From BusinessWeek | Moline-based Deere & Co., the world’s largest maker of agricultural equipment, was accused in an amended lawsuit of systematically discriminating against women seeking entry-level positions.
Starbucks and Peet’s in recent deal talks: Report
(Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune/MCT)
Peet’s Coffee & Tea recently held talks with Starbucks about a potential sale to the large coffee shop chain, CNBC reported, citing a DealReporter report.
Peet’s has a market value of $589 million based on the stock’s closing price of $46 on Tuesday, when it rose 9.4 percent. Starbucks is valued at over $26 billion. Get the full story »
Burcon expects interest from ADM
Burcon Nutrascience Corp. expects that its new partnership with Archer Daniels Midland Co. could eventually result in their marriage.
Burcon earlier this month signed a licensing deal with Archer Daniels for the production, distribution and sale of its Clarisoy soy protein, which can go into juices, soft drinks and sports drinks.
Although the deal does not give ADM a right or option to buy Burcon, Johann Tergesen, Burcon’s chief operating officer, said he assumes ADM would want to take it over down the road. Get the full story »
U.S. urged to probe auditors’ role in credit crisis
Audit firms that failed to flag risks ahead of the financial crisis have not been held to account and an in-depth investigation is needed, an advisory group to the U.S. auditor watchdog agency said on Wednesday. Get the full story »
Survey ranks Chicago-area natural gas companies below others in Midwest
Natural gas utilities for Northern Illinois and Chicago are making their business customers a little happier than last year, but they still rank below many others in the Midwest, according to a customer satisfaction study by J.D. Power and Associates.
Nicor Gas, which serves northern Illinois, rose 15 points on the index, and now ranks 13th among 21 Midwestern gas utilities. Peoples Gas, which serves Chicago, rose 3 points, but remained toward the bottom, landing at No. 20. Both came in below the Midwest average. Get the full story »
Motorola gives Sanjay Jha housing allowance
Sanjay Jha. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. has modified Chief Executive Sanjay Jha’s employment agreement to give him a monthly housing allowance instead of reimbursing him for his relocation from California to Illinois.
Jha, who was chief operating officer at San Diego, Calif.-based Qualcomm before taking the co-CEO position at Motorola Inc. in 2008, makes regular commutes from his West Coast home to the Chicago area. Motorola Mobility, which was split off from Motorola at the beginning of this year, is headquartered in Libertyville and has an office in San Diego. Get the full story »
Lufthansa to place $4B Airbus, Boeing order
German airline and logistics company Deutsche Lufthansa AG late Wednesday said its supervisory board had approved the order of 35 new aircraft from Airbus and Boeing Co. with a listing value of just under $4 billion.
Of the orders, 30 aircraft from Airbus’s A320neo family were ordered for Lufthansa’s passenger business. The other five orders are for Boeing 777 freighters for the company’s business segment. Get the full story »
Deerfield firm lands $15 million equity investment
Deerfield-based payroll services provider Celergo has raised $15 million from a North Carolina private equity firm.
Celergo, which caters to companies with operations in multiple countries, already operates in 97 countries and also has offices in London and Singapore. The financing from Charlotte-based Frontier Capital will help Celergo expand its sales, marketing and service delivery. Get the full story »
Wall St. ‘fear gauge’ jumps 30% on Japan crisis
The CBOE Volatility Index , Wall Street’s fear gauge, shot up nearly 30 percent Wednesday, its biggest daily percentage move since May, as major U.S. stock indexes turned negative for the year due to mounting concerns about Japan’s nuclear crisis.
The market fell for a third day Wednesday but investors grew overly concerned as the fear gauge rose above the psychologically significantly level of 30 for the first time since July. Get the full story »
Visa plans program to rival PayPal
Visa put out a news release Wednesday morning muddled with the usual financial jibberish: “Visa Moves Beyond the Point-of-Sale,” the headline read. But what Visa is proposing is a potential serious rival for PayPal.
Visa said it will soon allow people to send money to each other using Visa credit or debit cards or pre-paid accounts. So next time you need to pay the babysitter, the checkbook can stay in your wallet. Get the full story »
Glenview State Bank to hold shredding days
Glenview State Bank, a $1.1 billion-asset bank, will hold four free shredding days for the public to dispose of up to 25 pounds of cancelled checks and other documents that are no longer needed or wanted.
Drive-through service will be provided with three 12,000-pound-capacity industrial shredding trucks on site for the first event, from 9 a.m. to noon on April 9 at the bank’s main office at 800 Waukegan Rd., Glenview. Get the full story »
Princeton bank among 142 to skip Treasury payment
Nearly 150 U.S. banks, including Princeton National Bancorp, failed to pay a Feb. 15 dividend on bailout money borrowed from the U.S. Treasury. That’s up from the 123 that skipped their payouts in November.
The study by SNL Financial, tracker of banking industry data, showed that 142 U.S. lenders deferred the dividend payment due under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. Get the full story »
Apple shares continue slide after downgrade
Apple Inc. shares slid for a second straight day after a rare broker downgrade stoked worries that the company’s torrid pace of growth will slow.
Shares in the world’s largest technology company were down 4.4 percent to $330.08 in early afternoon trading, a loss in market value of about $10 billion. The shares fell 2.3 percent Tuesday. Get the full story »
March 16 at 1:22 p.m.
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Filed under: Corporate governance, Management, Pharmaceuticals, Recalls CEO of beleaguered J&J still got $29M in 2010
After a year in which Johnson & Johnson’s product quality control was deemed such a shambles that the U.S. government will oversee some plants, the board had praise for Chief Executive William Weldon and awarded him almost $29 million in overall compensation.
The once golden reputation of the diversified health care giant was tarnished by seemingly endless recalls of widely used consumer products as well as recalls of medical devices and products from other units in 2010. Get the full story »
Morningstar opens database to CPL members
Chicago-based Morningstar Inc. is opening its investment research database for free remote access by Chicago Public Library members.
Remote access means users can log into the Morningstar Investment Research Center from any computer using their Chicago Public Library credentials and do not need to create accounts at morningstar.com. Get the full story »
