Monopoly money

Boeing and Lockheed Martin look set to form a joint venture that could dominate the supply of rocket launchers to the US military. Officials close to the deal say that the Pentagon has endorsed the venture and will shortly take it to the US Federal Trade Commission, which regulates competition, for approval. Rivals are aghast that the Department of Defense is prepared to let its two largest rocket suppliers work together in this way — but analysts expect to see more such deals between defence contractors as spending is squeezed.

Record revenues

Biotechnology company Genentech clocked revenues of $6.6 billion in 2005, capping a year of extraordinary success fuelled by cancer-drug sales. The South San Francisco firm reported that its profits in the last quarter of the year grew by 64% compared with 2004. It also scored a public-relations coup by topping Fortune magazine's list of the 100 best US companies to work for.

Will it shell out?

Royal Dutch Shell is being sued by 26 European pension funds, mainly based in the Netherlands, over its admission that it artificially boosted its claimed oil and gas reserves between 1997 and 2003. The pension funds are claiming hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from the oil company; they have broken away from litigation already being undertaken in the United States.

Deal sealed

Shareholders in Berna Biotech, a Swiss vaccine-maker, voted last week to approve a takeover by Dutch biotechnology company Crucell (see Nature 438, 737; 200510.1038/438737a). The merger resulting from Crucell's all-stock offer, valued at about US$460 million, will create the world's largest independent vaccine-maker; the company will retain the name Crucell and stay based in Leiden. The merger was approved hours after Novartis dropped an effort to acquire Berna — late last month Novartis said it was considering buying the smaller company and combining its vaccine operations with those of its expected acquisition, California-based Chiron.