Kevin W Sharer, chief executive at biotechnology company Amgen, and Dr Roger M Perlmutter, company's head of research, will step down in 2012 after more than a decade on the job; changes come as Amgen's once-torrid growth has cooled and its stock price has stagnated. Read more..

By ANDREW POLLACK - The New York Times

Stuart Elliott Advertising column notes that WPP, massive agency that handles all campaigns for Ford Motor, will create a separate, boutique agency in New York to work with company as it tries to reinvigorate its Lincoln brand of luxury cars. Read more..

By STUART ELLIOTT - The New York Times

St Jude Medical announces that its Riata defibrillator leads have been recalled by the Food and Drug Administration because of their potential to injure or kill patients; devices, which the company is no longer selling, remain implanted in an estimated 79,000 patients. Read more..

By BLOOMBERG NEWS - The New York Times

Oil pipeline operator Kinder Morgan will purchase leading rival El Paso Corporation for $21 billion, in what amounts to massive bet on the booming natural gas industry; bet is somewhat risky considering controversy surrounding hydraulic fracturing technique, which has already been banned in some areas. Read more..

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS - The New York Times

Highlights from the DealBook newsletter. Read more..

By WILLIAM ALDEN - The New York Times

Labor Department reports number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits drops 19,000 to 366,000, lowest figure has been in three and a half years. Read more..

By REUTERS - The New York Times

Top executives at Olympus may seek to keep their jobs despite accounting scandal, intensifying standoff with ousted chief executive Michael C Woodford and throwing company's future into further disarray; company's president Shuichi Takayama contends that officers and board members who were not directly implicated in the scheme to cover up past losses should not have to step down, reversing his promise that management and directors would resign en masse. Read more..

By HIROKO TABUCHI - The New York Times

News analysis; spiraling costs of sports programming for American television subscribers is fraying the formerly tight bonds between the creators and distributors of television; National Football League's recent extraordinary deal with the major networks, $27 billion over nine years, most likely means the average cable bill will rise again soon, raising concerns across the industry that cable bills may be reaching the breaking point for some consumers who are short of money; Read more..

By BRIAN STELTER and AMY CHOZICK - The New York Times

New line of BlackBerry smartphones will not come to market until late in 2012, the latest in a string of product delays and missteps for Research in Motion; phones were widely seen as RIM's last hope for reducing drastic decline in their market share in the United States; company reports third quarter net income of $265 million, or 51 cents a share, plunging from $911 million, or $1.74 per share, in same period the year before. Read more..

By IAN AUSTEN - The New York Times

Janet L Robinson will step down as chief executive of The New York Times Company, following stewardship that was marked by aggressive strategies and digital innovation during period of uncertainty for the newspaper industry; she is widely credited with remaking The Times as a national newspaper in the 1990s. Read more..

By AMY CHOZICK - The New York Times