(Tribune File Photo)
Fortune Brands Inc. expects its golf business to attract a special kind of bidder in addition to the usual suspects — rich people who like playing the game.
The company announced plans late last year to sell or spin off its golf business, which makes Titleist golf equipment, and spin off its home products business, which makes Simonton windows and Moen faucets, amid pressure from activist investor William Ackman. Get the full story »
Nuclear generators’ shares are falling on concerns they will face greater scrutiny and new regulations as Japanese utilities try to prevent meltdown at a number of reactors.
Exelon, the largest U.S. nuclear operator, is down 2.9 percent, to $41.91, in early afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. PSEG is down 3.2 percent, to $3.36, and Entergy has dropped 5.6 percent, to $69.58. Get the full story »
Japan’s devastating earthquake and tsunami may accelerate the point at which investors potentially lose confidence in the country’s finances, Moody’s Investors Service said on Monday. Get the full story »
General Electric Co. paid Jeffrey Immelt a $4 million cash bonus in 2010, after two years when the chief executive of the largest U.S. conglomerate declined a payout in the face of sliding profits. Get the full story »
Eddy Hartenstein in 2008. (Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times)
The publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times says it’s important that the Tribune Co. emerge from bankruptcy protection as soon as possible.
Eddy Hartenstein, also a co-president of Tribune Co., testified Monday that the cloud of bankruptcy is hurting Tribune’s ability to keep and attract employees and to forge partnerships to help it compete in the rapidly-changing media industry.
Hartenstein was the final Tribune witness in a hearing to determine whether a Delaware judge will approve the company’s reorganization plan. Noteholders who have submitted their own plan will present their case later. Get the full story »
Interconnection-services provider Neutral Tandem Inc. misses fourth quarter estimates on higher expenses, delivering a blow to its stock Monday.
Shares were down 18 percent in late afternoon trading, to $13.86. Get the full story »
(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Use of menthol cigarettes is rising among teenagers and “very high” for minority youth, U.S. government advisers said in part of a draft report released Monday.
More than 80 percent of black adolescent smokers and more than half of Hispanic adolescent smokers use menthol cigarettes, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration said in a draft chapter for a report due next week. The FDA will use the report to help decide whether to ban or limit menthol cigarettes. Get the full story »
Crain’s Chicago Business | Frederick Waddell, chairman and chief executive of Northern Trust Co., received $12.8 million in total compensation last year, according a proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The 8 percent increase, attributed largely to pension contributions, comes as the bank’s performance lagged that of its peers.
(Handout)
Prices for U.S. prescription drugs rose at a faster rate than costs for other medical goods and services in the last four years, according to a new U.S. government report.
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office found that the “usual and customary” price index for the top 100 commonly used drugs rose an annual average of 6.6 percent from 2006 through the first quarter of 2010, compared with a 3.8 percent average annual increase in the consumer price index for medical goods and services. Get the full story »
Dr Pepper’s 10-calorie soft drink may debut across the United States by the end of the year due to blockbuster reception in six test cities, the head of Dr Pepper Snapple Group said Monday.
“It’s just blowing our projections away,” Chief Executive Larry Young told the Reuters Global Food & Agriculture Summit. Sales to repeat customers are “stronger than Dr Pepper Cherry when we launched it.” Get the full story »
A Boeing 787 Dreamliner. (Reuters/Anthony Bolante)
If Boeing Co.’s Japanese suppliers for the 787 Dreamliner are disrupted by more than several weeks, the company could face new production issues for the long-delayed aircraft, the head of Boeing Commercial Airplanes said Monday.
“We have a little bit of stock, but not much. I think if we go longer than several weeks, we’ll have issues,” Jim Albaugh told CNBC business television. Get the full story »
Bill and Giuliana Rancic in their Hinsdale home. (Photo for the Tribune by Nathan Kirkman)
Elite Street | By Bob Goldsborough | Reality TV star Bill Rancic, the Chicago entrepreneur, motivational speaker and real-estate developer who won the first season of Donald Trump’s reality show “The Apprentice,” has sold his five-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot mansion in Hinsdale in a private transaction for $4.6 million.
The sale easily is the most expensive one this year in Hinsdale. Get the full story »
Insurance stocks fell for a second day on Monday as experts estimated that the Japanese earthquake could cost the industry nearly $35 billion, making it one of the most expensive disasters ever.
The Stoxx 600 European Insurance Share Index was down 2 percent at midday Monday, underperforming the wider market, and extending a 1.7 percent drop on Friday. The U.S. S&P insurance index was down almost 1.6 percent at midday, also underperforming the wider market, which was down 1.2 percent. Get the full story »
Bloomberg News | A U.S. audit shows that Medicare spent some $3 million on Viagra and other erectile dysfunction drugs in 2007 and 2008. The purchases violate a 2005 ban on covering some drugs for the elderly.
