Starbucks

Starbucks is raising the price of its packaged Starbucks and Seattle’s Best coffee brands by an average of 12 percent due to speculators pushing up coffee prices, CEO How ard Schultz said.

GE eye-ING

General Electric is among companies inter ested in a takeover of or merger with ING Groep NV’s US online bank and has had an initial discus sion about buying parts of ING Direct.

IBM settles

IBM agreed to pay $10 million to settle a com plaint its employees bribed South Korean and Chinese officials with cash, gifts and entertain ment in return for busi ness for more than a dec ade.

Cisco pays

Network-equipment maker Cisco Systems plans to pay its first-ever dividend, of 6 cents a share.

Paulson falls

Billionaire stock picker John Paulson’s flagship fund fell more than 6 per cent in the first two weeks of March, hit hard by falling financial mar kets after the crises in Japan. Since the start of the year, the fund has lost 5.29 percent, an investor said.