Cosmetics giant Estee Lauder has stated that it expects its quarterly profit to be much higher than it had originally predicted and will post a boosted fiscal-year forecast later this month. The company’s decision comes after an unexpected increase in sales figures, sending Estee Lauder’s shares up 5 percent.
However, Estee Lauder, which is best known for its Estee Lauder line and its brands such as Clinique, still expects that slow consumer spending will keep its results in check and will remain cautious.
As consumer spending has fallen, Estee Lauder has struggled as more consumers shy away from spending on products that …read more

Dove soap maker Unilever has decided to spend $1.9 billion to acquire Sara Lee Corp.’s personal-care and European detergent unit, a move that marks Unilever’s biggest purchase in nine years. The purchase, which puts the popular Sanex shower gel into Unilever’s product repertoire, sent Sara Lee’s shares up at least 6.7 percent in New York trading.
The deal will involve Unilever paying cash for the division of Sara Lee, maker of several brands of soap that are extremely popular throughout Europe that drew in nearly $1 billion in sales in its last fiscal year. Sara Lee, which has been shedding many …read more