JS Acquisition Inc., the company Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan has established to complete the acquisition, would purchase all shares
of publicly traded Emmis for about $90 million, according to Monday morning’s announcement.
Tony-winner is (as of now) bypassing Indy but playing Bloomington.
The two largest U.S. health insurance companies, UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minn., and WellPoint Inc., based in Indianapolis,
sell Advantage plans.
The waterworks board’s plan to hire outside consultants to study the proposed sale of Indianapolis Water could delay the deal.
The upstart developer of a device to help doctors choose the right-sized stent to prop open clog-prone arteries has brought
aboard former Guidant Corp. executives, including Bill McConnell. Their regulatory and marketing expertise could help FlowCo Inc. bring its artery-measurement
product to market as soon as 2011.
There may be a solution to the Capital Improvement Board’s financial problems, described in [the April 19] IBJ,
that are further complicated by the Pacers wanting to renegotiate their Conseco agreement.
Privatization is a popular political parlor
game. Instead of providing thoughtful reasoning for consideration by an informed electorate, officials try to meet public
needs through artfulness.
IO’s “Mikado” and Cleveland Symphony’s IU visit rescheduled.
Thirteen years after Mayor Jim Brainard first described his vision for a new downtown along Range Line Road, Carmel City Center
is starting to look like a city.
Melvin Simon’s daughter Deborah is lashing out at her stepmother Bren in a new court filing, saying she was “mentally
and verbally abusive” toward the billionaire late in his life and kept him isolated from friends and family.
Actor Crispin Glover (of “Back to the Future” fame) performs a one-hour slide show, screens
his recent boundary-stretching film “It is Fine! Everything is Fine,” and answers audience questions April 24
at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Details here.
April 23-25
Central Library and IUPUI’s ICTC Complex
If you think Indianapolis is a town that tends to look backward rather than forward when it comes to the arts, consider a
visit to Central Library this weekend. There, dancers, musicians, visual artists and artists you’ll have trouble classifying
take part in this festival of next-wave creativity.
The lineup includes composer/performer Pamela Z, whose bag of tricks includes “gesture-activated MDA controllers”;
Bora Yoon, who creates “architectural landscapes from found objects”; Big Robot, a band that mixes live musicians
with “computer and media interactivity”; and MPG: Mobile Performance Group, which attempts to engage using “automobiles,
video projection, cell phones, FM transmission, wireless hotspots, and any other technologies that allow artists to engage
the public.” Forgive me for using so many quotation marks but, in these cases, I find it necessary to accept the performers’
own definitions of what they do.
The ambitious, one-of-a-kind weekend has been honchoed by Festival Director Scott Deal, a professor of music at IUPUI. For
details, and to reserve free tickets, click here.
UnitedHealthcare believes a program tested in the Indianapolis area will help it save money on claims.
Insurers like WellPoint Inc. should be required to get U.S. approval to increase premiums, Sens. Diane Feinstein and Tom Harkin
say.
Facing the tighter restrictions of health reform at home, WellPoint Inc. wants to follow just about every
other U.S. company in seeking growth in China. WellPoint CEO Angela Braly traveled to China last week to seek out a joint
venture partner to offer health insurance to the nation’s upwardly mobile population. "If everything moves on smoothly,
we are targeting 2011 for offering health insurance services through the venture,” Braly told the China Daily
newspaper. Indianapolis-based WellPoint already has a joint venture with three other American health insuers to provide medical
management consulting to Chinese insurance companies. But with China going through its own version of health reform, private
health insurance is poised to become a popular complement to government insurance programs, according to China Daily.
China's health insurance premiums totaled $1.6 billion in the first two months of this year, according to the industry
regulator, up 34 percent from the same period last year. Such growth is enticing to WellPoint, which has been losing customers
and premiums at home.
Whew! Bioanalytical Systems Inc. gets to stay on the NASDAQ Capital Market after a recent surge kept its
share price above $1 for three straight weeks. NASDAQ had threatened in March to delist the West Lafayette-based company if
its stock price didn’t improve. The company’s shares closed at $1 apiece on March 31 and haven’t dipped
below that level since. Bioanlytical provides contract research services and monitoring instruments to drug-development companies
and medical research organizations.
After months of rumors, Roche Diagnostics finally acquired Israel-based Medingo Ltd., which has a semi-disposable
insulin patch pump that Roche hopes to couple with its blood glucose meters. Roche, which is based in Switzerland but runs
its North American business out of Indianapolis, paid $160 million for Medingo and promised various payments if the company’s
product achieves key milestones in its development and sales. The product is set to launch in 2012. Roche holds the largest
market share worldwide in devices for diabetes care, but it has been losing ground to competitors in the U.S. market.
Warsaw-based Biomet Inc. posted a $3.1 million loss in its quarter ended Feb. 28, a big improvement from
its $479 million loss in the same quarter a year earlier. Last year’s results were dampened by a $449 million impairment
charge that Biomet recorded on its dental business. But this year, the loss narrowed as sales surged 9 percent to $670 million
in the quarter, driven by a 17-percent spike in sales of knee implants. Cash flow rose 9 percent to $251 million, up from
$229 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Biomet’s financial results often are a bellwether for other orthopedic
implant companies, which report their quarterly results later this month.
Carmel-based technology firm Gemms Inc. plans to invest $2.1 million to expand its headquarters and software
development operations here, more than doubling its staff in the next five years, according to the Indiana Economic Development
Corp. Gemms, which develops electronic medical record systems for cardiology practices, has 40 employees now and plans to
add 69 more by 2015.
A hotel employee has filed a civil lawsuit against Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle Eric Foster. The 22-year-old claims
she was working at the University Place Hotel on the IUPUI campus when Foster sexually attacked her the morning of the NFL’s
American Football Conference championship game in January. She said she reported the incident to hotel security, then called
the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, which referred her to IUPUI Police. Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi
decided not to pursue criminal charges against Foster. The alleged victim’s attorney said the criminal investigation
was botched.
Host committee opts to partner with University of Indianapolis and build community center at Arsenal Tech High School, the
original site of
the domed practice facility.
Most of the 148,000-square-foot building just north and east of the 96th Street/Interstate 69 interchange is empty.
Five years ago, the Indiana Pacers ownership was not included in discussions about a potential new downtown home for the Indianapolis
Colts, and now city and Pacers officials are paying the price.
