Financial life in a big town

Liberty Property Trust looked to its existing client base to find the first tenant for Round Up Business Park, just one month after acquiring the Northwest Houston industrial property.

Medco Medical Supply will take 46,000 square feet in Round Up, which represents a 72 percent increase over its current amount of space. Medco leases 27,000 square feet at Liberty’s Legacy Center Business Park, also in Northwest Houston.

Medco will move to the 12-acre Round Up Business Park in December.

Round Up consists of two buildings at 10301 and 10305 Round Up Lane near North Sam Houston Parkway that contain nearly 228,000 square feet of space business card. The project was empty when Liberty bought it from developer Caldwell Cos. in July.

Liberty (NYSE: LRY) owns more than 4 million square feet of industrial space in the Houston area. The Malvern, Pa.-based real estate investment trust has 78 million square feet in its nationwide portfolio of industrial buildings.

Source

Searching for paydayloans? We offers a cash advance up to $1500 deposited in your account overnight.

Cash is king, and Big Tech companies have it pouring out their ears.

A combination of cost-cutting tactics and an improving economic climate have driven tech-sector profits way up this year. In the second quarter, technology industry earnings are on track to rise 66% compared to last year, according to Thomson Reuters.

That has led to massive stockpiles of cash at some of the world’s tech giants. The eight biggest companies in the industry are sitting on a collective stash of more than $194 billion.

But CEOs playing the role of Scrooge McDuck won’t impress many shareholders. With cash earning next to nothing nowadays, investors want companies to put their cash to good use. The result: A tech M&A frenzy that industry analysts think is just getting started.

Companies can use excess cash to pay a dividend to shareholders, but there’s only so much businesses want to give away, and tech companies are notoriously stingy with their dividend payments. Companies can also buy back their own shares, but some argue that strategy isn’t a great deal for shareholders. Another path is to invest internally, ramping up spending on research, development and hiring.

Instead, tech companies have lately gone with a third option: buying up companies that catch their eye.

In August alone, Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) bought McAfee for $7.7 billion and acquired Texas Instruments’ cable modem unit, IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) bought Unica for $480 million, and Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) bought Slide for about $200 million. Dell (DELL, Fortune 500) bid $1.15 billion last week for storage company 3PAR, but Hewlett-Packard outbid it on Monday to the tune of $1.6 billion — after scooping up security software company Fortify last week.

Analysts say the buyout boom is fueled by companies’ reluctance to gamble on hiring and internally developing new product lines. It’s safer — and often cheaper — to buy up those others have built.

"Everyone’s done a great job at cutting costs and making themselves profitable, but investors are asking where the growth is," said Eric Johnson, director of the Center for Digital Strategies at Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business low interest personal loan. "Cost-cutting has created a toxic environment in many firms for internal investments, and you can’t beat the speed to growth of an acquisition."

There is often a snowball effect in acquisitions, leading some companies to snap up smaller companies simply so they don’t get left out of the action.

But it also doesn’t hurt that the cost of capital is extremely cheap right now, and a lot of potential takeover targets are attractively priced. The economic downturn has hammered many stocks, allowing buyers to offer generous premiums on valuations that are much lower than they would have been a few years ago. IBM purchased Unica at a 120% premium, and Intel offered 60% more for McAfee’s shares than they were going for at the time. HP’s 3PAR (PAR) offer is a staggering 149% higher than 3PAR’s shares traded at before Dell announced its offer.

Those three takeover targets do business in analytics, security and storage, respectively — high-growth areas that yield technology applicable to a wide array of business uses. They’re exactly the kinds of companies that make attractive takeover bait.

The question is how long this trend will last. So far this year, there have been 21 billion-dollar deals worth a total of $46.4 billion, according to The 451 Group. That compares to just six last year, totaling $19.7 billion.

Some say the coast is clear for many more deals.

"There are still plenty of attractive transactions to be done," said Murray Beach, managing director of TM Capital’s technology group. "Our clients’ pipeline suggests this trend will continue, and there will be a pretty significant rise in these deals for the foreseeable future." 

Source

Under no fax paydayloans, an applicant can apply for any amount between $100 and $1500, considering the importance of the ends.

A state appeals court has ruled that Westfield Galleria at Roseville’s policy limiting shoppers’ conversations with strangers about potentially controversial topics such as religion and politics is a restriction of free speech.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento decided that the mall’s rules regarding such conversations and another rule that prohibits shoppers from wearing clothes with religious or political messages are unconstitutionally vague and restrictive of free speech.

The case involves a youth pastor who was arrested in 2007 at the Galleria after talking to two other shoppers about his religious beliefs. The shoppers agreed to the conversation. However, a store employee who overheard the conversation that Matthew Snatchko was having with the shoppers complained and called the mall’s security guards. Charges were later dropped, but the Pacific Justice Institute sued, challenging the Galleria’s policy.

Galleria owner Westfield LLC is disappointed by the ruling and considering legal options, a spokeswoman said.

“Westfield has spent considerable time and effort, including working with legal counsel, to adopt reasonable rules governing conduct in our shopping centers,” spokeswoman Catharine Dickey wrote in an e-mail. “These rules protect our tenants and the thousands of customers at the mall each day by ensuring a safe and secure shopping, dining and entertainment environment while recognizing the requirements of California law. In particular, the rules recognize the right of the public to engage in expressive activity in our common areas, subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions as required by California law. These rules and procedures are, and have been, applied on a content-neutral basis for hundreds of individuals and organizations in our shopping centers each year.”

Westfield will consider appealing to the California Supreme Court, she said.

The appeals court decided that Snatchko could collect damages and attorneys’ fees. The trial court is responsible for implementing the appeals court ruling.

“We are very pleased with this landmark ruling by the California Court of Appeal that vindicates the right to engage in casual conversations about faith without fear of being arrested,” Brad Dacus, Pacific Justice Institute president, said in a news release. “This is a great victory for free speech and common sense.”

Timothy Smith, a Pacific Justice Institute affiliate attorney who is with the Sacramento law firm of McKinley & Smith, served as lead counsel for Snatchko pro bono.

Source

The Dow ended an up-and-down week with a 21-point decline; still, thanks to Monday’s big gain, the index picked up 187 points on the week.

In Colorado, Crocs reached a 27-month high close on upbeat earnings, and Venoco and Golden Star Resources also advanced on the session.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the trading day at 10,653.56, down 21.42 points (0.2 percent).

The S&P 500 closed at 1,121.64, down 4.17 points (0.37 percent).

The NASDAQ Composite finished at 2,288.47, down 4.59 points (0.2 percent).

Among actively traded Colorado stocks, Crocs Inc. (CROX) led the day’s gainers percentagewise, up 10.89 percent ($1.37) to close at $13.95. The gain brought the stock to its highest close since April 2008.

The Niwot shoemaker on Thursday reported improved second-quarter profits due to further strengthening of its global wholesale and retail businesses.

Other Colorado gainers:

• Venoco Inc. (VQ) — Up 2.27 percent (38 cents) to $17.13.

• Golden Star Resources Ltd. (GSS) — Up 2.11 percent (9 cents) to $4.35.

• Royal Gold Inc. (RGLD) — Up 2.01 percent (92 cents) to $46.76.

• Forest Oil Corp. (FST) — Up 1.38 percent (43 cents) to $31.50.

• Level 3 Communications Inc. (LVLT) — Up 1.31 percent (2 cents) to $1.16.

Among actively traded Colorado stocks that declined on the day was Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (KOG), down 9.46 percent (33 cents) to close at $3.16.

Other Colorado decliners:

• SM Energy Co. (SM) — Down 2.89 percent ($1.20) to $40.27.

• QEP Resources Inc. (QEP) — Down 2.64 percent (92 cents) to $33.97.

• DCT Industrial Trust Inc. (DCT) — Down 2.63 percent (13 cents) to $4.81.

• Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TAP) — Down 2.29 percent ($1.07) to $45.68.

Source

Public but personal details from more than 170 million Facebook profiles were harvested from the site and made available in a downloadable torrent file this week.

Ron Bowes, a security researcher and blogger, wrote a software program to scan Facebook’s public directory of profiles. Users can choose to opt out of that directory, but most stick with Facebook’s default setting and allow their name and a few other personal details to publicly searchable.

"Once I have the name and URL of a user, I can view, by default, their picture, friends, information about them, and some other details," Bowes wrote on his blog at SkullSecurity.org.

Bowes’ exploit did not involve breaching users’ privacy settings or obtaining any passwords, and all of the information he gathered is openly available on Facebook’s site. However, the sheer size of his data haul is significant: Bowes’ chunky 2.8 gigabyte file includes names and URLs for 171 million Facebook profiles. Facebook has an active user population of 500 million.

Bowes created a torrent for his cache, making it available through sites such as Pirate Bay. He also did some preliminary data mining: Facebook’s most-common user name is "jsmith," and the most popular first names on the site are Michael, John and David, Bowes found.

While Bowes called the information’s easy accessibility "a scary privacy issue," Facebook downplayed his exploit.

"This information already exists in Google, Bing, other search engines, as well as on Facebook. No private data is available or has been compromised," Facebook said in a statement. "Similar to the white pages of the phone book, this is the information available to enable people to find each other, which is the reason people join Facebook."

The company reiterated that its privacy controls allow users to adjust their settings so that they do not appear in a search on Facebook or through search engines.

Though the information Bowes culled is public, his approach still violated Facebook’s terms of service. The site prohibits collecting user information "through automated means," which includes harvesting scripts like the one Bowes created.

Facebook is typically aggressive in cracking down on policy violators. The company said Wednesday that it deleted all applications created by Pencake, a top outside developer whose widgets were used by 45 million Facebook members, because Pencake broke Facebook’s rules.

But Bowes doesn’t seem concerned. He’s already planning the next phase of his Facebook data dive. Bandwidth constraints stopped him from gathering users’ public photos and other openly available details, this time around.

"So far, I have only indexed the searchable users, not their friends," he wrote in his blog. "I’d like to tackle that in the future, though, so if anybody has any bandwidth they’d like to donate, all I need is an ssh account and Nmap installed." 

Source

Less than three weeks after gold surged to record highs, the precious metal has scaled back about 5% and is hovering once again around $1,200 an ounce.

On Thursday morning, gold for August delivery — the most actively traded contract — was down $7.50, or 0.63%, at $1,191.40 an ounce.

But the two major factors behind the precious metal’s recent highs around $1,250 — Europe’s debt woes and volatile stock markets — are still major concerns. So what gives?

For the first clue, look no further than July 1 — the day gold fell nearly $40.

Good news for Europe, bad for gold

Facing the expiration of about $554 billion in debt last Thursday, the European Central Bank announced it would assist 78 banks in refinancing their loans, a move that would essentially roll over a quarter of that debt.

The euro rose after the news, and institutional investors, who just weeks earlier had been betting in favor of gold and against the euro, suddenly rushed to close out their bets and reap profits at gold’s still relatively high prices, said Phil Streible, a senior market strategist with futures broker Lind-Waldock.

Traders had previously been taking advantage of the euro’s weakness amid growing concerns about Europe’s debt crisis. Gold, as a tangible asset, was perceived to be a safer alternative to the paper currency, Streible said. But in light of the ECB’s news, that trade may have run its course.

So investors seem temporarily content to take their profits and put their fears about Europe’s debt crisis on the back burner, and that’s one factor driving gold down. But there’s another.

Deflation, not inflation, fears

Disappointing economic data on this side of the Atlantic may also be leading investors to sell gold. On Friday, readings on U.S. manufacturing, housing and jobs all came in worse-than-expected, sending stocks to fresh 2010 lows.

It’s a bit curious that gold, a so-called safe haven, has slipped despite some dismal economic reports. But gold is also considered a hedge against inflation — a trend investors now have little reason to fear.

Michael Cheah, a bond fund manager with SunAmerica, said the most recent economic reports have fed increased fears of deflation, a persistent decline in the prices of assets and consumer goods fast cash advance loan.

In a deflation scenario, Cheah said investors would be wise to put their money behind a different safe haven: U.S. Treasurys.

That’s because Treasurys pay interest regularly, and although the yield may be low, it’s still better than taking a loss in stocks or gold should double-dip recession fears come true, Cheah said.

Gold rush not over yet

But with all these factors in mind, analysts still say gold prices could climb higher. Streible forecasts gold to rebound to as high as $1,325 by the end of the year.

Jeffrey Nichols, a senior economic advisor to Rosland Capital, a precious metals firm, has even loftier expectations. He anticipates the metal to rise as high as $1,500 an ounce by year-end — a prediction he has stuck with for the last several months.

Nichols points out that gold is a very small market when compared to Treasurys or currencies, so it’s easily swayed in one direction, especially during weeks of low trading volume.

The recent dip may be entirely the work of institutional investors at big banks and hedge funds who are taking profits during light trading surrounding the July 4 holiday and summer vacations, Nichols said.

And those are quite "possibly the very same people who will come back in the next few weeks and push gold higher again," he added.

Meanwhile, Streible said he thinks concerns about Europe’s debt crisis are likely to resurface, pushing the euro down and gold up once again.

Investors will be watching for the results of the ECB’s so-called financial "stress tests" of 91 banks, which it plans to release on July 23, as a barometer of the region’s economic health.

Cheah also expects gold to rise later in the year because he thinks a double-dip is likely. If that happens, he said, investors probably would eventually lose faith in the U.S. dollar and Treasurys, sending gold once again to record highs, he said. 

Source

This year’s week-long Alzheimer’s conference is expected to attract 5,500 international attendees to Hawaii and add $26 million in statewide spending.

The Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease will be held July 10-15 at the Hawaii Convention Center, resulting in 44,000 booked hotel rooms.

“This is excellent news for Hawaii’s tourism economy and we look forward to providing a world-class venue — conveniently in the Asia Pacific — for professionals to come together to discuss this important work,” said Mike McCartney, Hawaii Tourism Authority president and CEO no teletrack payday loan.

Source

Lincoln County Bancorp and its Peoples Bank and Trust Co. subsidiary of Troy, Mo., reached an agreement last week with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis “in recognition of their common goal to maintain the financial soundness” of the two financial entities, the Federal Reserve Board said Monday.

Under the agreement, dated June 14, Peoples Bank must file plans to strengthen credit risk management practices, strengthen commercial real estate concentrations, real estate appraisal practices and asset improvement. The plans primarily are due within 60 days of the agreement.

According to the agreement, the bank also must get prior approval to extend, renew or restructure any loans that are criticized in the Fed’s examination of the bank that began Sept. 8, 2009.

Peoples Bank also must charge-off or collect all assets classified as a “loss” in the Fed’s examination report.

The holding company and bank must submit a joint written plan to each maintain sufficient capital.

Peoples Bank is to submit to the Fed a written business plan for the rest of 2010 to improve the bank’s earnings and overall condition. The holding company has to submit a written statement of its planned sources and uses of cash for 2010.

Neither Lincoln county Bancorp or Peoples Bank are to declare or pay dividends without prior approval from the Fed.

Donald Thompson is chairman of both Lincoln County Bancorp and Peoples Bank and Trust Co.

In addition to Peoples Bank and Trust Co., Lincoln County Bancorp.’s subsidiaries are: People’s Bank of Altenburg, Mo., in Perry County; Bank of Louisiana, Mo., in Pike County; Exchange Bank of Missouri in Fayette, Mo., in Howard County; and Exchange Bank of Northeast Missouri in Kohoka, Mo., in Clark County. The company also owns an unregulated subsidiary, Vacations, a travel agency.

As of March 31, Lincoln County Bancorp had combined total deposits of $584.7 million, and combined total assets of $707.9 million as of Peoples Bank and Trust Co. had total assets of $415.9 million as of March 31.

Source

The Illinois Senate Labor Committee has approved legislation authorizing a controversial plan to divert sales taxes to finance developer Bruce Holland’s construction of a $380 million, 400-acre entertainment, retail and restaurant project in Marion, Ill.

Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, and Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, sponsored the bill. The legislation now heads to the full Senate for consideration. The Illinois House of Representatives approved the legislation earlier this month by a vote of 79-35.

The development, which will include a mix of destination and entertainment businesses, retail stores and restaurants, has the potential to create 6,000 jobs during construction and 5,685 full-time jobs when completed, Holland said.

Holland, with Millennium Development and Holland Construction, scaled back the project, originally intended for Glen Carbon, Ill., and moved it south after Metro East lawyers blasted it and argued it would drain their tax bases.

Source

A new brick building stands out from some of its dilapidated and rundown neighbors along Martin Luther King Drive in the Ville neighborhood.

A sign outside the building, home to a new retail center, says, "Success Starts Here" and beckons prospective business owners to inquire about renting space.

A promotional goods and lettering business catering to fraternities and sororities already fills one of the eight storefronts in the 7,200-square-foot building. A women’s wig store is slated to open next month. And a sandwich shop is in the works.

Habitat for Neighborhood Business, a local nonprofit run by current and former business executives, hopes to fill all of the storefronts by the fall.

"Our mission is to target economically challenged areas," said Terry Donohue, Habitat’s president and executive-in-residence at St. Louis University’s Center for Entrepreneurship, one of the partners on the project. "Our goal is to bring businesses back into the neighborhoods in the hope that they will spark some more economic development and job growth in the neighborhood."

This is the first freestanding center the group has built, which was one of its original goals when Habitat was founded about five years ago, said Donohue, a retired Enterprise Rent-a-Car vice president.

The project cost including land and construction was about $1.2 million. Construction began in late 2008 and finished up in the latter half of last year.

A 2006 study by researchers at St. Louis University found a large retail gap in the Ville neighborhood, with some of the greatest needs being a grocery, dry cleaners, a pharmacy and more restaurants, Donohue said. He hopes that some of his tenants will be able to fill those needs but added that the group doesn’t have the resources to recruit specific businesses.

"We’re just trying to find people who are interested in opening a retail or service business in that neighborhood," he said.

Habitat has interviewed hundreds of people interested in moving into the new retail space in the last couple of years. Many of them were already running businesses out of their homes, he said.

"We found a lot of bright people with good business ideas," Donohue said. "But you have to have your own skin in the game. You have to have equity."

And the economy has only made it harder for new entrepreneurs to build enough equity to secure a loan, he said.

For those who have enough startup money, Habitat offers them storefront space at a discounted rate — 50 percent off an estimated market rate in the first year, 25 percent off the second year and 10 percent off after that.

In addition, it pays part of the costs to attend training courses on how to run a business, provides established industry executives as mentors, gives them a computer to keep their records and has SLU students help them with their monthly accounting.

The SLU student who helps Robert Jones manage his books and inventory using a computer accounting system has been a big help, said the owner of Alpha One Greek & Promotional Items, which opened in December.

Jones, 46, had run his business out of his home and through a website for about 10 years. Then a couple of years ago he started looking for a brick-and-mortar store, but he put those plans on hold when the economy tanked.

He jumped when he heard about the new retail center, not only because of its location in an urban neighborhood but also because of the extra help it provided — the discounted rent, the emotional support and accounting help.

He has three employees, all of whom are students at Harris-Stowe State University. He’s been pleased with the business at his store thus far and is planning more marketing in the future.

"I’ve gotten a lot of traffic from Harris-Stowe," he said. "Now I want to push it to Wash U and SLU."

Source