Cost Plus Inc. will chop 10 percent of its corporate work force, close 18 stores, and open 17 new ones, the Oakland-based specialty retailer said Thursday. The company's corporate work force totals 350, according to Jane Baughman, a Cost Plus spokeswoman. That would be the loss of about 35 jobs related to this announcement. The company would not identify the store locations slated for shutdown. The cost reductions should save Cost Plus about $8 million a year, the company said. "The work force reduction and the closure of under-performing stores are necessary to complete the turnaround in the midst of a challenging retail and economic climate," said Barry Feld, Cost Plus president and chief executive officer. The company specializes in sales of casual home living and entertainment products. Cost Plus operates 298 stores in 34 states. The company also said it will exit eight media markets. The job cuts will be achieved through consolidation and automation of some activities

Word Wizards sponsor

Oakland-based Scientific Learning Corp. announced that it will sponsor Word Wizards, a special program of Bay Area News Group's award-winning Newspapers in Education program, for the fourth consecutive year.

Yahoo in MP3 talks

Yahoo Inc. of Sunnyvale is in early discussions with major record labels over offering unprotected MP3s either for sale or for free as part of an ad-supported service, two record company executives familiar with the talks said this

week, according to an Associated Press report. Technology company Adchemy, Inc. of Redwood City announced it has secured $19 million in funding led by Mayfield Fund with additional investments from Hellman & Friedman, LLC., and existing investor August Capital. Adchemy develops software that combines advanced scientific problems with Web data.

Quickly

Berkeley-based Clif Bar and plant food maker TerraCycle are partnering on a Wrapper Brigade program that will donate 2 cents to charity for every used wrapper collected by individuals and organizations. Sign up at http://www.terracycle.net/brigades. 4 Data provider Integrated Media Measurement Inc. of San Mateo announced Thursday it has closed a $25 million Series C financing. The financing is being led by Kantar Media Research. 4 Nonprofit research and development organization SRI International of Menlo Park has been awarded an $8 million contract from the Texas Education Agency to evaluate a state high school education project. 4 The founding conference of the Green Chamber of Commerce, which has been created to foster the success of businesses that are environmentally and socially responsible, will be held at the EBMUD building in downtown Oakland from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Call Scott Barrett at 510-234-5550, extension 306, for more information.

Compiled from wire and staff reports. Got Bay Area business news? Reach Drew Voros at 925-943-8099 or at dvoros@bayareanewsgroup.com.