The shares of online travel agencies Orbitz and Expedia fell on Monday after Expedia dropped American Airlines tickets from its offerings.
Expedia called its weekend action a response to the airline’s new “anti-consumer” and “anti-choice” commercial strategy.
Expedia shares fell 3 percent to $24.32 in midmorning trading while Orbitz shares slid 0.7 percent to $5.55. Get the full story »
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission needs to consider a “Plan B” on how it will police the $600 trillion swaps market if Congress fails to deliver a 50 percent increase in its budget, one of its top officials said Monday. Get the full story »
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway opened 2011 with a $1.5 billion debt sale on Monday, tapping markets as it customarily does early in the year to refinance maturing notes. Get the full story »
From Crain’s Chicago Business | The Chicago Sun-Times will leave stores and restaurants in Michigan’s Harbor Country and on the Wisconsin border without a Sunday edition, as part of its plan to stop delivering its Sunday paper to newsstands outside the six-county Chicago area and two counties in Indiana.
From The New York Times’ DealBook | India’s Ministry of Finance is investigating whether Kraft Foods evaded taxes in its $19 billion takeover of Cadbury last year.
Oak Brook-based Blistex Inc. said it has completed the acquisition of the Odor-Eaters line of foot care products from Combe Inc. The value of the deal was not disclosed. Get the full story »
From Bloomberg News | Chris Boas, Brad Kurtzman and Carl Mayer, senior executives at the investment banking unit of Chicago-based Citadel LLC, have left the firm. Get the full story>>
Microsoft Corp. said it has resolved a glitch that caused some Hotmail users to temporarily lose all of their e-mails. Get the full story »
Wheeling-based MMA Warehouse LLC, an online retailer of mixed martial arts gear, clothing and accessories, has sold a majority stake to PAG Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Get the full story »
From Bloomberg TV | The executive director of the Illinois State Board of Investments, which manages about one-fifth of Illinois’ pension funds, told Bloomberg TV on Monday that Illinois will have to figure out how to fund pensions in 2012, and also discussed the possibility that Illinois lawmakers may approve a plan to sell $3.7 billion of bonds to fund the state’s pension contributions.
Chicago-based Nuveen Investments, which serves the wealthy and institutions, has completed its acquisition of U.S. Bancorp’s FAF Advisors.
The deal, announced in July, called for U.S. Bancorp to get a 9.5 percent stake in Nuveen as well as an $80 million cash payment.
Nuveen is a portfolio company of Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm. Get the full story »
Discount-store operator Dollar General Corp. said Monday it plans to open 625 new stores and hire more than 6,000 workers in 2011.
Urban Partnership Bank, the successor to failed ShoreBank, is telling customers that on March 17 it will close its branches at 4659 S. Cottage Grove in the Kenwood neighborhood of Chicago and at 3401 S. King Drive in the Bronzeville area of the city.
“With current market conditions making expansion less expensive and real estate more available, we have decided to explore new retail branch locations to better serve our customers,” Urban Partnership said in a letter to customers obtained by the Chicago Tribune.
Urban Partnership said in the letter that it’s “actively seeking new locations” in Chicago and in Cleveland, where it is also closing a branch, “that will be accessible with the latest technologies” and more convenient. Get the full story »
