Conseco Inc. shares tumbled today, despite the company’s announcement before trading opened that it was working with investment firm Morgan Stanley to explore “strategic alternatives” aimed at boosting its sagging stock. Such pronouncements typically signal a company is putting itself up for sale, raising the prospect of a rich payoff for shareholders. But Conseco likely […]
Hoosiers fretting over Eli Lilly and Co.’s future have new reasons to worry. Even in the best of times, the pharmaceutical business is a highstakes gambit, with every company’s fate hinging on ushering new blockbusters through its R&D pipeline. But those stakes never have been higher at Lilly, which faces a devastating onslaught of patent expirations between now and 2014. The problem isn’t just Zyprexa, the antipsychotic that loses U.S. and European protection in 2011. It accounted for 26 percent…
S o m e t i m e s , being a good businessperson means knowing when to get out of the business. That truism comes to mind because of the recent carnage in banking. Shareholders in First Indiana Corp., it turns out, cashed in at the right time, as did investors in privately held Union Federal Bank and its parent, Waterfield Mortgage Corp. Last July, just before the subprime mortgage crisis threw credit markets into disarray, the board of…
Finish Line Inc. and Genesco Inc. are close to a settlement that would cancel the Indianapolis company’s $1.5 billion acquisition of the Tennessee retailer. The two firms this morning asked a New York City federal judge for a one-day delay to a trial that was set to start this morning over whether Swiss financial giant […]
Alan Gilman and James Williamson have served on The Steak n Shake Co.’s board a combined 39 years. It’s a good bet they won’t be around much longer. Analysts say the Texas-based hedge fund that wants to replace Gilman and Williamson on the board with two of its own representatives likely will succeed. Major shareholders are mum on how they plan to vote in the proxy battle, which will come to a head at Steak n Shake’s annual meeting March…
In 1994, Indianapolis real estate entrepreneur Mark Ristow read some investment advice that changed his life. In the book “Beating the Street,” Peter Lynch, the former star mutual fund manager, described a “can’t lose proposition (almost)” called bank-conversion investing. The game: Buying stock in mutual, depositor-owned banks when they convert into public companies. Depositors get in at the initial-public-offering price, often a discount. So “the next time you pass a mutual savings bank or an S&L that’s still cooperatively owned,”…
Investors Sardar Biglari and Philip Cooley didn’t exactly hit it off with The Steak n Shake Co.’s top brass when they met in August to discuss the company’s future. Company Chairman Alan Gilman and Chief Financial Officer Jeff Blade “refused to disclose basic information” and “rebuffed disclosure of even niggling details like the number of employees at headquarters,” according to Biglari’s account of the meeting, which he included in a Jan. 23 letter to company shareholders. “We are suspect of…
A dissident investor in The Steak n Shake Co. today blasted the company for changing its bylaws to make it more difficult for shareholders to call a special meeting. San Antonio-based Lion Fund, whose affiliates own 8 percent of Steak n Shake, said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would […]
The Steak n Shake Co.’s board of directors has thrown up a roadblock to a plan by a dissident investor to oust most of its members. San Antonio-based Lion Fund, whose affiliates own more than 8 percent of the Indianapolis company, wants to get two of its representatives elected to the board at the company’s […]
Back in late 1999, Emmis Communications Corp. CEO Jeff Smulyan was sitting on company stock worth more than $300 million. Today, he’s still sitting on the stock but it’s worth a mere $14 million. Ouch. But forget about throwing a pity party for Smulyan, 60, who founded the company 28 years ago, building it into one of the nation’s leading radio companies. “This company is what I love. I love Emmis,” he said. “I have no regrets.” Why did he…
Initial public offerings often are bonanzas for company management and other insiders. In the case of Aprimo Inc. and ExactTarget Inc. -two Indianapolis software firms on deck to go public-a throng of local business and technology leaders who provided early financial backing would see a rich payoff as well. Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show the companies snared as investors a who’s who of Indianapolis business, from former venture capitalist Bob Compton to financial adviser David Knall and…
A Texas-based investor said in a letter to Steak n Shake Co. shareholders today that he wants to replace the majority of the company’s board, halt wasteful spending and focus on franchising. The letter was written by Sardar Biglari, a San Antonio hedge fund manager whose investment group owns 8 percent of Indianapolis-based Steak n […]
It’s like a recurring nightmare. Quarter after quarter, three of Indianapolis’ most prominent companies report weak results, and their stocks slide lower and lower. How can Emmis Communications Corp., The Finish Line Inc. and The Steak n Shake Co. reverse their downward swoon? It’s a question of great urgency, given that the stocks of all three have slid deep into the cellar. Emmis now fetches $2.79 a share, 96 percent below its 1999 high. Finish Line goes for $1.66, 93…
Why did Sallie Mae cast off June McCormack last month, sending one of Indiana’s highest-profile female executives packing? After all, she’s just the sort of seasoned manager the student loan company seems to need as it grapples with some of the biggest challenges in its 25-year history as a public company. The company isn’t commenting, and McCormack said a nondisclosure agreement she signed on her way out the door limits what she can say. Yet what she does say is…
An acquisition that looked daring and bold when it was announced quickly blew up on Finish Line Inc. The Indianapolis retailer
agreed in June to buy Tennessee-based Genesco Inc.–parent of Journeys, Hat World and other mall chains–for $1.5 billion
in
cash.
It’s a tumultuous time to take a company public. But the executives leading ExactTarget Inc. and Aprimo Inc., the two Indianapolis marketing-software companies with pending initial public offerings, have an abundance of reasons to think they’ll be successful. Here’s a big one: Each has a major competitor in its niche that already has gone public and done well. In the case of e-mail marketing firm ExactTarget, the competitor is Massachusetts-based Constant Contact Inc., which raised $93 million in an IPO…
ExactTarget Inc., one of Indiana’s highest-profile software firms, says in a new regulatory filing that it plans to raise $86 million in an initial public offering. The e-mail marketing firm is the second Indianapolis software company in recent months to file to go public. In September, Aprimo Inc., which helps companies manage marketing efforts, said […]
No wonder investors are jittery. The housing slump is stinging companies of all stripes these days, even those that would seem to be safe havens. A case in point: mall developer Simon Property Group Inc., which surprised investors this month by announcing it was taking a $26 million charge to write off its entire investment in what was to become a huge Arizona housing development. “Frankly, we had forgotten they had this Arizona thing,” said Lou Taylor, an analyst with…
AAC Management Corp., the company that has agreed to buy Lafayette Square Mall, faces big challenges reviving the flagging property, retail brokers say. The 39-year-old northwest-side mall has lost customers and anchor tenants as new developments to the west and north have siphoned off affluent shoppers, brokers say. “This is a roll-up-your shirtsleeves kind of […]
EnerDel, an Indianapolis company pioneering a new kind of battery for hybrid vehicles, has just received a badly needed jolt of juice. EnerDel’s parent, Florida-based alternative-energy firm Ener1 Inc., late last month wrapped up $32 million in equity financing from a group of investment heavyweights, including JPMorgan Chase and Credit Suisse. The investors received warrants giving them the right to invest another $43 million within 180 days, boosting the total capital commitment to $75 million. “The investors we have gotten…
