1.   American Century Investments, a mutual fund company best known for its high-octane stock funds, wants the power to soup up its funds even more.

2.   At the Totem stand was a new crop of products from Inflate, the London company best known for its plastic bowls and vases filled with air.

3.   In January he sold back the Puma of North America unit to Puma AG, a German company best known for its running shoes.

4.   In November, the company best known for its Quicken and TurboTax financial software launched QuickenMortgage.

5.   J.D. Power and Associates, a company best known for rating cars based on customer satisfaction surveys, has turned its sights again on the health care industry.

6.   Kate Spade, an accessory company best known for pricey handbags, is also introducing its first campaign.

7.   Yesterday, Novato-based Mindscape said it had acquired MicroLogic, an Emeryville company best known for its PrintMaster Gold software.

8.   Corel, an Ottawa-based company best known for its CorelDraw graphics software, did not say how much it was paying for the word-processing software firm.

9.   Sales by those who knew the companies best accounted for a flood of hundreds of thousands of shares on the market, which reached its lowest point in July.