Checkers restaurants said to be up for $500 million sale

The owner of Checkers Drive-In Restaurants Inc. is preparing to sell the hamburger chain in a process that could fetch about $500 million, people with knowledge of the matter said. Sentinel Capital Partners, which bought Checkers in 2014, is working with investment bank Piper Jaffray Cos to sell the company, said the people, who asked not to be identified. A sale of Checkers this year would represent a short holding period for New York-based Sentinel, which manages $2.6 billion in assets. Private equity firms typically sell their companies after about five years with the aim of approximately doubling their investment.

Wal-Mart to add about 10,000 retail jobs in the U.S.

NEW YORK — Wal-Mart plans to add about 10,000 retail jobs in the U.S. as it opens new stores and expands existing locations. The world’s biggest retailer said Tuesday that its plans will also generate about 24,000 construction jobs. The jobs will come from the opening of 59 new, expanded and relocated Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations as well as e-commerce services that were previously announced. Wal-Mart is opening fewer stores this year, but still adding jobs as it offers more positions in online grocery pickup, trainers for its new academies for hourly workers and construction jobs for remodels.

GM announces $1 billion investment in U.S. plants

General Motors announced plans Tuesday to invest $1 billion in U.S. factories and hire thousands of new white-collar jobs, moves that have been in the works for years but were made public after attacks from Trump. And Amazon.com announced last week that it would add 100,000 full-time jobs over the next 18 months. The increased hiring was tied to already-announced plans to build more distribution centers and other facilities. Amazon said its U.S. workforce has grown from 30,000 in 2011 to more than 180,000 by the end of this year. By comparison, Wal-Mart employs about 2.4 million people worldwide, including 1.5 million in the United States. Trump thanked General Motors and Wal-Mart on Twitter for “starting the big push back in the U.S.” and took credit for bringing jobs “back into the U.S.” However, Wal-Mart store jobs and construction wouldn't have moved elsewhere anyway.