Last month, Canadian regulators began an investigation into allegations that the Canadian divisions of Hershey, Cadbury Schweppes, Mars and Nestlé fixed prices. Now, antitrust officials at the U.S. Justice Dept. have begun making inquiries, representatives at two chocolate makers said yesterday. It isn't clear precisely what the feds are looking into or whether the preliminary inquiry will become a formal criminal investigation. Price fixing can be a serious offense, leading to heavy fines and, in some cases, jail terms for executives. While antitrust enforcement has eased generally in recent years, the Bush administration has aggressively prosecuted price fixing. …

The cast of colorful suitors for Godiva included Starbucks, Hershey's, William Wrigley Jr. and several private equity firms, but in the end Campbell sold the Belgian chocolate maker to Yildiz Holding of Turkey for $850 million. Campbell decided to sell Godiva--which it acquired in 1967 and built into a worldwide phenomenon--to focus more on its traditional business of soups and snacks. It is increasingly marketing its products as part of a healthy lifestyle--one that chocolate may not fit. Godiva will become part of the Ulker Group, which is owned by Yildiz. Ulker is the largest consumer-goods company …

As Blockbuster's new management struggles to find a balance between expensive investments in online distribution methods and boosting its mature in-store rental business, it will raise prices for its Total Access subscription plans and lower prices for two DVD By Mail plans. The price hikes will apply to new subscribers and some existing subscribers who are heavy users starting Dec. 27. Blockbuster also will cut the price of two of its By Mail plans by $1, to $3.99 for one DVD at a time for all subscribers and to $15.99 for three DVDs at a time for new …

Unit sales for GPS devices are up a whopping 488% over last year's for the first three weeks of the holiday shopping season, according to market research firm NPD Group, with revenue rising 214%. Meanwhile, MP3 player units slipped 9% with revenue down 16%. Consumers dropped $4.5 billion on electronics during the time period, lagging behind last year's sales by about one-half percent. Other hot sellers include digital picture frames, with dollar sales up by 204%; LCD TVs with revenue up 64%; digital single-lens reflex cameras revenue up 29%; and computer notebook revenue up 12%. NPD analyst …

The new, award-winning Chevrolet Malibu and Buick Enclave are the consummation of an agonizingly slow process in which the world's largest automaker completely reworked the way it designs and develops new cars and trucks. There's never been a shortage of talented engineers and designers at GM, but for decades, the company's processes, politics and management blocked creativity and innovation. "GM now has a hyper-efficient, product-focused vehicle development program," says Jim Hall, managing director of 2953 Analytics of Birmingham. Its vehicle-development system today stands alongside Toyota and BMW as the best in the industry, Hall believes. The changes that led …

When Sara Lee--parent of Kiwi shoe polish--interviewed 3,500 people in eight countries about their shoe-care needs a couple of years ago, they were shocked at the results: People don't care nearly as much about the shine as they do about how fresh and comfortable their shoes are on the inside. Shine ranked 17th on a list of more than 20 attributes. Since then, Kiwi has unveiled a slew of new products, including "fresh'ins" (thin, lightly fragranced shoe inserts for women) and "smiling feet" (a line of cushions for heels and the balls of feet, antislip pads and strips that can …