Prudent Blogger

NCAA executive vice president Tom Jernstedt is stepping down
after 38 years of service, according to
Sports Business Journal.

Jernstedt, 65, sent an e-mail to his colleagues and friends on
Friday, saying there is no better time to make this change with
the impending arrival of new NCAA President Mark Emmert.

While serving the first four NCAA presidents, I have been
honored to support student-athletes and privileged to participate
in groundbreaking decisions that have positively impacted
intercollegiate athletics, he wrote in the e-mail.

Jernstedt became one of the guiding forces behind the mens and
womens NCAA tournaments and helped the NCAA secure its permanent
home in Indianapolis. He also helped grow the number of Division I,
II and III championships from 24 to 88.

It is uncertain what Jernstedts future plans are right now.

article source

Comments Off

3 days ago

STOCKPILES UP: Inventories held by businesses rose 0.3 percent in June, the sixth monthly increase.

SALES DOWN: Business sales fell 0.6 percent in June after an even bigger 1.2 percent drop in May. The two consecutive declines followed 13 months of sales gains.

OUTLOOK: The recent weakness in sales raises concerns about whether businesses will continue to boost inventories. That restocking has been an important source of strength driving the economic rebound.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

article source

Comments Off

Representative Betsy Markey, the Democrat who represents Colorado’s Fourth District, may have owned and operated two small businesses but that didnt keep the National Federation of Independent Business from calling her Republican opponent the only choice for small-business owners in this Congressional race.

In addition to backing Cory Gardner, a fast-rising member of Colorados House of Representatives, the NFIB will contribute $5,000 to his general election campaign, the maximum allowed by law, said Sharon Sussin, the groups national political director. (It contributed $5,000 to the primary fight, as well.) The group also intends to buy advertising for the race, both online and in traditional media. It is definitely a priority race for us, Ms. Sussin said.

In the endorsement, announced on Thursday, the NFIB promised to encourage its members in Colorado to help turn out the small-business vote on Gardner’s behalf on Election Day. The NFIB claims 7,500 members in Colorado. Of those, 1,700 are in the Fourth district, according to Ms. Sussin.

Mr. Gardner describes himself on his Web site as a leading conservative in the state House and a constant advocate for limited government and common-sense principles, including economic growth through lower taxes. But Mr. Gardner also backs renewable energy and wrote legislation to create the Colorado Energy Development Authority, which provides state government-backed loan guarantees for renewable energy transmission projects.

Ms. Markey is one of a handful of Democrats newly elected in 2008 and drawn from the ranks of small business. She is considered one of the most vulnerable of the freshman Democrats in the 2010 midterm election. She voted in favor of the health care reform that the NFIB is now suing to overturn.

Mr. Gardner does have his own small-business connections: he says he continues to work for his familys farm implement dealership, and the NFIB reports that he has been a member of the organization since 1994.

article source

Comments Off

lt;stronggt;lt;span class=subheadgt;JC Penney lowers profit forecastlt;/spangt;lt;/stronggt;lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;JC Penney Co. has lowered its profit forecast for the year, citing an amp;uncertainamp; outlook for consumer spending. Profit will be as much as $1.50 a share, the retailer said Friday. The previous forecast was about $1.64. JC Penneyamp;rsquo;s revenue in the three months that ended July 31 was little changed at $3.94 billion, meeting analystsamp;rsquo; projections. Net income was $14 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1 million, or break even, a year ago.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;lt;stronggt;lt;span class=subheadgt;Shareholders sue HPlt;/spangt;lt;/stronggt;lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;Shareholders of Hewlett-Packard Co. have filed a amp;derivative lawsuitamp; against the technology company and its board over fallout from former CEO Mark Hurdamp;rsquo;s abrupt resignation last week. A derivative lawsuit lets shareholders sue executives or board members over claims that their actions harmed the company as a whole.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and changes to HPamp;rsquo;s corporate governance. It was filed Tuesday in California Superior Court by Brockton Contributory Retirement System.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; Hewlett-Packard, based in Palo Alto, Calif., says its sexual harassment policy was not violated.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;lt;stronggt;lt;span class=subheadgt;Farmland values risinglt;/spangt;lt;/stronggt;lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City says area farmland values continued to rise during the second quarter. The Fed said Friday that its survey of banks in the 10th District, which includes Kansas and the northern half of Missouri, showed a 5.6 percent annual increase in the value of irrigated cropland and a 4.8 percent increase in non-irrigated land.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; The biggest increases came in Kansas, where irrigated land values jumped 9.2 percent, and Nebraska, where irrigated land values increased 6.4 percent. Both states recorded a 6.6 percent increase in dryland values.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;lt;stronggt;lt;span class=subheadgt;Deals of the daylt;/spangt;lt;/stronggt;lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;amp;bull;IBM Corp. said Friday that it has agreed to buy Unica Corp., a marketing services company, for $480 million amp; $21 per share.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; The acquisition draws IBM deeper into the advertising business, a relatively new area for the company. In June it agreed to buy Coremetrics Inc., a company that helps target online marketing.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; It also expands IBMamp;rsquo;s software business, its most profitable division and the main focus of a $20 billion acquisition spree for IBM over the past few years.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; Unica, based in Waltham, Mass., offers software that automates the process of predicting customer preferences, designing advertising campaigns based on that information and measuring how effective they are.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt;amp;bull;Asset manager Blackstone Group said Friday it is paying $542.7 million to take Dynegy Inc. private in a three-way deal that will see Dynegy also sell four power plants to NRG Energy Inc.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; New York-based Blackstone is taking on more than $4 billion in Dynegy debt as well, bringing the dealamp;rsquo;s total value to $4.7 billion.lt;/pgt;lt;pgt; Dynegy said its shareholders will receive $4.50 per share in cash for its nearly 120.6 million shares outstanding, representing a 62 percent premium from the stockamp;rsquo;s closing price on Thursday.

article source

Comments Off

WASHINGTON Aug 13 (Reuters) – US business inventories
rose in June to their highest level in a year while sales fell,
suggesting consumer demand may have been weaker than firms had
anticipated.

The Commerce Department said on Friday inventories
climbed 0.3 percent to $1.36 trillion, the highest since May
2009. That followed a 0.2 percent gain in the prior month, and
exceeded Wall Street forecasts for a 0.2 percent rise.

Inventories are a key component of gross domestic product
changes over the business cycle, and the rebuilding of
merchandise stock from record low levels has been a key driver
of the economys recovery from the worst recession since the
1930s.

But some economists worry waning demand might leave some
firms with more goods than they can sell, and the report showed
business sales falling 0.6 percent to $1.08 trillion, the
lowest reading since February.

The inventory-to-sales-ratio, which measures how long it
would take to clear shelves at the current sales pace, was 1.26
months, the highest since a matching ratio in February 2010.

(Reporting by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa, Editing by Andrea
Ricci)

article source

Comments Off

International Business Machines
Corp., the world’s largest computer-services provider, agreed to
buy Unica Corp. for about $480 million to gain technology that
lets customers build more targeted marketing campaigns.

Unica shareholders will get $21 a share in cash, Armonk,
New York-based IBM said today in a statement. That’s more than
double the stock’s closing price yesterday.

IBM Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano said this year he
is planning to spend about $20 billion on acquisitions in the
next five years. The software unit, IBM’s most profitable, will
make up about half of its earnings in 2015, the company said in
May. The unit has made about 60 acquisitions since 2003.

Unica, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, makes software that
helps organizations analyze and predict customer preferences,
helping their marketing efforts.

“Done well, marketing becomes less of an annoyance and
more of a service,” Craig Hayman, general manager of IBM’s
Industry Solutions unit, said in an interview.

Unica has 500 workers and its customers include EBay Inc.
and Best Buy Co. It helped ING Groep NV customize its marketing
across websites and branch offices to appeal to individual
preferences, said Yuchun Lee, chief executive officer of Unica.

“We help make sure the messages are personalized and
relevant,” said Lee.

IBM said it expects to close the deal in the fourth
quarter.

Unica, which had gained 23 percent this year before today,
more than doubled to $20.84 at 4 pm on the Nasdaq Stock
Market. IBM slid 43 cents to $127.87 on the New York Stock
Exchange.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Ville Heiskanen in New York at
vheiskanen@bloomberg.net

article source

Comments Off