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Indianapolis-based The Finish Line Inc. today said it has agreed to buy Hat World Inc. parent Genesco Inc. for $54.50 a share in cash, or about $1.5 billion. The price represents a 37.7-percent premium over Genesco’s share price. The deal is expected to close in the fall. In May, Nashville, Tenn.-based Genesco, said its board […]
Local entrepreneur and philanthropist Lorene Burkhart can now add author to her array of titles. Her latest endeavor, Burkhart Network LLC, is a book-publishing enterprise that will use sales proceeds from the works she writes to support local not-for-profits. At 73, the idea to try her hand as an author came to Burkhart about three years ago, as she approached her seventh decade. “I thought, ‘Hmm, I probably have 20 good years left, so what am I going to do…
Some elements of the financial media might have you believe hedge fund managers are, to quote Tom Wolfe, “masters of the universe.” However, some recent blunders, particularly in the hedge-fund departments of the large investment banks, say otherwise. No firm encapsulates a golden-egg-laying machine on Wall Street more than Goldman Sachs. Yet for all of Goldman’s financial muscle, its own flagship hedge fund has recorded awful results over the past year and a half. Dubbed the Global Alpha Fund, Goldman’s…
A local printing powerhouse is trying to regain the confidence of its employees and customers after the CEO and his secretary
were involved in a profanity-laced physical altercation at work.
After 47 years of relative anonymity, the Indiana Transportation
Museum is steaming ahead with an effort to increase its visibility, attract new riders and eventually grow the organization.
Never has there been more static around Emmis Communications Corp. The big challenge these days is handicapping Jeff Smulyan’s next move. Will Emmis’ founder and CEO make another run at taking the radio station operator private? Largely on speculation of a deal, the company’s long-slumping stock (which trades under the ticker EMMS) is up 20 percent for the year. “Buy EMMS now before it’s bought,” CL King & Associates analyst James Boyle wrote in a recent report. Added Wachovia Capital…
As part of my ongoing search for things to make fun of, I’ve spent the last few years collecting Business Buzzwords-Biz Buzz, if you will. I now know why they’re called buzzwords: Because if you read or hear more than two or three in a single sen tence, you feel a buzzing sensation in the back of your skull. Followed shortly thereafter by a full-blown migraine. That is precisely what happened to me after receiving an e-mail in which two…
Better air access to Western cities key to Indiana’s technology and bioscience industries is high on the wish list for executives
and travel managers who responded to a survey commissioned by Indianapolis International Airport.
A methodical process is the right way to change CEOs, according to succession-planning experts. And Indiana needs more of
its major corporations to do so. A wave of aging executives is at or near normal retirement age–in Indiana and nationwide.
How well those companies’ CEOs pass the baton will have a big impact on their companies’ futures.
A go-to trade for the last few years is losing some of its sheen. This market-leading sector offered one of the true gems of investing: market-beating returns without a lot of extra risk. A change in that might send small ripples throughout your portfolio. The utility sector has been one of the few areas that led from the lows in early 2003 right up until a few weeks ago. While home builders dropped out more than a year ago and…
Robocop was sighted in Boone County a couple of weeks ago. It was the occasion of a sleepover graduation party at the home of Jack Trudeau, former quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. To create a safe environment for his daughter and her Park Tudor School classmates at the party, Trudeau reportedly told police, he recorded the name of every guest and confiscated all car keys. Although he said he did not supply liquor, he was no doubt aware that some…
Service offers household help for elderly, infirm Julie Sullivan’s “a-ha” moment came when she was trying to coordinate home care for her elderly grandfather in Huntington while she was in Indianapolis. Even though, as a supervisor at Visteon, she had significant control over her schedule, Sullivan said she couldn’t visit as often as she needed. “I thought, ‘My word, what does the rest of the world do?'” she said. So Sullivan set out to help, starting a local franchise of…
Salespeople dread dead-end leads. They’re eager to pitch to CEOs, so they’re livid when the prospecting process leads to meetings with janitors. “You can’t make a bad sales rep good just by giving him good leads,” said Bill Johnson, CEO of Indianapolis-based startup LeadJen. “But you can tell quickly if your message is [reaching] the people you want to hear it.” Johnson knows the dilemma well. He has two decades of experience selling software and is best known locally as…
You know you’re getting old when you outlive buildings. First, it was Market Square Arena. I covered the first and last games there. Now, it’s the RCA Dome. In the summer of 1983, I went along with my then-boss, Indianapolis Star Sports Editor Bob Collins, to the roof of an old warehouse on South Capitol Avenue. From that vantage point, we watched-in awe-as the roof of the Hoosier Dome slowly inflated. While some might have hoped, no one knew for…
The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University plans to share more of its prolific research through two new courses to be tested this fall in Indianapolis, and launched here and elsewhere next spring. Both new courses, including one on the dynamics of women’s giving, could be a gold mine for perpetually prospecting not-for-profits-and for wealth advisers and wealth managers. “We’re hoping there could be some niches we can carve out in this area. There’s a great thirst for knowledge,” said…
Banker Steve Tolen is attempting to resuscitate the electric car. Tolen believes conditions are ripe for an upstart automaker
to launch a safe battery-powered vehicle capable of rapid acceleration, highway speeds and over 100 miles of distance between
charges.
As state and city officials sit down with architects to hammer out final plans for the Indiana Convention Center expansion,
they’re cutting some bells and whistles to make sure the project comes in at its $275 million price tag.
“Aye,” Fergus affirmed. “They’ll have tornado alerts and heavy-rain warnings,” I said. “They’ll flood us with high-water forecasts, beat upon us with hail reports, and show us maps that make us abandon all outdoor activity while we glue ourselves to the TV.” “‘Tis so,” nodded Fergus. “Those weather people are worse than economists when it comes to urging data on us,” I insisted. “Could be,” Fergus said. “No doubt about it,” I replied. “It wasn’t in the papers or on…
You usually have to swallow your pride when it comes time to forecast the growth of the Indiana economy. That’s because no matter what your heart says, your head tells you what the best forecast will be. That is the one that pulls up well short of growth in the rest of the country. There are a lot of talented people working hard around the state trying to change that. And if the full truth be told, most of our…
