Business News

Merrill Lynch & Co., the nation's biggest brokerage firm, said it has cut 9,000 jobs, or nearly 14 percent of its work force.

Victor's Secret is closing its store at Underground Atlanta after 12 years. A spokeswoman for Victoria's Secret says the store will close January 19th for financial reasons.

The Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta is awarding $13.6 million in Affordable Housing Program grants in ten states.

The Savannah Morning News has broken ground on a new 145,000-square-foot production facility that newspaper officials say will meet advertiser demands and get the paper to readers earlier in the day.

Enron Corp. representatives met six times with Vice President Dick Cheney or his aides on the nation's energy policy, including a discussion in mid-October just before the company's sudden collapse.

United Parcel Service Inc. and the Teamsters union said Tuesday they have agreed to open talks this month on a new contract. The current, five-year contract expires July 31.

Datastream Systems Inc.'s board rejected MRO Software Inc.'s $6-a-share hostile takeover bid, and said it expects to exceed consensus fourth-quarter earnings and total revenue estimates.

David E. Easterly, vice chairman of Cox Enterprises Inc. and a former publisher of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, said Tuesday he is retiring after 32 years at the company.

The terrorist attacks and the slipping economy combined to cause the biggest drop in mail volume in more than 30 years, the Postal Service reported Tuesday.

O'Charley's Inc. today announced that it expects to exceed its previously-issued earnings estimate for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2001.