1.   Although the companies are not named, the ad is referring to British American Tobacco and Lorillard, cigarette makers owned by conglomerates that also include life insurance companies.

2.   Amazon.com also shares customer information with its partners, including companies that help Amazon.com fill orders, deliver packages and analyze data.

3.   Analysts say ideal buyback candidates include those companies with plenty of spare cash, no significant capital expenditure plans, and healthy balance sheets.

4.   And it includes companies with different strategies for hedging, which locks in future prices.

5.   And in the later rounds, the list of investors usually includes key companies that do business with the start-up.

6.   As such, Mestrallet pulled the plug on several ailing industrial dinosaurs, including textile company Boussac and metalworks Creusot-Loire.

7.   At the same time, some stocks, including cable company Bygoska Fabryka Kabli SA, a favorite among foreign investors, soared to new highs this week.

8.   Blockbuster.com offered to pay for a job fair including other companies, but Van Hoose turned them down.

9.   Besides the classic drug-development biotech companies, others joining the ranks of public companies include diagnostics companies looking for better ways to track disease.

10.   A flurry of civil-rights suits have been filed recently against companies and municipalities, including telephone company BellSouth and Subway sandwich shops.