TransUnion files for $325M IPO

TransUnion, the credit-rating agency owned by private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners and Chicago’s Pritzker family, plans sell up to $325...

White House: Geithner has not told Obama he wants to go

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has not told President Barack Obama he would like to leave after a debt ceiling deal is reached, White House...

Harris Bank parent completes M&I; acquisition

Toronto-based BMO Financial Group, the owner of Harris Bank, on Tuesday completed its acquisition of Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp.,...

Triland USA sells seats at CME-owned exchanges

Triland USA, a metals broker that in recent years expanded into clearing grains, currencies and other futures contracts, pulled out of the clearing...

Murdoch advertisers get nervous over hacking claims

Car maker Ford has suspended advertising in News of the World due to allegations of hacking by the newspaper, while lender Halifax joined a growing...

"Commy" message makes way onto Obama 2012 website

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A message inviting supporters of President Barack Obama to nonexistent events hosted by "Commy Obama" made its way onto the...

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  Attacks on websites spark demand for cyber-security experts

Verizon to get rid of unlimited data plans

Verizon Wireless, the biggest U.S. mobile provider, will stop offering customers unlimited data service plans on July 7, meaning higher prices for...

Inland Real Estate buys two shopping centers

The acquisition arm of the Oak Brook-based Inland Real Estate Group of Cos. said it has purchased shopping centers in Wisconsin and Arkansas for $48.3...

Bondholders challenge Bank of America's $8.5 billion mortgage pact

A group of bondholders plans to challenge Bank of America's $8.5 billion settlement with holders in soured mortgage-backed securities, saying it may...

Retailers seen posting healthy sales for June

U.S. retailers are expected to report healthy sales gains for June, as bargains brought in nervous shoppers, leaving some wondering whether too much...

Factory orders rebound in May

New orders received by U.S. factories bounced back in May, pointing to underlying strength in manufacturing as demand for transportation equipment and...

China reportedly eyeing big stake in pre-IPO Facebook

The Chinese government is looking into buying a stake in Facebook ahead of the social network's widely expected initial public stock offering in 2012.

Former Chrysler CEO buys $2.35M house in W. Lakeview

Former Chrysler chief executive Thomas W. LaSorda has paid $2.35 million for a four-bedroom, 6,000-square-foot house in the Southport Corridor area of...

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  Million-dollar homes for sale

Gift for N.Y. mayor one example of mind of Groupon's Mason

Michael Bloomberg was due to arrive any minute at the downtown-Chicago headquarters of the daily-deals Web site Groupon. Andrew Mason, the 30-year-old...

Carmakers warn new ethanol rules may void warranties

Automakers including Ford Motor Co., General Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. criticized an Environmental Protection Agency plan to allow gasoline...

Resurrection, Provena sign deal to merge

Two large Chicago area hospital operators said today they have signed a definitive agreement to merge into what would become the state's largest...

Consumer bankruptcies decrease in first half of 2011

Fewer Americans filed for bankruptcy in the first half of 2011 and in the month of June, signaling that the worst may be over.

Google, Microsoft sued over map technology

Google and Microsoft were sued for infringing a Louisiana company's patent with their map websites, which let users navigate street-level views of...

House eyes action on trade bills after setback

A key panel in the House of Representatives plans to start action this week on three long-delayed free trade agreements after a failed attempt last...

State Farm gets 4,600 storm-related claims in Chicago

State Farm said it has received about 4,000 automotive claims and 600 homeowners' claims due to the severe thunderstorms that pelted the Chicago...

SABMiller lifts Latin America beer target on economy boost

SABMiller, the world's No. 2 brewer and Anheuser-Busch InBev rival, raised its forecast on Tuesday for beer volume...

CME eyes Asia clearing house, international business

Chicago-based CME Group, the biggest U.S. futures exchange operator, is considering launching an Asian clearing operation in one of the region's...

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  CME Group volume rose 22% in June year-to-year

IMF gives Lagarde $550,000 pay package

Christine Lagarde, the incoming head of the International Monetary Fund, will receive over $550,000 a year in total compensation, the organization...

Wall St. opens slightly lower after five-day run

Stocks fell slightly after the open on Tuesday after the market's best week in two years last week.

Boeing considers new supplier system after quake disruptions

Boeing Co. said on Monday it is considering building a new supplier system to minimise the impact of natural disasters on its operations, after a...

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  Boeing's Dreamliner lands in Japan for week of tests

Lagarde begins 1st day as head of IMF

Former Chicagoan Christine Lagarde is set to take over as the head of the International Monetary Fund Tuesday, the first woman to to run the...

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  IMF poised to choose Lagarde as next leader

Strauss-Kahn faces home hurdle as U.S. woes ease

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn inched closer on Tuesday to having U.S. sex assault charges against him dropped although a complaint of...

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  VIDEO: Strauss-Kahn

The day ahead in business

Reports: Factory orders for May, 9 a.m.

German court to start hearing case against euro bailouts

KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) - Bailouts of Europe's debt-stricken countries face a legal challenge on Tuesday as Germany's top court begins hearing...

S&P; warning adds default threat to Greece's bailout

Greece would likely be in default if it follows a debt rollover plan pushed by French banks, S&P; warned on Monday, deepening the pain of a bailout...

McDonald's plans to run UAE vehicles on biofuels

A Dubai-based company says it will convert used vegetable oil from McDonald's outlets into biofuels to power the fast food giant's delivery trucks...

State Farm signs new marketing deal with 'Cars 2' cast

Lightning McQueen wants to win the World Grand Prix, and Mater gets caught up in a super-secret spy mission.

Bayer pays $750M to settle rice contamination case

Bayer CropScience has agreed to pay $750 million to settle several lawsuits with U.S. farmers who claimed a strain of the company's unapproved...

Apple seeks injunction in Samsung patent case

Apple asked a U.S. court to issue a preliminary injunction against Samsung on four patents in a dispute between the two companies, according to a...

Chicago Tube sale to Olympic Steel closes

Suburban steel tubing distributor Chicago Tube & Iron Co. is now officially part of Cleveland-based Olympic Steel Inc. The transaction closed on...

Go Daddy in deal to be bought for $2.25 billion

Web hosting company Go Daddy Group announced Friday it is being bought by a private equity consortium led by KKR and Silver Lake.

Ventas completes $7.6B Nationwide Health purchase

Chicago-based Ventas Inc. said Friday that it completed its $7.6 billion acquisition of Nationwide Health Properties Inc., creating the largest health...

Facebook set for $1 billion in social-gaming revenue

Facebook is on course to generate $1 billion in revenue this year from social gaming, according to Kevin Ryan, a leading Internet entrepreneur and...

BlackBerry under attack as companies give workers more choices

The BlackBerry, once ubiquitous in business, faces deep challenges in that market as more companies allow employees to pick their own smartphones...

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  BlackBerry-maker's Playbook tablet to roll out outside of N. America

Airlines get OK to use biofuels in airplanes

Airlines won final approval from a U.S.-based technical-standards group to power their planes with a blend made from traditional kerosene and biofuels...

June auto sales fail to pick up speed

America's top three automakers reported June sales gains that were largely in line with expectations, as retail demand for fuel efficient cars remains...

Google in preliminary talks to buy Hulu

Google Inc. is in preliminary talks to buy online video pioneer Hulu, people familiar with the situation said.

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  Google stops invitations to new social network

Prosecutors to repay Conrad Black $5.5M

Prosecutors in Chicago disclosed late Thursday that they will repay Lord Black about $5.5-million that they have been holding on to for nearly six...

Law protecting elderly from financial abuse takes effect today

A consumer law designed to protect senior citizens from financial scams involving an unauthorized use of a power of attorney will take effect in...

Zynga files for IPO of up to $1 billion

Zynga filed paperwork for an initial public offering on Friday, the latest in a series of hot social media companies to seek capital in the U.S....

Housing market has wide effect on state economy

The sale of over 1,800 homes in Bloomington-Normal contributed $43.5 million to the local economy, according to a recent one-year survey of existing...

Treasury approves Mercy Housing loan mod program

The Treasury Department will allow Mercy Housing Inc., a national nonprofit group, to use almost one-quarter of the federal "hardest-hit" funds sent...

Borders agrees to sell itself for $215 million

Ann Arbor-based Borders has agreed to sell itself to private investment firm Najafi Cos. for $215 million.

Prosecutors agree to release ex-IMF chief without bail

The Manhattan district attorney's office agreed to the release of Dominique-Strauss Kahn without bail at a hearing Friday.

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  Pictures: Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Consumer sentiment worsens in June as outlook sours

Consumer sentiment worsened in June on jitters about the economic outlook and spending is likely to remain lackluster in the long-term, a survey...

Loyola University finalizes sale to Trinity Health

Loyola University Chicago said this morning it finalized the sale of Loyola University Health System to Michigan-based Trinity Health, ending the...

Nurses reject union at Resurrection

Nurses at Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago rejected  union representation by the American Federation of State, County and...

Investors strike $208.5M WaMu settlement

Washington Mutual Inc's officers, directors, underwriters and auditor have agreed to a $208.5 million settlement to end class-action securities...

HP TouchPad tablet launches to mixed reviews

HP's TouchPad tablet, which has the same size as the iPad, with a 9.7-inch screen, went on sale Friday for $499, the same price as the iPad.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner may step down, sources say

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is considering stepping down later this year, but will not make a decision until contentious negotiations over the...

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  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner confident of debt-ceiling increase

Pope denounces commodities speculation

Pope Benedict XVI has denounced speculation in commodities markets and has demanded a global response to high food prices based on solidarity, not...

Strauss-Kahn sex charges on brink of collapse: sources

The sexual assault case against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was close to collapse on Friday, sources close to the case said, in a dramatic...

The day ahead in business

Reports: University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for June, 8:55 a.m.; Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index for June, 9 a.m.;...

Talks continue to keep Sears in Illinois

While rumors swirl of potential spots where Sears Holdings Corp. could move, Illinois officials continue to work to ensure the company remains in...

Chief executive of technology vendor CDW to step down

CDW, the Vernon Hills-based technology vendor, said John A. Edwardson would step down as chief executive on Oct. 1, and would be succeeded by Thomas...

Reports say FTC investigating Twitter

Federal regulators are looking into the interactions between Twitter and a company called Ubermedia, which develops applications that help users...

Costco won't carry pork from farm shown on video

Retailer Costco released a statement Thursday afternoon saying it will no longer carry pork products from Iowa Select Farms, whose alleged gruesome...

Boeing, Lockheed in $1.1B Air Force launch deal

United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, has won a $1.1 billion U.S. Air Force contract for work on the Evolved...

Amazon cuts ties with California partners

Amazon.com has cut ties with more than 10,000 online sales affiliates and will not start collecting California sales tax Friday, a spokeswoman for the...

Chu proposes energy efficiency initiative at Clinton conference

Energy Secretary Steven Chu used the Clinton Global Initiative conference in Chicago to announce today that 14 businesses, developers, financial...

Advocate Medical acquires Midwest heart-doctor group

Amid a period of rampant consolidation in the health care industry, one of the biggest groups of heart doctors in the Midwest today said it will merge...

Judge rejects Boeing motion to dismiss NLRB complaint

A government complaint over Boeing's new non-union 787 assembly plant in South Carolina will go forward, an administrative law judge ruled Thursday.

State creates new small business center

The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity on Thursday announced the creation of a center to assist small businesses and...

Swamped, Google halts invites to new social network

Google Inc. stopped inviting users to join its new social network less than 48 hours after beginning a limited rollout of the service.

Former CBOT trader sentenced to 5 years for $2M fraud

David G. Sklena, a former member of the Chicago Board of Trade, was sentenced Wednesday to five years in federal prison for engaging in noncompetitive...

Nasdaq said to be eyeing London exchange

Nasdaq OMX Group was centerstage Thursday as the exchange industry buzzed with fresh merger speculation, despite a rash of failed plans underscored by...

Scientists: Split Mississippi River, Great Lakes to stop Asian carp

No additional study is necessary to prove that separating the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River systems is the only way to prevent invasive...

IPad app speculation swirls as Facebook promises 'awesome' launch

Facebook, the world's biggest social networking website, is set to launch a new feature next week, possibly in the mobile or tablet arena, its CEO...

Advanced Clinical medical services firm moves to Deerfield

Advanced Clinical, a services firm for the pharmaceutical, biomedical and medical device industries, is moving headquarters from Bannockburn to ...

CBOE stock market moves east to win speed traders

CBOE Holdings will relocate the trading operations of its wholly owned Chicago-based stock exchange to the East Coast as it steps up efforts to...

Obama to do Twitter session on economy on July 6

President Barack Obama will hold a "town hall" meeting on the U.S. economy and jobs on July 6, the White House said on Thursday, but it will be in the...

Ford stock up on expectations of market share gain

Shares of Ford Motor shot up as much as 4.1 percent Thursday after an analyst projected the U.S. automaker gained market share in June.

Midwest business barometer jumps in June

Business activity in the U.S. Midwest grew more than expected this month, helped by a jump in new orders, a report showed on Thursday.

H.H. Gregg to hire 700 workers at Chicago-area stores

H.H. Gregg Inc., the Indianapolis-based appliance and electronics chain, is looking to fill approximately 700 positions for 14 new stores scheduled to...

Fortune Brands to split into 2 public companies

Fortune Brands, Inc., the Deerfield-based company that has made everything from golf carts to Bourbon, said it now plans to split into two publicly-...

Midwest factories roar, but labor market weak

New claims for unemployment benefits fell less than expected last week, a government report showed on Thursday, suggesting the labor market was...

U.S. forcing some colleges to explain huge tuition hikes

Roughly 530 colleges across the country will soon have to submit special reports to Uncle Sam, explaining why their tuition and student fees have...

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  State treasurer: Bright Start insider notice 'a mistake'

Big fast food chains lose to smaller players in taste, survey finds

McDonald's Corp., Burger King, KFC and Taco Bell are the biggest U.S. fast-food chains, but they lag smaller rivals like In-N-Out Burger and Chick-...

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  McDonald's expands smoothie line with mango pineapple

Clinton jobs summit wraps up today

Former President Bill Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are scheduled to deliver the closing remarks at a jobs summit in Chicago.

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  Job woes could linger until 2023 without better growth

Greece set for final vote on austerity after 2 days of riots

Greek lawmakers are set to pass a bill Thursday to fast-track fresh austerity measures demanded by creditors, following two days of rioting in...

Caterpillar adding 200 jobs in Georgia

Caterpillar Inc. is investing $120 million in its Spalding County facility and expects to create at least 200 more jobs in Georgia.

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  Caterpillar expects new rival to emerge from China

The day ahead in business

Reports: Jobless claims for week ended June 25, 7:30 a.m.; Chicago PMI for June, 8:45 a.m.; Mortgage rates for the week ended June 30, 9 a.m.

Navy Pier releases plans for improving top tourist attraction

Navy Pier officials released a framework plan Thursday morning for refreshing Chicago's top tourist attraction, envisioning that the Chicago Children'...

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  Photos: Navy Pier through the years

American reported in talks with Airbus, Boeing to replace U.S. fleet

American Airlines is in talks with manufacturers Airbus and Boeing Co. to purchase at least 250 aircraft in a deal valued at about $15 billion, The...

Conrad Black finds publisher for memoir

Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart said Wednesday that it would publish former media mogul Conrad Black's second memoir this fall.

Children's Memorial launches $3M ad campaign to tout new site, name

Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago has launched a $3 million branding campaign to tout its coming new name and relocation to the Streeterville...

Amazon considers cutting ties with California partners over tax

Amazon.com told its California online affiliates on Wednesday that it will cut its relationships with them if an online-tax collection law is...

Groupon rival LivingSocial moving ahead with $1 billion IPO

LivingSocial met with banks this week to discuss an IPO of about $1 billion, CNBC reported on Wednesday.

Clinton brings his Global Initiative to Chicago

Former President Bill Clinton brought his Clinton Global Initiative to Chicago today, gaining commitments to help boost domestic job growth, including...

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  Walgreen Co. to add 600 jobs in Chicago

Fed weighs easing debit fee cap in final rule

The U.S. Federal Reserve would dramatically increase a proposed limit on how much banks can charge retailers when a debit card is used, under a...

News Corp. sells MySpace to Specific Media for $35M

News Corp. has agreed to sell social media site MySpace for about $35 million to online advertising company Specific Media, according to a source...

Continental flight attendants vote to join same union as United's

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA says it has won a union election at United Continental Holdings Inc.

Dell to stick with acquisitions for expansion into services

Dell Inc. expects acquisitions to remain a critical focus for the computer maker, which is expanding into areas such as storage and services.

Google simplifies homepage as it rolls out social network

Google has redesigned its homepage, simplifying an already minimalist webpage, and adding a sleek black bar across the top that rolled out with the...

Toronto, London stock exchanges call off merger

The London and Toronto stock exchanges abandoned plans for a $3.6 billion (Canadian) merger Wednesday, as it became clear they would not win enough...