China Cos. Show Appetite for Brand Names By ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer Wed Jun 22, 8:50 AM ET China is moving into the merger-and-acquisition major leagues, as its star corporations shop for American household names like Unocal, Maytag and IBM, hoping that global ambitions will mean bigger profits. State media reports quoted unnamed officials at China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, as saying the company's board would meet this week and decide whether to go ahead with a $20 billion bid for Unocal Corp., the ninth-biggest U.S. oil and gas company. The CNOOC purchase, if it went through,...
