The 10 biggest business stories on Wednesday December 2

Mark Zuckerberg to donate 99% of Facebook stock to charity; Volkswagen sees 25% US sales drop compared with 2014 after scandal; Banknote printer De La Rue to cut production

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is renowned for his wacky New Year’s resolutions ( (Getty)

1. Volkswagen's emissions-cheating scandal took a serious bite out of the company's US sales last month. The German automaker reported that November US sales fell almost 25 per cent from a year ago. The company blamed the decline on stop-sale orders for diesel-powered vehicles that cheated on pollution tests.

2. Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that he's giving away 99 per cent of his Facebook shares — valued at $45 billion today —during his lifetime.

3. Russia may freeze work on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project for several years in retaliation against Ankara for the shooting down of a Russian air force jet, two sources at Russian gas giant Gazprom told Reuters.

4. Citigroup plans to keep its bonus pool for traders and bankers unchanged from last year, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

5. Yahoo's board will consider whether to sell its core internet business when it meets this week. That business, which includes services like Yahoo Mail and its news and sports sites, could attract interest from private equity firms or media and telecom companies.

6. Revenue at Zoopla, which owns uSwitch and Prime Location as well as the eponymous property search firm, soared 34 per cent to £107.6 million in the year to 30 September. Statutory profit rose 20 per cent to £25.4 million, while adjusted profit rose 30 per cent to £34.8 million.

7. Greene King said it had a “strong first half” in its interim results for the 24 weeks to mid-October, with revenue and profit growth taking place across all divisions.

8. VTech say hackers accessed millions of children’s accounts. The Hong Kong digital toymaker said 6 million children’s accounts and 4.9 million parent accounts were compromised in a hack discovered last month, Bloomberg reports.

9. The Eurotunnel Group is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the first junction under the Channel, when British and French tunnelling teams met for the first time in the service tunnel.

10. The world's biggest banknote printer, De La Rue, will cut production as demand for paper banknotes falls. The company, which prints some 150 national currencies as well as UK passports, said it would reduce its production lines to four from eight and cut its print capacity from 8 billlion to 6 billion banknotes annually.