Bloomberg GN Store Nord A/S, the world’s third-largest listed producer of hearing aids, signed a conditional agreement to buy Audigy Group LLC in a deal that could value the U.S. audiology and hearing services company at as much as $151 million. GN will pay $91 million up front and as much as $60 million more depending on Audigy’s financial …

  Bloomberg Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced undefined “military exercises” for the embattled nation, just a day after pledging to prolong his government’s special emergency powers. Speaking in Caracas’s Ibarra Square after a march on Saturday by several hundred supporters, Maduro said his opponents are orchestrating foreign military intervention in Venezuela. Exercises by the army and militia groups would prepare …

  Bloomberg Federally mandated ethanol blending is adding extra pressure to the faltering profits of U.S. refiners. The worst crude oil downturn in a generation, which at first helped refiners’ profits, has now passed through to the fuel prices. Now, gasoline is cheaper than the ethanol that refiners have no choice but to use. Ethanol averaged 30 cents above gasoline …