The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange says it has agreed to combine with the operator of the Frankfurt stock exchange, Deutsche Boerse.
The deal announced Tuesday will create the world’s largest financial exchange owner. Deutsche Boerse shareholders will own 60 percent of the new company. Shareholders of NYSE Euronext Inc. will own the rest. Get the full story »
Employees at a Home Depot in Evanston. (Tribune photo)
Home Depot will be hiring 2,000 seasonal workers in the Chicago area in advance of what the Atlanta-based retailer calls its “Spring Black Friday.”
Home Depot has about 60 stores in Chicago and the suburbs. The addition of the seasonal workers will help free up regular store associates to wait on customers, but the seasonal employees will be trained on customer service, basic product knowledge and where to find items in the store.
The 2,000 seasonal workers in Chicago are part of the retailer’s plans to hire more than 60,000 such employees nationwide for spring, which is the busiest time for the home improvement industry. Get the full story »
CB Richard Ellis Group is buying most of Dutch bank ING’s Real Estate Investment Management for about $1 billion to diversify its client base, a deal which would help ING pay down state aid. Get the full story »
CME Group's offices at 30 S. Wacker Drive in Chicago, Feb 14, 2011. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)
CME Group Inc. said it remains committed to “organic growth” in derivatives trade, following speculation that the Chicago company may launch a rival bid for NYSE Euronext.
CME, one of the world’s largest operators of futures and options markets, was reported Monday to be exploring a possible offer for the Big Board parent, which is in advanced merger talks with Germany’s Deutsche Börse AG, with Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. as a potential partner in such a deal.
NYSE Euronext owns the NYSE Liffe derivatives market, which is strong in Europe. Get the full story »
Prepaid wireless carrier Cricket Communications Inc. has expanded its new over-the-air music downloading service to Chicago and 12 other markets, offering unlimited downloads as part of a $55 monthly plan.
The company, which is owned by San Diego, Calif.-based Leap Wireless International, Inc., launched its Muve Music service in Las Vegas last month. Cricket said its service includes the entire catalogs from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music, as well as music from independent label IODA. Get the full story »
Three Laws Mobility Inc., a mobile software firm that was just acquired by Libertyville-based Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., has partnered with a number of mobile phone manufacturers to launch a new Android-based platform for enterprise users.
Motorola Mobility just announced its acquisition of Mountainview, Calif.-based 3LM on Monday. The startup, which specializes in Android-based software and products for business users, is operating as its own business unit within Motorola. Get the full story »
Chicago printing services company R. R. Donnelley said Tuesday that it would team up with mail-order retail giant L.L. Bean to produce a full line of catalogs.
The catalogs include L.L. Bean’s Outdoors/Sporting and Home titles and produce package inserts that ship with ordered products. Get the full story »
The House Budget Committee chairman says Republicans don’t want to see the government shut down in a fight with President Barack Obama over spending priorities.
Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan also tells ABC’s “Good Morning America” the GOP doesn’t want to “rubber stamp” spending policies it opposes just to keep the government running. Get the full story »
Beef cuts on display at a supermarket in New York in January. (Emanual Dunand/AFP/Getty Images)
With more Americans tightening their belts, demand for cheaper cuts of U.S. beef has actually pushed the price of select-grade beef higher than the generally more expensive choice cuts.
For the first time in nearly two years, select-grade beef prices are above those for better-quality choice grade, according to U.S. government data.
The data showed that demand for select has grown while supplies have declined. Get the full story »
From Bloomberg News | Activist investor Carl Icahn is loading up on shares of Clorox, his most recent investment, after the shares of some of his other investments have declined in value. According to Bloomberg data, Motorola Inc. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. are worth less now than when Icahn’s stakes in the companies were first disclosed.
CME Group Inc., the biggest U.S. futures exchange operator, said on Monday that 10 top swaps dealers signed up to be founding members of CME’s interest-rate swaps clearing service.
The firms that signed a non-binding term sheet for the service were BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank Securities Inc, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and UBS, CME said. It provided no details on terms of the agreement. Get the full story »
Cook County is cutting 138 nursing jobs at two hospitals in a process that began today. Nurses union leader Leslie Curtis says nurses are calling it the “Valentine’s Day massacre.”
Cook County Health and Hospitals System spokesman Lucio Guerrero says the jobs are being eliminated at Oak Forest Hospital in the south suburbs and Provident Hospital on the city’s South Side.
Online travel agencies remain a big hit with shoppers, new survey data show, but the sites’ popularity could fade if contract battles with airlines leave them with fewer airfares to lure bargain-chasing consumers, researchers warned.
With airfares soaring and the economy stuck in the doldrums, consumers continue to flock to travel sites to plot dream vacations and research deals and steals, a market that’s expected to total $104.6 billion in 2011, according to market research firm PhoCusWright Inc. Get the full story »
Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to announce during his budget address Wednesday the creation of an innovation council to be headed by Groupon co-founder Brad Keywell.
Part of the council’s job will be to determine what kind of projects the state needs to support to be able to compete in the global market place, such as developing new technologies in agriculture, finance or in a combination of industries. Get the full story »
AFP | Google Inc. on Monday gave users of its Chrome Web browser the ability to block search results from low-quality Web sites known as content farms.
Google’s principal engineer, Matt Cutts, said Chrome users can download and install an extension for Chrome that blocks sites which provide “shallow or low-quality content” from their search results. Get the full story »
