Canada insisted on Tuesday it has made no decision yet on BHP’s $39 billion offer for Potash Corp., even as two newspapers said bureaucrats were advising the government to allow the bid and rumors swirled in the markets that Ottawa would block it. Get the full story »
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Nov. 2, 2010 at 4:23 p.m.
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Filed under: Agriculture/Farming, International, M&A, Updated Canada insists no decision yet on BHP’s Potash bid
ICE details staff cuts at Chicago Climate Exchange
Intercontinental Exchange Inc. is shedding some 40 employees from its U.S. environment bourse Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) by the end of the year, with further cuts in 2011, ICE’s chief financial officer said. “We had about 66 people when we bought the company. I think we’ll be closer to 25 by the end of the year. And then we’ll reduce further into the first quarter,” Scott Hill told a conference call following a company earnings update this week.
The futures exchange group reported a stronger-than-expected 15 percent rise in quarterly profit on Monday.
Industry sources told Reuters in August that ICE had started to make layoffs at CCX in July due to the lack of U.S. action on climate change. Get the full story »
Nov. 1, 2010 at 4:53 p.m.
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Filed under: Computers, Government, Software, Telecommunications, Updated Google sues Interior Dept. for favoring Microsoft
Google is suing the U.S. government for excluding its products from being considered for a five-year contract worth about $59 million to upgrade the Department of the Interior’s email system.
In a complaint filed on Friday, Google said the government abused its discretion and acted in a manner that was “arbitrary and capricious” by only considering sales proposals with email technology based on Microsoft Corp technology. Get the full story »
Online retail sales jump 9 percent in third quarter
Online retail sales rose a solid 9 percent in the third quarter, a healthy sign for Web merchants as they enter the holiday season.
Online retail spending rose 9 percent to $32.1 billion for the three months ended in September, compared to the same period a year ago, according to a comScore Inc. report released Monday. It is the fourth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth, after a year of flat or declining sales, said the Chicago-based digital research firm. Get the full story »
BIO to return to Chicago in 2013 and 2016
Mayor Richard M. Daley and Governor Pat Quinn open the Bio International Convention at McCormick Place on May 4, 2010. (Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune)
The Biotechnology Industry Organization said its international convention will return to Chicago’s McCormick Place in 2013 and 2016.
“Chicago has hosted two successful and exciting BIO International Conventions, in 2006 and 2010, and we are thrilled to bring the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry back to the windy city and the Midwest,” said Jim Greenwood, chief executive officer of the BIO International Convention.
The convention attracts more than 15,000 people from the agricultural, pharmaceutical and medical device industries as well as government leaders from around the world. Get the full story »
Apple sues Motorola over smartphone software
Apple Inc. sued Motorola Inc., alleging that the company’s smartphone lineup and the operating software it uses infringe on the iPhone-maker’s intellectual property.
The two lawsuits came after Motorola sued Apple in October for patent infringement and were the latest skirmish in a long-running series of disputes in the fiercely competitive smartphone industry. Get the full story »
Oct. 29, 2010 at 2:57 p.m.
Filed under: Associations/Clubs, Commercial real estate, Construction, Food, Real estate, Restaurants, Updated Daley urged to halt fast food restaurant construction
A group that lobbies against fast food and meat consumption will ask Mayor Richard Daley to temporarily stop fast food restaurant construction.
In a Nov. 4 letter shared with the Tribune, a director of nutrition at The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine writes that fast food consumption leads to obesity and heart disease.
“This step is urgently needed because Chicago’s high-fat, meat-heavy diets are literally breaking hearts,” Susan Levin, the director of nutrition, writes. “A moratorium on new fast-food restaurants could be a critically important step toward fighting this epidemic.” Get the full story »
Oct. 28, 2010 at 5:04 p.m.
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Filed under: Consumer electronics, Earnings, Technology, Updated Motorola revenue up on strong smartphone sales
An app on the Motorola Droid X. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune)
Motorola Inc., reached a milestone Thursday as its mobile division reported an operating profit a quarter ahead of schedule, and the company said its smart-phone sales will near 14 million units for the year.
The company’s Mobile Devices unit reported operating earnings of $3 million on Thursday, versus a year-ago operating loss of $183 million. During the quarter, the company’s shipments of smart phones rose to 3.8 million and included 22 new products introduced this year.
Smart-phone shipments totaled 2.3 million units in the first quarter and 2.7 million in the second quarter. Analysts had expected ships to total about 3.7 million in the third quarter. The company said smart-phone sales will near the upper end of its previously announced guidance of between 12 million and 14 million units for the year. Get the full story »
Chrysler to pump $600M, new car into Belvidere
Chrysler Group LLC will invest $600 million in its Belvidere assembly plant to build new cars starting in 2012, the company announced Thursday.
The investment won’t create any new jobs, but the company said it will retain the 2,349 jobs at the plant and a nearby parts stamping plant. Get the full story »
Target shortchanges shoppers with certain coupons
Shoppers at a Target in Falls Church, Va., May 28, 2010. (Reuters)
By Gregory Karp | Target Corp., the mass merchandiser with about 1,750 stores nationwide, for months has been shortchanging its customers who use certain manufacturers’ coupons by crediting them for a fraction of their face value.
Target is calling it a computer glitch. Avid coupon users are calling it an outrage. Get the full story »
Playboy: ‘No plans’ to leave Chicago
Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Enterprises, said in an interview the company is “probably going” to move its headquarters out of Chicago.
A Playboy spokeswoman said Tuesday, however, that the company has “no plans” to move from Chicago.
Hefner, who is Playboy’s editor-in-chief and chief creative officer, was asked by Matt Pais of Chicago Tribune Media Group’s Metromix.com whether the offices will be moving out of Chicago, where Hefner launched his groundbreaking Playboy magazine and empire in 1953.
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Sox pitcher Buehrle on billboard for pet adoption
It may be off-season but White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle is headed back to billboards with a message for Chicago-area residents. Buehrle and his wife, Jamie, have partnered with Adopt-A-Pet.com to launch a local public service billboard and television campaign promoting the adoption of shelter pets. Get the full story »
Bernanke: Fed studying foreclosure practices
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, in a speech on foreclosures and housing finance, said he expects a broad federal banking and housing agency investigation into alleged improper foreclosures to conclude next month. And he lauded the Chicago Federal Reserve for its analysis of foreclosure problems at the community level.
ComEd petitions court to rehear case
Commonwealth Edison is asking the Second Appellate Court to rehear its case following a decision earlier this month that removed the funding mechanism ComEd was using to pay for a smart grid pilot program in the Chicago area.
The decision also overturned a precedent the Illinois Commerce Commission has used for years to determine how much consumers pay on utility bills, a change that would mean an annual revenue loss of tens of millions of dollars for ComEd’s parent, Exelon Corp. and possible rebates for consumers.
The court has not decided if or when it will rehear the case. Get the full story »
