Business

Baltimore Ghost Tours has received eerie calls and reviews since 2021. “We are trying to find out where this ghost tour is. Nobody’s answering the goddamn phone to let us know after we spent almost $100 for this tour,” one angry caller said. From another: “I haven’t received any information on whether or not I got the tickets, or if the purchase was accepted or anything.”

Amazon is shutting down a service that offers same-day delivery from mall and brick-and-mortar retailers, CNBC has learned. The company has stopped any new development of the service, called Amazon Today, and will begin to wind it down, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. The people asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The bulk of the program will be shut down by Dec. 2, the people said. Select retail partners will be able to continue fulfilling orders with Amazon Today through Jan. 24, 2025, Amazon told CNBC.

A Virginia banking company plans to acquire Maryland-based Sandy Spring Bancorp in a deal valued at about $1.6 billion, creating one of the mid-Atlantic region’s largest banks and cementing the merged bank’s presence in Maryland and Northern Virginia. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp., based in Richmond, said it entered an all-stock merger agreement with Olney-based Sandy Spring, the eighth-largest bank in the Baltimore region and the seventh largest in the state, based on deposits.

Atlantic Union Bankshares Corporation and Olney-based Sandy Spring Bancorp Monday announced they have entered into a definitive merger agreement for Atlantic Union to acquire Sandy Spring in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $1.6 billion. Combining the two organizations will create the largest regional bank headquartered in the lower mid-Atlantic, officials said, and significantly enhance the combined company’s presence in northern Virginia and Maryland.

The Governor’s Minority & Small Business Outreach Summit is heading to Baltimore Nov. 19 at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor. The event is expected to attract more than 800 local, small, minority-owned, women-owned and veteran-owned businesses and dozens of prime contractors. Attendees will discover how to tap into more than $7 billion in state contracting opportunities and benefit from a powerful lineup of workshops, networking sessions and insider tips designed to help their businesses break into the lucrative world of government contracts.

A group of West Baltimore tenants seeking to hold their landlords and property manager accountable for failing to have a rental license will be able to take their case to trial next year after a judge sided with their unique legal argument. In an August ruling, Baltimore City Circuit Judge Kendra Y. Ausby allowed the case to proceed on four of five counts. One of them is a fraud and deceit claim — a somewhat rare allegation in landlord-tenant disputes due to the high bar required to prove it, legal experts who specialize in the practice area said.

Oil prices were broadly steady on Monday, following a more than 7% drop last week on worries about demand in China, the world’s top oil importer, and an easing of concerns about potential supply disruptions in the Middle East. Brent crude futures were up 38 cents, or 0.5%, to $73.44 a barrel at 0747 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 44 cents, or 0.6% to $69.66 a barrel.