Navistar to close Indianapolis foundry, cut 180 jobs

Navistar plans to close an Indianapolis foundry that makes engine blocks and heads, cutting about 180 jobs.

"We've determined that leveraging our suppliers for these components will reduce our engine costs, improve our overall manufacturing capacity utilization, and free up additional resources to invest in our core North America truck and parts business," Persio Lisboa, Lisle-based Navistar's president of operations, said in a statement today.

The move is expected to cut operating costs about $13 million a year, the company said. Navistar took an $11 million charge in the fourth quarter related to the move and expects to take another $40 million in charges in the first half of 2015.

The company said it would complete closing the foundry by next summer.

Cars.com cuts 32 Chicago jobs

Cars.com cut 32 jobs last week at its Chicago headquarters in a 2.5 percent headcount reduction that comes just months after it was acquired by media giant Gannett.

The online car classified ads company, which has about 1,300 employees, mainly in Chicago, is also dismissing the workers following the promotion last month of Cars.com veteran Alex Vetter, who replaced Dan Jauernig at the top of the company.

Gannett acquired Cars.com from Chicago-based Classified Ventures, which sold off its businesses this year, including Apartments.com, after its newspaper owners decided to cash in on the growth they had seen in the digital era. McLean, Va.-based Gannett was one of the five newspaper companies that owned Classified Ventures, including Tribune, McClatchy, A.H. Belo and Graham Holdings.

Instead of selling its stake in Cars.com, though, Gannett opted to increase its stake as part of its $1.8 billion Cars.com purchase.

“We are taking various actions to achieve our growth plans and become a more customer-focused enterprise,” the company said in a statement. “This includes some staffing adjustments in different places across the company designed to reduce complexity in the organization.”

Classified Ventures sold Apartments.com to Washington, D.C.-based Costar Group in March for $585 million.

Citi cuts around 35 jobs on London trading floor

(Reuters) - U.S. bank Citi (C) has cut around 35 jobs across its capital markets trading operation in London, sources with knowledge of the changes said on Wednesday.

The cuts, announced internally last month, were across all asset classes, the sources told Reuters, and included head of G10 currency strategy Valentin Marinov.

High-earning jobs on trading floors have been squeezed by the growth in machine-driven trading and broader cuts at banks since the 2008 financial crisis, and lenders are also putting aside billions against the cost of litigation over charges they manipulated currency and interest rate markets.

Citigroup Inc said when it published third quarter results last month that it was pulling out of consumer banking in 11 markets, including Japan and Egypt, as it seeks to cut persistently high costs.

The third-largest U.S. bank, built with a series of acquisitions spanning back to the 1980s, has been trying to slim down since the financial crisis to be as profitable as rivals. It has shed hundreds of billions of dollars of bad assets.

Chicago : CME to cut 150 jobs

CME Group Inc. said today that it would cut 150 jobs, or about 5 percent of its workforce, with most of the cuts technology jobs.

The reminder of the cuts are corporate and administrative jobs, Chicago-based CME said in a statement this morning.

The majority are in Chicago, a spokeswoman said.

"Our industry has transformed significantly over the past five years, with the advent of OTC clearing and other changes. As difficult as this decision is, the efficiencies we have built are allowing us to make this change to our structure," CME Group Executive Chairman and President Terry Duffy said in the statement. "These staffing changes and other expense control measures we have taken internally will result in decreased costs and reduced management layers, and will help ensure the company's long-term continued growth."

Illinois : job cuts at Deere, Brunswick, others

Nine companies reported possible job cuts to the state last month, but the firm responsible for the biggest number says they're almost all relocations, not layoffs.

Schaumburg-based Career Education Corp., said it is moving about 740 workers after a lease expired on its Downers Grove office space, prompting a move of facilities and employees.

"Nearly everyone" agreed to shift to other offices across the Chicago area, said Mark Spencer, the company's director of communications. "We just informed (the state) to comply with both the spirit and letter of the law," Mr. Spencer said.

Career Education, one of the largest for-profit college corporations in the country, owns 16 Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts campuses across the country and the Harrington College of Design in Chicago, among dozens of other schools. The company saw its revenue decline 20 percent in 2013, to $1.06 billion. At the end of 2012, the company said it would close 23 of its 90 schools in light of declining revenue and student enrollment.

Last year, Career Education settled a $10.25 million lawsuit with the state of New York, which alleged the company advertised false job placement rates.

Elsewhere, in a move already reported, agricultural equipment maker Deere & Co. will eliminate some 425 jobs at its East Moline factory, about 165 miles west of Chicago, because of waning demand. Last month, Deere said it would scale back production of its equipment because record crops are depressing grain prices and discouraging farmers from making big purchases.

Other job losses mentioned in the August report for the Illinois' Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN:

• In west suburban Schiller Park, 418 workers at Hostess Brands' bakery will lose their jobs when the bakery closes in October.

• About 170 employees will be laid off at FutureMark, a company in south suburban Alsip that makes coated paper for magazines and catalogs. "We're involved in a declining market," said Everett O'Neill, the company's vice president of operations. "We'd gotten to the point where our profit margin was essentially nonexistent."

• In Chicago, about 124 people may lose jobs with west suburban Wood Dale-based janitorial company Total Facility Maintenance Inc. The losses are the result of the Chicago Public Schools' decision to change its janitorial services provider, according to Wendy Gonzalez, Total Facility Maintenance's human resources director. Some employees may be able to be reassigned to other jobs, she said, though she could not say how many.
In March, Chicago Public Schools entered into a $260 million contract with Aramark to provide maintenance services in addition to its existing contract for food services.

• Another 28 people at Twin Cleaning Professionals Inc., headquartered in Maywood, will lose their janitorial jobs with CPS for the same reason.

• In downstate Murphysboro, some 109 RehabCare employees will be laid off because of a site closure. Louisville, Ky.-based RehabCare is the largest rehabilitation company in the country, offering nursing, home health and other forms of rehab care.

• Lake Forest-based Brunswick Corp. is shedding about 50 jobs. The company, which makes boats, fitness machines, and bowling and billiards equipment, sold its retail bowling business to Bowlmor AMF for $270 million earlier this year.

• About 41 people will lose jobs in Chicago with Invitation Homes, a Dallas-based owner and manager of renovated rental homes.

Deere to lay off more than 600 at four U.S. plants

Aug 15 (Reuters) - Deere & Co, the world's largest maker of farm equipment, said it would indefinitely lay off more than 600 employees at plants in Illinois, Iowa and Kansas as falling grain prices hurt demand for tractors, harvesters and other agricultural machinery.

The company reported a 5 percent drop in third-quarter sales on Wednesday and cut its full-year profit forecast.

Deere had about 67,000 full-time employees as of Oct. 31, 2013, of which about 33,900 were in the United States and Canada.

The layoffs are at plants in Moline and East Moline, Illinois; Ankeny, Iowa; and Coffeyville, Kansas.

Deere, whose shares were little changed at $84.90 in early trading on Friday, said it would also implement seasonal and inventory-adjustment shutdowns at the affected plants that would result in temporary layoffs.

The company operated 26 plants in the United States and Canada as of Oct. 31, of which 17 primarily make agriculture and turf equipment. Deere also makes construction and forestry equipment.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecast record U.S. corn and soybean crops this year - a prospect that has sent prices plummeting and discouraged farmers from buying equipment.

Up to Thursday's close, Deere's stock had fallen 6 percent this year. It fell about 2 percent on Wednesday.

Illinois : Companies announce over 700 job cuts

Nine companies, including Comcast Corp. and software firm Intuit Inc., warn of 738 Illinois job cuts in a new state report.

More than 500 of the cuts are in the Chicago area, according to the July WARN report from the state's Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.

• Philadelphia-based Comcast plans to lay off 112 workers in southwest suburban Romeoville starting Sept. 14.

• Mountain View, California-based Intuit will lay off 104 workers in Arlington Heights starting Sept. 15.

• Commercial real estate company Equity Office Management LLC will cut 48 workers in Chicago starting at the end of September.

• Fairfield, California-based confectionery maker Jelly Belly Candy Co. is cutting 66 workers in North Chicago. The company said laid-off workers will receive outplacement services and also will be able to explore job transfers to other company locations.

• We Clean Maintenance & Supplies Inc. in Bedford Park will lay off 107 workers in Chicago. The layoffs come at the request of a client, a spokeswoman said.

• Chicago-based Geralex Janitorial Services Inc., which provides janitorial services at airports and schools, is cutting 67 jobs in the city.

• Janitorial and property services firm RJB Properties Inc. in Orland Park is laying off 41 workers in its Chicago office.

• Kraft Foods Group Inc. warned of 56 layoffs in Champaign. The Northfield-based company previously announced in April that 60 drivers and fleet support staff in Champaign were going to be laid off as part of a national plan to cut 285 jobs.

• The highest number of layoffs in the report come from Clive, Iowa-based Jacobson Warehouse Co. The company will lay off 137 workers in East Moline starting at the end of September.

Amgen plans to cut up to 2,900 jobs

Amgen Inc. said it plans to reduce its global workforce by 12% to 15% and close facilities in two states as part of a restructuring that aims to focus resources on developing new drugs.

The company was a biotechnology pioneer and is the largest biotech by sales. But the products that propelled its growth are aging and some are facing the threat of low-cost competition. In announcing cost-cutting plans Tuesday, Amgen joins the ranks of Big Pharmas who have been laying off employees and closing plants. It had already emulated traditional drug makers by doing a large deal last year to add a medicine discovered outside its laboratories.

Amgen said it plans to reduce staff by 2,400 to 2,900, beginning later this year and continuing through 2015. Most of the workforce reductions are set for the U.S. and will span the range of job types, including sales representatives, an Amgen spokesman said. The company currently employs about 20,000.

The job cuts will be combined with eliminating layers of management, using fewer buildings at its headquarters site and closing two laboratories in Washington state and two manufacturing plants in Colorado, the spokesman said.

At the same time, Amgen plans to expand its drug research-and-development in the biotechnology hubs of South San Francisco, Calif., and Cambridge, Mass., as well as retain its headquarters in Thousand Oaks, Calif., with a smaller staff in fewer existing buildings.

The company expects to record restructuring-related charges between $775 million and $950 million, primarily incurred this year and next year. It expects to save about $700 million in operating expenses in 2016, but plans to use most of the savings to launch new products, the spokesman said.

Chief Executive Robert A. Bradway said the restructuring plans were announced from "a position of strength."

Amgen reported that its second-quarter earnings rose 23% as the company benefited from higher revenue and increased profitability of its arthritis drug Enbrel. The company also raised its 2014 earnings and revenue targets.

Shares of Amgen rose 3.6% to $127.74 in after-hours trading.

Last year, Amgen bought Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $10.4 billion and its flagship product, Kyprolis.

The drug was approved in the U.S. in 2012 as a treatment for a blood cancer known as multiple myeloma. Amgen is betting that current studies of Kyprolis will lead to approvals for additional uses, with study data anticipated in the current quarter. In the second quarter, Kyprolis sales were $78 million, up from $68 million in the first quarter.

Amgen reported a profit of $1.55 billion, or $2.01 a share, up from $1.26 billion, or $1.65 a share, a year earlier. Excluding acquisition-related and other items, adjusted per-share earnings rose to $2.37 from $1.89. Revenue increased 11% to $5.18 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share profit of $2.07 and revenue of $4.9 billion.

Sales of Enbrel increased 7% to $1.2 billion, driven mostly by higher pricing and underlying demand.

Combined sales of Neulasta and Neupogen, both of which are used to prevent infections in patients receiving chemotherapy, fell 1% as a decline in Neupogen sales offset a slight increase in Neulasta sales.

Neupogen sales fell 9%, which the company attributed to a positive Medicaid rebate adjustment in the year-earlier period. The drug is facing generic competition in the U.S. from the launch late last year by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. of its Neupogen-similar treatment, Granix.

Sales of osteoporosis drugs Xgeva and Prolia rose 20% and 40%, respectively, with both benefiting from stronger volume.

JPMorgan cuts tech worker jobs

(Bloomberg) — JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. lender, is cutting hundreds of technology support employees in its corporate and investment bank amid a revenue decline, people with knowledge of the move said.

Workers in locations including New York, Tampa, Chicago and Dubai were notified of the cuts this month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter. Luke Moranda, a managing director in charge of clearing technology, and Dan Cronin, an executive director, were among those let go, the people said.

Wall Street firms are trimming expenses by paring support employees and moving personnel to lower-cost locales amid a decline in fixed-income trading. JPMorgan's corporate and investment bank, run by Daniel Pinto, posted a 12 percent revenue drop to $17.6 billion in the first six months of 2014, while noninterest expenses declined by 1.6 percent to $11.7 billion.

“We continue to be focused and diligent on managing expenses and operating as efficiently as possible across our businesses,” Chief Financial Officer Marianne Lake said this month in a conference call.
Moranda and Cronin didn't respond to e-mailed messages seeking comment. Brian Marchiony, a spokesman for New York-based JPMorgan, declined to comment.

Severance packages came with letters explaining that the bank's staffing needs have changed along with “changes in our business,” the people said. Some workers accepted demotions to reduce compensation costs.

JPMorgan has cut about 6,000 employees in the first six months of the year, leaving it with 245,192 workers at June 30 and exceeding a forecast in February that it would reduce total headcount by 5,000. The bank, which acquired Washington Mutual Inc.'s bank units and Bear Stearns Cos. during the financial crisis, is streamlining the group's technology systems.

Low volatility in debt and equity markets and new regulations have crimped trading, leading to Wall Street's worst start to a year in trading revenue since the 2008 financial crisis. An increase in client activity in June failed to carry over into July, Lake said on the July 15 conference call.

“Our general operating assumption is that the next two quarters will continue to have low activity year-over-year,” Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon, 58, said on the call. “That could change on a dime, as you know, but that's just how we're going to run the business.”

Tyson Foods to shut three factories, cut 950 jobs

(Reuters) - Tyson Foods Inc (TSN) said it will discontinue operations at three of its factories which make processed meat products such as sausages and hot dogs, affecting about 950 people.

The largest U.S. meat processor, which won the bidding war for Hillshire Brands Co (HSH) in June, said the closures were not related to the acquisition.

"The closings were under consideration long before our decision to pursue Hillshire Brands", Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson told Reuters.

Tyson outbid Pilgrim's Pride Corp (PPC) with its $63 per share offer for Hillshire, valuing the Jimmy Dean sausages maker at $8.55 billion.

The closures were due to changing product needs, an aging Cherokee, Iowa factory and the distance of the Buffalo, New York and Santa Teresa, New Mexico plants from their raw material supply base, the company said on Friday.

"The consolidation helps them get transportation efficiencies," Chris Hurt, an agricultural economist with Purdue University, said.

The number of beef cattle in the United States is at its lowest level in 63 years due to severe droughts, reducing the amount of meat available to process.

The Cherokee factory will close on Sep. 27, while the other two are expected to stop operating in the first half of 2015.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration had cited the Buffalo factory for workplace safety hazards last November and proposed fines of about $122,000.

Tyson contested the citations and settled the case in May, agreeing to pay $105,000 in fines.

The closures will affect 450 employees at Cherokee, 300 at Buffalo and 200 at Santa Teresa. The company had about 115,000 employees as of last September.

Shares of the company, which will report quarterly results on Monday, were little changed at $39.49 in extended trading on Friday.

Microsoft to cut up to 18000 jobs

Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday it would cut up to 18,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, as it halves the size of its recent Nokia acquisition and trims down other operations.

Microsoft confirmed it will cut up to 18,000 jobs over the next year, part of the tech titan's efforts to streamline its business under new CEO Satya Nadella.

In a statement released Thursday, Microsoft says about 12,500 of the professional and factory positions will be cut as part of its $7 billion acquisition of Nokia's handset business, which the company closed in April.

"My promise to you is that we will go through this process in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible," said Nadella in a memo to employees.

Nadella, who replaced Steve Ballmer in February, says the "vast majority" of employees affected by layoffs will be notified within the next six months. They will also earn severance and job transition help in many locations. All cuts will be completed by next June.

The layoffs by Microsoft -- which employs 125,000 people -- are the company's largest since 2009, when they cut more than 5,000 jobs.

Daniel Ives, analyst with FBR Capital Markets, says the "larger than expected" layoffs hints at Nadella's plans to simplify Microsoft's infrastructure.

"Under the Ballmer era, there were many layers of management and a plethora of expensive initiatives being funded that has thus hurt the strategic and financial position the company is in, especially in light of digesting the Nokia acquisition," says Ives. "Nadella is using today as an opportunity to make sure that Microsoft is ready and well positioned to embark on its next chapter of growth around mobile and cloud."

Microsoft expects to incur pre-tax charges as high as $1.6 billion over the next four quarters, which will include $750 million to $800 million for severance and related benefit costs, and $350 million to $800 million of asset-related charges.

Chicago : Northern Trust cuts 200 jobs

Northern Trust Corp. announced today that it will cut 200 jobs as the bank struggles to hit its minimum profitability goals even though assets have grown substantially.

Chicago's largest locally headquartered bank said the layoffs, along with other cost actions, would trim $25 million from its annual expenses. Executives said the cuts were coming from a wide array of operations within the bank and would take place over the coming year.

A spokesman didn't have immediate comment on whether and to what extent those cutbacks would hit Northern Trust's Chicago workforce. Northern Trust employs 15,100 worldwide, so the layoffs amount to slightly more than 1 percent of its employees.

The bank reported second quarter earnings of $182 million, or 75 cents per share. The per-share figure was down from 78 cents a year before and even with the 75 cents posted in the first quarter.

Northern Trust, however, recorded $42 million in pre-tax charges and writeoffs, with $28.5 million earmarked for severance. Excluding those, the bank posted earnings of 87 cents per share, higher than the Wall Street consensus estimate of 84 cents. Its return on equity excluding the one-time costs was 10.6 percent, exceeding the bank's minimum goal of 10 percent.

However, Northern Trust's return on equity with the charges included was just 9.2 percent.

The bank, which focuses on serving wealthy families and institutional investors, continues to show growth in its key business lines. Assets under custody just exceeded $6 trillion, up 4 percent from $5.75 trillion in the first quarter. Assets under management were $924 billion, up 1 percent from $915 billion in the first quarter.

Chicago : Companies warn of nearly 1,700 Illinois job cuts

Thirteen companies may cut nearly 1,700 jobs in the coming months, according to a new state report.
The biggest cuts are from commercial printer Quad/Graphics Inc., which is laying off 537 workers in far northwest suburban Woodstock, according to the June report for the Illinois' Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN.

Sussex, Wis.-based Quad/Graphics is closing a plant there, according to reports earlier this year.
The second-largest cuts are at merchant wholesale Source Interlink Distribution LLC, with 244 layoffs already made in June in its McCook office. A lost contract is prompting the cuts, the company said in the WARN report.

Dallas-based AT&T Inc. announced 188 job cuts.

Jewelry company Lia Sophia will lay off 56 workers in Roselle and 28 in its Wood Dale office by August. The company declined to say why the jobs are being cut.

Additional layoffs announced in the report:
• Ridgeway, S.C.-based construction machinery and manufacturing company Bomag America's Inc. is laying off 92 workers in its Kewanee office.
• Montgomery-based Lyon LLC, which specializes in showcase and shelving manufacturing, is cutting 74 workers in Paris.
• Atlanta, Ga.-based Morrison Healthcare, a food service contractor, warned of 62 cuts because of a lost contract, according to the report.
• Fresenius Medical Care, a German company that produces medical supplies, is laying off 53 workers in its Westchester office. The reason was not provided.
• A liquidation at Chicago-based Sound Solutions Windows & Doors LLC is permanently laying off 52 workers.
• Chicago-based Lawrence Hall Youth Services, offering child and youth services, is cutting 51 workers due to a closing of an Elgin office. A representative said the Elgin office is closing because their services were no longer needed in the area.
• Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Supervalu Inc. will cut 44 workers in Urbana. The cause was not provided.
• Springfield, Mass.-based Hot Mama's Foods will cut 34 workers. A reason was not disclosed.
Representatives from these companies did not respond immediately today to calls requesting comment.
Also in the report: Chicago-based Magid Glove & Safety Manufacturing Co. is moving 156 workers from its current manufacturing facility to a new one opening in Romeoville. The company reports that it is not laying off any of those employees.

Chicago : Braintree parent to add 360 jobs

Credit-card software company Braintree Inc. plans a hiring spree at its large new headquarters in the Merchandise Mart.

California-based eBay Inc., which acquired Braintree in 2013, plans to add 360 jobs in the next three years, confirmed Gov. Pat Quinn's office, which is providing $12 million in state incentives.

Crain's last month reported Braintree's lease for 60,000 square feet at the Mart in River North. It will move there in the third quarter, from 27,000 square feet at 111 N. Canal St. in the West Loop.

Braintree, owned by eBay, is moving to the Merchandise Mart. 

San Jose, California-based eBay doesn't plan to waste time filling Braintree's significantly larger Chicago space. The PayPal parent has pledged to create 216 new full-time jobs by March 2016 and another 144 by March 2017.

If it meets those targets, eBay will receive $12 million in Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credits paid over 10 years by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, Mr. Quinn's office confirmed.

$24 MILLION INVESTMENT
“EBay Inc. is built on innovation and we welcome its interest in providing quality jobs for Illinoisans,” Mr. Quinn said in a statement. “By coming here, it will benefit from our state's leadership in emerging technology and from access to a workforce with skills that are second to none.”

Under the EDGE agreement, eBay will invest $24 million toward expanding Braintree in Chicago.

It was acquired by eBay for $800 million late last year. Spokeswomen for Braintree and eBay and Braintree CEO Bill Ready did not respond to questions about what is driving the rapid growth or how many people Braintree currently employs in Chicago.

The number is 140, according to a DCEO spokesman.

"Everyone at Braintree is pumped to be moving to bigger digs in Chicago to support our growth, just six months after joining the PayPal family," Mr. Ready said in a statement. "We're looking forward to moving into our office space at the Merchandise Mart soon and continuing our involvement in the budding Chicago tech scene."

Chicago : Uber hiring 150 people

Uber is hitching a ride to Chicago's meatpacking district, where it plans to hire another 150 employees in its Midwest headquarters by late 2015.

San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc., which brought its taxi-hailing and ride-sharing smartphone appto Chicago in 2011, signed a three-year lease for the 12,000-square-foot building at 370 N. Carpenter St., where it plans to move by June, said Midwest General Manager Andrew Macdonald.

The property owner, Chicago-based developer Sterling Bay Cos., is in the process of gutting the interior of the building, a former Kingdom Farms Inc. meatpacking facility, Sterling Bay Managing Principal Andy Gloor confirmed.

“We looked at staying in River North, but we bought into the vision Sterling Bay has for the area,” Mr. Macdonald said.

Uber is already on its third Chicago office, moving in February to nearby 300 N. Elizabeth St., also owned by Sterling Bay, the most active developer in the area on the western edge of the West Loop, a hotbed of development. Previously, Uber was at 750 N. Orleans St., where it moved from shared office space at another River North loft building.

Sterling Bay's many nearby projects include converting the former Fulton Market Cold Storage building into the future Chicago office of Mountain View, Calif.-based Google Inc. a block north of Uber's destination. Google's venture capital arm is an investor in Uber.

EMPLOYEE GROWTH
Uber expects to go from about 50 employees here now to 100 by the end of this year, with 200 Chicago employees by late 2015, which could cause the firm to outgrow a fourth Chicago office, according to Mr. Macdonald.

“We wanted a landlord we could grow with,” Mr. Macdonald said. “If we need to move again in a year or two, we feel there will be options.”

Uber was represented in the lease by First Vice President Paul Reaumond and Senior Vice President Brad Serot in the Chicago office of CBRE Inc.

Uber's Midwest office includes marketing, customer support and operations employees for Chicago, as well as teams serving Minneapolis, Detroit, Indianapolis, Oklahoma City and Milwaukee, Mr. Macdonald said. Dallas, Denver, Toronto, Montreal, Houston and Columbus, Ohio, all have workers based in their cities who Mr. Macdonald oversees, he said.

As privately held Uber moves into new markets, such as St. Louis, Kansas City, Louisville, Ky., Madison, Wis., and Tulsa, Okla., employees serving those cities also may be based in Chicago, Mr. Macdonald said.
Uber's temporary space on Elizabeth is part of a block-wide parcel Sterling Bay bought Jan. 31 for about $22 million, including a loan assumption, according to Cook County records and Mr. Gloor. Sterling Bay bought the property from a venture of Chicago-based Marc Realty LLC.

In addition to two existing office buildings, including the one where Uber is using short-term space, the property includes the partially built headquarters of now-defunct MarchFirst Inc. Sterling Bay plans to complete that building, 1380 W. Fulton Market, where construction halted in 2000 as consultancy MarchFirst spiraled into bankruptcy. The developer is in talks with large tenants to take all of its 300,000 square feet of the building, Mr. Gloor said.

Qantas chief Alan Joyce cuts 5000 jobs

Qantas will axe 5000 jobs, ditch unprofitable routes and retire ageing gas-guzzling planes, in the biggest shake up of its operations since it was floated.

Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services. It is the second oldest Airline in the World, and has been flying passengers since 1920.

JPMorgan cutting 8,000 jobs, slimming branches

In an effort to cut costs, the country's largest bank by assets said Tuesday that it plans to slash 8,000 jobs in its consumer and community banking division this year.

That represents a projected 20% reduction in total branch staff from 2011 to 2015. And it comes on top of 7,000 job losses at the branch level over the past two years, according to JPMorgan.

On the upside, the bank is adding 3,000 jobs in other parts of the firm, so the overall job cuts will only total 5,000, a JPMorgan spokeswoman told CNNMoney.

The plan, revealed at the company's investor day conference, is part of a branch overhaul that the bank claims will make it more efficient by utilizing technology for routine banking transactions. JPMorgan said the cuts are in response to growing "customer self service trends."

The cuts at JPMorgan are also partly driven by a drop-off in mortgage financing. Of the 8,000 cuts, the majority will come from the mortgage banking side. While historically low mortgage rates led to a surge in home refinancings in recent years, the bank said in its fourth quarter earnings report that steadily rising interest rates have slowed that trend.

Still, the bank's branch network is an important line of business for JPMorgan, which has added more branches in recent years and doesn't expect a significant change in branch count anytime soon.

IBM to cut 10,000 to 15,000 workers

IBM, in the midst of its massive transformation from a hardware-and-software-and-services company to a cloud-and-services company, is cutting jobs worldwide. The goal, besides remaking the 103-year-old tech giant into a modern IT leader that can take on Amazon Web Services and a flock of younger tech vendors, is to deliver on the promise to deliver $20 (non-GAAP) earnings per share by the end of 2015. Accomplishing that goal would be quite the feat, given the past few quarters of disappointing performance.

For IBM’s fourth quarter ending December 31, earnings — excluding some items — hit $6.13 per share, exceeding estimates of $6.00, according to Bloomberg. The trouble lay in revenue, which dipped for the seventh consecutive quarter — to $27.7 billion, missing estimates of $28.3 billion.

As for the job cuts, it’s not as if IBM didn’t warn us. On last month’s Q4 earnings call, CFO Martin Shroeter said IBM had reserved $1 billion to cover workforce reductions. Estimating that each person laid off costs IBM about $70,000, Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi told USA Today the company could cut 10,000 to 15,000 workers out of a total headcount of about 400,000.

Lee Conrad, a  former IBMer who is now the national coordinator of Alliance@IBM, a watchdog group affiliated with a union of IBM workers, said he is hearing of job cuts in several countries, the largest seemingly in India. “Reports from angry IBM India workers started flooding into the Alliance website 3 days ago,” he said via email on Thursday. “Hardest hit was the Systems Technology Group. Today we are hearing of job cuts in IBM India Software Group.”

The Alliance’s latest, admittedly incomplete list includes 1,500 jobs cut in Brazil, 600 in Argentina, 480 in France, 430 in Italy, 240 in the Netherlands and 105 in Belgium. Cuts in European countries must be negotiated, so the numbers could change, Conrad said.

Earlier this month, the company announced the sale of its X86 server business to Lenovo, and some of the latest job cuts in India and elsewhere relate to that move. The company is also reportedly looking to sell off its SDN and chip business.

“It’s important to look at what IBM is doing holistically. It’s jettisoning anything that’s not cloud or Internet of Things,”  said analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. And yes, he acknowledged, the company needs to hit that magical $20 EPS number as well.

Amazon to hire 2,500 across U.S.

• Hiring at five shipment centers
• Company has about 117,000 full- and part-time employees

SEATTLE — Amazon says it is hiring more than 2,500 full-time workers at its order fulfillment centers around the U.S.

Amazon.com Inc. plans to announce Wednesday that the jobs are available in Chester, Va., and Petersburg, Va.; Coffeyville, Kan.; Columbia, S.C.; Dupont, Wash.; Murfreesboro, Tenn.

The world's largest online retailer says last year it hired more than 20,000 people at its fulfillment centers, with more than half starting out as seasonal workers. Amazon says the median income for people working at its order-fulfillment facilities is higher than at traditional retailers.

The Seattle-based company had 117,300 full-time and part-time employees at the end of 2013, according to a regulatory filing.

Sun Products to close Baltimore plant, lay off 300 employees

BALTIMORE - Sun Products Corp., which manufactures and markets laundry and household care products, will close its Baltimore plant and lay off 300 employees in the process.

The plant, located on Holabird Ave. will close by June and the employees who work at the facility will receive transition assistance packages including severance pay as well as outplacement support in seeking new jobs.

In a news release, a company spokesperson said Sun Products is seeking “to align production with the plants that are geographically positioned to best serve our customers with excellence and at the lowest total delivered cost.”

“At the same time, volume and mix have been changing in the laundry category, such that we can no longer produce product competitively at our Baltimore plant,” the statement continued. “Over the next few months we will transfer production from Baltimore to our Bowling Green, Kentucky manufacturing plant.

“This decision is a result of changing business needs and is not a reflection of the Baltimore community or our dedicated workforce. We value their hard work over the years, and we are committed to supporting them through a smooth transition.”

Illinois employers warn state of nearly 550 job cuts

Five companies may shed a combined 546 jobs in Illinois in coming months, according to the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act report for January.

That figure does not include job cuts will occur due to the merger of Naperville-based OfficeMax Inc. and Office Depot Inc., based in Boca Raton, Fla. OfficeMax was named in the report but did not provide a job estimate. A spokeswoman did not immediately return a call for comment.

Other cuts:

• Specialty Foods Group Inc., a meat wholesaler in Chicago that makes Nathan's Famous hotdogs and other products, will lay off 250 workers. No reason was provided and a company executive did not immediately return a call for comment.

• Harmony Health Plan of Illinois, a Chicago-based health maintenance organization, will eliminate 105 jobs. No reason was provided and a company executive did not immediately return a call for comment.

• J.C. Penney Co. will shed 127 jobs when it shutters its store in west suburban Bloomingdale in May. The closure is one of 33 underperforming stores Penney will shut down nationally as the department store company attempts a turnaround.

• Oldcastle BuildingEnvelope, a company in west suburban Bensenville that manufactures windows, doors, skylights and architectural glass, will lay off 64 workers as it closes its facility.

Wal-Mart to cut 2,300 job at Sam's Club

Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) is reportedly planning to lay off 2,300 employees at Sam's Club, marking the wholesale club's biggest layoffs since 2010.

The layoffs represent the latest cutbacks by U.S. retailers following a disappointing holiday shopping season.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the layoffs are aimed at reducing the number of middle managers at the company.

The 2,300 in reported cuts would represent roughly 2% of Sam's Club's employees.

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-mart did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Wal-Mart is scheduled to report quarterly results on February 15. Shares of Wal-Mart fell 0.19% to $74.28 in after-hours action on Friday evening after dropping 0.72% during regular trading.

Earlier this week, Target (TGT) revealed plans to lay off 475 employees worldwide and keep 700 open positions unfilled.

Also, Macy's (M) recently announced it will slash 2,500 jobs and close five weaker-performing stores as part of efforts to save as much as $100 million a year.

Chicago : Accretive Health to cut 170 jobs

Accretive Health Inc. plans to cut as many as 170 jobs this year, most of them in Chicago.

The company will keep its headquarters here but move some functions to Dallas and Detroit.

The moves, which the company announced this morning, come less than 10 months into the tenure of Stephen Schuckenbrock, the former Dell Inc. executive drafted by Accretive in a management shakeup that moved founder Mary Tolan to the chairman spot. Ms. Tolan stepped down from the position and left the company in November to "pursue other business interests."

The company will cut 140 to 170 positions, "mostly" in Chicago and all in North America, with 25 layoffs immediately, a spokesman said.

The company has about 1,500 employees in North America, he said.

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It's also about a year after the company said it would have to restate financial results for quarters stretching back to 2009. Accretive did not file any financial results in 2013. The revenue cycle management firm intends to file restated results by March 19.

The restatement came just as the company was struggling to refashion its image after a widely publicized investigation by the Minnesota attorney general's office in to losses of data and alleged harsh collection tactics from patients health systems in the Minneapolis area.

Executives are holding a town hall meeting with employees this morning to inform them of the eliminations.

Target cuts 475 jobs worldwide

Target is cutting 475 jobs worldwide, the company told CNBC in an email on Wednesday.

The Minneapolis retailer also said 700 positions will not be filled. Target did not say what departments would be affected by the layoffs or how much money it would save the company.

The retailer has a total global headcount of 361,000 and employs about 14,000 at its headquarters and related offices in Minnesota.

The news comes just weeks after the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company forecast weak results for the holiday season, during which it fell victim to a cyber attack that led to the theft of some 40 million payment card numbers and the personal data of 70 million customers.

(Read more: Target CEO defends 4-day wait to disclose massive data hack)

In early January, the retailer cut its fourth-quarter profit forecast, in part due to weaker-than-expected sales since reports of the cyber-attack emerged in mid-December.

"We believe these decisions, while difficult, are the right actions as we continue to focus on transforming our business," Target spokeswoman Molly Snyder said.

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Texas Instruments to cut 1,100 jobs worldwide

(Reuters) - Texas Instruments Inc plans to cut 1,100 jobs in the United States, Japan and India, or about 3 percent of its global workforce, in a corporate restructuring to save $130 million by the end of 2014.

The U.S. chipmaker, which in 2012 announced it would lay off 1,700 people as it wound down its mobile processor business, said on Tuesday it wanted to reduce expenses in its embedded-processing division and in Japan.

"Technology markets mature from time to time and you have to rebalance where you spend your money," Chief Financial Officer Kevin March said in an interview. "In the case of Japan, the size of the market there has been declining for a number of years."

While TI is better known to many consumers for its calculators, the Dallas-based company is regarded as a barometer of the chip industry because it makes components for a variety of markets, including industrial, automotive, consumer electronics and communications.

Demand for TI chips has gradually improved in recent months although many on Wall Street have been watching for a larger pickup, including an elusive buildup in inventories by manufacturing customers.

March said most of TI's customers have kept their inventories "extremely lean," largely because TI in recent years has increased its own store of available components so that it can fill new orders quickly.

Job cuts to TI's embedded business are centered mostly on products that have seen slow growth, he said. The job cuts in Japan will include sales and customer support.

TI took a $49 million charge in the fourth quarter, to be followed by about $30 million in the first.

"This to me shows they believe there are some more efficient ways to run the business than they were running it," RBC analyst Doug Freedman said of the chipmaker's job cuts.

TI is the second major chipmaker in the past week to announce layoffs.

Intel Corp said on Friday it plans to reduce its global workforce of 107,000 by about 5 percent this year as the chipmaker, struggling with falling personal-computer sales, shifts focus to faster-growing areas.

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TI, which has gradually withdrawn from an intensely competitive mobile phone arena to focus on supplying chips for more lucrative markets like cars and communications, posted fourth-quarter revenue on Tuesday that was up 2 percent from the year-ago period, above expectations.

TI reported fourth-quarter net income of $511 million, or 46 cents a share. The $49 million charge reduced earnings by 3 cents a share due to the restructuring.

In the year-ago quarter, TI had net income of $264 million, or 23 cents.

Revenue rose to $3.03 billion in the fourth quarter - a little higher than expected - from $2.98 billion in the year-ago quarter. TI estimated first-quarter revenue of $2.83 billion to $3.07 billion.

Analysts on average had predicted $2.987 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter and $2.95 billion for the first quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

It said it expects EPS in the first quarter of 36 cents to 44 cents.

On a conference call with analysts, TI said it will stop providing mid-quarter updates to its outlook because its business increasingly reflects broad trends instead of changes caused by major customers.

Shares of TI fell 1.59 percent in extended trade after closing up 0.92 percent at $43.85 on Nasdaq.

Intel Plans to Cut 5,000 Jobs in 2014

Intel expects to shed about 5 percent of its work force, or 5,000 jobs, in 2014, as it tries to change the company with the times, according to a company official.

The official, who spoke only anonymously, said the cuts would probably be made through a mixture of attrition and layoffs.

Intel, the world’s largest maker of semiconductors, rode to greatness by supplying crucial elements of personal computers, but it failed to anticipate the ways that smartphones and tablets would start to replace PCs.

Brian M. Krzanich, who became chief executive of Intel in mid-2013, has said that Intel has realized its mistake. He has been in a hurry to show how Intel’s newest chips could be part of wearable computers, biometric devices and even connected appliances.

Intel is also trying to make low-power chips that can compete in tablets and smartphones and to push new versions of chips for PCs. Those chips for PCs remain critical for Intel. In earnings announced on Thursday, the company said its PC division had $33 billion in revenue in 2013. While that number was down 4 percent from 2012, it was still nearly two-thirds of Intel’s annual revenue of $52.7 billion.

Intel also projected that its revenue for all of 2014 would be flat and that gross profit margins could shrink. Research and development spending was also expected to stabilize despite the pressure on profits, as Intel seeks new places to put its chips.

In a call with financial analysts on Thursday, Stacy J. Smith, Intel’s chief financial officer, said Intel would invest in chips for “things like the data center, tablets, low-power systems on a chip.” Those systems enable chips to perform several functions in a small space. He added, “There’s going be a significant shift in investment over the course of the year.”

The employment cuts, which the Intel official said were part of a larger program to shift resources to growing business lines, appeared to sit well with Wall Street.

Intel shares, which fell about 5 percent in early trading on Friday, recovered toward the end of the day as word of the job cuts began to circulate. The stock closed at $25.85 a share, down 2.6 percent, or 69 cents.