Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.
Google Inc. on Wednesday unveiled a Android Market web store that lets consumers download applications through their Internet browser, a move that ratchets up the company’s rivalry with Apple Inc.’s popular App Store.
Users previously could access the more than 100,000 apps at Google’s Android Market only from their mobile devices. Get the full story »
Water treatment services company Nalco Holding Co. said it will continue to be hit by higher raw material prices in the first half of 2011.
Naperville, Illinois-based Nalco, which forecast weak earnings for 2011 on Tuesday, saw its shares fall 11 percent to $27.63 on Wednesday — their lowest in three months. Get the full story »
Shares of Hospira Inc. lost 7 percent of their value after the company said fourth-quarter profits fell nearly 40 percent, as the maker of drugs and devices works to improve product quality in the wake of regulatory issues.
Hospira had lower-than-anticipated fourth quarter sales because it has been unable to deliver products to customers fast enough due largely to “quality enhancement initiatives.” Get the full story »
U.S. private employers added more jobs than expected in January, the 12th consecutive month that companies took on staff, adding to hopes that the weak American labor market is slowly improving. Get the full story »
U.S. auto sales jumped about 18 percent in January, led by gains for General Motors Co. and Chrysler.
The stronger U.S. auto sales results pointed to a recovery in American consumer demand and a return of easier lending terms by banks, auto executives and analysts said, despite the threat of higher oil prices. Get the full story »
Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks will offer customers who don’t like Starbucks Via Ready Brew the option of replacing it with a 12-ounce bag of ground coffee.
Via, launched in 2009, was the first major entry into the U.S. instant coffee market in years. Though the coffee packets generated $135 million in sales in their first year, Starbucks is appealing to a wider audience with an offer: Try it. And if you don’t like it, we’ll replace it with regular coffee.
Starbucks announced the promotion Tuesday morning. It will run through August. In order to score free java, customers unhappy with their Via purchase can print out a form online and mail it in with their original receipt and UPC code. Requests must be postmarked by August 31. Get the full story »
U.S. agricultural processor and ethanol producer Archer Daniels Midland Co reported stronger-than-expected quarterly earnings on Tuesday as rising grain prices and robust global demand bolstered results, sending its shares up 6.3 percent in premarket trading.
For the fiscal second quarter ended Dec. 31, net profit was $732 million, or $1.14 per share, compared with $567 million, or 88 cents per share, a year earlier. Get the full story »
Union workers at Caterpillar Inc. voted by a 94 percent majority to stage a strike against the company should a new contract not be drawn up by March 1, when the existing agreement expires, Illinois’s Peoria Journal Star reported on its website Sunday.
The vote involved union members at seven locals in Illinois, Colorado, Tennessee and Pennsylvania, according to the report. Get the full story »
Google’s Android dethroned Nokia’s Symbian as the most popular smartphone platform in the last quarter of 2010, ending a reign that began with the birth of the industry 10 years ago.
Research firm Canalys said on Monday phonemakers sold 32.9 million Android-equipped phones in the last quarter, roughly seven times more than a year ago, compared with Symbian’s sales of 31 million.
The phones are produced by manufacturers that include Libertyville-based Motorola Mobility, Samsung and HTC. Get the full story »
A federal judge rejected Kraft Foods’ bid to force Starbucks Corp to keep using Kraft to distribute packaged coffee to supermarkets in North America and Europe, a decision that allows Starbucks to move ahead with a new partner.
In a ruling from the bench, U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel in White Plains, New York, on Friday also noted that Starbucks could end up owing Kraft “a boatload of money” if an arbitrator decided the coffee chain breached a 1998 agreement with Kraft. Get the full story »
Sara Lee desserts in a grocer's freezer. (AP)
Downers Grove-based food maker Sara Lee announced Friday that it will divide itself two publicly-traded companies. The plan, which has been approved by Sara Lee’s board, divides the company into North American and European divisions. One company will focus on North American grocery and supplying products to the restaurant industry, and the other on European coffee, tea and bread.
In a call with investors, Marcel Smits, the company’s newly-appointed CEO, acknowledged that Sara Lee had received “unsolicited interest” in buying the company. He said that after a rigorous review, the company’s board determined that splitting the company was in shareholders’ best interest, adding that the individual companies are likely to do better on their own.
Sara Lee will issue a $3 special dividend to shareholders as part of the split. Get the full story »
Jewel-Osco’s president for the past four years has announced plans to retire, and parent company Supervalu Inc. is sending an executive from its Eden Prairie, Minn., headquarters to replace him.
The change in leadership comes at a time when Supervalu is struggling to remain competitive against rivals like Wal-Mart, Target and even drugstore chains that have greatly expanded their selection of grocery items.
Keith Nielsen, who started working at Jewel more than 40 years ago as a grocery store clerk, will retire, effective Feb. 28. Succeeding him will be Brian Huff, currently senior vice president of specialty retail at Supervalu, who will join Itasca-based Jewel on Feb. 7. Get the full story »
(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs is taking medical leave for the second time in as many years, sending its shares tumbling close to 10 percent as the unexpected news revived concerns over the long-term future of the iPhone- and iPad-maker.
The news, which was disclosed early on a U.S. holiday when markets were closed, came nearly two years to the date after Jobs first took a six-month break to undergo a liver transplant.
“At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health,” Jobs, 55, wrote in an email to staff published on a regulatory newswire. “I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can.” Get the full story »
A former Swiss private banker handed over data on hundreds of offshore bank account holders to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Monday, saying he wanted to draw attention to financial abuses.
Rudolf Elmer, 55, headed the office of Julius Baer in the Cayman Islands until he was fired by the bank in 2002. He is scheduled to go on trial in Switzerland on Wednesday for breaching bank secrecy.
Swiss national Elmer handed Assange the data at a news conference at a media club in London. The two yellow and blue discs contain information on around 2,000 banking clients, both individuals and companies, he said, declining to reveal further details on the data. Get the full story »
Abbott Laboratories this morning said it will hold off seeking U.S. approval of an experimental psoriasis treatment following feedback from federal regulators who have concerns about the drug.
Abbott would not disclose exactly what the concerns of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are. The agency, however, has in recent years stepped up its scrutiny of the safety and efficacy of drugs and increasingly orders more study in clinical trials, particularly for safety risks to the heart.
The news hit the company’s stock. The price of Abbott’s shares lost 1 percent of their value or 49 cents, dipping to $46.88 in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Get the full story »
