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A sweet year for Interactive, other stocks:

Interactive Intelligence Inc. this past summer finally rebounded to $13, its initial public offering price seven years ago. Then it kept going. By year-end, shares of the Indianapolis-based software maker were trading around $21. For the year, Interactive shares appreciated 311 percent, making it the top-performing stock in 2006-by far. But it was an outstanding year for many Indiana companies, as their shares climbed in step with the national market indexes. In 2006, the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 16…

Better days on the way for museum:

Things are improving for Ellen Rosenthal. For more than two years, she kept Conner Prairie on track while a battle raged over control of the Hamilton County living history museum. Now she’s leading the institution’s rebirth. For the first time since 2000, Conner Prairie finished its fiscal year in the black. Attendance and memberships are up, and fund-raising is recovering after bottoming out at less than $100,000 in 2004. The museum’s two newly appointed boards-one to oversee museum operations and…

Banks play name game: Sky purchases Union Federal, then sells to Huntington:

Union Federal Bank became Sky Bank after Ohio-based Sky Financial Group in October completed its $322 million purchase of Indianapolis’ largest locally based financial institution. But the Sky signs won’t be up for long. On Dec. 20, Sky announced it was being acquired by another Ohio-based financial institution, Huntington Bancshares Inc., for $3.6 billion. The deal will elevate Huntington to Indianapolis’ third-biggest bank. It had ranked eighth, based on employees. Locally, it has 20 locations and 270 employees. Sky has…

Retailers worry private manager might change terms:

For the nine years she’s owned the Lightning Food Mart in New Albany, Tammy Wolford has depended on the Hoosier Lottery to attract customers. So if Indiana leases its lottery to a private operator, it could directly affect Wolford’s bottom line. “I am not for it,” she said. “I really feel if that happens, eventually it will come down to the retailers who will be losing.” Gas station and convenience store owners like Wolford fear a private lottery operator might…

Beginning lawyers may see salary boost: Experts think big-city pay raises will trickle down here

Starting salaries for young lawyers at the city’s largest law firms could be on the cusp of hitting six figures. First-year associates at several top-tier Indianapolis practices currently earn $90,000 a year. But a wage war playing out among firms on both coasts, and in Chicago, might prompt those here to raise the ante as well. “It’s just a matter of who blinks first,” said Mike McConnell, a former legal consultant who chairs the state’s Education Employment Relations Board. “It…

EYE ON THE PIE: It is time to accept I-69 and move on

I don’t want to write this column; you don’t want to read it. Yet, I must respond to the diehards who insist that building Interstate 69 (and almost any other road) will be detrimental to our state. Several economic and environmental studies support the Bloomington-Crane-Washington-Petersburg route to Evansville. Yet, time after time, supporters of the Terre Haute-Sullivan-Vincennes-Princeton route rise up and demand a reconsideration of the path. The Terre Haute crowd is afraid it will lose something if the Bloomington…

Carmel company helps clients determine next big thing

The employees of production-innovation consultant Insight2 interview customers, but they also watch and videotape them using
various products. That footage then is dissected to see how consumers deal with problems they encounter. More times than not,
the result is a new product intended to satisfy needs consumers didn’t even know they had.

Small talk with new SBDC chief: Central Indiana counseling office gets fresh start after years of uncertainty

Victoria Hall this year took over the Central Indiana Small Business Development Center, which counsels more than 500 Hoosier entrepreneurs annually. Hall, a former vice president for H&R Block Tax Services, oversees four employees, including three business counselors. She also teaches part-time at Ivy Tech Community College, which hosts the local SBDC. She earned her MBA from the Indiana Institute of Technology in Fort Wayne. One of 11 regional centers in Indiana, Central Indiana SBDC has been plagued in recent…

CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: IBJ has big plans for coming year

This has been a strong year for your local business weekly. We take seriously our mission of providing readers with the best, most in-depth coverage of local business, so it is with a sense of both pride and gratitude that I report on our most successful year ever. Editor Tom Harton has called 2006 the Year of the Award. This year, IBJ won 18 news awards-eight of them gold-from three different organizations. Our coverage was recognized nine times by our…

INVESTING: Deal-making frenzy sweeps through trading exchanges

More than 200 years ago, people used to gather under the Buttonwood Tree, a big Sycamore on Wall Street, to trade stocks. Those traders have long since passed on, and their piles of cash have been delegated to others. But, oh man, are we talking piles. Exchanges are the hottest investment right now. They are getting more hype than China. All of this recent spike in speculation has created an almost unacceptable level of risk for investors in exchange stocks,…

How far does $1 billion go in the marketplace for superstar students and world-class academics?:

Gov. Mitch Daniels proposed the Hoosier Lottery lease to fund incentives for higher education. Just how much will $1 billion buy? Daniels wants to put $600 million in a permanent endowment to finance Hoosier Hope Scholarships aimed at retaining the state’s top high school graduates. Endowment proceeds, Daniels said, will pay for 1,700 scholarships annually in perpetuity. The program will hand out $5,000 annual scholarships for four-year colleges and $2,500 annual scholarships for two-year degrees. The payouts would be considered…

RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: 2006 has seen plenty of technological goofs

Happy holidays to you, and welcome to yet another yearly installment of, “Who’s Got the SNAFU?” the holiday game for those nervous about using technology for anything more complicated than opening cat food. We start comparatively close to home, in Valparaiso, where CNN reported that a modest little $122,000 home was erroneously valued in the county’s computer system at $400 million, which would have generated some $8 million in tax revenue. The $8 million figure was duly calculated into the…

Shiel Sexton to give city block extreme makeover: Historic home of VanAusdall & Farrar gets new life

Shiel Sexton Co. Inc. is continuing its downtown redevelopment spree with plans to turn an entire city block into an office complex that could include some retail space. The Indianapolis contractor bought the block at auction this fall when its former owner, local office equipment distributor VanAusdall & Farrar Inc., moved to offices at 75th Street and Binford Boulevard. Bounded by 12th, Meridian, 13th and Illinois streets, the 2.9-acre property houses four buildings, three of which are clustered along Meridian…

SPORTS: Here are two opportunities to help our city’s kids

Almost a year ago, IBJ asked me to write a column that placed sports in an educational context. Obviously, I have great passion for the topic, having spent my life writing about sports, those who play the games, and the lessons that can be learned through participation. Sure, there are plentiful examples of excesses, and we certainly just had another in New York’s Madison Square Garden. But I maintain those incidents are not reflective of sports as a whole, any…

BULLS & BEARS: This year has been good, but 2007 might be better

If you are reading this before Christmas Day, you most likely have only about 24 hours of shopping time left to find that last stocking stuffer. What are you doing reading this now? Get out there and finish shopping! Or, if you are reading this after Christmas Day, I hope Santa was good to you. Unless something dramatic happens to the stock market in the last two weeks of the year, your portfolio should be shouting “hoho-ho” with gains for…

Indians stock buyback raises more questions: Analysts say highest offer yet isn’t high enough

The Indianapolis Indians saw attendance, profit and dividend payments shrink in 2006. But a recent stock buyback program launched by the baseball franchise to boost the value of its shares is the biggest in the team’s long history. Whether the offer price is big enough is an open question. Market observers don’t think so. With 799 shares outstanding when the buyback was announced Nov. 16, the offer price of $15,329 per share put a $12.2 million price tag on the…

VIEWPOINT: Sustained momentum crucial for session

The 2007 Indiana General Assembly session will begin in January. As a result of last month’s election, the House of Representatives is now controlled by Democrats, and the Senate is in the hands of Republicans. Regardless of which political party controls which branch of the Legislature, Hoosiers expect collaboration and progress. Indiana has built tremendous momentum in economic development, but more work lies ahead. The momentum must continue into 2007 and beyond. Despite our progress, Indiana must continue to be…

NOTIONS: Resolutions and predictions: Why bother?

Bruce Hetrick is on vacation this week. In his absence, this column, which appeared on Dec. 30, 2002, is being reprinted. The gym will be rife with resolvers these next few weeks. They’ll arrive, eagerbeaver, wearing sweats, headphones and heart monitors purchased as Christmas gifts by relatives hoping to encourage good habits, longer lives and less flab to hold onto in the night. On all this pricey merchandise, you’ll see Nike, Reebok, Adidas and Roots. That way, the resolvers can…

Verizon amphitheater might be redeveloped

The potential redevelopment of Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville could open the door for a new concert venue in
Indianapolis, but industry veterans don’t expect it would look anything like the popular Hamilton County amphitheater.