotechnology company Antigenics Inc.  

The latest news on alleged insider trading comes from a trader who told his psychologist that he was fired from hedge fund Pequot Capital Management because he refused to keep providing its founder with inside information about his former employer. Specifically, Bloomberg News reports that David Zilkha, a former Microsoft ( MSFT ) employee who next worked for Pequot Capital Management, was fired in 2001. According to a transcript of a divorce deposition from his psychologist, Peggy Thomson, Zilkha refus  

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