Greg Andrews

It’s a rite of spring. The annual arrival of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s annual report provides a rare glimpse into the operations of the secretive-butsuper-powerful Indianapolis-based foundation. This year, there’s more anticipation than usual. Beyond the listings of who received the hundreds of millions of dollars in grants the endowment passed out last year, the report-due to be released by the end of this month-also will show where the endowment invests its $7 billion in assets. Until now, that part of…

I n d i a n a p o l i s businessman Tim Durham long has been dogged by speculation he had inside information when he scooped up shares five years ago in thenfoundering Brightpoint Inc.-a bet he figures made him more than $30 million when the company roared back. Here we go again. A new Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows that a Durham-led investment group was buying shares in Texas-based Cellstar Corp. in February 2006 just as…

I n d i a n a p o l i s – based Finish Line Inc. already had enough challenges, but here’s another: Nike Inc., Finish Line’s largest supplier, is revving up its own retail ambitions. Analysts, at least, see the Oregonbased company’s move as a competitive threat. For its part, Finish Line notes that Nike plans to open just 100 of its own stores over the next three years, and only 50 would be in the United States,…

It was a long time coming, but attorneys for the defunct Paul Harris women’s apparel chain have won a whopper of a settlement-$9.9 million-with the company’s auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers. In a lawsuit filed five years ago, they accused PwC of “gross negligence” for failing to detect a $7.5 million inventory shortfall and other accounting breakdowns. They charged that the discovery of the discrepancy in the spring of 2001 scuttled the final stages of negotiations to extricate the Indianapolis-based company from bankruptcy…

Citizens Gas & Coke Utility has made early retirement offers to 41 of the 350 workers at its Indianapolis Coke plant at 2950 Prospect Street. Various levels of buyouts have been extended to employees at least 50 years old; they have 45 days to accept. An unnamed company is interested in buying the plant, said […]

Noble Roman’s Inc. CEO Paul Mobley is a veteran of the pizza wars, collecting his share of bruises along the way. But now his Indianapolis-based company is enjoying heady times-and he’s poised to capitalize in a big, big way. Securities filings show that warrants to purchase stock he amassed during the company’s darkest days now are worth more than $7.5 million-thanks to a recent runup in the company’s shares. His son, President Scott Mobley, also holds a big stash of…

Ice Miller is a legal powerhouse and lands plum assignments all the time. So few were surprised when Emmis Communications Corp. last month hired the firm to lead its legal assault on industry heavyweight CBS Radio. But Walter Berger-the man at the center of the legal tangle-sure was. Berger had been Emmis’ chief financial officer before he took the same post a year ago at New York-based CBS Radio. The departure rankled Emmis, and over the summer it sued CBS,…

Durham, who bet big on Brightpoint when it was near financial ruin, now is part of a group that is among the largest shareholders in Texas-based Cellstar Corp., a rival wireless phone distributor buffeted by nearly $200 million in losses from 2002 through 2005. In December, Cellstar announced plans to liquidate, with Brightpoint Inc. acquiring the bulk of its business-its U.S. and Latin American operations-for $88 million. Analysts say it’s a savvy deal for Brightpoint, which picks up $450 million…