Microsoft Corp. and Yammer Inc. today announced a definitive agreement under which Microsoft will acquire Yammer, a leading provider of enterprise social networks, for $1.2 billion in cash.

Yammer will join the Microsoft Office Division, led by division President Kurt DelBene, and the team will continue to report to current CEO David Sacks.

Israel’s Elbit Systems has won a contract worth $62 million to upgrade the Korean Air Force’s C-130 transport aircraft.

Under the terms of the contract, the C-130 aircraft will be installed with various types of advanced electronic systems, and the existing analogue cockpit converted to a ‘glass cockpit’ using Elbit Systems' digital flight displays.

The work is expected to take around four years, and will be carried out in co-operation with Korea Aerospace Industries, Korea’s leading local aircraft manufacturer.

Natural gas processor Atlas Pipeline Partners LP has brought online the expansion at Velma, a new state-of-the-art cryogenic facility in Oklahoma.

The expansion supports the partnership's long-term, fee-based agreement with XTO Energy Inc, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil, to provide natural gas gathering and processing services for up to an incremental 60 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) from the Woodford Shale.

Mining giant BHP Billiton has approved investment of US$845 million to establish a replacement mining area at its Appin Mine in New South Wales, Australia.

The replacement mining area will sustain operations at Illawarra Coal and will have a production capacity of 3.5 million tonnes per year of metallurgical coal, sustaining production capacity at nine million tonnes per year.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Jorf Lasfar Energy Company, has secured financing for the expansion of its coal-fired power complex in Morocco.  

The company signed financing arrangements for $1.4 billion equivalent of 16-year, multi-currency non-recourse project financing for the 700 MW expansion of the power complex.

US vehicle manufacturers are producing higher-quality vehicles than ever before, according to the JD Power and Associates 2012 US Initial Quality Study (IQS) released today.

Rio Tinto has announced it is committing US$4.2 billion to developing its tier one iron ore business.

The investment covers $3.7 billion for expansion of the Pilbara iron ore operations in Western Australia; and $501 million for further infrastructure development at the Simandou iron ore project in Guinea.

WABCO Holdings Inc, a tier-one supplier to the commercial vehicle industry, has entered into a long-term supply agreement with Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA).

WABCO will supply its MAXXUS air disc brake technology for series production on DTNA's trucks starting in July 2012.

Pioneered in Europe, MAXXUS represents the lightest and highest performing single-piston air disc brake for North America's commercial vehicle industry, reducing the vehicle's overall weight, which boosts fuel efficiency and enables increased transport payload.

We’ve all experienced moments when we feel at a loss for words. Your boss criticizes your work. A customer demands a discount. Your presentation gets off on the wrong foot and tempers flare. Every time, you’re left thinking, I wish I had been able to think of just the right thing to say to that person! What should I have said? Andrew Sobel says that no interaction, regardless of how tough, is ever completely lost. He suggests transforming tough conversations—and the relationships they affect—by asking a few power questions.

Nobody’s perfect. What quality or ability do you wish you had?

There is no specific change I would wish to make to myself with the possible exception that I wish I could be single-minded and selfish sometimes and put my own interests before the collective. I would have been crooked less, been disappointed in my fellow man less and certainly have lost less money!

What is the best business book you have ever read, and why?