Jan. 26 at 9:51 a.m.
Filed under:
Earnings,
Pharmaceuticals
By Bruce Japsen
Abbott Laboratories said Wednesday that it would cut 1,900 jobs, or 6 percent, of its U.S. workforce in the wake of a series of disappointments in its drug development pipeline, triggering a restructuring of pharmaceutical commercial and manufacturing operations.
Of the cuts, about 1,000 would be in manufacturing operations in Illinois where the largest concentration of Abbott’s estimated 90,000 employees around the world are at its sprawling headquarters in the northern Lake County suburbs of Chicago. The company said about half of the job cuts would take place now with the remainder over the next several years. Get the full story »
Jan. 26 at 8:51 a.m.
Filed under:
Food,
Litigation,
Restaurants
By Reuters
Taco Bell Corp. is pushing back against a lawsuit that claims the fast food chain’s “seasoned ground beef” is not all it’s made out to be.
Taco Bell said on Tuesday that it plans to take legal action against the “false statements” being made about its food. The chain operates, manages or franchises more than 5,600 locations in the United States, according to the lawsuit. Get the full story »
Jan. 26 at 8:30 a.m.
Filed under:
Construction,
Earnings
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
Building products maker USG Corp. reported a smaller fourth-quarter loss than it had a year ago and said it thinks the worst of the economic downturn is behind the company.
The Chicago-based company, the largest U.S. distributor of drywall, on Wednesday said it lost $121 million, or $1.17 a share in the fourth quarter. That compares with a year-ago quarterly loss of $598 million, or $6.02 a share. Get the full story »
Jan. 26 at 8:03 a.m.
Filed under:
Retirement
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
Cracks in their financial nest eggs mean plenty of older workers are asking to stay on the job longer, but mature employees are more optimistic about their retirement prospects than a year ago, according to a new survey
Last year, 72 percent of workers age 60 and older said they were putting off retirement because they couldn’t afford it but this year that number is down to 65 percent, according to a survey of 500 people released Wednesday by CareerBuilder. Get the full story »
Jan. 26 at 7:58 a.m.
Filed under:
Earnings,
Energy
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
Exelon Corp.’s fourth-quarter profitability beat Wall Street estimates, as the Chicago-based utility company reported Wednesday that it earned $631 million, or 96 cents a share during the quarter, compared with $610 million, or 92 cents in the year-ago period. Get the full story »
Jan. 26 at 7:16 a.m.
Filed under:
Food,
Restaurants
From the Daily Herald | The first Chicago-area location of Smashburger has opened in the Randall Road corridor in Batavia. It is the first of what company officials expect will be seven Smashburger locations open in the area by the end of 2011. Get the full story>>
Jan. 26 at 6:22 a.m.
Filed under:
Airlines,
Earnings
By Reuters
United Continental Holdings Inc. Wednesday posted a wider quarterly net loss on expenses tied to last year’s merger of UAL Corp. and Continental Airlines, but excluding items the company made a profit.
The parent of United Airlines reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $325 million, or $1.01 per share, compared with a loss of $266 million, or 85 cents per share, a year earlier. Get the full story »
Jan. 26 at 6:18 a.m.
Filed under:
China,
Food,
International,
Restaurants
From Bloomberg News | McDonald’s Corp.’s management training center, on the outskirts of Shanghai in McDonald’s China headquarters, gets 1,000 applications for every eight slots. That’s a selection rate of less than 1 percent, lower than Harvard University’s record low acceptance rate last year of about 7 percent, according to the school’s official newspaper. Get the full story>>
Jan. 26 at 6:08 a.m.
Filed under:
Economy,
Government
By Reuters
Business leaders in Davos gave a mixed reaction on Wednesday to the austerity steps proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama in his State of the Union speech, with some questioning whether they go far enough.
In a speech on Tuesday outlining a more bipartisan political agenda, Obama offered corporate tax cuts and a five-year partial federal spending freeze that he said would cut $400 billion from budget deficits over a decade. Get the full story »
Jan. 26 at 5:46 a.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Recalls
By Reuters
Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday that it will recall 1.705 million vehicles worldwide due to faulty parts including defective fuel devices, giving the company’s once-prestigious reputation for quality another black eye.
The Japanese auto maker said that 1.28 million vehicles in Japan and a combined 421,000 vehicles in North America, Europe and other markets, including nearly 245,000 Lexus sedans sold in the U.S. are subject to recall. Get the full story »
Jan. 26 at 5:30 a.m.
Filed under:
Reports: New home sales for December, 9 a.m.; Federal Reserve announces decision on interest rates.
International: Opening of annual World Economic Forum.
Local earnings: Abbott Laboratories, Boeing Co., Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., United Continental Holdings Inc.
Other major earnings: ConocoPhillips, Eastman Kodak Co., General Dynamics Corp., Netflix Inc., Qualcomm Inc., Starbucks Corp., United Technologies Corp., US Airways Group Inc., Valero Energy Corp., WellPoint Inc., Xerox Corp.
By Dow Jones Newswires
The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission has concluded that the 2008 financial crisis in the U.S. was caused by a combination of corporate errors, regulatory failure and excessive risk-taking by Wall Street firms, the New York Times reported online Tuesday. Get the full story »
Jan. 25 at 5:28 p.m.
Filed under:
IPOs,
Media,
Stock activity,
TV
By Reuters
Nielsen Holdings, the consumer measurement firm known for its dominance in TV ratings, priced shares in its initial public offering above the expected range Tuesday.
Nielsen sold 71.4 million shares for $23 each, raising about $1.6 billion, an underwriter said. The company sold $250 million worth of mandatory convertible subordinated bonds alongside the IPO. Get the full story »
