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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Profit fell 10.6 percent to $4.2 million in Steak n Shake Co.’s first fiscal quarter, the Indianapolis restaurant company reported today. Same-store sales dipped 1.7 percent. However, the same-store decline was an improvement from the 3.4 percent setback in the prior quarter—a sign, the company said, that turnaround efforts are moving in a positive direction.
Celadon Group Inc. said today profit in its second fiscal quarter increased 26.4 percent, to $6.1 million. The Indianapolis-based long-haul trucking company said the quarter was its most “challenging” in several years. A decline in freight traffic late in the quarter reduced miles its trucks were driven and increased the number of miles they were […]
Lilly Ventures, the venture capital arm of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. has co-led a $44 million round of financing for Cylene Pharmaceuticals Inc., the San Diego drug discovery company said today. HBM BioVentures Ltd. of Switzerland lead the round. It is Lilly’s first investment in Cylene; it’s share of the financing was not […]
Lilly Ventures, the venture capital arm of Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. has co-led a $44 million round of financing for Cylene Pharmaceuticals Inc., the San Diego drug discovery company said today. HBM BioVentures Ltd. of Switzerland lead the round. It is Lilly’s first investment in Cylene; it’s share of the financing was not […]
Mattress Firm, a Houston-based mattress retailer with three Indianapolis stores, has been sold to management and the Boston private equity firm J.W. Childs Associates LP. The seller was Sun Capital Partners Inc., the Florida private equity firm that bought Marsh Supermarkets in September for $88 million.
