FRANKFURT, August 5, 2008 (AFP) - Adidas, the second biggest sports equipment maker, posted Tuesday a 12 percent increase in second quarter net profit, although its troubled US unit Reebok saw sales fall by just over 11 percent.

Adidas recorded a net profit of 116 million euros (180 million dollars), in part owing to a reduced tax rate, it said in a statement.

PARIS, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - The French government agreed Monday to pay businessman and ex-minister Bernard Tapie 285 million euros (450 million dollars), ending a 13-year furore over the sale of his Adidas sports group.

FRANKFURT, July 28, 2008 (AFP) - Adidas, the second-biggest sportswear company in the world, feels that Chinese salaries are now too high and it will transfer some production to more competitive countries, its chief executive said in an interview on Monday.

FRANKFURT, June 30, 2008 (AFP) - German sportswear giant Adidas did better than the national team at the Euro 2008 football championships, sponsoring both runner-up Germany and the new champion, Spain.

FRANKFURT, June 3, 2008 (AFP) - German sportswear and equipment group Adidas aims to become number one in Asia and Latin America by 2010, its boss Herbert Hainer said in a press interview released on Tuesday.

'We want to reach sales of around 3.5 billion euros (5.4 billion dollars) for all of Asia in 2010,' Hainer told the magazine Focus Money.

FRANKFURT, Germany, May 8, 2008 (AFP) - Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it had gatecrashed the annual meeting of sportswear giant Adidas Thursday, to protest their sponsorship of the Beijing Olympics.

BERLIN, May 6, 2008 (AFP) - Adidas, the world's second biggest sports goods group, posted Tuesday a higher first quarter profit, but its struggling Reebok brand saw orders fall by 22 percent.

LUXEMBOURG, April 10, 2008 (AFP) - Adidas successfully defended its famous three stripes logo on Thursday as a European court ruled that two-stripe imitations could infringe the German sportswear maker's famous trademark.

FRANKFURT, March 5, 2008 (AFP) - Adidas, the second biggest sportswear company, posted increased 2007 results Wednesday even though its Reebok unit lagged behind.

The German group said net profit had gained 14 percent to 551 million euros (835 million dollars), while operating profit rose by eight percent to 949 million.

BERLIN, Jan 16, 2008 (AFP) - Adidas, the second-biggest global sports equipment maker, will reconsider support for secondary Olympic disciplines after the 2008 Beijing Olympics, its boss was quoted Wednesday as saying.

'After the Olympic games we will reexamine all that does not provide the brand visibility we expect,' Herbert Hainer told the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung.

BERLIN, Nov 9, 2007 (AFP) - German sportswear giant Adidas will end its sponsorship of the T-Mobile cycling outfit at the end of 2008 at the latest after a raft of recent doping controversies which have hit the team.

Adidas said its contract would be not be extended beyond its 2008 expiry date and added that it was seeking to terminate it with immediate effect.

BERLIN, Nov 8, 2007 (AFP) - German sportswear giant Adidas reported increases in third-quarter profit on Thursday, but its US unit Reebok continued to cause concern.

FRANKFURT, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - German sportswear giant Adidas has seen off a challenge from US sportswear giant Nike and will continue to supply the German national football team, the German football federation (DFB) said Friday.

'The DFB board decided in favour of a compromise proposed by the independent tribunal despite the opposition of three representatives from the league,' the DFB said in a statement.

It said more information would be given in a press conference on Monday.

BERLIN, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - German sportswear manufacturer Adidas said on Thursday it would continue its sponsorship of the T-Mobile cycling outfit after the team announced stringent anti-doping measures last week.

'This decision was made, because we are aware that there is still a long way to go before we can say there is seamless drugs testing and no doping in sport,' said Adidas in a statement.

'The alternative was to withdraw, but in the current situation that would have been the equivalent of capitulating in the face of the doping problems.'

FRANKFURT, Aug 8, 2007 (AFP) - German sportswear giant Adidas reported a slight increase in first-half net profit on Wednesday, but its results revealed weakness in North America and sluggish sales by US unit Reebok.

The group's net profit rose 3.0 percent to 232 million euros (319 million dollars) in the first half of the year compared with the same period of 2006, while sales grew 1.0 percent.

Sales at Reebok, a running shoe specialist bought last year for 3.1 billion euros, fell by 6.0 percent in the first half of the year on a like-for-like basis, Adidas said.

FRANKFURT, Aug 8, 2007 (AFP) - German sportswear giant Adidas on Wednesday reported a 27-percent rise in second-quarter profit as costs linked to the acquisition of Reebok fell.

Net profit rose to 104 million euros (143 million dollars) in the second quarter from 82 million euros during the same period last year.

Analysts polled by the Thomson Financial agency had forecast net profit of 95.6 million euros and sales of 2.37 billion euros.

Turnover declined to 2.400 billion euros from 2.428 billion as Reebok sales continued to disappoint.

LOS ANGELES, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - California`s high court has decided that football shoes made from kangaroo leather cannot be sold in the state, rejecting arguments from sportswear giant Adidas.

Lawyers for Adidas held that the state ban on kangaroo products was in conflict with a US federal law that allows for imports of some kangaroo-skin items.