Business

T. Rowe Price Group Inc. has laid off 2% of its employees across the globe, citing an “exceedingly challenging year” for the industry and company. The Baltimore investment firm’s management committee sent a memo to employees to let them know that the company was downsizing. “We made targeted expense reductions across the enterprise, including further reducing our third-party spending and eliminating roles, with approximately 2% of our associate population departing the firm,” a spokeswoman said in confirming the contents of the memo.

Employees from more than 100 Starbucks stores plan to walk off the job Thursday, hoping to shutter shops for the day in protest of the company’s approach to union contract negotiations as the coffee giant launches holiday products. Leaders of Starbucks Workers United, which represents nearly 7,000 employees at hundreds of stores, say the company has not bargained in good faith and needlessly delayed talks on labor contracts. The company has countered that certain conditions for negotiations — namely, allowing union members to silently observe proceedings on Zoom — are impermissible.

The Johns Hopkins University researchers behind two of Baltimore’s most successful biotech firms have founded a new company that has now raised $56 million to create a new diagnostic tool for cancer. Haystack Oncology plans to use the funding from its series A round to kickstart a move into a large lab inside of City Garage in Port Covington, which was recently renamed Baltimore Peninsula.

A crowd of unionized Baltimore Marriott Waterfront hotel workers participated in a work stoppage on Tuesday, taking to the sidewalks to demand higher wages they say are in line with other hotel providers. At approximately 12 p.m., a couple dozen workers at the Harbor East hotel participated in the roughly hour-long work stoppage, advocating for pay increases they say will keep up with the increased cost of living. The walkout was part of an effort by Unite Here Local 7, the union behind the workers, to address what it says has been an impasse at the bargaining table.

Lytos, a Baltimore-based company that specializes in making a patent pending, gluten-free premium vodka with added electrolytes, Tuesday announced it has expanded sales into liquor stores and bars in Washington and Delaware. Lytos, manufactured in Columbia, was originally sold throughout greater Baltimore and the Eastern Shore. The company has plans to expand sales into other states, targeting New York, Florida, Arizona and California. After debuting in November 2020, Lytos Vodka is now sold in about 400 bars, restaurants and liquor stores throughout Maryland, Washington and Delaware. Lytos calls itself the first-ever vodka marketed and sold with added electrolytes.

Two months ago, Jay Walsh was comparing Baltimore’s housing market to crack cocaine for investors. On Tuesday, his company filed for bankruptcy. ABC Capital Investment LLC has been one of the most aggressive homebuyers in Baltimore in recent years. In an investigation published in October, The Baltimore Sun identified more than 140 homes purchased by ABC Capital since 2019. Walsh said his firm has actually bought about 1,200 homes since 2015, selling most of them to foreign investors and using third-party companies to manage them.“If you wanted to give investors a drug, Baltimore’s the drug,” Walsh said. “Some people, they think it’s easy. It’s not easy. It’s not easy at all. But if you’re willing to put in the work, I think it’s a diamond in the rough, even with the rats.”

Bray & Scarff, a family-owned company founded in 1930, has signed a lease with St. John Properties Inc. for 12,000 square feet of space at 8610 Cherry Lane, a move which expands its presence within Prince George’s County’s Laurel Business Center to 84,000 square feet of space. The 210-person company sells home appliances and provides kitchen design and remodeling services to residential customers throughout central Maryland, Washington and northern Virginia. Claire Cobert of St. John Properties represented the landlord and the client was self-represented in this transaction. The location within the two-building business community services the company’s network of 14 retail locations and one outlet center.

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott continues to make good on her promise to give away billions, donating $15 million to Baltimore-based Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service — the largest gift from an individual donor in the nonprofit’s 83-year history. The Lutheran nonprofit found out about the donation weeks ago but had to keep mum until Scott was ready to divulge the news. She did so on Monday in a post on Medium, an online publishing platform, where she said she has given $1.99 billion to 343 organizations “supporting the voices and opportunities of people from underserved communities.”