(Reuters) - Barclays Plc is considering moving its headquarters out of London as the cost of holding more capital threatens to make it less attractive than rival financial centers, people familiar with the matter said. Barclays (BARC.L) has said its preference is to stay in London, but Chairman Marcus Agius said in August it and other banks had to consider where they were based as regulations shifted around the world. The sources told Reuters on Wednesday that was still the case.

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(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen has accused his former business partner Bill Gates of plotting to dilute Allen's stake in the world's largest software company before he left in 1983, and tried to buy his share of the company on the cheap. Allen, who now runs a Seattle-based investment firm and philanthropic foundation, makes the claim in a forthcoming book of memoirs, excerpts from which were published in Vanity Fair magazine on Wednesday.

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(Reuters) - Even after former McKinsey & Co global head Rajat Gupta retired in 2007, he used its New York office and had an executive assistant, email address and phone at the elite management consultancy. At least twice he called his hedge fund manager friend Raj Rajaratnam from a 27th floor McKinsey conference room, providing what prosecutors contend were leaks of boardroom secrets about Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N). Gupta, well-known in the business world after his 34 years at McKinsey, had won a seat on the board of the powerful investment bank in 2006.

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(Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators proposed rules on Wednesday that would require publicly listed companies to have independent compensation committees and make key disclosures about their use of compensation consultants. The proposal, approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a 5-0 vote, is the latest effort by the agency to implement provisions in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law designed to improve transparency surrounding compensation practices.

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(Reuters) - News Corp (NWSA.O) has promoted James Murdoch to the role of deputy chief operating officer in a move that will be seen to mark him as eventual successor to his 80-year-old father, Rupert. James Murdoch's newly created role, announced on Wednesday, will have him move to News Corp's New York headquarters from London and continue to report to Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey. He will also continue to run News Corp's international operations.

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(Reuters) - Oil fell on Wednesday, weighed down by swelling crude inventories in the United States, while President Barack Obama was expected to set an ambitious long-term goal to cut oil imports. Crude oil stocks at Cushing in Oklahoma, the delivery point of U.S. crude, rose to a record high, dragging U.S. futures prices lower by more than $1 at one point.

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(Reuters) - Crisis management expert Caroline Sapriel has plenty of experience of the colossal pressure on corporate chiefs such as Tokyo Electric's Masataka Shimizu, hospitalized as his firm battles nuclear catastrophe. Firms such as airlines, oil majors and utilities may sometimes run scenario-based exercises, hold discussions and hire outside consultants such as her to brace for disaster. But when it strikes, she says corporate structures and personnel are often by their very nature still brutally unprepared.

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(Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed in choppy trading on Tuesday as continuing global crises kept investors cautious before the quarter's end. The S&P 500 index has risen 4.2 percent in the first quarter as of Monday. Still, investors were reluctant to risk gains with Japan's nuclear power problems and the civil unrest in the Middle East and North Africa unresolved. Monday's trading volume was the lowest of the year.

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(Reuters) - U.S. single family home prices fell for the seventh straight month in January, bringing prices to just above April 2009 lows, a closely watched survey said on Tuesday. The S&P/Case-Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas declined 0.2 percent in January from December on a seasonally adjusted basis where a Reuters poll of economists forecast a drop of 0.4 percent. Prices in the 20 cities have fallen 3.1 percent year-over-year compared to 3.2 percent expected.

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(Reuters) - General Electric Co (GE.N) reached a $3.2 billion agreement to acquire a maker of automation systems used in the oil and gas sector, marking the latest in a series of deals in the energy industry. The largest U.S. conglomerate said its acquisition of Massy, France-based Converteam would boost its offering of high-efficiency electric devices used across the energy industry.

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