Companies

A former high ranking executive from National Australia Bank has been sentenced to eight years in prison for receiving bribes in the form of inflated invoices to the tune of around $5.5 million.

Venture capitalist Dr Elaine Stead has been awarded $280,000 in her defamation case against the Nine-owned Australian Financial Review after the Federal Court found she suffered hurt and damage to her reputation through a "targeted campaign of offensive mockery" about her role in collapsed investment firm Blue Sky Alternative Investments.

Drug giant Merck Sharp & Dohme has brought a cross appeal in its long-running intellectual property dispute with Pfizer's Wyeth over the top selling Prevnar 13 pneumococcal vaccine.

The chair of the ACCC says that while it has made concessions in response to complaints from Google and Facebook about its proposed media bargaining code, it won't budge on the final offer arbitration model which would be used to resolve disputes with media companies under the code.

Tech giants Google and Facebook have come under fire in a Senate inquiry for their "threats" to block news in Australia if a draft media bargaining code proposed by the ACCC is passed without any amendments.

A $25 million settlement has been reached in three long-running shareholder class actions over the collapse of electronics retailer Dick Smith, under which the funders that backed the litigation will not recover their costs and shareholders recoveries will be small.

NAB has succeeded in blocking accused scammer Helen Rosamond and her executive services company Human Group from varying a freezing order in a case over an alleged $51 million fraudulent scheme so that she can pay her legal bills and living expenses.

Trial is set to begin February 2 in a $100 million shareholder class action against Woolworths over a February 2015 profit downgrade that allegedly led to a drop in the company's share price.

Facebook and Google should not be expected to solve the challenges currently facing the Australian media industry, according to the social media giant, which has called on the government to address concentration in the media market.

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been sued for conspiracy to misuse private information and bank account details in an unfair dismissal case brought by the director and former employee of a Melbourne financial services provider.