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Ring maker remakes industry with big buyout: Herff Jones’ purchase of American Achievement to narrow roster of rivals to two; deal may be worth $700M

Herff Jones Inc.’s latest acquisition is a whopper that will remake the competitive dynamics of its niche industry-the sale of high school rings, yearbooks and other products that help mark educational milestones. The Indianapolis-based company this month agreed to buy American Achievement Group Holding Corp., a deal that would reduce the roster of Herff’s major competitors from three to two. Herff has $511 million in annual revenue, while American Achievement has $315 million. Terms were not disclosed, but Dow Jones’…

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Bowl reaction from elsewhere

Many a back was slapped in Indianapolis and among the Indy troops in Atlanta yesterday when the NFL team
owners opted for Indianapolis over Phoenix and Houston to host the 2012 Super Bowl.

Elsewhere, though, the reaction was mixed.

The Arizona Republic…

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Indianapolis, cold in winter?

Does Indianapolis experience winter? NFL owners meeting in Atlanta today could be forgiven for wondering, if
all they knew about Indianapolis was the information in the Super Bowl bid package.

The 30-plus pages in the executive summary have plenty…

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The next housing challenge

As the housing debacle continues to unwind, another big â?? really big â?? issue in housing is going largely
unnoticed.

Houses built in the 1950s are at risk of falling into the same decay experienced by many older neighborhoods,
some of…

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Dwindling unemployment trust nears crisis point: Fund that once held $1.6 billion may face insolvency

Indiana’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund is running out of money-fast. It opened this decade with $16.6 billion in assets. By the end of last year, it had dwindled to $302 million. And last month, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development said the balance was just $80 million. Though DWD in early May received $300 million in taxes collected from employers, the infusion is only a shortterm fix. By year’s end, the fund is expected to be short on cash again….

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Symphony Bank results keep hitting sour notes: CEO hopes to succeed by taking bank ‘to the people’

Symphony Bank’s palatial branch along East 96th Street-outfitted with a copper roof, towering domed ceiling and heated parking lot-was designed to telegraph wealth and stability. But instead, the $5 million Taj Mahal became the most prominent symbol of the bank’s excesses and one reason the startup has lost money every year since its founding in June 2005. The bank, which has no other branches, has torn through two management teams and piled up annual losses of $2 million or more…

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Steak n Shake hopes discounts whet appetites: Yet some fear promotions may hurt the brand

In an effort to reverse declining sales at its restaurants, The Steak n Shake Co. plans to roll out a number of new promotions and discounts this summer. During a conference call with analysts May 14, interim President Jeffrey Blade said the Indianapolis-based chain plans to introduce deals such as 99-cent children’s milkshakes and discounted burgers and sandwiches to lure customers back into its stores. The company also is testing $1 kids’ meals, a discounted milkshake “happy hour” from 2…

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EDITORIAL: Pricey fuel isn’t all bad: Pain at pump creates opportunity

Pricey fuel isn’t all bad Pain at pump creates opportunity The high cost of fuel hurts everyone, from commuters to business owners to not-for-profits whose volunteer drivers deliver meals to shut-ins. Our whole economy suffers. But there’s a silver lining to gas for $4 a gallon: opportunity. If the price of fuel isn’t coming down, and that seems to be the prevailing wisdom, the only thing to do is adapt. It’s in adapting that there’s opportunity to be found and…

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Land banking: Banks grab top sites for branches, often years before they build

Many of central Indiana’s banks are filling their own safe-deposit boxes, but they’re not stuffing them with jewelry, legal documents or blackmail material. They’re banking parcels of land. The sites often are in fast-growing suburbs or redevelopment areas that hold potential for new brickand-mortar bank branches, sometimes several years down the road. Competition can be fierce for the prime sites, and other financial institutions aren’t the only nemesis for banks: Walgreens and CVS also are fighting over the best ground,…

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Subsidizing thy neighbor

Should a city give incentives to companies that want to leave the city and expand in another town?

That question is dogging Muncie officials after they offered a $600,000 loan to a Spanish company that plans
to move an auto-parts plant…

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Gas edges past $4 in N. Indiana

Gas is over $4 in northwest Indiana, according to http://www.indianagasprices.com/.

In some places, itâ??s up to $4.09.

How long until it hits $4 in the Indianapolis area, and how high will it go?

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: Why the arguments against free trade don’t hold water

Americans are in a tough spot when it comes to negotiating free trade agreements. With the exception of a small Scandinavian country and a couple of European principalities, everyone we trade with has lower wages, weaker environmental standards, and less personal liberty. So it is easy to argue that we shouldn’t trade with a country until it becomes like us. This is the siren song of economic catastrophe. Here’s why. First, countries don’t trade with each other; people do. The…

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BEHIND THE NEWS: Area’s humdrum economy now looking pretty good

Hoosier executives aren’t exactly crowing about the Indianapolis-area economy these days. But they’re painting a brighter picture than you might think, especially compared with the carnage they see in what used to be the nation’s hottest markets. Here’s what Simon Property Group CEO David Simon, not one to lavish idle praise, said during a February conference call with analysts: “I think the Midwest has been flat for I don’t know how many years, other than Indianapolis. Indianapolis seems to be…

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Commentary: We manage traffic Rube Goldberg-style

Rube Goldberg was an engineer by training who rose to prominence not for his engineering skills but for his political cartoons, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948. Goldberg was also famous for his cartoons that depicted whimsical machines with complex mechanisms to perform simple tasks. Goldberg’s fantastic contraptions served as an inspiration for the annual Rube Goldberg competitions held at colleges, universities and high schools across the country. In years past, students have been required to develop…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Despite some perceptions, future for IT workers bright

In mid-March, Bill Gates traveled to Washington to carry an unpopular message to Congress: Raise the limits on visas for foreignborn tech workers, or Microsoft and other high-tech companies will be forced to move more jobs overseas in search of a skilled work force. Gates’ testimony to the House Committee on Science & Technology wasn’t groundbreaking-the shortage of tech workers is well-documented. But it begs an obvious question: Why have computer science enrollments at U.S. colleges and universities fallen by…

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Branson bailing out of ethanol?

British entrepreneur Richard Branson has unloaded a company thatâ??s building two ethanol plants in the U.S.,
including one near Fort Wayne.

In an interview with Fortune magazine during the peak of ethanol optimism in early 2006, Branson said industry…

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Economy jitters won’t go away

Exit polls yesterday showed Hoosiers voted their pocketbooks. Theyâ??re worried about the economy.

That has a familiar ring. Many voters made a similar point four years ago when Gov. Mitch Daniels beat
Gov. Joe Kernan by promising to improve the economy.

Now,…

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ECONOMIC ANALYSIS: A healthy economy makes an uninteresting campaign

In this curious primary season, Indiana finds itself the brief center of attention as Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama invest time and treasure in the crossroads of America. The strongest focus in both their campaigns is my favorite subject-the economy. Both candidates bemoan the poor Hoosier economy, its job losses and income inequality. This would be a superb campaign approach for both candidates, except that their claims are wholly, totally and embarrassingly devoid of facts. Indiana’s economy is doing…

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INVESTING: Don’t follow the crowds; follow these wise men

There are many things I do not understand. I don’t understand why a golf gallery must remain “pin-drop” silent while a person hits a ball that sits stationary on a tee, yet fans can scream at the top of their lungs while a batter tries to hit a ball coming toward him at 95 miles per hour. I also don’t understand how economists take massive amounts of conflicting economic data, input the statistics into a model, and, presto, out comes…

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Car makers turn up pressure for bigger, but fewer, stores

Domestic automakers were already scheming about new ways to chop dealers–cutting costs to service them–as their market share
drained to Toyota and other foreign competitors. Now, an economy standing on the brakes could drive another round of dealer
consolidations that might not be a good deal for family-owned peddlers of metal.

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