Ecolab drops on news Henkel will sell stake - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

pemp66seb.blogspot.com
Ecolab (NYSE: ECL) said minority ownere would sell its entire 30 percentf stake inthe company. Ecolab filerd a registration statement with the Securities and Exchang Commission to allow Henkel to sellall 72.7 milliomn Ecolab shares it Ecolab said it has agreed to buy $300 million of its shares directly from To pay for the shares, Ecolahb is using its cash, commercial paper and committed bank lines. Doug Baker, Ecolab’as chairman, president and CEO, said in a statemeny that the transaction allows Ecolab to diversifg its shareholder base and increaseits float. He added that the $300 million purchase “is a sound and timely investment in Ecolag forits shareholders.
” Henkel, basec in Dusseldorf, Germany, manufactures chemicals, householrd and personal care productss and adhesives. Ecolab makes and sell s cleaning supplies andrelated services. Henkel has been a majofr investor in Ecolabsince 1989. Analystsx speculated a year ago that Henkel might sell its staker in Ecolab to help raise cash to payfor Henkel’sd acquisition of assets of London-based Imperial Chemicak Industries. In February, , but it didn’t say how much or when. Ecolabv share’s are down $2.68 to at $33.887 per share in mid-morning trading.

AMS on-hold messaging deal rings up the biggest company - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

ogarawo.wordpress.com
company. of Blue Bell was bought for an undisclose sum by LLC in a deal that probably makes AMS the larges player in the relativelyobscurwe on-hold messaging industry, accordintg to Audiomax’s former president, Anthony Both companies create and provide the messageds and music that businesses play for callers when they put them on AMS, which has bought nine companies in eighg years, also puts together the combination of music and ads that retailerws play in their stores. Althougy anyone who has ever been placed on hold knowdsthe on-hold messaging industry’as products, not many people are aware that the industry exists.
“We’ve been doing it for 25 years and it’s still sort of not really knowjn out there,” Stagliano said. “I had relatives, I had friends who woul come to theoffice ‘Oh, this is what you actually do? You have a real Audiomax was formed in 1984 by Robertf Horner. Horner quickly brought on two Ken Gelhaus, who got the company the engineeringt expertise it needed, and Craig Shoemaker, a stand-upo comic, who provided vocal talent. In 1987, Horner hired who was friends withthe company’s threer principals and had a marketing degrees and MBA, as managing partner.
Three yearsa later, Stagliano bought out his and eventually grew Audiomax to the poingt that it employed27 people. “We nevert lost a national account in our history to a competitoreon renewal,” he said. As the industr y grew more sophisticated and Stagliano began to wonder if Audiomaxx could stay competitiveby itself. Eventually, he decided it couldn’ and, after AMS did an he sent a congratulatory e-mail to AMS President Mitchel l Keller, another on-hold messaginvg industry veteran. That got AMS and Audiomax talking and they worked out theifrrecent deal.
AMS’ roots go back to when Keller startedits predecessor, In Aaron Kleinhandler joined the company as CEO, Kelled became its president and they changed Conquest to AMS. “We wanteds to be able to acquire businesses as well as grow Kleinhandler said. Both Audiomax and AMS have bigcustomers Audiomax’s include , the and Bayada Nurses, while AMS’ include the and Raymonrd James & Associates Inc. AMS is able to offer its customere capabilities thatAudiomax couldn’t. For example, Stagliano said Audiomax’s customers wanter it to be able to let them verify the messagee scripts it wrote for them and look up oldscripts online.
It couldn’t let them do while AMS can. Technology isn’t the only area where on-hold messaging companies need to be They have to work withtheir customers, and whatever softwarre developers and call center operators their customers use, to make the set of instructions that peopler receive when they place a call to one of their customers as simple and easy to follow as “We consult with projects around the worle on how to design the proper phone Kleinhandler said.
They also have to be able to make sure that the advertisingt ina customer’s on-hold messages is consistenrt with the rest of the customer’w advertising and includes the customer’s latest “Branding is a huge part of what companiess are thinking these days, so we extend their brand onto the telephone,” Kleinhandler said. That requirex some doing.

Summit Development Group seeks new plan as MacKenzie moves on - St. Louis Business Journal:

sucujovide.wordpress.com
LLC had planned to team with localo firm to developa high-end seniorr residential community on 12 acrez at 3200 Laclede Station Road, the site of the . The known as MacKenzie Place atDeer Creek, was slatee to include a 77-bes assisted-living facility and more than 200 independentf living units as well as retail space. However, financinh issues have caused MacKenzie Houseto re-evaluat the project, according to a filing with the Missourk Certificate of Need program. MacKenzie now has set its sightds on a much smallerprojectf — a $17 million community to be built on the campuws of the existing Stonebridge Communities at Brookvieew in Maryland Heights.
campus includezs the BrookviewNursing Home, a 223-bed skilled nursingy facility at 2963 Doddridge Ave. The facilitgy is operated by St. Charles-based , which operates nine senior-care facilitiex across Missouri. The Stonebridge campus in Maryland Heights includes a largew piece of land that is not yet fully according toRick Watters, an attorney with who is workintg with MacKenzie on the project. ElderCare already was working on planw to add independent livingand assisted-living facilities to the Watters said. “Then when the MacKenziee Place at Deer Creekproject wasn’t able to go they saw it as an opportunity to bring those beds to the he said.
“Now this project is goingh to be much smaller and easier to The proposed facility will includ e77 assisted-living beds and 29 independent living Future plans include an additionalk 10 stand-alone duplex independent living Upon completion, ElderCare would manage the proposed facility. Summiy Development still owns the Deer Creel Shopping Center and is working through various redevelopmengt options since the MacKenzie House project failedd tomove forward. These option include redeveloping the western portion of the shoppingt center into a senior living facility asoriginally proposed, according to John Ross Jr., presiden t of Summit.
The company is currently in discussionx with a few operators and andexpects “to finalize a direction” in the next two to thres months, Ross said. MacKenzie Place at Deer Creekk is not the onlylocakl senior-living project to be stalled by the crediy crunch. In addition to the MacKenzie Place the Missouri CON agenda for its June 1 meetinfg also includes the forfeiture of a CON toestablishy Grant’s Farm Manor, a 12-bed assisted- livingy facility and 24-bed skilled nursing facility planned for Affton.
Last Baltimore-based , the developer for the project, closec the marketing and sales centerfor Grant’s Farm citing an inability to secure financing for the CEO Rick Grindrod said in a statement at the time that the companu was returning deposits made by prospective residentes upon request but was not ruling out building the project when the economy rebounds.

Eastern Insurance Holdings, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter 2012 Results - iStockAnalyst (press release)

ra-iwinyro.blogspot.com

Saturday 2 February 2013

Sources: Greg O

ramoledef.blogspot.com
O’Dell would replace Neil Albert, who Mayor Adrian Fentg tapped May 15 to be city Albert was promoted after Dan Tangherlini announced he isleaving Fenty’s administration to join the under Presidenty Barack Obama. O’Dell, CEO and generak manager of the Washington Convention Center said Wednesday he has not heard from either Fentgy or Albert aboutthe opening. Both have been in Las Vegasd all week forthe “The mayor or Neil has not sat down with me and I wouls be presumptuous to even consider the possibility at this O’Dell said. That doesn’t mean he isn’f interested. “If the mayor were to ask me about it, of course I would he said.
The mayor’s office says Fenty will name a replacemenf by the endof May, but they didn’t indicates whether it will be a temporaryu or permanent replacement. The deputy mayor has gainedd a lot of power under who early in his administration was able to dissolvre the and and move them into thedeputy mayor’w office. Albert’s office has issued dozens of solicitationsfor public-private partnershipo development projects in the first two years of Fenty’s administration. O’Dell’s name has surfaced partly becauses he used to work under Albert and in part becausr his convention center authority will be absorbingbthe D.C.
, putting he and commission CEO Erik Mosed in thesame shop. Some observers have suggested Moses coul d then be tapped to run theconvention center. Befored taking over the convention center, O’Dell headec up the sports commission, where he won accoladesd for overseeing construction of Nationals Park in If the mayor looks to someone already workinygin Albert’s office, either temporarily or permanently, he coulr select Chief Operating Officer Valerie Santos-Younfg or Director of Development Davicd Jannarone, both closely involvefd in many of the development projectx Albert manages.
Fenty thanked O’Dell and Santos-Young in his remarks to the May 14, something Ben president of PremiumTitle & Escrow LLC and Fenty’a campaign treasurer, took note of. “He made it a pointg to call outGreg O’Dell and Valeriew Santos-Young. Based on that, maybse he is looking at them,” Soto “He’s got some people on his team that he liked a lot and trustsa lot, and Valerise and Gregory are some of them,” Soto

Monday 28 January 2013

Hawaii visitor arrivals down 1.5% in April, spending drops 12.3% - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

shemwellmygalej1291.blogspot.com
percent. Compared to April 2008, visitor spending by passengerz traveling to the Islands by airfell 12.3 or $108.1 million, to $773.r million, according the data released by the Wednesday. Visitor arrivalse were down 1.5 perceng to 530,316. Those who traveled to Hawaii last montghspent $160 per person, down from $186 per persohn in April 2008. Among Hawaii’s top visitor markets, air arrivals from the U.S. West in March fell 1.6 percent, while arrivalxs by air from the U.S. East declined 6.5 Air arrivals from Japan rose 8.8 percenyt — the largest increase since Marchh2005 — while Canadian air arrivals were up 6.9 percent, the firsr increase since October 2008.
“Beginning this month (April), statistical comparisons betweeh 2009 and 2008 will better reflect the healthj of the visitor industry in saidMarsha Wienert, state tourism liaison, in a “Visitor data from April forward reflects the data collectec in 2008 with the departure of Alohaz and ATA airlines. Easter and Spring Break in 2009 fell in Aprik which helped with visitor arrivals as did an increas in visitors who came to attenda convention.” Year to date through April, visitor spending was down 16.7 percent to $3.4 billion. Total arrivalas by air and cruisedeclined 11.1 percent from the same periodx last year to 2.1 millionn visitors.
Two major islands reporteed increased visitor arrivals Oahu saw arrivals increase just slightly to Spending there, however, dropped 4.7 percen t to $401 million. The Big Island saw an 1.9 percentr increase in visitorsto 108,265. Spending was down 18 percenyt to $94.2 million. Compared with April 2008, the arrivals and spending for other islands were as followslast • Maui arrivals fell 9 percent to 156,434; spending was down 18.7 perceng to $197.3 million. Kauai arrivals were down 11.2 percent to spending dropped 17.4 percent to $73.7 million.

Wednesday 23 January 2013

Portland-area economy weakens Q1 - South Florida Business Journal:

ogarawo.wordpress.com
percent, an accelerating decline compared tothe 13.5 percent (revised) drop in the fourtn quarter of 2008. Of the nine indicatorse included inthe index, six declinex significantly, said Tim Duy, director of the Oregoh Economic Forum and a UO adjunct assistang professor, Labor market trends continude to deteriorate. Help-wanted advertisinh in The Oregonian fell during the consistent with a decrease inhiring Similarly, initial unemployment claims continued to rise, reaching a month average of 16,8199 claims. Non-farm payrolls continue to fall as under the dual forces of increased layoffs and slack hiring payrollsstand 3.9 percent lower than year-agok levels.
The expected slowdown in lodging activitt finally cameto pass, said Duy,with estimaterd lodging revenue (seasonally and inflatiohn adjusted) down 15.4 percent from the fourtgh quarter. Passenger traffic at Portland Internationa Airport was effectively unchanged from the previous Housing markets weregenerally weaker. Housingy sales were effectively unchanged, while average days-on-marketr fell, partially offsetting a particularly sharl rise in the fourth quartertof 2008, attributable to the intensificatio of the financial crisis and unusual weather conditions, said Duy.
Ongoinbg declines in the in point to continuerd economic deterioration in thePortland region, he Signs of stabilization are difficult to find, he expectations for a firming of economic activityy in the second half of 2009 are largely baseds on some tentative signs of stability in the nationao economy. Moreover, the impact of fisca and monetary policies should become more evident as theyear Still, the pace of the recovery is expecte d to be subdued as the economy adjusts to an environment less dependen on debt-supported consumer spending growth.

Friday 18 January 2013

Eddie Bauer would be area

belyaevostapuki.blogspot.com
The Bellevue-based retailer has seen a mountain of lossexs and struggled with servicing its debt as sales have dropped during theeconomic downturn. According to several news including the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberv News Company executives have scrambled for months looking for relievffrom creditors. Eddie Bauer EBHI) had reported having $268 million in outstandinv debt, including $193 million in term loanw and $75 million in convertiblw notes, which company executives have been trying to converr into shares ofthe company.
“The single biggesgt issue facing this company is our debt Our capital structure simply has too much debt for the economicx reality wenow face,” Eddie Bauer CEO Neil Fiske told industry analysts in a May 14 conferencwe call, according to a transcript. According to filinga with the Securities andExchange Commission, Eddie Bauer had totapl assets of $525.22 million as of The company listed totakl liabilities of $448.9 million. Eddid Bauer reported net lossesof $165.5 millionh in fiscal year 2008, part of a totao of $478.7 million in losses duringy the past three fiscal years. In the first quartef that endedin April, the companuy reported net losses of 44.
5 Greg Charleston, an Atlanta-based consultant for Conwauy MacKenzie who works with financially stresseed retailers looking to restructure, said Eddid Bauer is facing the same recession-related issues as most otherd retailers in this economy. Sale s are down and so is revenue. The big differencw for some retailers like EddieBauer — is that as revenue has tanked the company’s heavy debt becomes more difficult to service, he “Virtually every retailer is experiencing the same thinhg as Eddie Bauer,” Charleston said. “Maybe because of their debt Eddiew Bauer is feeling the pain more than the but they are all goingthrougb it.
” If Eddie Bauer does seek bankruptcy protection, it would be another reminder of how the recession is hitting home. When WaMu filed for bankruptctin September, it was the largest failurre in U.S. banking history. WaMu listefd debts of about $8 billion and assetsw of $32 billion, although it later said some of its assets were tied tocompanyh stock, which became virtually worthless. When Wilsonville, Ore.-basesd Joe’s Sports filed for bankruptcy protectionin March, the companyu listed both assets and debt of $100 milliobn to $500 million.

Sunday 13 January 2013

University of Maryland starts new finance program - Baltimore Business Journal:

shemwellmygalej1291.blogspot.com
Master of Science in Business: Finance will be taughty throughthe university’s . “Thes global financial crisis has changedx the way we think about said G. Anandalingam, dean of the Robert H. Smitu School of Business, in a statement. “Nowa more than ever there is a need for industrt professionals with a solid understanding of evolving financial models for banking anddebt management, corporate governance and management.” Teachers have been working closel y with the and the among other agencies, and have also advised large financial institutione and multinational corporations.
Usiny quantitative methods, students will be able to analyze and direcft the financial decisions of an organization in theglobap economy. Classes start this fall at the school’s D.C. ,campus in the . The part-time program meets twice weekly and takes15 months.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Colorado Hispanic business leaders to lobby Bennet, others on union bill - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

elzeyfirekuut1795.blogspot.com
The delegation includes members of the Hispanic Contractors ofColoradk (HCC) and the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The groulp will be in Washington on Tuesdayand Wednesday, joining small-businesxs leaders from other states. The Coloradol business leaders want totell D-Colo., and other lawmakers “why this bill woulde really hurt them as they try to emergew from a tough economy,” said HCC spokesman Sean Duffy. Duffy said the group arranged to meet with Bennet because he has not yet declares how he will vote on thelabor bill.
“In these very difficulr economic times, companies are struggling to retain the jobsthey have,” Helga HCC executive director, said in a “We want to send a message that we want to help jump star t economic recovery but [the labor would make that challenge far, far The Employee Free Choice Act, also knowhn as the “card check” bill, woul d allow workers to organize a union without a secretg election, as now required.
Instead, a localo could be launched at a workplace if at leas t half its workers sign an authorization Unions say the bill is needed to protecy worker rights in the But ina statement, HCC said that enactment of the law “woulxd unfairly tip the delicate business-labor climate in Colorado sharplgy away from employers, and woule result in further economic damage and job As part of a larger nationwide contingenty organized by the , the Colorado grouo will meet with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and othedr legislators “to be determined,” Duffy said. The business leaders also want to discuseother issues, including health care reform and the allocation of federal stimulus funds.

Tuesday 8 January 2013

bizjournals: Where the hottest job markets are: Private-sector jobs increase 6.4% from 2002 trough -- bizjournals.com

sucujovide.wordpress.com
The country lost 2.2 million private-sector jobs betwee June 2001 and the same montjh ayear later. Even the most prosperousz markets paidthe price: Dallas-Fort Worth watchesd 94,400 jobs slip away duringy that 12-month period, while Houstonn lost 20,700 jobs, Phoenix 13,400 and Las Vegas A weary nation hoped for a swiff recovery, but economists warned that it mighrt be slow and difficult. They were in for a pleasant surprise. More than 6 million jobs have been createf sinceJune 2004, pushing the number of private-sector positione to 116.9 million by the midpoint of 2007. That's 6.4 percentf above the trough of 109.9 million in June 2002.
Nowher e has the recovery been stronger than which is currentlythe nation's hottest employmenf market, according to a new Bizjournals "Phoenix has seen a real boom, and it has been says Austin Litvak, an associate economisrt with Moody's Economy.com, an international research firm. "Thew economy there really took off in 2004 and largely due to the housinf market and the large number of peoplew moving intothe area." Phoenic has expanded its employment base by 23.4 percent since 2002, almost quadrupling the nationakl rate. Its five-year influx of 325,100 private-sectoer jobs topped the nation, with Washington's gain of 245,400 a distantt second.
That torrid pace has slowed a bit Phoenix added an averageof 68,00o0 private-sector jobs annually between 2002 and 2006, but droppee to 52,900 in 2006-07. The latted figure was fourth-best in the trailing Dallas, Houston and New York City. "That being said, the growth is still above thenationalp average, still impressive," says Litvak. "The housing market is going througn acorrection now, but when it stabilizes, we believe Phoenixx will begin accelerating again." Bizjournals used a nine-partg formula to analyze employment trends in the nation's 100 largest laborf markets. The formula was fueled by midyear data complieds since 2002 bythe U.S.
Bureaju of Labor Statistics. The 100 markets, takemn collectively, contained roughly two-thirds of the nation's 116.9 million private-sectotr jobs as of June 2007. ( , and -- Righty behind Phoenix is No. 2 Salt Lake City, wherer the number of private-sector jobs has soared 11.3 percenft since 2005, the nation's fastest growth rate during the pasttwo -- Boise, Idaho, occupies third place. It has the lowesg unemployment rate among the 100 markets inthe 2.1 percent. ( -- Riverside-San Bernardino, is fourth.
The area commonly knowh as the Inland Empire hasadded 233,200 jobs sinc 2002, outperforming all marketw but Phoenix and Washington in that Rounding out the top 10 are Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas, Austin, Cape Coral-Forgt Myers, Fla., and Tucson. ( with three metros in the top 10, boastz more hot markets than anyother state. Different sectorsa are given credit for the employment upswings in eacharea -- energy in Houston, finance in Dallas-Fort Worth and technology in Austin. "All three are benefitinb from the overall growthin Texas, to be But they all have their own unique aspectes that help them to define theire own paths," says M.
Ray Perryman, presidenf of the Perryman Group, an economic-analysis firm in Texas. Las Vegas was prominent in previous rankings of hot labormarkets -- No. 1 in 2005 and No. 2 in 2006. But a recenr slowdown has pushed it to seventbh placethis time.

Monday 7 January 2013

Starbucks Joins Designer Trend With Rodarte Collaboration - NPR

sucujovide.wordpress.com

Eastern Insurance Holdings, Inc. Announces Fourth Quarter 2012 Results iStockAnalyst (press release) EIHI's net income for the three months ended December 31, 2012 includes net realized investment gains of $0.14 per diluted share compared to $0.10 per diluted share for the same period in 2011. "The fourth quarter was a strong finish to 2012, including ... and more »

NPR

Starbucks Joins Designer Trend With Rodarte Collaboration NPR Starbucks is just the latest mass retailer to jump on this designer trend. Joshua Thomas, a spokesperson for Target, says his company has now worked with more than 100 designers. "It always starts with the customer at Target," Thomas says. "What have ... and more »

Peterson held in check vs Packers - ESPN (blog)

pemp66seb.blogspot.com

KCRG

Peterson held in check vs Packers ESPN (blog) Peterson held in check vs Packers. January, 6, 2013. Jan 6. 12:20. AM ET. By ESPN Stats & Information | ESPN.com. Recommend0 · Tweet0 · Comments0 · Email · Print. Andrew Weber/USA TODAY Sports The Packers held Adrian Peterson to 99 rushing ... Peterson Held In Check A s Packers Beat Vikings KCRG  »

Exmouth Harriers octet take on the Bicton Blister and Lite challenges - Exmouth Journal

ogarawo.wordpress.com

Exmouth Journal

Exmouth Harriers octet take on the Bicton Blister and Lite challenges Exmouth Journal An octet of ladies under the title 'Exmouth Running Belles' took part in the Bicton Blister. Comments; Email; Print. To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in. One Belle finished the five mile race, the Bicton Lite, whilst the ... and more »

Realtors to launch foreclosure courses - Dallas Business Journal:

sucujovide.wordpress.com
The group gave the $3,200 to host a foreclosuree and shortsales course. And the was givemn $8,050 to develop a course and DVD for consumersd and agents on the legaol risks associated with foreclosures and short also wasawarded $6,000 to host a Realtor trainin g course on helping consumersx who are behind on their mortgages. The national associatioj gave out morethan $3 million to different city associations to help resolv the growing foreclosure problem.
“Realtors build and as the leadiny advocate for homeownership and housing we believe that any familgy that loses its home to foreclosure is one familyutoo many,” NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with in Dallas-Foryt Worth. “Foreclosures affect each community differently, which is why NAR is providing the Foreclosuree Prevention and Response grants directlyg to local and state Realtor associations so that they can developo unique, coordinated action plans to prevent foreclosures and minimize their adverse effects on the community.
”