US giant Johnson & Johnson is preparing to buy Swiss medical device maker Synthes Inc for 19 billion Swiss francs ($21.59 billion), seeking to expand into new markets and strengthen its orthopaedic division. Synthes had annual revenues of $3.7 billion in 2010. J&J will pay 159 Swiss francs in cash and shares for each Synthes share, the two companies said Wednesday. That represents an 8.5 percent premium to Synthes' closing price on Tuesday.

Rostelecom's net profit under IFRS for 2010 increased by 49% to 40.8 billion rubles, the company said in a statement. Revenue increased by 4% to 275.7 billion rubles. OIBDA increased by 8% to 110.9 billion rubles. OIBDA profitability increased to 40.2% compared to 38.8% in 2009. The company's net debt at the end of the year amounted to 119.8 billion rubles.

The Ministry of Finance will restore budget rules that limit the use of oil and gas revenues from the budget, Deputy Finance Minister Oksana Sergienko said at the Vedomosti roundtable “Russia after the crisis.” She explained that the principles of forming the former stabilization fund are being restored: “We take some average price for oil, a long-term one, and accumulate all oil and gas revenues above it.” The cutoff price is the estimated price of oil for planning a deficit-free budget.

Pretty journalist Larisa - an enterprising but stupid blonde - goes to the Ural forests to find the Bigfoot there. And then he finds it. Directed by Grigory Konstantinopolsky. Cast: Ekaterina Vilkova, Alexander Strizhenov, Konstantin Murzenko. Russia, 2011. The long-suffering 1994 film turned out to be not just a bright and at times adequate illustration of the book, but also a monument to the 1990s.

Despite the increase in production and consumption of cement, the average price of cement remains virtually unchanged, according to analysts at SMPRO. In January 2011, the price of cement decreased by 2.2%, in February 2011 – by 1.3%, in March – increased by 1.7%, to 2179 rubles/t (producer price without VAT and delivery).

The White House on Wednesday released the birth certificate of US President Barack Obama to once and for all disprove rumors that the head of state was not born in the US. By law, only a person born in the US can become president of America. Republicans have repeatedly demanded confirmation that Obama was born in the US, not Kenya.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has assigned personal responsibility for the effectiveness of federal oversight bodies to deputy prime ministers, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin reported. According to him, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov is responsible for issues of checkpoints across the state border, provision of postal services, and services at airports and train stations.

April 27, 2011, 16:28 / Finance Banks began to invest less in securities They need money to issue loans, where new opportunities arise Vasily Kudinov S. Nikolaev The volume of investments by Russian banks in securities decreased at the end of March, and for the first time this year. This is evidenced by data released by the Central Bank. Thus, in March this figure decreased from 6.18 trillion rubles. up to 5.98 billion rubles.

Leading European business schools are investing in Learning Management Systems and high-quality educational resources. Are they making the right choice? Building entirely online learning remains a challenge for schools that are still largely far from web culture. On the one hand, they are under pressure from their digitally native students who are eager to use new technologies both in and out of the classroom.

Russia's third-largest oil producer, TNK-BP, increased its net profit by 91% to $2.44 billion in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same period last year, the company reported. In January-March 2010, TNK-BP earned $1.27 billion in net profit under US GAAP standards. The company's revenue, which is equally divided between British BP and a consortium of Russian shareholders AAR, rose to $13.82 billion from $10.24 billion a year earlier. EBITDA increased to $3.94 billion from $2.29 billion.

Russia's largest pharmaceutical distributor Protek reduced its net profit in 2010 by 3.5 times to 942 million rubles from 3.3 billion rubles a year earlier, the company reported on Wednesday. The EBITDA indicator fell by half to 2.7 billion rubles from 5.8 billion rubles a year ago, and the EBITDA margin fell almost 3 times to 2.7%. The company explained the decline in indicators by difficult market conditions and the impact of new market regulation.

Financial services group Credit Suisse announced first-quarter results: net profit fell 45%, debt trading revenue fell and earnings were hurt by the Swiss franc's strength against the euro and the dollar. The bank said net profit fell to 1.14 billion Swiss francs ($1.3 billion) from 2.06 billion a year earlier.

April 27, 2011, 00:11 / Finance By the end of the year, the dollar may cost 24-25 rubles. By the end of the year, the ruble may sharply strengthen to 24–25 rubles/$, according to the Ministry of Economic Development. The rate has not been at this level since September 2008. Ekaterina Kravchenko Olga Petrova There are “risks of a strong strengthening of the ruble,” up to 24–25/$ by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, said Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrei Klepach.

Mail.ru Group shareholders are placing the company's global depositary receipts (GDRs) at a price of $32.5 per share for a total of $450.6 million. It was previously reported that a number of Mail.ru Group shareholders are placing more than 13.8 million GDRs on the market, which corresponds to 6.65% of the company's issued shares and 0.46% of the votes. The group of selling shareholders includes the company's founders, its managers, and the Tiger Global fund.

Providing housing to workers should be a condition of the employment contract, believes President Dmitry Medvedev (his words are reported by RIA Novosti). “This problem needs to be solved from two sides: in some cases it should be municipal housing, on the other hand, such programs should be implemented by the enterprises themselves,” Medvedev said at a meeting with students of vocational schools in the Moscow region. "This should be an element or condition of the employment contract.