FRANKFURT, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Insider Thorsten Heins,
the new chief executive at BlackBerry maker RIM, is a surprise
choice for those looking for a “transformational” leader from
outside to turn around the Canadian group’s fortunes.

Tall, soft-spoken and bespectacled, the Munich-born Heins,
54, spent most of his working life at German engineering giant
Siemens, where he oversaw a mobile telephone business which
faced fierce pricing pressure and quality issues.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s SAP (SAPG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s biggest maker of business software, reported a better than expected rise in fourth-quarter sales and profits on Friday, sending its shares up 4 percent.

Operating profits were up 10 percent at 1.78 billion euros ($2.28 billion) in the quarter, ahead of the consensus forecast of 1.65 billion euros expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Audi, the premium car brand of Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), posted record sales in 2011 as demand for luxury cars in China and Russia helped it gain ground on bigger rivals like BMW (BMWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Daimler’s (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Mercedes-Benz.

Audi on Monday unveiled sales growth of 19.2 percent for last year, outpacing 12.8 percent for the BMW brand and 8.0 percent at Daimler’s luxury brand.

FRANKFURT, Jan 6 (Reuters) – European retailers,
already battling weak consumer demand, look set to find their
shelves laden with scarves, coats, toboggans and de-icers due to
an unseasonably mild winter.

Toboggans, a hot commodity during last year’s snowy winter,
are shelf warmers this year, Germany’s retailers’ association
HDE said on Friday. It also said sales of winter clothes and ski
equipment were so far falling short of year-earlier levels.

FRANKFURT, Jan 3 (Reuters) – A bidding war over rights
to show top-flight German soccer league matches could prove
risky for Sky Deutschland.

The German pay-TV broadcaster’s stock has lost about a
quarter of its value over the past three months on concern that
a battle with Deutsche Telekom for Bundesliga rights
could hurt profit and that it may need a capital increase soon.

FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) – Germany’s Lufthansa told passengers on Monday to brace for higher ticket prices as it refuses to shoulder the costs of a carbon trading scheme at the centre of a brewing trade spat.

The world’s second largest long-haul carrier after Dubai’s Emirates said it faced 130 million euros ($169 million) in extra costs this year and became the first major operator to announce possible surcharges since the EU scheme took effect on January 1.

FRANKFURT, Dec 22 (Reuters) – RWE AG and
Gazprom have terminated talks about joint power
production ventures, a setback in the German utility’s efforts
to seek Russian-funded growth to help make up for its domestic
market’s exit from nuclear power.

“Although our discussions were conducted in a very
constructive manner we were unfortunately not able to agree on a
framework for cooperation which would be sustainable for both
parties,” RWE Chief Executive Juergen Grossmann said in a
statement on Thursday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom may be forced into a tie-up of its sub-scale U.S. wireless unit with Sprint Nextel after a $39 billion deal with AT&T collapsed.

AT&T said on Monday it had dropped its bid for T-Mobile USA, bowing to fierce regulatory opposition and leaving both companies scrambling for alternatives.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom offered no detailed plan of how it will bounce back from the collapse of its deal with AT&T, only assuring investors on Tuesday it was working on a long-term plan for its subscale U.S. wireless unit.

AT&T said on Monday it had dropped its $39 billion bid for T-Mobile USA, bowing to fierce regulatory opposition and leaving both companies scrambling for alternatives.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Telekom offered no detailed plan of how it will bounce back from the collapse of its deal with AT&T, only assuring investors on Tuesday it was working on a long-term plan for its subscale U.S. wireless unit.

AT&T said on Monday it had dropped its $39 billion bid for T-Mobile USA, bowing to fierce regulatory opposition and leaving both companies scrambling for alternatives.