Deerfield Capital Corp. said it will buy private credit asset-management company Commercial Industrial Finance Corp. for about $53 million in cash and stock.
Following the completion of the merger, CIFC Chief Executive Peter Gleysteen will become chief executive of the combined company, while Deerfield Chief Executive Jonathan Trutter will become a vice chairman. The new company will have its headquarters in New York and its main operations in Chicago. Get the full story »
Tishman Speyer Properties’ purchase of a new Chicago office tower is the latest sign that the firm is going back to the basics as it emerges from one of the most devastating commercial real-estate cycles in decades.
Its purchase of 353 N. Clark St. for $385 million, an estimated $55 million less than it cost to build, also exposes the fault lines as well as the opportunities for investors and owners as the market recovers. Get the full story »
U.S. economic growth was a touch higher than previously estimated in the third quarter, but below expectations as a rise in the pace of inventory accumulation was offset by downward revisions to consumer spending, a government report showed on Wednesday.
Gross domestic product growth was revised up to an annualized rate of 2.6 percent from 2.5 percent, the Commerce Department said. Get the full story »
Amid a tough economy, Walgreens first-quarter profits jumped nearly 19 percent in its first quarter thanks to intensifying cost controls such as slowing store expansions. The results, which beat analysts’ expectations, come even as the Deerfield-based drugstore giant’s sales at stores open at least a year grew less than one percent in the period ended Nov. 30. Get the full story »
A Snuggie pub crawl in Chicago. (Chicago Now)
The line has expanded to include dog Snuggies. (Snuggie)
New York Times News Service | Consumers purchased about 4 million Snuggies during the 2008 holiday season and, typically, a success story for a kitschy infomercial product would end there. But not so for the blanket with arms, which, from a marketing perspective, turns out to have legs as well.
By the end of 2010, maker Allstar Products Group will have sold 25 million blankets, the equivalent of one for about every 12 residents of the United States, and Scott Boilen, president of Allstar Products, which is based in Hawthorne, N.Y., says there is no indication that sales are waning. Get the full story »
Boeing Co. said on Wednesday that it will soon announce the resumption of test flights for its 787 Dreamliner plane, which have been halted since last month due to technical problems. “Probably the next announcement from Boeing would be an announcement of a return to flight tests. We expect that announcement very soon,” Boeing Japan President Mike Denton told reporters. Get the full story »
New York Times News Service | This holiday season, Sears and Kmart, which merged in 2005, are pushing a single message: Buy with layaway, buy with coupons, buy now and pay later, buy with loyalty rewards points — but please, just buy.
Five years after the merger, Sears Holdings is beleaguered, with sales markedly worse than its competitors’. The company’s revenue dropped more than 10 percent from 2005 through 2009, the most recent full fiscal year. In the same time period, Wal-Mart’s sales rose almost 31 percent, Target’s more than 24 percent and Macy’s about 5 percent. Sales at J.C. Penney declined by about 6 percent. Get the full story »
Navistar International Corp. reported lower quarterly earnings Wednesday, pulled down by employee termination costs from its new union contract. Get the full story »
Fast growing Korean manufacturer Hyundai Motor and its Kia Motors affiliate shared the top spot for crash safety in a broad review of 2011 models. (See the full list)
Volkswagen and its luxury Audi brand also were among the 66 passenger cars and sport utilities garnering the highest ratings published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Get the full story »
Reports: Third quarter gross domestic product, 730 a.m.; Existing home sales for November, 9 a.m.
Earnings: Navistar, Walgreen Co.
Jimmy John’s has asked its franchises to pull alfalfa sprouts believed to be tied to outbreaks of salmonella in Illinois and Wisconsin.
The sandwich chain says it is pulling them as a “good faith and good will gesture.”
Illinois health officials have confirmed that 43 Illinois residents and one Wisconsin resident have salmonella. Get the full story »
The holidays are supposed to be a time of peace and goodwill toward others, but Consumer Reports is warning gift givers and recipients that crooks are on the lookout for packages left languishing on doorsteps.
“Brazen package snatchers have been known to shadow FedEx, UPS and U.S. Post Office trucks, swooping in to steal items if the homeowners are away or too slow to retrieve them,” Consumer Reports says. Get the full story »
Federal authorities on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against Kaplan Higher Education Corp. for allegedly discriminating against black job applicants by screening the credit history of potential employees.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the practice of rejecting job seekers based on their credit history has a discriminatory impact on some racial and ethnic groups. The lawsuit alleges that Kaplan’s practice is not job-related or justified by business necessity. Get the full story »
A trade panel that specializes in patent cases has agreed to hear the complaint of Motorola’s subsidiary Motorola Mobility against Microsoft, the panel said on Tuesday.
Motorola Mobility, which makes handsets and is being spun off by Motorola, has accused Microsoft of infringing its patents to make some Xbox video game consoles. Get the full story »
