The new XFR-S is a jaguar among lambs at the L.A. Auto Show, which will be populated with flocks of alternative powered vehicles. Jaguar will pull the wraps off its fastest and most powerful "saloon" car yet. The 2013 Jaguar XFR-S is the British marque's more functional alternative to its XKR-S coupe, both models sharing the same supercharged 5.0-liter V-8, making an impressive 550 horsepower and 502 pound-feet of torque.

Music video platform Vevo has launched in Spain, Italy and France offering 50,000 high-definition videos, live concerts and original music programming. On board are RenaultNissan, which has already sponsored exclusive music video premieres in France, Reckitt and Fiat have done the same in Italy, while Danone and Orange have partnered with Vevo in Spain.

According to the National Retail Federation this year consumers will spend an average of about $140 on themselves. Spokeswoman Kathy Grannis says that's the most in the 10 years the NRF has been asking shoppers about the trend.

British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 has left the oil company a deal for takeover, per analysts. The company agreed to $4.5 billion in penalties and accept responsibility for the Deepwater Horizon disaster. As for which companies might be interested in BP, the news source cited ExxonMobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell plc as the most likely suitors.

General Motors is titillating car enthusiasts by slowly revealing minute details about the C7, the next Chevy Corvette, which break cover at the Detroit auto show on Jan. 13. The 47-second video opens dramatically with a shot of the Corvette hidden with a loose-fitting grey cover. As a halo car for the brand, the next Corvette is a huge play for the automaker, one it plans to milk for every ounce of publicity possible.

Being nice to poultry sells. Mary's Chickens, a product of the Pitman family farms, were dying not too long ago. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, sales of their turkeys were lucrative. But the rest of the year, business was too slow to make a living. Today, the family's poultry is sold in nearly every specialty store in the West and carried in many Bay Area. The quality of the poultry, and the humane way they are dispatched (even PETA doesn't mind) have paid off.

Amazingly, Procter & Gamble is now 175 years old. It's the only company left standing that was named to the Fortune 50 list back in 1955, when the list began. The $84 billion company, in the midst of a $10 billion cost-cutting program, and a new strategy to boost lackluster results is aiming to stick around, says CEO Bob McDonald. "I always have to remember, that this really isn't about me," he said. "I'm CEO right now, but this is about the institution, and I've got to be willing to make the harder right decisions."

Apple is way in front when it comes to sales per square foot. Retail and consumer goods consulting firm RetailSails says Apple's 372 worldwide locations sold goods at a rate of more than $6,000 per square foot of floor space in the past 12 months. The average store of the next most successful company in the United States, Tiffany & Co., sold less than half that per square foot. Sales per square foot in lower end stores were less than $100.

The Port of Houston Authority is anticipating paying its two new cruise lines, Princess Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line, about $7 million over five years as an incentive to attract their business to the Bayport Cruise Terminal. The monetary incentive is for the cruise lines to use to market their business. The port revealed Nov. 15 that the cruise lines would start coming into Bayport in late 2013.

Republican Tim Pawlenty, who served as the 39th governor of Minnesota, said his party lost the 2012 election because it needed better marketing and a better product, not because President Barack Obama handed out "gifts" to minorities. Said Pawlenty in an interview, "I do think if you look back at the election of 2012, when you have a product that you put into the market place - Republican perspective - and the market place doesn't buy it, you either have to have better marketing or a better product."