JPMorgan Chase selects WTC site to build office tower
New York: Investment banker JPMorgan Chase has taken a 99-year lease on a site next to Ground Zero for $300-million, where it will build offices for its New York-based investment bankers and securities traders, people involved in the negotiations said.

The agreement between JPMorgan, the third-largest US bank, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the World Trade Center site, will be announced this morning by New York governor Eliot Spitzer and JPMorgan chief executive officer Jamie Dimon, according to the people, who declined to be named because they weren't authorised to comment.

JPMorgan will become the first private company to commit to taking space in the Ground Zero reconstruction zone, anchoring the recovery of New York's original financial district.

City, state and federal agencies, including US Customs and Border Protection, have agreed to lease space in Freedom Tower, the 1,776-foot-tall skyscraper to be built at the site by 2012, and at 4 World Trade Center, a smaller tower to be finished in 2011.

JPMorgan's building will be taller than 40 stories. JPMorgan has about 6,000 investment bank employees in New York.
Back to News Review index page  

37,000 workers have left Ford Motor
Detroit: Ford Motor Co. has said that about 37,000 of the union workers who accepted buyout offers have left the company.

Ford offered United Auto Workers union employees buyouts last year as part of its restructuring.

Ford Motor posted a record loss of $12.7 billion in 2006 and a loss of $282 million for the 2007 first quarter, is in a four-year turnaround plan announced. In 2006 the company announced that it aimed to cut 16 plants and up to 45,000 jobs.
Back to News Review index page  

Apple launches latest Mac OS version
Apple Computers has launched the latest version of its Mac operating system 10.5 or Mac OS X Leopard.

To be available from October this year, Leopard has over 300 new features, including a new desktop and dock with stacks, an intuitive new way to organise files; an updated Finder featuring Cover Flow and a process to easily browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to rapidly preview most files without opening an application; Time Machine, a new method to easily and automatically back up and restore lost files or a complete Mac; Spaces, a new feature to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and enhanced iChat and Mail applications, which easily allow users to communicate even more creatively.

The Leopard is priced at $129 for a single user licence and $199 for the Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack - a single-residence, five-user licence.
Back to News Review index page