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Los Angeles-based Air Lease, which buys planes and leases them to airlines, also has the right to purchase a further 25 planes. The order will take several years to deliver. ALC has ordered a total of 170 airplanes from Boeing. Although the order has a list price of $7.2 billion, purchasers rarely pay the full price for an order of this size.

Donor nations meeting at a conference on aid to Afghanistan here Sunday pledged $16 billion over the next four years for civilian projects from roads to schools to strengthening rule of law, in exchange for pledges from the Afghan government to combat corruption.

Small banks still owe $11 billion of taxpayer money under TARP, and the government is threatening to unload its stakes in them at big discounts to new investors. Nearly four years after Washington bailed out Wall Street, small banks have yet to repay $11 billion of taxpayer money.

Private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC is pushing ahead with a $4 billion sale of Getty Images Inc, the largest supplier of stock photos, video and other digital content, to private equity, two people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Dell is buying Quest Software for $2.4 billion to expand its offerings as its personal computer business weakens in an era of smartphones and sleeker devices like the iPad. The deal announced Monday capped off a bidding war that began last month when Quest revealed a mystery suitor had made an offer trumping a $2 billion sale that had been worked out with Insight Venture Partners in March. The secret bidder turned out to be Dell Inc., the second largest PC maker in the U.S. behind Hewlett-Packard Co.

Microsoft agreed to buy online social network firm Yammer for $1.2 billion in cash, which will allow the software company to offer a service like Facebook's to corporate customers.

A potent mix of dense disclosures, clever accounting and naive customers made for a big bank payday, despite pushes for reform.

With earth’s population headed for 10 billion, much of the growth is in sub-Saharan Africa, where trends that have lowered birthrates elsewhere have not yet caught on.

Carlyle Group LP is eyeing a market valuation of $7.5 billion to $8 billion in an initial public offering, as the U.S. private equity firm prepares to kick off a marketing blitz to investors, perhaps as soon as next week, said a source with knowledge of the situation.

Apple, already the world's most valuable company, hit the $600 billion level for the first time Tuesday....