All posts by ChicagoAdmin

Gannett Pursuing Bid to Purchase Tribune in $815 Million Deal

Business News, , , , ,

According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the leadership of Gannett met with executives of Tribune Publishing to discuss an unsolicited bid to buy the Chicago based Tribune. Apparently no deal was reached.

The meeting was arranged at the suggestion of Tribune Publishing Chairman Michael Ferro. Together with Tribune CEO Justin Dearborn, Ferro met with Gannett Chairman John Jeffry Louis and CEO Robert Dickey. It was the first meeting between the execs since the purchase offer of $815 million was made public in April.

Dickey and Louis re-stated Gannett’s offer, while Ferro said that the Tribune is still pursuing a new business strategy. The SEC filing stated that “no meaningful progress was made to discuss the terms of the Offer or a process for going forward.”

Gannett, which is headquartered in McLean, Virginia is the publisher of over 100 newspapers, including USA Today. The company offered to buy the Chicago-based Tribune Publishing for $12.25 per share in an all cash transaction that would include the purchase of $390 million worth of debt. The Tribune’s board voted down the proposal in a unanimous vote on May 4.

“Gannett is committed to engaging in substantive discussions with Tribune regarding its $12.25 all-cash, premium offer,” the company said on Friday. “We look forward to Tribune’s board acting as responsible financial stewards in the best interests of its shareholders.”

IKEA Expanding to New Midwest Location

Business News, , ,
IKEA store: Photo by Rainchill
IKEA store: Photo by Rainchill

IKEA US president Lars Petersson announced that their 206,000 Milwaukee customers will soon be able to shop at their own IKEA store.

The store will comprise almost 300,000 square feet, built on 29 acres at the intersection of Interstate 94 and Drexel Avenue. Consumers can expect to shop in the mega store by the summer of 2018.

“We are excited at the possibility of growing our Midwestern U.S. presence with a Milwaukee-area store,” Petersson said. “A location in the retail corridor would provide our already 206,000 Milwaukee-area customers their own store.”

The huge store will offer customers 10,000 exclusively designed items, 50 room settings and three model home interior designs. There will also be a restaurant and children’s play area within the store. The new location will join other Midwest stores in Bolingbrook and Schaumburg in Illinois and in others in the Minneapolis-St Paul region in Minnesota.

Radio Shack to Pay Rebates to Its Customers

Business News, ,
A Radio Shack store in the Plaza Caracol shopping center on Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascensio in the city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. Photo by Coolcaesar.
A Radio Shack store in the Plaza Caracol shopping center on Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascensio in the city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico. Photo by Coolcaesar.

Michael Frerichs, Illinois treasurer, has succeeded to get Radio Shack, a consumerelectronics company that filed for bankruptcy last year, to pay $140,000 in rebates that were never cashed. The money is owed to over 5,000 Illinois residents. The Radio Shack bankruptcy should not affect their ability to pay, as the government already has the money in hand.

Since rebate checks not claimed within five years are considered unclaimed property according to Illinois state law, Frerichs pursued Radio Shack to pay off their customers. One of the roles of the treasurer in Illinois is returning unclaimed property.

The rebates were used to help convince consumers to make purchases between 2002 and 2008. Radio Shack agreed to the terms of the settlement when Frerichs auditors saw that the company and its rebate fulfillment provider, Global Fulfillment Services, did not report the unclaimed rebate checks.

However, it is still not known how much of the $140,000 will actually be returned to Illinois consumers. That number will depend on how well the state can locate those entitled to rebates, and then getting the rebate money to them.

Sears Holdings Closing At Least 50 Stores

Business News, , ,
Kmart Harrison, OH. Photo by Mike Kalasnik
Kmart Harrison, OH. Photo by
Mike Kalasnik

On the heels of the announcement of 100 layoffs at the end of February, Sears is continuing its march to improved profitability with the closure of about 50 stores around the country.

Sears, whose headquarters is in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, announced that it is planning to speed-up shutting down of at least 50 “unprofitable stores.” Included in the action will be many K-Mart stores as well, which is owned by Sears Holdings.

“The decision to close stores is a difficult but necessary step as we take aggressive actions to strengthen our company, fund our transformation and restore Sears Holdings to profitability,” said Edward S. Lampert, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sears Holdings. “We’re focusing on our best members, our best categories and our best stores as we work to accelerate our transformation.”

The original plan was to spread out the closures over several months, but because of poor sales during the holiday season, the parent company decided the process of closing stores should be sped up.

According to Sears’ earnigns report, released in February, total revenue for the fourth quarter of 2015 was $7.3 billion, down from $8.1 billion in 2014.

“Sears Holdings will continue to transform as the role of the store evolves to fit the way that members want to shop,” Mr. Lampert said. “Through our continued investments in Integrated Retail, our stores are a critical component of our strategy as we provide our members with industry-leading innovations such as Meet with an Expert, In-Vehicle Pickup and Return and Exchange in Five.”

Liquidation sales at closing K-Mart locations will begin on May 12, while those at Sears will start on April 29. The following Illinois K-Marts are on the chopping block:

  •  7050 S Pulaski                            Chicago
  • 721 N Vermillion Street          Danville
  • 1150 W Carl Sandburg Dr      Galesburg
  • 17355 Torrence Ave                 Lansing
  • 2909 Court St                              Pekin
  • 3840 46th Ave                             Rock Island

Mark Berger’s Work for the Oscars

Business News, ,

sound-systemSo often people who work the hardest get the least credit.  No truer is this the case than with the Oscars.  According to a recent article in The Northern Light by Steve Guntli:

“This year’s Academy Awards ceremony was one of the best in recent history: swift, topical, and, for the most part, the right movies got the right awards. But even in a good year, things tend to slip through the cracks, either not earning enough recognition from the Academy or being ignored completely.”

Likewise with Mark Berger.  True he has received awards for his work as a sound engineer (such as via: Apocalypse Now, The Right Stuff, Amadeus and The English Patient), but at the end of the day how many people really remember “the sound guy”?

Having said that, at the Oscars ceremony there is often confusion in the sound awards.  Alex Garofalo noted that people get confused about the distinction between sound editing and sound mixing.   In an article in The International Business Times, he explained it like this:

“Sound editing refers to the creation of all the sound elements, besides music, in a movie. These include sound effects, dialogue recorded on the set and automated dialogue replacement. In contrast, sound mixing refers to the combination necessary to achieve the proper balance between dialogue, music, sound effects and any other aural elements.”

Mark Berger falls into the latter category: sound mixing. Indeed, he has in his lifetime, been a sound mixer for over 165 movies, and thereafter he used this skill to teach to others.

Let’s take a moment with these Oscars to remember the hard work of all those behind the scenes; without the skill sound mixers like Berger, movies just wouldn’t be what they are today.

 

 

IRS Opening Branches at Your Nearby Seven-Eleven

sightseeing, ,
Seven-11 will now take money from taxpayers for the IRS. Photo by HenryWBee
Seven-11 will now take money from taxpayers for the IRS. Photo by HenryWBee

In order to make it as easy as possible for the approximately 1 in 13 households in America that don’t have bank accounts to pay their taxes, the IRS will allow people to pay them at Seven-Eleven convenience stores.

Seven-Eleven convenience stores are small groceries found in a huge number of neighborhood strip malls has been catering to people without bank accounts or credit cards more every year. The IRS decision to allow payments in 7,000 of these stores throughout the country is a reflection of the need to make it easier for people to pay their tax bills.

“We continue to look for new ways to provide services for our taxpayers … this provides a new way for people who can only pay their taxes in cash without having to travel to an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center,” said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen.

Anyone that would like to pay their taxes at a Seven-Eleven will have to sign up first by going to IRS.gov payments page. They will receive instructions and an email confirming their information after the IRS verifies it. Then they will receive a payment code and more instructions. Then they will be able to make a payment at a local store.

The IRS urges anyone considering this option for payment to start in advance, because it could take a few days to get confirmation. To avoid penalties or late fees payments need to be made by April 18 this year. There is a $1,000 payment limit per day, and a $3.99 fee for each payment.

Chicago Number One on the Unemployment List

Employment, ,
Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff (2009-2010), Mayor of Chicago since 2011
Rahm Emanuel, former White House Chief of Staff (2009-2010), Mayor of Chicago since 2011

February saw a rise in the City of Chicago’s unemployment rate to 7.2 percent, and increase of .3 percent over last year. This explains why Mayor Rahm Emanuel is working so hard to bring jobs to the city.

One explanation for the rise comes from the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The IDES blamed the rise at least partly on the fact that more people are actively looking for jobs recently, as the economy seems to be improving.

The poor job situation is just one more crisis Emanuel has been dealing with lately. He has also been taking the heat for the high crime rate, the poor performance of the city’s schools, and the large pension debt, to name just three.

Businesses in Chicago have been feeling the pinch, and have expressed their unhappiness about the large property tax increase that arrived in Chicago this year to help alleviate the pension problem. There is a fear that this new tax could persuade some businesses to flee the city, or how much of a presence they choose to have in Chicago.

The greater Chicago metro area, including Naperville and Arlington Heights also saw a rise in unemployment: from 6.5 percent a year ago to 6.7 percent in February. The area ranks in first place of the 51 metro markets in the country with populations of one million or more with the highest unemployment rate, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Las Vegas comes in second with a 6.5 percent rate of unemployment.

Chicago Law Firms Among Targeted in Russian Hacker Scheme

Business News, , , , , , ,

computer-crime-1233360_640Four of the almost 50 elite law firms targeted by a Russian hacker were from Chicago, it was reported in an alert from Flashpoint, a New York-based computer-threat intelligence company.

The firms were Kirkland & Ellis, Sidley Austin, McDermott Will & Emery and Jenner & Block; all listed on a spreadsheet of potential targets of a cyber break-in into the company’s computer systems.

The leader of the threat is a broker named “Oleras,” living in Ukraine. He has been trying to gain access since January into these law firms’ computer systems by means of hiring hackers. His wish is to find information which will then allow him to trade using insider information.

Flashpoint notified law agencies, but would not comment any further. As of March 4th the FBI has the illegal activity under investigation.

Goodyear Guessing on the Look of Driverless Car Tires

Business News, , ,
Traditional tires heading to the trash heap of history? Photo by: Brian Cantoni
Traditional tires heading to the trash heap of history? Photo by: Brian Cantoni

There has been a lot of speculation lately about what the world of driverless cars will look like, in the relatively near future. Observers are not only wondering what our society will become when cars don’t need drivers, but also what will the cars themselves look like. Will they have steering wheels? How will the interiors be designed? And lots of other questions.

But until now no one really thought much about the outside of the car, particularly, the tires. Goodyear, the giant manufacture of tires for vehicles, has been thinking about this issue. At the Geneva International Motor Show Goodyear presented what they are calling the Eagle-360, spherical tires (big rubber balls) designed exclusively for autonomous cars.

Apparently these tires will not connect to the car’s axles. Rather, they will magnetically levitate underneath the car. There will be a battery inside the wheels which will power the movement of the wheels. The batteries will charge from the car body wirelessly, and also from regenerative braking.

Other features, such as sensors and specialized treads will send information about road conditions to the car, as well as being responsive to the particular conditions of certain geographic regions. Even more amazing is that the wheels will not even turn in the traditional way. The balls will just start to roll in a different direction when a turn is needed. These cars are more efficient, for instance, they can be densely packed in parking lots, since they can make turns at 90-degree angles as opposed to traditional turning radius of conventional cars.

Kohl’s Stores Closing as Shift to Internet Proceeds

Business News, ,
The exterior of a typical Kohl's department store in Northeast Columbia.
The exterior of a typical Kohl’s department store in Northeast Columbia.

It looks like 2016 is going to be a bad year for Kohl’s as they announce 18 stores will be closing this coming year.

Or perhaps its not so bad after all. Kohl’s says that sales from the 18 stores listed for closure represent only 1 percent of the company’s total sales. Closing the stores will make it easier for the giant retailer to focus on its burgeoning on-line business. Which stores will be put on the chopping block will be announced this month.

“While the decision to close stores is a difficult one, we evaluated all of the elements that contribute to making a store successful, and we were thoughtful and strategic in our approach. We are committed to leveraging our resources on our more productive assets,” Kevin Mansell, CEO of Kohl’s, said.

The company also announced that it will be opening seven new “smaller format” stores in the Midwest as well as 12 FILA outlet stores in the coming year.

Kohl’s is based in Wisconsin, and had fourth-quarter earnings of $296 million with a net income of $1.58 per share. Revenue for the same period totaled $6.4 billion.