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INVESTING: Collapse of Bear Stearns may portend more woes

JP Morgan’s unprecedented, purchase of Bear Stearns for $236 million raises more questions than it answers. In a stunning series of events, Bear Stearns went from trading for $65 a share on Wednesday, March 12, to an announcement the following Monday that, with the assistance of the Federal Reserve, it was being sold to JP Morgan for $2 a share. The collapse of Bear Stearns began the prior week with investors who had entered into securities transactions with the firm…

Farm Fresh clients pay a premium to support local growers, organics

Matt Ewer and his wife, Elizabeth Blessing, launched Farm Fresh Delivery LLC in July. With nearly 500 subscribers already,
the organically- and locally-grown-groceries delivery business is blooming in a segment where many large, mass-market retailers
failed during the dotcom bust.

VIEWPOINT: Indianapolis’ utility acne syndrome

It took decades of turning a blind eye to get here: Indianapolis has draped itself in utility poles. Walk, ride, jog or drive to any major street in Indianapolis, with the exceptions of a few designated boulevards, streets and avenues. Take a mental picture of where you are. Now, with Photoshop in your mind, remove the web of utility poles and wires from that picture and quickly open your eyes. We’re visually strangled by them. Few streets are exempt from…

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Credit card companies boost enforcement efforts

When American Express and Diner’s Club introduced the first credit cards in the 1950s, few people could have anticipated their presentday popularity. And even fewer could have anticipated the creative ways identity thieves would find to conduct credit card scams. They install cameras in and around ATM machines, engage in sophisticated online phishing schemes, and hack into large databases to obtain Social Security numbers, credit card numbers and drivers licenses. Through the Internet, thieves buy and sell those numbers as…

Credit-market turmoil casts uncertainty over ITT Educational Services

ITT Educational Services Inc. and other for-profit schools are facing a maelstrom of financial threats that analysts say could
hurt student recruiting and profit margins–and already has driven stock prices down sharply. ITT shares are off 61 percent
since hitting an all-time high of $131.82 in November.

Commentary MICKEY MAURER: No more stock advice-I promise

“At $2.94 per share, the price of Finish Line stock has almost fully discounted the downside risk.” Whew! The above quote in my column of Dec. 3, 2007, had me choking on my own ink. I was addressing Finish Line’s ill-fated quest to purchase the outstanding stock of much larger Genesco Inc. for $54.50 a share. The thought of trying to digest the $1.5 billion purchase price is reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s lunching on his own boots. I predicted that…

Local bankers surprised by Bear bailout: Observers hope firm’s sudden sale signals peak of financial turmoil

The local president of Milwaukee-based M&I Bank, Reagan Rick, got the shocking news while waiting for a plane at Boston Logan International Airport. It came in a text message from Robert Warrington, the former CEO of First Indiana Bank, the Indianapolis bank M&I acquired last year for $529 million. Warrington told him 85-year-old New York-based investment bank Bear Stearns Cos. had been sold to JP Morgan Chase Co.-with backing from the Federal Reserve-for a mere $2 per share. “The degree…

Foreclosures keep ’em busy: Bankruptcy attorneys, credit counselors seeing surge in clients

Many consumer bankruptcies typically can be traced to a divorce, job loss or medical issue. Now another perpetrator-subprime mortgages-is entering the fray. The fallout from the housing crisis, coupled with a weakening economy, is contributing to a rise in bankruptcy filings nationwide. They spiked more than 30 percent in January compared with the same time last year, according to the Virginia-based American Bankruptcy Institute. With more than 1 million subprime mortgages due to reset this year, ABI Executive Director Samuel…

SPORTS: ‘The Luke’ and its potential are finally real to us

And in less than five months-if, as we used to say in Center Grove, the Good Lord’s willing and the cricks don’t rise-it no longer will be just that mammoth structure rising between West and Missouri streets. It will be ours, and in that personal pronoun, I mean, sincerely, that Lucas Oil Stadium will belong to all of us, not just residents of Indianapolis and the contiguous counties who have pitched in on the funding, but to all Hoosiers who…

Indy beverage acquirer scores first purchase: Taliera drinks up Texas maker of Bloody Mary mix

It took a year and a half. But Indianapolis-based Taliera Holdings LLC finally acquired its first beverage brand. Taliera, led by Indianapolis entrepreneur J. Smoke Wallin, acquired Texasbased Red Eye Brands this month. The company makes Red Eye Bloody Mary mix, as well as salsas and sauces. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Wallin said Red Eye holds less than 5 percent of the Bloody Mary mix market. He hopes to take the company to 10 percent three…

Hillenbrand to start with lower S&P rating

Standard & Poor’s plans to rate the corporate credit and debt of Hillenbrand Industries Inc. at a BBB- rating instead of its current A- after the Batesville company spins off its Batesville Casket Co. business on March 24. Hillenbrand, which focuses on hospital beds and other health care equipment, is receiving the downgrade because the […]

Arts to the left, arts to the right

David Mamet has stirred lots of debate with his recent column in The Village Voice. The message can be boiled down to his line “I took the liberal view for many decades, but I believe I have changed my…

Friday open thread

Besides college basketball, what’s on your mind today? A starting point: What do you think of Simon Property Group’s venture into the condo business with a 47-story tower atop a Nieman Marcus in Boston? (A spokeswoman for the tower’s designer,…

Indiana’s forgotten corridor

Draw a line from Richmond in east-central Indiana toward the Chicago area, and youâ??ll find some of the
most
depressed space in the state.

The stretch includes the once-mighty manufacturing centers of Anderson, Gas City, Muncie, Kokomo and Logansport.
Factories and…

WellPoint prospects worry ratings agency

A.M. Best Co. lowered its outlook on WellPoint Inc.’s financial strength, citing concerns about the company’s growth potential. Best, the nation’s most-influential insurance ratings agency, maintained WellPoint’s A grade, which means it is in excellent position to pay future medical claims. But Best lowered its outlook on the Indianapolis-based health insurer from positive to stable. […]

Simon building condo tower in Boston

Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group plans to construct the third-tallest building in Boston. The 47-story residential tower in Copley Place will be overshadowed only by the 52-story Prudential Tower and the 60-story John Hancock Tower, according to The Boston Globe. The first four floors of the luxury condominium tower will comprise retail space. Simon also is […]

Clinton and Obama on NAFTA

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama suggested to voters before the Ohio primary election early this month that
the North American Free Trade Agreement should be renegotiated because Rust Belt workers are getting a raw
deal.

The extent to which Clinton and…

Kimball laying off redundant positions

A restructuring announced last year will result in 75 to 100 workers being laid off from Kimball International Inc.’s headquarters in the southern Indiana city of Jasper. Most of the affected workers will be white-collar, according to the Evansville Courier & Press. About 150 of the furniture and electronics maker’s 4,000 positions are expected to […]

Youth basketball = big business

It seems there are many people and businesses these days fighting to get a piece of youth basketball. Talks between the NCAA and NBA started heating up last month about forming a coalition to launch co-branded youth basketball leagues and…

Dome souvenirs & Babe Denny

This week brought potential resolution for a couple of disputes in the neighborhoods surrounding Lucas Oil Stadium:

Board limits RCA Dome souvenir proceeds to $200K
The Capital Improvement Board today agreed to rework an…