Business category, Page 109
MyPillow auctions equipment after retailers pull its products
MyPillow is auctioning off hundreds of pieces of equipment and subleasing manufacturing space after several shopping networks and major retailers took the company’s products off shelves. The Minnesota-based manufacturer recently listed more than 850 “surplus equipment” items on the online auction site K-Bid. Sewing machines, industrial fabric spreaders, forklifts and...
Microsoft can move ahead with $69B acquisition of Activision Blizzard, judge rules
A federal judge has handed Microsoft a major victory by declining to block its looming $69 billion takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard. Regulators are seeking to ax the deal because they say it will hurt competition. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said in a ruling that the...
Bank of America to pay more than $100M for doubling fees, opening accounts without customer consent
Bank of America must pay more than $100 million to customers for doubling up on some fees, withholding reward bonuses and opening accounts without customer consent. Bank of America will pay $90 million in penalties to its organization and $60 million in penalties to the OCC, the Consumer Financial Protection...
Be wary of scams as Amazon Prime Day kicks off, experts warn
NEW YORK — Amazon Prime Day is here. And, once again, experts are warning consumers of scams. Scams targeting online shoppers — often by impersonating companies like Amazon and other major retailers — are nothing new. But phishing attempts increase amid busy spending seen during significant sales events — from...
Threats of a strike heating up even before UAW begins negotiations with automakers
DETROIT — Whenever the United Auto Workers union begins negotiating a new contract with Detroit’s three automakers, threats of a strike are typically heard on the floor of the old Chrysler transmission plant in Kokomo, Indiana. This year, the talk is a little louder. Besides the usual haggling over wages,...
Amazon Prime Day isn’t the catalyst it used to be
Amazon.com Inc.’s annual Prime Day shows that e-commerce isn’t the driver it once was for the stock, as investor focus shifts to the company’s faster-growing and profitable cloud-computing unit. In the past four years, the stock has fallen in the week of the two-day sale in which the retail giant...
Developer gets OK to tear down Pittsburgh garage where Rolling Rock beer was first sold
Pittsburgh’s Historic Review Commission has approved a plan to preserve an Uptown house once owned by a bootlegger who became the owner of Latrobe Brewing Co., but not a garage that served as the company’s first Pittsburgh beer distributor. Dallas-based Fountain Residential Partners is acquiring the Uptown property that includes...
What is Threads? All your questions about Meta’s new Twitter rival, answeredVideo
NEW YORK — Threads, a text-based app built by Meta to rival Twitter, is live. The app, billed as the text version of Meta’s photo-sharing platform Instagram, became available Wednesday night to users in more than 100 countries — including the U.S., Britain, Australia, Canada and Japan. Despite some early...
TikTok, 5 content creators ask federal judge to block Montana from banning appVideo
TikTok Inc. and a group of five content creators who are suing the state of Montana over its first-in-the-nation law to ban the video sharing app are now asking a federal judge to block implementation of the law while the case moves through the courts and before it takes effect...
Walnut Capital looks to expand Bakery Square, support affordable housing in Pittsburgh’s East End
Walnut Capital is looking to nearly double the size of its Bakery Square development in Pittsburgh’s East End. The Bakery Square office and commercial development opened in 2009, expanded to include housing and now sits on 20 acres in Larimer and Shadyside. Walnut Capital is looking to expand the specially...
No more free coffee on your birthday? Companies rein in customer rewards programs — here’s why
WASHINGTON — Reward programs, including birthday freebies and discounts, have long been a way for brands to build loyalty and incentivize spending. But now some companies are becoming a bit more stingy — and customers are taking notice. Last fall, for example, many balked at Dunkin’s decision to stop offering...
Powerball jackpot rises to $590 million
The Powerball jackpot has increased to $590 million for this Saturday’s drawing. It has a cash value of $304.8 million. The jackpot rose from $557 million after no one matched all six numbers during Wednesday’s drawing. The last Powerball jackpot was won by an Auburn, Wash., resident on March 3...
U.S. job openings dip to 9.8 million but remain high, showing resilience in labor market
WASHINGTON — U.S. job openings slipped in May but remained at levels high enough to illustrate that the American labor market remains resilient in the face of sharply higher interest rates. Employers posted 9.8 million job vacancies, down from 10.3 million in April, the Labor Department said Thursday. But layoffs...
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visits China as part of efforts to soothe strained relations
BEIJING — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to tell Chinese officials that Washington wants healthy economic competition but will defend trade curbs imposed by the U.S. on security grounds and express concern about Beijing’s export controls on metals used in semiconductors and solar panels, a senior Treasury official said Thursday....
Meta’s new Twitter rival app Threads gets tens of millions of sign-ups in its first dayVideo
Tens of millions of people have quickly signed up to Meta’s new app, Threads, as it aims to compete with Twitter — a sign that users are looking for an alternative to the social media platform that has undergone a series of unpopular changes since Elon Musk bought it. Meta...
Strong demand drives U.S. new vehicle sales higher in 1st half of year
Demand for new SUVs, trucks and cars in the U.S. picked up steam in the second quarter, but the stronger sales kept prices high for consumers. Auto sales rose a healthy 16.8% from April through June to just over 4.1 million, fueled by pent-up demand from nearly two years of...
Judge fines Century III Mall owners more than $240K over conditions at West Mifflin site
A judge hit the owners of the shuttered Century III Mall with a hefty fine Wednesday in response to the dilapidated condition of West Mifflin’s once-mighty shopping center. During a brief hearing Wednesday, District Judge Richard D. Olasz Jr. fined Century III Mall Pa. LLC and Moonbeam Capital Investments just...
Stalemate: UPS, Teamsters contract talks break down with each side blaming the other
Contract negotiations between UPS and the union representing 340,000 of the company’s workers broke down early Wednesday with each side blaming the other for walking away from talks. The Teamsters have imposed several deadlines for United Parcel Service negotiators to make their “last, best and final” offer to its unionized...
Meta takes aim at Twitter with the launch of rival app Threads
LONDON — Meta unveiled an app to rival Twitter on Thursday, appearing to target users looking for an alternative to the social media platform owned — and frequently changed — by Elon Musk. Called Threads, the new offering is billed as a text-based version of Meta’s photo-sharing app Instagram that...
Retailers, beware: Resumption of student loan payments could lead some buyers to pull back
WASHINGTON — The reprieve is over. Just as the American economy is struggling with high inflation and interest rates, the coming resumption of student loan payments poses yet another potential challenge. The suspension of federal student loan payments, which took effect at the height of the pandemic in 2020, expires...
Price of a stamp rises to 66 cents, the second hike this year and the 5th increase since 2019
NEW YORK — Stamps prices are on the rise, again — one of several changes the U.S. Postal Service is rolling out this month. Starting Sunday, the cost of the first-class “forever” stamps will jump from 63 to 66 cents. The latest price comes just months after forever stamps climbed...
North American trade pact on 3rd anniversary: Optimism rising for U.S., Mexican workers
WASHINGTON — To President Donald Trump, America’s trade relationship with Mexico was intolerable. He seethed over the U.S. trade deficit and the shuttered factories in America’s heartland. “No longer,” he vowed six years ago, “are we going to allow other countries to break the rules, to steal our jobs and...
Saudi Arabia, Russia cut oil supply again in bid to boost prices
LONDON — Saudi Arabia and Russia are extending cuts to the amount of oil they pump to the world in a bid to prop up prices, showing how two of the world’s largest oil producers are scrambling to boost income from the fossil fuel even as demand has weakened with...
John Dorfman: Civitas, Mueller can boast high profit, low debt
Two of the badges of corporate success are high profits and low debt. Today, I draw your attention to five stocks that excel in both regards. Each has a return on stockholders’ equity of 20% or better. On this measure of profitability, I consider 10% decent and 15% good. Each...
Elon Musk imposes daily limits on reading posts on Twitter
SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter owner Elon Musk has limited the number of tweets that users can view each day — restrictions he described as an attempt to prevent unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data from the social media platform. The site is now requiring people to log on to view...
