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BULLS & BEARS: How some measures of risk breed investor complacency

Risk. Webster’s defines it as “the chance of loss; also the degree of probability of such loss.” Specific to the act of investing, one might add: any investment activity that may lead to a permanent loss of capital. Investors can’t eliminate risk. However, by following Webster’s definition and attempting to determine the “degree of probability” of a potential loss, the investor can then decide the wisdom of proceeding with an investment. In cases where he judges the probability of loss…

Buyout boom isn’t all bad for Hoosiers

Announcements that major Indiana companies have been acquired are traditionally met with trepidation. But a rash of recent
buyouts of Indiana companies shows they’re not always bad news.

NOTIONS: How to use Colts euphoria to enhance a community

After the Indianapolis Colts beat the New England Patriots to win a trip to Super Bowl XLI, my fiancée and I jumped up and down in the living room and pumped our fists in the air. The cat, who was scared out of his wits, escaped up the stairs. After a celebratory phone call from my son Zach in Fort Wayne, we threw on our coats and jogged the six blocks from our downtown home to the RCA Dome, where…

MICKEY MAURER Commentary: Announcing a camp for women

Ladies, listen up. Mickey’s Camp for Women will hold its inaugural event Aug. 13-15, 2007. You are invited. The Mickey’s Camp concept grew out of a frustrating evening of 8-ball at a friend’s house more than six years ago. I started thinking that pool was just one of a number of skills and activities I hadn’t had time to sharpen and enjoy during the course of my life. Occupied with business and family, like most of us, I had relegated…

ITT leader is leaving business world behind: Chief Operating Officer Modany to step into CEO spot

Many CEOs take the word “retirement” figuratively, using the opportunity to become a full-time volunteer or to launch a second career. Don’t count 65-year-old Rene Champagne among those people. “I’ll be pursuing the leisure activities-like golf, tennis, fishing, traveling with my wife-that I don’t have time to do as CEO,” said the CEO and chairman of ITT Educational Services Inc., who announced Jan. 24 that he’s retiring from the Carmel-based company. Although he plans to remain in Indianapolis, “I don’t…

Giant Ford plant could join warehouse conversion trend: Observers say size, age may be obstacles

City officials haven’t given up hope on keeping 1,400 lucrative manufacturing jobs at an Indianapolis steering parts plant, but Ford Motor Co. has. The company this month said it will close the facility by the end of 2008. A closure will leave the 1.8-millionsquare-foot building empty, but real estate observers say it could be redeveloped as leaseable industrial space-as shuttered Chrysler, Maytag and Western Electric factories nearby have been. Some of the premier projects in the area are leasing well,…

Corporate shopping spree: Massive Guidant deal helps make 2006 a record-setting year for local M&A activity

Last year was a record-shattering period for the Indianapolis-area merger and acquisition market, thanks in large part to the loss of one public corporation. Guidant Corp.’s acquisition by Boston Scientific Corp. for $28.4 billion last year and the related sale of its vascular business to Abbott Laboratories for $4.1 billion made the 2006 Big Deals list bigger than ever. That’s because the two deals made up about 85 percent of the $38.5 billion of M&A activity tracked down by the…

INVESTING: How ethanol mania is making a mess of the corn market

For the last 30 years, politicians from farm-heavy states like Indiana have been pushing for a massive increase in the production of ethanol. As oil prices began to kick up earlier this decade, their long lobbying efforts started to make some sense. Eighteen months ago, I highlighted Archer Daniels Midland as a company to play this move, and the stock went from $21 to $44 in a little more than a year. In the last 12 months, there have been…

SPORTS: Overdosing on the Colts? Enjoy it while you can

That sport, and not religion as Karl Marx once declared, has become the “opiate of the masses” is apparent in our fair burg, where we all-or at least most of us-are overdosing on the Indianapolis Colts. The TV types are in full hyper-ventilation. The scribes are cranking out words by the thousands. No angle involving the Colts and their upcoming Super Bowl date with Da Bears in Miami will go uncovered. And, yes, some of the story lines will be…

Lottery lease plan has fatal flaws EYE ON THE PIE:

Folks I talked to, Democrats and Republicans, liked the governor’s State of the State speech. The fault they found was that the speech was scheduled opposite the Indiana University basketball game with Iowa. Isn’t that an impeachable offense in Indiana? The part of the speech that intrigued me most was the idea about leasing the rights to the lottery to get money to establish scholarships and endowed chairs at our universities. The idea is to slow or reverse the brain…

Colts’ Super Bowl appearance a winner for WISH: Local affiliate should realize seven-figure windfall

Heading into Super Bowl XLI, WISHTV Channel 8 is in the catbird’s seat among local broadcasters. With WISH’s affiliate network, CBS, carrying the Feb. 4 game, the local station is set to rake in a seven-figure sum in advertising revenue-in addition to what it would have made on the Super Bowl if the Colts weren’t in it, industry experts said. “With the Colts in the Super Bowl for the first time since moving to Indianapolis, WISH’s opportunities are immense,” said…

A lonely number for IPOs in Indiana: Calumet joins short list of Indiana companies to go public this decade

A little-known refining and petroleum products company on the city’s west side has the distinction of being the only company in the state to go public in 2006. Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP filed its initial public offering last January. It completed the process in June by selling 5.7 million shares of stock at $21.50 each, ultimately raising $122.5 million. Shares since have nearly doubled in value, thanks in part to rising prices in the petroleum industry. While Calumet’s decision…

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: How to extricate ourselves from the property tax mess

There once was a time when everyone watched network news, and there was one newscast in the heat of presidential primary season that I’ll always remember. After watching a succession of unsuccessful candidates in post-election press conferences blaming anything and everything-except themselves-for their poor showings, correspondent Roger Mudd had seen enough. Just once, he said, he would like to see candidates stand up and say it straight-they lost because folks liked the other candidates better. One of these days, someone…

BEHIND THE NEWS: Royal payoff awaits longtime Noble Roman’s CEO

Noble Roman’s Inc. CEO Paul Mobley is a veteran of the pizza wars, collecting his share of bruises along the way. But now his Indianapolis-based company is enjoying heady times-and he’s poised to capitalize in a big, big way. Securities filings show that warrants to purchase stock he amassed during the company’s darkest days now are worth more than $7.5 million-thanks to a recent runup in the company’s shares. His son, President Scott Mobley, also holds a big stash of…

National Guard proposing new monument

The Indiana National Guard wants to build a downtown monument to commemorate its centuries of history. But concerns over design
threaten to derail the $2.5 million proposal before it gets off the drawing board.

Kiplinger: Chicago beats Indianapolis in corporate duel

Comparing Chicago and Indianapolis corporate powerhouses in a financial Super Bowl is no contest, says Kiplinger, the personal finance and business forecast organization. Chicago wins by more than a touchdown. Both cities are economically diverse. In fact, Kiplinger noted, the cities are more alike than different when size and lake frontage are taken out of […]

Kokomo manufacturer files for NASDAQ listing

Haynes International Inc., a Kokomo company that makes alloys for use in aerospace, chemical processing and gas engines, announced yesterday it would sell 2 million shares of common stock and that it has applied to be listed on NASDAQ under the ticker HAYN. Haynes, which trades as a pink sheet, will use the money to […]

Doors locked at Payton Wells Chevrolet.

Payton Wells Chevrolet at 1510 N. Meridian St. was locked this morning, and the two dozen cars on the lot had notices in their windows saying they had been surrendered to National City Bank.   The notices said they were turned over to National City yesterday and could not be removed without the bank’s permission. […]

Doors locked at Payton Wells Chevrolet

Payton Wells Chevrolet at 1510 N. Meridian St. was locked this morning, and the two dozen cars on the lot had notices in their windows saying they had been surrendered to National City Bank.   The notices said they were turned over to National City yesterday and could not be removed without the bank’s permission. […]

Economist Barkey leaving Ball State

Patrick Barkey, one of Indiana’s most prominent economists, has accepted a post at the University of Montana and will be leaving Ball State University in March.   Barkey, director of economic policy studies at Ball State’s Bureau of Business Research, has been with the university since 1993. He will become a senior researcher at the […]