Business briefs
Monroeville’s #1 Cochran acquires South Hills Audi
Monroeville-based #1 Cochran announced Tuesday it has acquired South Hills Audi on Racetrack Road in Washington County. The price wasn’t disclosed. The acquisition gives #1 Cochran two Audi dealerships in the region and marks the company’s first entry into Washington County. “Nearly all” of South Hills Audi’s employees will keep their jobs, #1 Cochran said in a news release. The company operates 24 new vehicle dealerships in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Chatham opens center for women business owners
Chatham University is opening a center for women business owners that will include a hands-on design lab for makers, digital training and financial literacy programs. The Entrepreneurship Hub will be housed at Chatham’s Eastside building on Penn Avenue near Bakery Square. Funding totaling more than $250,000 is being provided by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, the PNC Foundation and Google.org — the philanthropic arm of the search engine giant. The hub will be operated by Chatham’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship and its Women’s Business Center, which were formerly based at Chatham’s main campus in Shadyside.
Startup uses facial recognition to halt human traffickers
Marinus Analytics, a spinoff out of Carnegie Mellon University that
created software to mine the deep web for sex traffickers in 2012, on Tuesday announced new facial recognition technology that aids detectives in the search for missing persons by harnessing “big data,” or large data sets that can be broken down to identify patterns. The innovation, called FaceSearch, uses advancements in artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, predictive modeling and geospatial analysis to transform big data into chunks of information that provide actionable information.
BNY Mellon fined $3 million over errors
Bank of New York Mellon was fined $3 million Tuesday by the Federal Reserve for errors in risk weighting that overstated the bank’s capital. BNY Mellon has corrected the problem, the Fed said.
84 Lumber restructures for U.S. expansion
Building supplies company 84 Lumber has completed a corporate restructuring to help manage its nationwide expansion. The company will have four targeted divisions in the Central, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and Southwest portions of the company. The largest number of stores — 90 — will be located in its Central Division, which includes Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio.
Arconic slide continues after London fire fallout
Shares of Arconic fell another 9 percent Tuesday following reports last week that the aluminum products company made siding used on London’s Grenfell Tower apartment building, where at least 79 people died in a June 14 fire. London police blamed flammable materials used on the building’s exterior for quickly spreading the blaze. Arconic said Monday the siding was only one component used for the building’s exterior and that it will no longer sell the product for use in high-rise projects. Arconic shares finished Tuesday at $21.84, down $2.17 for the day and 14 percent since Friday.
North Shore’s Bar Louie reopened after back-up
Bar Louie on the North Shore voluntarily closed Saturday due to a sewage back-up in the kitchen and food preparation areas, according to an inspection report by the Allegheny County Health Department. The restaurant was permitted to reopen Sunday.
Sharon Regional CEO leaving for new post
Sharon Regional Health System’s CEO is resigning to accept a position in Erie. Jason Roeback will be leaving Sharon Regional to join St. Vincent Hospital in Erie as its chief operating officer. An Erie native, Mr. Roeback joins recently appointed Saint Vincent president Christopher Clark at the hospital system, which is part of Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network.
Sprint said to be in talks with Charter, Comcast
Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc., the two largest U.S. cable companies, met with executives at Sprint Corp. in the past month to discuss reselling wireless services, people familiar with the matter said. The more likely scenario is the cable giants strike a deal that lets them resell services on Sprint’s wireless network, the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private. Another topic discussed was Comcast and Charter jointly buying Sprint, though that scenario is less likely, one of the people said.