Gina Chon

Apple CEO Tim Cook’s apology yesterday to Chinese consumers for the company’s warranty and repair services is the latest example of how different he is from Steve Jobs. The late Apple CEO, for all his brilliance, was not prone to saying he was sorry and was indifferent toward investors. In contrast, when hedge fund manager David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital pressed Apple earlier this year to return more of the company’s $137 billion cash pile to shareholders, Apple actually acknowledged his existence. Of course, Apple’s stock had also fallen by 40% since September, putting pressure on Cook in a way that Jobs never faced.

US auto sales in March hit their highest level since 2007, showing American consumers are indeed in a mood to go shopping. The housing recovery also helped automakers in the US, leading to an increase in sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles.

News from the big banks of the world has been pretty gloomy: scandals, layoffs and pay cuts. But there are banks where employees are actually feeling positive about their business, where the pay is still good and the firms are growing with new hires. These are the boutiques, firms that aren’t household names because of their smaller size and more limited activities.

The fight over control of the board at oil and gas company Hess Corp is an example of the power of activist investors, who have come out swinging this year. Under attack by two activist funds, Hess has been selling assets left and right to win over shareholders. Today, Hess tried to score another point with investors by selling its Russian subsidiary to Lukoil for about $2 billion, bringing the total of assets it has sold this year to about $3 billion.

The S&P 500’s record high this week apparently wasn’t enough to convince the owners of Toys “R” Us to move forward with the retail chain’s long delayed IPO. Private equity firms Bain Capital and KKR, along with Vornado Realty, decided today to officially withdraw plans to take Toys “R” Us public. Although IPOs raised billions of dollars in the first quarter of this year, partly because of the market rise, traditional big box retailers have been hurt by the continuing shift to online buying.

Should financial firms accused of improprieties be able to get away with paying fines without admitting their guilt? That’s a matter of growing debate in the US, where instead of prosecuting cases involving the financial crisis, insider trading or other nefarious events, regulators and the government have often opted to settle with the accused party.

The pronouncements that M&A was finally back disappeared in March. While deals were bigger in Q1 than in the first quarter of 2012, there were fewer of them, according to preliminary data from Dealogic. Global activity was down 32% year-on-year, and the number of US deals fell by 24%.

The strong debut of Vlasic pickles owner Pinnacle Foods is good news for its most recent private equity owner, Blackstone, and for other buyout companies seeking exits for their investments. Pinnacle shot up 11% in its stock market debut today, even after pricing at $20, the high end of its IPO range.

Even with highly anticipated products in the BlackBerry 10 lineup, it’s been hard for the company, formerly known as Research in Motion, to catch a break. In February, co-founder Jim Balsillie sold his 5% stake, leading to jokes that even he didn’t believe in the new touch-screen Z10 model. And just a few days ago, Goldman Sachs downgraded Blackberry because of tepid Z10 sales, sending the stock falling.

The average Mercedes-Benz buyer is older than other people who buy luxury cars. The German auto maker is hoping to change that with its new CLA coupe. Today it unveiled the souped-up AMG version at the New York Auto Show, trying to give it some youthful buzz by unveiling it in the midst of a twirling cloud of black-clad dancers from New York’s Alvin Ailey troupe.

Despite big bumps in the road for the roll out of Nissan’s electric vehicle, the Leaf, CEO Carlos Ghosn still believes the car represents his company’s future. Sales of the Leaf and other plug-in vehicles are important tests of whether electric cars can truly win over the masses. But for Nissan, the Leaf is a particular cause for concern since the company made a $5 billion bet on a vehicle that has so far shown disappointing sales. That, in turn, has put a dent into Ghosn’s image as a master manager.

Latin America has grown in importance for beer companies searching for growth, but the two biggest players in the beer world, Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, have adopted different strategies in recent years.

The special committee of Dell’s board announced that the rival preliminary acquisition proposals it received from private equity firm Blackstone and activist investor Carl Icahn could reasonably lead to better offers, meaning the parties will now enter into negotiations. This isn’t a surprise. But there is still a long way to go before the board can declare their offers, both of which have some issues, superior to the buyout scheme involving founder and CEO Michael Dell.

(UPDATE 3/23 3:30 p.m. ET: The special committee of Dell’s board is expected to announce before the market closes tomorrow whether it needs more time to assess the preliminary offers by Blackstone and Icahn, or whether those proposals are reasonably likely to lead to a superior offer.)

This year started out looking like it could be a banner 2013 for global mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity. There were a slew of big deals in the first few months, including the sale of ketchup maker Heinz and the merger between US Airways and American Airlines. The media hyped how M&A was back, and soon afterward, the Dow hit record highs.

Hewlett-Packard shareholders just reelected the entire board, but several directors, including chairman Ray Lane, barely squeaked through. He received only 59% of the vote, according to preliminary figures. Two other long-serving HP directors, John Hammergren and G. Kennedy Thompson, got 54% and 55%, respectively.

General Mills is among a slew of consumer product companies that are increasingly relying on overseas markets to make up for its US business. Although General Mills’s earnings today beat Wall Street estimates as the American economy improves, the real growth for the company’s future will be found elsewhere. One of General Mills’ main products, breakfast cereals like Cheerios, aren’t as popular in overseas markets, forcing it to branch out.

JP Morgan’s former chief risk officer and head of regulatory affairs, Barry Zubrow, was curiously absent from the US Senate hearing on the bank’s $6.2 billion trading loss known as the “London Whale.” Zubrow was named in JP Morgan’s own report on the debacle as one of the main people responsible.

Plenty of companies will take a look at Dell during the “go shop” period in which the PC maker’s board can solicit other acquisition offers. But many of those firms will have no interest in buying the company.

There is a lot of hype around China’s 360buy Group, sometimes called the “Amazon of China,” including speculation that the online shopping site is gearing up for an IPO. However, a source in the industry told Quartz, an IPO is not in the cards for 2013. And there are several reasons why 360buy should in fact wait even longer.

With deferred compensation (Morgan Stanley and Barclays), caps on cash bonuses (Deutsche Bank) and clawbacks of previous pay (JP Morgan), a banker’s salary is not what it used to be. Some have responded by looking elsewhere for a job. But for those who decide to stick around or can’t find other work, there is another solution: work less.

Smart power grid company Silver Spring Networks had some doubters before its IPO debuted on March 13. The company had waited a long time before going public (it filed its initial paperwork in 2011) and green tech stocks haven’t been embraced by the market. But when the IPO finally came, the stock jumped by almost 30% after its debut, showing a successful IPO is just as much about art as it is science.

Apple is leaning toward additional dividends or a share buyback program as part of its effort to return more cash to investors, according to sources. The US tech company could announce the move this spring, potentially in conjunction with a product announcement, the sources said.

With the statute of limitations on civil cases in the US usually limited to five years, many of the root causes of the US financial crisis are now falling beyond the civil courts’ reach. So a lawsuit before the Delaware Supreme Court could be one of the last chances for investors to hold people accountable for their losses: in this case, former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo, who headed a company that was at the nexus of the subprime mortgage disaster.