Shares of Tennessee-based Genesco Inc.—parent of Indianapolis-based Hat World—rocketed higher this morning after New York-based Foot Locker Inc. offered $1.2 billion for Genesco. Genesco owns several other chains, including Journeys and Johnston & Murphy. Hat World, which has more than 700 locations, accounted for about 23 percent of Genesco’s $1.46 billion in sales in […]
The Indianapolis Museum of Art took over administration this month of a national effort to develop an online database that could make art more accessible to the masses. The two-year project, which got rolling last fall with $1 million in funding, revolves around a Web site that allows aficionados to look at images of artwork held by 10 museums and input descriptions in their own words. Museums then could use the free software for search engines where everyday people can…
In October 2005, Indiana’s Medicaid program touted that it could save the state $29 million a year through disease management, a program aimed at reducing the medical costs of patients with chronic illnesses. But now, those estimated savings quietly have been slashed more than 75 percent. And one critic of Indiana’s program says it is likely achieving even less in savings. The debate over the effectiveness of the Indiana Chronic Disease Management Program comes as the state moves to triple…
Indianapolis businessman Barton Kaufman is auctioning off 26 paintings by notable New York artist LeRoy Neiman. Kaufman plans
to donate the money to Indiana University, where he earned an undergraduate degree in 1962 and law degree in 1965.
It’s no secret that my mentor is Gene B. Glick. I was privileged to work for Gene early in my career and learn the right way to be a success in business. For example, the ability to remain calm while reacting to the many calamities and adversities of a typical business life is one of the attributes of the Glick style that I admire most. I could have used more time at the feet of this master, but, luckily, school…
DOING GOOD LINDSAY CORNELIUS MBA student emerging as philanthropic leader To hear Lindsay Cornelius tell it, Indianapolis is the best place to live: It’s a growing city, with terrific new restaurants, fabulous art galleries, great parks, excellent museums, hip clubs and a booming downtown. But like any major metropoli tan area, it has its problems. And that has Cornelius, 26, determined to be among the legions of young men and women who care deeply about things like quality schools and…
Shares of WellPoint Inc. tumbled in pre-market trading even after the Indianapolis health benefits firm reported strong first-quarter growth. The stock fell 4.7 percent before markets opened today and was trading at $78.35 as of 9:15 a.m. One concern was a rise in WellPoint’s benefit expense ratio, or the amount of claims it pays relative […]
Elevating Jim Cornelius from interim to permanent CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. makes the drug giant more expensive for another company to buy, an analyst told Bloomberg. Michael Krensavage of Raymond James & Associates said this morning’s announcement won’t stop speculation that the New York company could be a takeover target. But Cornelius now is […]
If you’re as smart as a fifth grader, you know that a proton is a basic particle in an atom’s nucleus that has a positive electrical charge. What might be less well known is that proton therapy is becoming the preferred treatment for certain types of tumors. But here’s the real stumper: The man leading a mission to build and operate a nationwide network of proton-therapy clinics is a Bloomington researcher whose startup received a $35 million cash infusion in…
Home lending might sound like a staid business. But anyone weathering the changes now sweeping through the Indiana mortgage market knows otherwise. Last year, we saw the sale of two huge Indiana-based home lenders-Fort Wayne-based Waterfield Mortgage and Fishers-based Irwin Mortgage. Also sold was Carmel-based Oak Street Mortgage, which not long ago had been a high-flier poised to go public. These weren’t cases of owners cashing out at the top of the market. Quite the contrary. Irwin Mortgage had become…
Fulfilling a wish list was how Mike Fry came to found Indianapolis-based Fancy Fortune Cookies, by all accounts the only non-Asian-owned
fortune cookie operation in North America. Fry started Fancy Fortune Cookies near Fort Wayne in 1989. He moved the company
to Indianapolis in 1992.
The possibilities are intriguing: A tethered hot-air balloon ride. Old-time hearthside dinners prepared with farm-fresh ingredients. A wilderness-skill challenge that includes rock climbing and a virtual canoe ride. Leaders at Conner Prairie are weighing which-if any-of those ideas would be a good fit at the Hamilton County living history museum, which is focusing on its future even as it works to preserve the past. “The board is very committed to the idea that Conner Prairie must remain relevant and exciting…
I hated chemistry class in high school. Beakers and Bunsen burners were fun, but memorizing the periodic table of elements was torture for my ADD brain. All those little boxes with different colors stacked up in rows with the twoletter symbols and numbers of protons and neutrons boggled my mind. Today, though, a periodic table provides valuable instruction in my business. I am not talking about the periodic table with hydrogen, einsteinium and nobelium on it. The table valuable to…
The new leader of the Indiana Venture Center is beginning to put his stamp on the not-for-profit that mentors promising startups. James Eifert, 64, is the former president of Terre Haute-based Rose-Hulman Ventures who took charge of the center in December following the July resignation of Steve Beck. Beck left to become co-managing director of IVC Equity Partners, a new local seed-capital fund. Chief items on Eifert’s to-do list are broadening the donor base, revamping the Venture Center’s proprietary network…
Inspiration is timeless. In that regard, it doesn’t matter that two years after its initial release and 52 years after the fact, the story of the Crispus Attucks Tigers and their amazing coach, Ray Crowe, is finally being shared with the nation. On April 27, “Something To Cheer About,” the documentary that chronicles the triumphs and travails of the Attucks teams of the 1950s, opened in nine markets: New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Detroit; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Minneapolis; Dallas; and,…
The turf war between what used to be clearly defined as phone and cable companies will heat up this summer, when Comcast Corp. plans to launch phone service to businesses in the metro area. Philadelphia-based Comcast already offers residential phone service and highspeed Internet to most of its Indiana customers. Those have long been the bread and butter of phone giants such as AT&T. In the tit-for-tat nature of the blurring product offerings between cable and phone, AT&T late last…
It’s easy to understand why investors are grumbling about Emmis Communications Corp. CEO Jeff Smulyan. The company’s stock has tumbled in recent years, and some of the ways Smulyan has been choosing to use the company’s capital look misguided. Last year, for instance, Wall Street booed when Emmis helped back Smulyan’s ultimately unsuccessful bid to buy the Washington Nationals baseball team. And, with the benefit of hindsight, the company in 2005 woefully overpaid when it spent $395 million to buy…
The Indiana Supreme Court said today that insurance carriers are not required to pay power utilities’ costs to install pollution equipment or to pay utilities’ legal costs to defend against lawsuits that forced them to upgrade air quality. The 17-page, unanimous opinion upheld a decision by Hendricks Superior Judge David H. Coleman denying a motion […]
An offshoot of Sun Yat-Sen University in China that promotes Chinese language and culture will be established at IUPUI, the Indianapolis campus announced this morning. Called the Confucius Institute, the program also will help Indianapolis-area companies develop networks in China. The announcement is part of the Chinese government’s attempts to open the institutes around the […]
Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Randall T. Shepard will speak in place of Randall Tobias at commencement ceremonies Sunday for the Indiana University School of Law–Indianapolis, according to the Indiana Lawyer. Tobias, a former CEO at Eli Lilly, resigned late last month as a deputy secretary of state in the Bush administration over an alleged […]
