Remember how stock market analysts were praising how well Groupon stock performed during its Initial Public Offering earlier this month? Two weeks later, it looks like a wait-and-see approach may have been better served. more ›

Is Groupon's baby steps into offering products online a challenge to online retailers such as Amazon and Overstock? Or is it business as usual? more ›

We now live under what used to be a stand-up comedian's line: "I like to go to Washington... to see the best government money can buy." more ›

Groupon CEO Andrew Mason says everything is just fine and people should feel free to stuff their portfolios with company stock after the company's highly anticipated $750 million initial public offering. more ›

The venerable local grocery store lists assets of $6.1 million against liabilities of $10.1 million through June. more ›

WalMart's plan for up to two dozen new stores in Chicago took its first real step today with the opening of a new WalMart Express store in the Chatham Market on the South side. more ›

British Developer Bill Davies has no small plans for the Old Chicago Post Office, as revealed in his redevelopment project yesterday. more ›

Chicago startup Dabble is here to connect you with a one-time-only class on a plethora of wide-ranging topics. more ›

River North, you're getting a Wal-Mart. more ›

The Tribune reports today that CME Group, owners of the Chicago Board of Trade Building, has hired brokers to market a sale of the classic Art Deco-style building. more ›

The owners of Willis Tower have hired two brokerages to market the nation's tallest skyscraper in the search for an investor or an outright sale of the building. more ›

Crain's has a very interesting article in today's edition that details the depth of the struggles currently being wrestled by the Field Museum; the headline "Evolve or Die" is a nice and fitting touch to the story. more ›

Groupon and Live Nation have joined forces to launch a discount ticket deal website for concerts, live theater and other events. As James Van Osdol put it, now you can get fleeced while reading too-clever-for-the-room descriptions of your favorite bands. more ›

This morning's news that Goose Island was being purchased outright by Anheuser-Busch for $38.8 million was followed by an outcry of opinion the likes of which hadn't been seen since ... well, since A-B bought its initial 40 percent stake in the Goose Island five years ago. The initial response was fierce and furious, vacillating between concerns the beer would now taste worse because it was owned by a Belgian corporation, what the deal means for Goose Island as a brand, A-B in its efforts to control the beer marketplace, and consumers, and cries of the loaded term "sellout," as loaded a term if ever there was one. more ›

Anheuser-Busch is set to buy Goose Island for a cool $38.8 million, according to the Tribune. For those of us familiar with the beer industry, the news doesn't come as a shock. A-B (through Widmer Brothers brewing Co.) has had a 40 percent stake in the company since 2006. That deal opened the doors for Goose Island to increase its sales by reaching more accounts via A-B's national distribution network. more ›

Chicagorealestatedaily.com is reporting that gourmet food market Fox & Obel is trying their damnedest to maintain their Streeterville digs, in which they're behind on rent. more ›

Groupon is selling discounted tickets to Friday's opening of The Lincoln Lawyer, a legal thriller starring Mathew McConaughey, as part of a deal with movie studio Lionsgate and film production company Lakeshore Entertainment. more ›

The tribune is reporting that the Daley Administration has reached a deal with United and American Airlines to continue building new runways at O'Hare Airport. The deal is a coup for Daley in that it puts an end to the lawsuit filed by the two airlines to stop the project, which is part of the O'Hare expansion. more ›

The battle for a Wal-Mart seems to be reaching its endgame with the news that the world's largest retailer will open a "Wal-Mart Express" store in the Chatham Market at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue. The planned 10,000 square-foot store will focus on selling "convenience-minded" foodstuffs. more ›

9th Ward Ald. Anthony Beale is considering stalling the proposed Costco on the Near West Side because the 2007 land swap the Daley Administration agreed to with the Illinois Medical District will deprive the city of more than $1 million annually in rental income. more ›

Looks like Mayor Daley is making one last round of municipal beautification before leaving office. The Daley Administration signed a $2.5 million deal with Big Belly Solar to add more solar-powered trash compactors to the Central Business District. Up to 400 of the bins, which hold five times the amount of trash as a regular trash can and contain a sensor to let the city know when it's full, could soon be gracing the areas of downtown where pedestrian traffic is heaviest. more ›

Mayor Daley loved TIF funds - tax dollars given to spur economic development and growth in struggling areas of the city. However, a four-month investigation by Columbia College journalism students at Chicago Talks revealed that less than half of the monies were actually spent in this manner. The Chicago News Cooperative reports that the investigation found a huge chunk of TIF monies went to profitable companies and some non-profits centered in the loop, while many of the city's actual economically depressed areas received little benefits. more ›

So we know how viewers responded to Groupon's Super Bowl ads. But how much did the ads help increase the online discount pioneer's web traffic? Not much, according to data compiled by Nielsen Research. Fast Company reports that Nielsen broke down the bumps in traffic from Super Bowl advertisers and found Groupon's ads only resulted in a 3 percent increase in traffic to their site. Given the costs of a Super Bowl ad and the 110 million people who watched the Packers beat the Steelers, they consider that a wash. more ›

“I forecast for this spring, the highest prices for Chicago we’ve ever seen,” predicts DeHann. “Prices usually start rising in March. If things in the Middle East get worse, there is a potential to hit record pricing in Chicago. It could be the worst pain at the pump Chicagoans have ever seen.” more ›

Just days after the death of his father, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has indicated that he may agree to give control of the county hospitals to an independent agency. Stroger's chief of staff Lance Tyson told Crain's Chicago Business "the intent is to take health services for the poor out of the sphere of politics and put it into a sphere of greater business expertise." The proposal to turn the county's health care system over to an independent body came last October, when a committee of business and health care executives commissioned to study the systemreleased their recommendations. more ›

A tentative contract deal was announced yesterday between the Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union. Although the details were not discussed publicly, our sources tell us that nothing too radical was agreed upon. The teachers are expected to get around 4 percent each year of the deal. CTU President Marilyn Stewart suggested to Crain's Chicago Business that the CTU managed to restore some of what was lost in the previous contract, which was... more ›

BP announced yesterday that it was backing down on plans to increase discharges of ammonia and suspended solids into Lake Michigan from the planned expansion of its Whiting, Indiana refinery. BP announced on its website Thursday "ongoing regional opposition to any increase in discharge permit limits for Lake Michigan creates an unacceptable level of business risk for this $3.8 billion investment." more ›

Yesterday Willowbrook family practitioner Steve Sauerberg announced his candidacy for the United States Senate, hoping that he will be the lucky Illinois Republican to challenge Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin for his seat in Congress. “Sen. Dick Durbin has been on the government payroll for the last 37 years.... Quite simply, he is part of the problem in Washington, D.C.” Sauerberg told Crain's Chicago Business earlier this week. With no other name-brand Republicans willing to... more ›

One of Chicago's newest aldermen, Bob Fioretti (2nd) is taking heat from one of the city's older hotels. The 14-story Congress Plaza Hotel, designed and built to accommodate visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, has been embroiled in a strike with UNITE HERE Local 1 since June 2003. According to Crain's Chicago Business, the hotel, owned by Albert Nasser Shayo, a Syrian globe-trotting businessman with residences in New York, Argentina, and Switzerland, who... more ›

Well, Creative Loafing hasn't even owned the Reader for a week, and already the Tampa-based company is leaving its mark. Creative Loafing CEO Ben Eason announced Friday that the Old Gray Doorstop's going to become a traditional tabloid. In addition to moving ad and page design and some production functions of the paper to Atlanta and printing the paper to Fayetteville, N.C., Eason told Crain's Chicago Business that they're going to combine the Reader's three... more ›