Articles

US Airways ups ante to salvage faltering Delta offer

US Airways Inc. has told the creditors committee of bankrupt Delta Air Lines Inc. that it will boost its $9.8 billion hostile takeover by $1 billion if the committee demands Delta allow US Airways to conduct due diligence, according to The Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed sources. Delta also would have to postpone a Feb. […]

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Kiplinger: Chicago beats Indianapolis in corporate duel

Comparing Chicago and Indianapolis corporate powerhouses in a financial Super Bowl is no contest, says Kiplinger, the personal finance and business forecast organization. Chicago wins by more than a touchdown. Both cities are economically diverse. In fact, Kiplinger noted, the cities are more alike than different when size and lake frontage are taken out of […]

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Kokomo manufacturer files for NASDAQ listing

Haynes International Inc., a Kokomo company that makes alloys for use in aerospace, chemical processing and gas engines, announced yesterday it would sell 2 million shares of common stock and that it has applied to be listed on NASDAQ under the ticker HAYN. Haynes, which trades as a pink sheet, will use the money to […]

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Doors locked at Payton Wells Chevrolet.

Payton Wells Chevrolet at 1510 N. Meridian St. was locked this morning, and the two dozen cars on the lot had notices in their windows saying they had been surrendered to National City Bank.   The notices said they were turned over to National City yesterday and could not be removed without the bank’s permission. […]

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Doors locked at Payton Wells Chevrolet

Payton Wells Chevrolet at 1510 N. Meridian St. was locked this morning, and the two dozen cars on the lot had notices in their windows saying they had been surrendered to National City Bank.   The notices said they were turned over to National City yesterday and could not be removed without the bank’s permission. […]

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Economist Barkey leaving Ball State

Patrick Barkey, one of Indiana’s most prominent economists, has accepted a post at the University of Montana and will be leaving Ball State University in March.   Barkey, director of economic policy studies at Ball State’s Bureau of Business Research, has been with the university since 1993. He will become a senior researcher at the […]

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Could NiSource move headquarters to Ohio?

Residents in the Merrillville area are growing jittery over prospects that NiSource Inc.—the only Fortune 500 company in northwest Indiana—might move out of the area. United Steelworkers official fears NiSource will relocate to Columbus, Ohio, where its Columbus Gas of Ohio natural gas utility is headquartered, according to The Times of Munster. Bloomberg reported yesterday […]

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Payton Wells abruptly closes Anderson car dealerships

Payton Wells, who owns a Chevrolet dealership 1510 N. Meridian St., traveled to Anderson Thursday afternoon and closed three other dealerships he owns, The Herald Bulletin reports. Calls from the newspaper to Wells’ Indianapolis location were unanswered, although the newspaper could not immediately determine if the site also had been closed. He could not be […]

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Elkhart officials try to tap international fiber optic line

Economic development leaders in the Elkhart area are gathering money to study how local businesses could use an international fiber optic line that runs through Elkhart County. Few businesses know it exists, The Truth reported. The low cost of sending information over the line not only could help local businesses in the northern Indiana county, […]

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Steel Dynamics may revive $215M iron range project

Steel Dynamics Inc. has bought a 4,458-acre mine in northeastern Minnesota’s iron range, renewing hopes of local officials that the Fort Wayne steelmaker will build a plant to make nearly pure iron nuggets for use in electric arc steel furnaces.   On Nov. 30, Steel Dynamics pulled out of a partnership with four other parties […]

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Icos shareholders approve Lilly acquisition offer

Shareholders of Icos Corp. voted 77 percent to 33 percent today to accept Eli Lilly and Co.’s $2.3 billion offer for the developer of the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis, according to Bloomberg.   Analysts quoted by Bloomberg said shareholders were so divided about the deal that they couldn’t predict whether Lilly would succeed. Only three […]

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UPDATE: GM options for Allison Transmission include sale

General Motors Corp. today made official a long-expected announcement that it is considering a sale among other options for its Indianapolis-based Allison Transmission commercial and military operations. GM said in a brief statement that the facility in the 4700 block of West 10th Street “is not central to GM’s mission” of selling cars and light […]

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U.S. home sales might have bottomed in December

The decline in the housing market is past, the National Association of Realtors said today. The organization reported December sales of existing homes fell 0.8 percent from November to an annual rate of 6.22 million. Still, inventories of unsold homes dropped 7.9 percent—to a 6.8-month supply. The $222,000 median sale price was unchanged from a […]

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Indy foreclosures retreated, Indiana held steady in ’06

Indianapolis ranked third among the 100 largest metro areas last year in rates of mortgage foreclosures—4.3 percent of households, according to RealtyTrac. Only Detroit and Atlanta fared worse. However, Indianapolis foreclosures slowed in the final three quarters, the California company said. Indiana was 6th, with Alabama ranking highest. Nationally, the rate shot up 42 percent […]

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ITT Educational Services profit, enrollment rise

ITT Educational Services Inc. today reported fourth-quarter profit of $40.9 million, and $118.5 million for the year—up about 8 percent for both periods. During the year, the Carmel-based technical school operators opened 11 schools and said it plans to launch six to eight in 2007. Yesterday, ITT announced that Rene Champagne would resign as CEO […]

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Rensselaer popcorn plant to expand

ConAgra Foods Inc.’s microwave popcorn plant in Rennselaer will take on production from another ConAgra plant in Edna, Minn., as part of a restructuring of the Omaha-based company. It isn’t clear if the expansion of the northwest Indiana plant will add jobs.

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Dow AgroSciences profit withers in fourth quarter

Higher raw material prices helped force Dow AgroSciences profit down by nearly half in the fourth quarter its parent, Dow Chemical Co. reported today. The Midland, Mich., chemical giant said the Indianapolis-based agriculture division turned out only $38 million in profit compared to the $74 million of a year earlier. Strong competition in Brazil and […]

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Navistar unit, Monaco Coach to form joint venture

International Truck and Engine Corp., a unit of Illinois-based Navistar International Corp., and Monaco Coach Corp. of Elkhart plan to form a joint venture to make rear-engine diesel chassis for recreational vehicles, the companies said today. The joint venture, of which International will control a 51- percent stake, will manufacture more than 5,000 chassis at […]

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NiSource’s Indiana utility may soon be sold for $4B

Merrillville-based NiSource Inc. is close to selling its Indiana utility for as much as $4 billion, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. Duke Energy Corp. is the most likely buyer of Northern Indiana Public Service, the story said. Also named as possible bidders were AES Corp., American Electric Power Co. and Exelon […]

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Ohio officials recommend hanging up on Indiana company

Buzz Telecom Corp. of Merrillville will lose its license to operate in Ohio if Ohio’s Public Utilities Commission goes along with a recommendation by the staff of the oversight body. Consumers have lodged 274 complaints that Buzz misled older adults into switching long-distance service, according to The Akron Beacon Journal. The recommendation follows an investigation […]

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