German Tribune

N+1 Brewin, new corporate advisory & brokerage firm formed following the takeover of the Brewin Corporate Advisory & Broking division by N+1, it would add up to 30 people over the next few years to expand its reach.

Chief Executive Jamie Cumming said the firm’s 55-strong workforce would be expanded as it targets new areas.

Cumming said the company had plans to enhance its presence in the diverse sectors such as Information technology and oil & gas.

He added that they would gain a bigger footprint in London, and expand Edinburgh quicker than Glasgow.

Microsoft’s profits slipped slightly in the final quarter of last year as weak PC market hit the software giant’s core Windows business.

During the three months to the end of December 2011, Microsoft pocketed a net profit of $6.624 billion (£4.27 billion), slightly down from $6.634 billion in the previous quarter.

Total revenue jumped 5 per cent to settle at $20.89 billion, but revenue generated by Windows division slipped 6.1 per cent to $4.74 billion.

Engineers at General Motors Co are reportedly making a number of tweaks to reinforce vulnerable sections of the Chevrolet Volt battery pack to eliminate the risk of a fire after a crash.

A Chevrolet Volt's lithium-ion battery pack caught fire three weeks after the vehicle underwent a crash test in May at a Wisconsin-based NHTSA test facility.

In other two cases, Volt battery packs started smoking and throwing off sparks days after simulated crash tests.

In what clearly is an attempt to benefit from the opportunities linked to the newest trends in e-commerce, mega corporation Wal-Mart Stores Inc. marked its foray into the apps arena on Wednesday, with the release of its first social
-networking app.

The Facebook app is dubbed `Shopycat' and had been released by @WalmartLabs, which is Walmart's seven month-old in-house nerve center that chiefly focuses on innovations in the social and mobile retail space.