BOSTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) – The death of Micron
Technology Inc Chief Executive Steve Appleton in the
crash of an experimental plane is raising fresh questions about
what a company should disclose to investors when a senior
executive has a high-risk hobby.

There are plenty of corporate chieftains who indulge in
risky pastimes. Oracle Inc CEO Larry Ellison, a sailor
and pilot whose adventures are part of his Silicon Valley
mystique, competed in the storm-plagued 1998 Sydney to Hobart
Yacht Race. Six men died and nearly two-thirds of the boats in
the race did not finish.

BOSTON (Reuters) – He won’t be in this Sunday’s Super Bowl and his Denver Broncos are already 50-to-1 longshots for next year’s National Football League title, but if Tim Tebow swapped the pigskin for politics, he just might be a shoo-in for the White House.

Asked which NFL playoff quarterback they would choose for president of the United States in the coming election, more than one in four voters go for Tebow, according to the results of a new Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely voters released on Friday.

Feb 1 (Reuters) – Allstate Corp (ALL.N: Quote, Profile, Research) blew past Wall
Street estimates on Wednesday, more than doubling its profits as
the largest listed home and auto insurer in the United States
benefited from lower catastrophe losses and better results in
its homeowners business.

Allstate reported a fourth quarter net profit of $724
million, or $1.43 per share, compared with a year-earlier profit
of $296 million or 55 cents per share.

BOSTON/WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – The new Federal
Insurance Office, tasked with crafting a vision for the future
of insurance regulation, is expected to bless the current
state-by-state model when it delivers its long-awaited report to
Congress in coming weeks.

From the financial industry’s perspective, the report will
likely be a rare win as regulators rewrite how financial
companies on and off Wall Street are to be policed in the wake
of the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

BOSTON (Reuters) – Bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) will merge the employee benefit businesses of two of its operating companies, creating a much larger player in that sector under the AIG brand name.

After more than three years of trying to save itself following a near-collapse during the financial crisis, AIG has emerged on a firmer footing and is now pushing its name more aggressively in the market.

Jan 24 (Reuters) – Travelers Cos Inc (TRV.N: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a
smaller-than-expected quarterly profit as it released less money
from its reserves than a year earlier, but it also reported its
biggest rate increases in eight years as the industry regained
pricing power.

Shares of Travelers fell 3 percent in morning trading,
leading all industry decliners and wiping out the stock’s gains
for the year, but analysts anticipated those declines and said
they would be a buying opportunity.

LONDON/BOSTON (Reuters) – The capsizing of the Costa Concordia will pressure the cruise industry to address a safety question that has lingered since the Titanic disaster almost 100 years ago – how to get thousands of people off a giant cruise ship into lifeboats quickly.

Carnival Corp (CCL.N: Quote, Profile, Research), owner of the Concordia, conceded on Thursday that the accident, which has led to the deaths of at least 11 people with another 24 unaccounted for out of its 4,200 passengers and crew, “has called into question our company’s safety and emergency response procedures.” A Carnival spokesman could not immediately comment on whether the company’s safety review would include the lifeboats.

LONDON/BOSTON (Reuters) – The capsizing of the Costa Concordia will pressure the cruise industry to address a safety question that has lingered since the Titanic disaster almost 100 years ago – how to get thousands of people off a giant cruise ship into lifeboats quickly.

Carnival Corp, owner of the Concordia, conceded on Thursday that the accident, which has led to the deaths of at least 11 people with another 24 unaccounted for out of its 4,200 passengers and crew, “has called into question our company’s safety and emergency response procedures.” A Carnival spokesman could not immediately comment on whether the company’s safety review would include the lifeboats.

Jan 20 (Reuters) – The time is not right for
bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc (AIG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) to
take its airplane leasing unit ILFC public, AIG Chief Executive
Bob Benmosche told CNBC television on Friday.

In an interview, Benmosche said AIG had a series of criteria
for launching the ILFC offering, which were all “red” now. He
said the company wants to see green lights before it proceeds.

By Ben Berkowitz and Jonathan Saul

(Reuters) – The cruise ship disaster off Italy’s coast is drawing fresh scrutiny to the gaps in international safety rules and standards – yet there may be little appetite among the world’s major shipping nations and companies for big changes anytime soon.

While an international regime exists for the training of mariners on everything from car ferries to cruise ships, enforcing that is very much a national affair.