U.S. farm income will jump nearly 20 percent this year, with soaring grain prices boosting farmer profits even as production costs climb, according to a government report.
Net farm income is expected to reach $94.7 billion this year, which would be the second-highest, inflation-adjusted total in 35 years, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Farm income includes all production regardless of when sales take place. Get the full story »
Sony Ericsson has unveiled its long-awaited PlayStation smart phone, taking video game console wars to cellphones.
Sony’s PlayStation, on the Sony Ericsson’s new Xperia Live phone, will take on Microsoft’s Xbox Live, available on Windows Phone 7. Get the full story »
General Motors Co. will pay more than $189 million in profit-sharing to 48,000 U.S. hourly workers and millions more in performance bonuses to salaried employees, according to a person briefed on the matter.
The company, less than two years out of bankruptcy protection, will pay most hourly workers more than $4,000 each as compensation for the company’s strong financial performance last year, the person said. The payments are more than double the previous record payment of $1,775 in 1999, the height of the boom in sales of sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks. Get the full story »
GiveForward, a Chicago-based startup that helps people raise money for out-of-pocket medical expenses, has raised $500,000 in its first round of funding.
Desiree Vargas Wrigley and Ethan Austin started GiveForward in 2008 and had looked for some funding at that time, but “what we kept hearing from investors is: ‘You should be a non-profit,’” Vargas Wrigley said. She and Austin funded the company themselves, with Vargas Wrigley waiting tables at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba in Lincoln Park in the meantime.
The GiveForward platform allows people to create personalized fundraising pages and share their cause through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. GiveForward collects the donations, which can be done through credit or debit cards, and passes them along to the beneficiary after deducting 7 percent for processing fees. The company said its users have raised $3.5 million since the company’s inception and about 10,000 users have joined the site, with almost half of them signing up in the last six months. Get the full story »
Shoppers on Chicago's Michigan Avenue in December of 2010. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)
Clothing prices are expected to rise about 10 percent in coming months, with the biggest increases coming in the second half of the year, said Burt Flickinger III, president of Strategic Resource Group.
Clothing prices have dropped for a decade as tame inflation and cheap overseas labor helped hold down costs. Retailers and clothing makers cut frills and experimented with fabric blends to cut prices during the recession.
But as the world economy recovers and demand for goods rises, a surge in labor and raw materials costs is squeezing retailers and manufacturers who have run out of ways to pare costs. Get the full story »
JPMorgan is planning on starting a fund of between $500 million and $750 million to invest in internet and digital media companies, the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday.
The paper said that marketing materials were sent to prospective investors about two weeks ago.
The reported move comes as interest in social networking sites is increasing. Investor interest and valuations are surging for privately-held Web companies like Facebook, Zynga and Groupon. Get the full story »
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. has acquired a Mountainview, Calif.-based company that makes the Android mobile operating system secure for business environments.
The acquisition will help Motorola sell more Android smart phones to business customers, a realm traditionally dominated by Research In Motion’s BlackBerry. Three Laws Mobility Inc., or 3LM, is a developer of security software and other products for Android. Get the full story »
Nokia CEO Stephen Elop is under pressure to justify a decision to ditch the company’s smart-phone software in favor of Microsoft’s, his former employer.
Nokia Corp., the world’s largest maker of phones, announced the alliance with Microsoft Corp. Friday. In a show of displeasure, Finnish employees used flex time to go home early. Get the full story »
Roses for sale on FTD's Web site. (Screenshot)
Chicago-based online coupon site Groupon.com and Downers Grove-based flower company FTD Group Inc. are offering refunds after getting complaints that a Valentine’s Day flower deal wasn’t so sweet.
Both companies said they didn’t do anything wrong, but they responded to Internet complaints that FTD inflated prices for some Groupon customers who used a coupon for $20 off an FTD flower purchase of $40 or more.
The problem surfaced when several Groupon customers found the flowers they bought were priced lower as sale items on FTD’s own website. They complained on the Groupon site and the Internet that FTD was making up for the Groupon discount by jacking up the prices. Get the full story »
From Bloomberg News | Chicago-based firm Citadel LLC has hired the CEO of New York-based bond broker Chapdelaine & Co. and plans to add about 30 employees from Chapdelaine’s defunct credit unit.
Earnings: MGM Resorts International, Marriott International Inc., Masco Corp.
(Tim Boyle/Bloomberg)
Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd. may knock on the doors of the tech-heavy Nasdaq or Chicago’s CBOE as the world’s most valuable stock exchange operator eyes a partner amid a frenzy of merger activity engulfing the sector.
Despite their geographical proximity, political, economic and organizational challenges make any potential marriage between the HKEx and the Shanghai or Shenzhen stock exchanges difficult.
“If I am the Hong Kong exchange, I would be trying to approach the bigger U.S. stock exchanges like Nasdaq right now,” said Ronald Wan, managing director of the Hong Kong unit of China Merchants Securities. Get the full story »
A day after Groupon offered $20 off of $40 worth of flowers and gifts from FTD, users are calling the deal a scam.
The coupon, which nearly 3,300 people bought, directed buyers to a special FTD website — FTD.com/groupon — to take advantage of the offer. The problem, users said, was that prices were higher than on the regular website, effectively diminishing the value of the deal. Get the full story »
Attorney General Lisa Madigan said today that she is “strenuously opposed” to state legislation introduced this week that would determine utility rates by formula, joining a strong opposition group that includes AARP Illinois, Citizens Utility Board and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Commonwealth Edison — which is behind the bill — and other state utilities would be able to lock in profit margins above 10 percent under the proposal. The legislation also proposes that rate hikes for consumers, which typically undergo an 11-month regulatory review, could be decided in as little as 45 days. Get the full story »
