Business

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.

Mel Nichols, a 37-year-old bartender in Phoenix, Arizona, takes home anywhere from $30 to $50 an hour with tips included. But the uncertainty of how much she’s going to make on a daily basis is a constant source of stress. “For every good day, there’s three bad days,” said Nichols, who has been in the service industry since she was a teenager. “You have no security when it comes to knowing how much you’re going to make.”

A cohort of new cannabis licensees in Maryland are facing their first hurdles and finding their identities as they set out on an 18-month venture to get their business up and running. The 205 prospective businesses were selected at random earlier this year through the state’s social equity lottery for cannabis licenses. Many of the people behind them are entering the legal pot industry from other careers — some are lawyers, some are educators, others are engineers and electricians.

From modest beginnings on the campus of Hood College, the Frederick Innovative Technology Center Inc. has grown into an important part of Frederick County’s business scene. The incubator celebrated its 20th anniversary at an event Thursday. FITCI has helped start 257 companies in its 20 years of existence, FITCI CEO Kathie Callahan Brady said Thursday.

A Howard County-based produce wholesaler is closing its doors and potentially putting over 400 people out of work less than two weeks before the Christmas holiday. Lancaster Foods notified the Maryland Department of Labor this week that it will close its Jessup plant by Dec. 14 and lay off as many as 424 employees. A representative for Lancaster referred a reporter to The Coastal Companies, which declined to comment.