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Chinese carmaker Geely has bought Manganese Bronze, the maker of London’s black taxis, for 11 million pounds ($17.5 million), safeguarding jobs and production of the vehicles in Britain. Manganese Bronze, whose taxis have been on British streets since 1948, went into administration last October, with about a third of its 300-strong workforce losing their jobs. Geely, which already owned about a quarter of Manganese Bronze, on Friday said it had agreed a deal with administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers to buy “the business and principal assets” of the company. “Geely's priority will be to re-establish the manufacture, sale and servicing of new and current vehicles on broadly the same basis as existed before the business went into administration,” Geely Chairman Li Shufu said. “This will include the continued assembly of the TX4 at Manganese Bronze’s existing Coventry plant in the West Midlands.” Manganese Bronze has failed to turn a profit since 2007. Late last year the company said its financial position was unclear after the discovery of a safety defect in its new TX4 model that led to a recall of 400 taxis and a halt to sales.

Merck Q4 nos beat Street; issues cautious 2013 view

Merck & Co’s quarterly results beat forecasts, helped by strong sales of its Januvia diabetes drug and Gardasil vaccine against cervical cancer, but the company issued a full-year 2013 profit view at the low end of Wall Street expectations. The No. 2 US drugmaker on Friday said it earned $1.4 billion, or 46

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