Investment losses on subprime mortgage-backed securities and an adjustment to tax assets led Conseco Inc. to a big loss in its fourth quarter.The Carmel-based insurance company reported final financial results for 2007 last night – two weeks after reporting preliminary results. Final results were delayed because of a conversation between Conseco and the Securities and […]
Many Indiana school districts say they have no choice but to brace for cutbacks in areas like school repairs, computers and
transportation thanks to the property tax reform measure approved by the General Assembly and signed by Gov.Mitch Daniels.
With the deflation of the RCA Dome, Lucas Oil Stadium will become the home of the Colts, the NCAA Final Four and, hopefully, the 2012 Super Bowl. In late October, the new Indianapolis Airport will become the remarkable new gateway to our city. Yes, 2008 should be an amazing year. Then what? Expansion of the Indiana Convention Center and construction of the JW Marriott complex will soon be under way. As we bike around downtown on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail,…
Most free-lance writers eke out a living. The most fortunate live comfortable lives. But Mindy Mascaro turned her freelance writing business into a thriving company. Carmel-based ExaroMed LLC is now producing sales and marketing content for the like of Roche Diagnostics, Eli Lilly and Co. and Amgen Inc. It has also served smaller life sciences companies such as Indigo BioSciences Inc. and Cheetah Medical Inc. The company has zoomed from six employees to 20 in the last year. It’s already…
The growing threat of terrorism-both foreign and domestic -has alerted building owners to be much more concerned about security these days in the design of new and remodeled buildings. The recent murderous university rampages at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois, for example, have become troubling reminders that developers and other building managers must carefully examine whether their structures make it easy or hard for would-be killers. It’s impossible to design a building that is completely safe under any and all…
Northern Indiana motorists and Democratic opponents of Gov. Mitch Daniels were screaming bloody murder. Daniels in 2006 convinced the Legislature to lease the vital highway and plum of political patronage-the Indiana Toll Road-to an Australian-Spanish consortium for nearly $4 billion. Some managers at the Indiana Department of Transportation also were screaming-with panic. Despite winning the departmental lottery of all time-an annual budget for new roads would now quadruple from $213 million a year to $874 million by 2015-Daniels wanted 200…
Greg Yust, formerly president and CEO of Sagamore Health Network Inc., has joined St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers as vice president of managed care contracting. Yust left Carmel-based Sagamore in January after a short stint. Sagamore was the state’s third-largest managed care organization when it was acquired in August 2007 by Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp. […]
Monical’s Pizza plans to open new restaurants in Carmel, Fishers and Indianapolis later this year. The Illinois-based chain, known for its thin-crust pies, already has six stores in Indiana: in Avon, Lafayette,…
Property tax reform took center stage during the just-completed session of the Indiana General Assembly. But lawmakers also grappled with a host of other measures with business implications. A roundup appears below. ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT One of the session’s most divisive issues-whether to penalize companies that hire illegal immigrants-died during the waning hours. Under the legislation, introduced by Sen. Mike Delph, R-Carmel, companies could have had their business licenses suspended, or revoked after three instances. The Senate and House passed…
Noble Roman’s Inc. has taken over the operation of six franchised restaurants in Indianapolis in a bid to prove its concept
can be executed profitably. The move–which comes amid a chorus of discontent from franchisees and as the company explores
the possibility of selling itself–could help the 1,000-restaurant chain avoid the embarrassment of store failures in its
own back yard.
Anthem Insurance Co. added nearly 75,000 commercial customers last year, pushing its total up more than 4 percent. Anthem,
a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., now claims a whopping 1.8 million commercial customers in the state. The
trouble is, Anthem’s dominance limits price competition, according to benefits brokers, making it hard for local HMOs such
as M-Plan or even some national players to compete.
SMALL BUSINESS PROFILE MATRIX LABEL SYSTEMS INC. Label maker manufacturing growth – again Fourth expansion project set to open this summer Within a month, Plainfield-based Matrix Label Systems Inc. will break ground on a fourth addition to its central Indiana facility, adding nearly 17,000 square feet of warehouse space and potentially more workers. That’s just the latest growth spurt at the 23-year-old company that started out of a garage and now has 50 employees and $15 million in annual revenue….
Delta Faucet Co. has cut 95 blue-collar workers at its plant in Greensburg, leaving about 662 employees. The Carmel-based company blamed ongoing sluggishness in the housing market, according to the Greensburg Daily News. Earlier layoffs at the plant have claimed about 100 workers, and about 30 jobs at the Camel offices. Delta is owned by […]
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 […]
Conseco Inc. reported today that it has been working with investment bank Morgan Stanley for months to explore “strategic alternatives” for the company – a phrase often used when a company is searching for a buyer. Carmel-based Conseco made the announcement this morning as it declined a request from one of its largest investors, Steel […]
HAMILTON COUNTY Carmel lauded for wastewater purification leadership Carmel’s wastewater treatment process is so innovative that it’s been judged a “best practice.” The Washington, D.C.-based National League of Cities maintains a database of best practices for its 18,000 members. In October 2005, Carmel opened the nation’s first municipal BioPasteur system to process solid biological waste, […]
Eric Tobias, the IT architect behind Carmel-based online battery supplier Technuity Inc., now is energizing another startup, Indianapolis-based iGoDigital, a fast-growing player in “recommendation” software for retailers. Tobias, 31, was chief technology officer of Technuity, which distributes batteries, carrying cases and electronics accessories. He left the company, once known as Batteries.com, after it was acquired in November by Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Audiovox Corp. for $16.5 million, plus the repayment of $4 million in debt. The deal added $30 million to Audiovox’s…
On the same day this month when high school boys’ basketball teams compete to advance to the state finals, another event showcasing the talents of Indiana’s youth should be just as climactic. Only this contest emphasizes academics over athletics. The three-day Boilermaker Regional at Purdue University that culminates March 15 will host roughly 40 high school robotics programs, including 26 schools from Indiana. Students will apply their engineering and computer programming skills to design and build task-performing machines. The winning…
In 2003, Carmel-based Telamon Corp. hit rock bottom. So, founder Albert Chen returned to his roots. Taiwanese native Chen, 63, had spent two decades building his firm to serve telecommunications giants. But when the dot-com bubble burst, the telecom industry tanked along with it. Telamon-then Indiana’s largest minority-owned business-saw its annual revenue plummet $300 million, down from $456 million in 2001. Most managers would have chosen to shrink Telamon to reflect its new reality. But Chen doesn’t do mass layoffs….
The city plans to designate part of an office park near 96th Street and Keystone Avenue as an “economic revitalization area” to provide tax abatements for a local company that sells ADT security systems and Dish Network subscriptions. The company, Defender Security Co., has pledged to more than triple its Indiana work force-adding more than 1,100 new jobs-over the next 10 years. The state offered the company up to $6 million in tax credits and $345,000 in training grants to…
