Saab Auto said production at its Trollhattan, Sweden, plant would remain down until week's end as the company tries to find cash to pay suppliers. The unit of Dutch sports car brand Spyker Cars is still looking for a way to raise money, per a company spokesperson. Meanwhile, the Swedish National Debt Office, guarantor of Saab Auto's loan facility from the European Investment Bank, said it is assessing an application from Russian financier Vladimir Antonov, a one-time Spyker shareholder.

Microsoft and Toyota are partnering on a long-term, in-car technology program whose goal is to put information pertaining to vehicles in the cloud. The program would connect vehicles and drivers to the Web via Microsoft services like Azure. The new technology would allow people to monitor and control their electric and hybrid Toyota vehicles from their homes. The two companies are investing $12 million in a new Toyota subsidiary, Toyota Media Service, with a goal of finishing a cloud-based system by 2015. Toyota, in a web conference with Microsoft, said the goal is navigation and diagnostic services like …

Dwayne Wade of the Miami Heat has been starring in ads for Nike's Jordan Brand. But he also has his own signature shoe from the brand called Fly Wade. The company says the shoe is the lightest of its line to date. Wade signed with the Nike division in 2009 after six years with Converse.

The NPD Group says U.S. consumers, now facing rising food costs, are applying lessons from the recession to deal with inflation. The study says coupons, stocking up on sale items, more private label purchases and discount-store shopping are ways consumers are dealing with price hikes. The NPD Economy Tracker, which monitors consumer sentiment, says 21.9% of consumers plan to boost spending on groceries over coming months.

Wrangler is launching a jean design competition with the winner's project becoming part of the "Next Blue" jean collection launching this fall. Consumers have to upload videos to NextBlue.com explaining a jean idea and give it a name. The company wants not only its consumer base but also a new, younger demo to get involved.

The Tokyo Disneyland theme park would normally get 70,000 visitors per day. But the park has been closed since the March 11 quake and tsunami. The closure has had a deleterious effect on cabbies, hotels, restaurants, and shopping centers, which sustained little damage from the natural disaster that closed the park and its sister Tokyo Disney Sea. The properties, among the most popular theme parks in the world, attracted over 25.3 million visitors in the 12 months ending March 31. Though the parks suffered negligible physical damage from the quakes, issues with power and tourism from the disaster have shuttered …

Vehicle leasing dwindled during the recession, but now it has come back, a sign of improving economic health, according to Leasetrader.com, an online lease-tracking firm. The firm says automakers are advertising lease deals that have monthly payments under $199. Such deals suggest credit markets are loosening and banks are lending more freely.

The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based web-domain name registrar, which has created its own Super Bowl ads since 2005, outsourcing, where needed, has now completed a 4,000-square-foot studio as part of a plan to expand advertising overseas. A new ad set to air during the Indy 500 features a regular cast member, racer Danica Patrick. The company only spent $31.4 million on media last year.

Now, for something completely different: here's a video clip of a series of people auditioning to be the Aflac duck, a position now vacant since the company fired comedian Gilbert Gottfried for his off-color tweet about Japan's earthquake. It's also a tutorial for those considering a career as voiceover talent: embody the duck.

Big-name quarterbacks took a big risk when they put their names on the NFL Players Association antitrust lawsuit. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees agreed to sign on to the suit -- three of ten players named as plaintiffs -- but they have more to lose than others because they have the biggest marketing deals. If the case drags on and the games are canceled, fans may turn on the stars, and analysts say that could hurt their marketability.