Perpetually-failing chicken producer Pilgrim’s Pride has announced that its fourth-quarter losses will be over $802 million. The company has blamed its losses on the rising costs of animal feed and an acquisition which cost PP $500 million over the quarter.

The embattled company has had to deal with layoffs and a grim stock slide. So far, they’ve been able to stave off bankruptcy by continually postponing their debt payments. Who knows how this game will last…

[Yahoo Finance] Pilgrim’s Pride puts 4Q loss at $802 million

Suspicious Minds: The Democrats are investigating the investigation of Eliot Spitzer. [NY Times]

Nuts: The guy who broke the ad agency cubicle sex tape has been fired. [Asylum]

Thanksgiving Gambling: Check out the lines on Turkey-day football games. [Bodog]

That’s it for updates today — posting will be sporadic over the Thanksgiving holidays. Enjoy your dysfunctional families, fatty meals, and quarts of alcohol!

Title underwriter LandAmerica Financial Group has filed for bankruptcy with $2.8 billion in debts. The company has pointed the finger at Fidelity for pulling out of a $126 million takeover offer. Shares of the company — which peaked last year at $106 — are currently trading around 90 cents.

In a statement, LandAmerica’s CEO, Theodore Chandler had this to say:

“This coordinated Chapter 11 filing and Nebraska rehabilitation action offers our stakeholders the best result available in this brutal real estate, credit and capital market environment.”

Somehow I imagine that “stakeholders” don’t feel that this is the “best result available…”

LandAmerica landslide:

The U.S. wing of the Royal Bank of Canada has put up a big red $103 million for the third quarter as the bank sets aside money for bad loans. Last year, the bank made a profit of $18.4 million. Welcome to the U.S. guys.

[Atlanta Biz Journal] RBC Bank swings to $103M loss

Three strikes: Vikram Pandit has one more screw-up left at Citi. What’s it going to be? [Dealbreaker]

Dumbass: A British juror sent out a Facebook message asking her friends how they would vote in a criminal case. [Techdirt]

Mad Men Material: The already-infamous video that shows two ad agency employees bangin’ in a cubicle. [Gawker]

German medical giant Bayer will pay the U.S. government $97.5 million in order to settle charges that it bribed diabetic supply companies to use its products rather than those of its competitors. The $2.5 million in kickbacks to companies like Wilford Brimley-endorsed Liberty Medical were disguised as advertising payments. Bayer was charged with 11 such deals.

[CNN] Bayer pays $97.5M to settle allegations

Starbucks execs have gone on record in their latest annual report saying that 2009 will be “extremely challenging” for the company. They also predicted that same-store sales would drop, but assured investors that they would be “disciplined in [their] approach to new store openings.”

The company has already seen its yuppie clientele fall off a cliff — their 4th quarter earnings were a fraction of last year’s numbers; rather than lowering prices for their addictive products, the company’s strategy revolves around store closings and executive layoffs.

Some advice for Starbucks’ management: hire a few drug dealers as consultants to tell you how to sell addictive substances during a recession.

Read the 2009 outlook here:

Read more »

Jet-maker Eclipse has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with $1 billion in debts. The company will continue to operate as it goes through court-administered restructuring, and their 945 employees “should see no major changes.”

The problem with the company according to the CFO Mark Borseth was that “Eclipse continued to lose larger than expected sums of money on each aircraft manufactured.” It’s never a good plan to lose money on your products…

[CNN] Eclipse Aviation files for bankruptcy protection

Fort Worth-based homebuilder DR Horton, which bills itself as America’s builder, has just posted a Texas-sized loss of $800 million. The company’s revenues plunged by 44 percent, but this number still beat analysts’ expectations.

For the full-year, the company has lose $2.63 billion — more than three times larger than they lost last year. There is good news, though: DR Horton has announced a quarterly cash dividend of 3.75 cents per share. The company hopes that this will shut up disgruntled shareholders.

[Yahoo Finance] DR Horton swings to $800 million loss

ABX Air has just announced that it will layoff 338 employees by mid-January because its largest customer, DHL is scaling back operations. These cuts are in addition to the 276 layoffs the company went through earlier this year.

[Business Courier] ABX Air continues layoffs

Score it: The Dow stages the best two-day rally since 1987. [Bloomberg]

Bailout: A liveblog of the Citi-U.S. bailout conference call. [Dealbreaker]

Tweet: You can now follow Idiot Inc. updates on Twitter. [Twitter]

The largest steelmaker in the world, ArcelorMittal, has notified the United Steel Workers union that it will probably layoff 2,400 employees at its Burns Harbor facility. The company has plans to slice its global steel production by 35% during the 4th quarter, and their hourly workers will bear the brunt of these cuts.

A company flack had this to say in a statement:

“Potential workforce reductions are a direct result of the extraordinary economic environment we are facing and the company hopes to return workers to their jobs as market conditions warrant.”

[CNN] ArcelorMittal Warns Of Large Layoffs At US Steel Plants

In a poorly-timed memo just days after the company slashed its dividend, The New York Times will be offering employees company stock on-the-cheap. The marked-down stock is a good deal, unless the company has another year like 2008…

Here’s the full memo:

Read more »

Delta Airlines is being sued by The Association of Flight Attendants which is trying to prevent the company from “carrying out a seniority integration process” before a vote on whether or not the attendants will unionize. The vote is related to the airline’s merger with Northwest because NWA’s flight attendants are unionized while Delta’s are not. The flight attendants will seek to vote before the staff integration takes place.

[AJC] Flight attendant union sues Delta

Tabletop giftware and collectible maker (?) Lenox Group has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company hopes to continue operating while in bankruptcy and is desperately trying to sell itself.

Lenox’s CEO issued this statement to reassure the company’s partners:

“We want to assure our employees, customers, vendors and communities that Lenox is conducting business as usual.”

Something tells me you want to do a bit better than “business as usual…”

[Gifts & Accessories] Lenox Files for Bankruptcy