Business category, Page 269
‘Cyber Monday’ sales on track to hit record
“Cyber Monday” is still holding up as the biggest online shopping day of the year, even though the same deals have been available online for weeks and the name harks back to the days of dial-up modems. Shoppers are expected to spend a record $9.4 billion on purchases made on...
John Dorfman: Insiders buying at Matador, Berry Petroleum
Investors loathe energy stocks, which are down more than 40% since their peak in June 2014. A 2018 rebound proved to be a sucker rally. Two CEOs of small energy companies are defying the trend, buying their companies’ shares recently. Joseph Foran, the CEO of Matador Resources Co. (MTDR), spent...
Facebook tests tool to move photos to Google, other rivals
LONDON — Facebook started testing a tool on Monday that lets users move their images more easily to other online services, as it faces pressure from regulators to loosen its grip on data. The social network’s new tool will allow people to transfer their photos and videos directly to competing...
Trump to tariff steel and aluminum from Argentina and Brazil
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday accused Argentina and Brazil of hurting American farmers through currency manipulation and said he’ll slap tariffs on their steel and aluminum imports to retaliate. Trump also called on America’s central bank to take action to prevent other countries from devaluing their currencies. Both...
Merry Clickmas: Black Friday online sales hit record $7.4B
NEW YORK — This year’s Black Friday was the biggest ever for online sales, as fewer people hit the stores and shoppers rang up $7.4 billion in transactions from their phones, computers and tablets. That’s just behind the $7.9 billion haul of last year’s Cyber Monday, which holds the one-day...
Yinzer candy bars are back — with more Pittsburgh themes
Those sweet chocolate bars Canonsburg’s Sarris Candies produces year-round come wrapped in Yinzer themes for Christmas, as Yinzer Bars make a holiday return. A collection of milk chocolate candy bars, Yinzer Bars come from the somewhat twisted minds of the creators of Yinzer Greeting Cards. Pittsburgh comedian Jim Krenn, radio...
Black Friday kicks off scramble in a shorter shopping season
NEW YORK — Black Friday shoppers fought for parking spots and traveled cross-state to their favorite malls, kicking off a shortened shopping season that intensified the mad scramble between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The shopping season is the shortest since 2013 because Thanksgiving fell on the last Thursday in November —...
Facebook, Instagram go down on Thanksgiving morning
Facebook and Instagram went down for several hours Thursday morning. Service to both appeared to have been restored just before noon. As of noon, there was no word on the company’s Twitter feed as to what the issue might have been. According to Down Detector, the social media platforms’ blackout...
Papa John’s founder has 40 pizzas in 30 days, says pizzas are not good
Papa John’s founder John Schnatter, who was ousted as CEO in 2017, said the pizza and company are not the same. In an interview with WDRB-TV in Kentucky, Schnatter said the company he started in 1984 has declined since he was pushed out. “I’ve had over 40 pizzas in the...
Ad business a boon for Amazon but a turn-off for shoppers
NEW YORK — Mike Maddaloni went to Amazon.com knowing exactly what he wanted to buy. But instead of showing him the Synology router he was searching for at the top of his results, Amazon bombarded him with ads for hard drives and routers that he didn’t want. Maddaloni, a web...
McDonald’s agrees to $26M settlement with California workers
LOS ANGELES — McDonald’s has agreed to a $26 million settlement of a long-running class-action lawsuit over wages and work conditions at corporate-run locations in California, the parties said Monday. The agreement, which estimates the settlement covers about 38,000 individuals, requires the approval of a Los Angeles County Superior Court...
EBay selling StubHub to viagogo for $4.05 billion
EBay is selling StubHub to ticket seller viagogo for $4.05 billion in cash. The transaction is part of a review that eBay undertook earlier this year following pressure from an activist investor. The San Jose, Calif.-based company then said it was also reviewing options for its classified ads business. EBay...
Charles Schwab buys TD Ameritrade in brokerage blockbusterVideo
NEW YORK — Charles Schwab is buying rival TD Ameritrade in a $26 billion stock swap, a blockbuster agreement accelerated by massive disruption in the online brokerage industry. Competitive pressure has already forced brokerages to make it free for customers to trade U.S. stocks online, and Schwab’s buyout combines two...
Uber loses license in London over safety, vows to appealVideo
LONDON — London’s transit authority on Monday refused to renew Uber’s license to operate, putting the ride-hailing company’s future in the British capital in doubt. It’s the latest chapter in Uber’s rocky history with London transport officials, who have been subjecting the San Francisco-based company to ever tighter scrutiny over...
Tesla edges into pickup truck market with electric modelVideo
Tesla is aiming for the heart of the auto industry’s profit machine with its own version of the heavy pickup truck. Rolling onstage before a wall of lasers and flame at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the introduction of Tesla’s sharp-angled, stainless-steel “cybertruck” was not a quiet one. Nor was...
WeWork cuts nearly 20% of workforce in restructuring effort
NEW YORK — WeWork is slashing nearly 20% of its workforce, embarking on a painful restructuring of its money-losing operation that doomed its stock market debut and left the office-sharing company on the brink of bankruptcy. WeWork said it has laid off 2,400 of its approximately 12,500 employees to “create...
U.S. home sales rose 1.9% in October, lifted by lower rates
WASHINGTON — Americans took advantage of lower mortgage rates and purchased more homes in October, though sales were held back by a shortage of available properties. The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that sales of existing homes rose 1.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.46...
GM sues Fiat Chrysler over union bribes
DETROIT — General Motors is suing Fiat Chrysler, alleging that its crosstown rival got an unfair business advantage by bribing officials of the United Auto Workers union. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleges that FCA was involved in racketeering by paying millions in bribes to...
New Belgium Brewing sold to international beverage company
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — The Colorado brewery responsible for making Fat Tire beer, among many others, is being sold to an international beverage company after nearly 30 years in business, officials said. New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins is being sold to Lion Little World Beverages, The Coloradoan reports....
Nerf gun, Power Rangers claw among latest unsafe toys, watchdog says
BOSTON — A Nerf dart gun, ice cream-scented Nickelodeon slime and a plastic Power Rangers claw are among the toys topping a consumer safety group’s list of worst toys for the holidays. World Against Toys Causing Harm unveiled its annual list Tuesday at a Boston children’s hospital. A realistic toy...
GateHouse, Gannett join, become largest U.S. newspaper chain
NEW YORK — GateHouse has closed its $1.1 billion takeover of Gannett, promising a $300 million cut in annual costs as it becomes the country’s largest newspaper company by far at a time when print publications are in precipitous decline. The new company keeps the Gannett name and brings about...
These stocks could bounce high in January and beyond
Energy stocks, and to a lesser extent bank stocks, have been the market’s whipping boys in 2019. Now they are being punished anew, as investors sell shares to establish tax losses. In the fall frenzy of tax-loss selling, certain stocks are often pushed below their intrinsic value, and that is...
Chick-fil-A no longer funding Salvation Army, Fellowship of Christian Athletes
Atlanta-based Chick-Fil-A has stopped donating to The Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, two organizations that have come under fire from LGBTQ activists. The company told the Thomson Reuters Foundation it has stopped donating to the organizations on Monday, according to CNBC. “We made multiyear commitments to both...
This is what the trade war looks like in bourbon country
ATLANTA — After Europe retaliated with tariffs on Kentucky bourbon in response to President Donald Trump’s trade war, the James E. Pepper distillery in Lexington so far this year has suffered a more than 20% sales decline internationally. “We’re collateral damage,” said Amir Peay, the 42-year-old owner. While tensions may...
HP rejects takeover offer from Xerox
HP Inc. says its board has rejected a roughly $33.5 billion takeover offer from Xerox. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company said Sunday that the cash and stock deal undervalues its business and its board cited concerns about “outsized” debt levels should the companies combine. HP, which makes computers and printers,...
