At least 35 new bank branches have sprouted in Hamilton County in the last three years, and more are on the way. Familiar
names like Charter One and Chase have added eight and seven branches, respectively. Other institutions are entering the market.
Brace yourself for lots of action in the next two weeks, as the deadlines approach for bills originating in the House to be passed to the Senate, and vice versa. While this is a long session of the General Assembly and one might assume this would lead to more deliberative contemplation, the extra days do not seem to make much difference as deadlines approach. Some of the larger issues that require more massaging and compromise tend not to be drafted…
If Mayor Bart Peterson gets his wish, a $450 million bond issue finally will settle Indianapolis’ long-standing dilemma over underfunded police and firefighter pensions once and for all. It will also generate up to $9 million in professional fees. And locally based City Securities Corp. is laying the groundwork to earn a lion’s share-even though investment banking is dominated by giant companies in Manhattan. “I would assume that most of Wall Street has made a call,” said City Securities Vice…
Announcements that major Indiana companies have been acquired are traditionally met with trepidation. But a rash of recent
buyouts of Indiana companies shows they’re not always bad news.
When local IT entrepreneur Mark Hill sold his banking software company in August 2005, he emphasized the potential upside for the area entrepreneurial community. Now he’s making good on his word. Not content to bask on a beach somewhere, Hill has organized an Indianapolisbased private investment company called Collina Ventures. With $10 million under management-all provided by Hill-Collina already has made its first investment. This month, it risked $5 million in startup cash to organize Indianapolis-based Blue-Lock LLC, a computer-hosting…
Bank mergers have proven lucrative for local sign companies over the years. A string of mergers in the late 1980s and early
1990s wiped out the city’s three big national banks–American Fletcher, Merchants National and Indiana National. In the years
since, the industry has continued to consolidate, spawning a flurry of additional name changes.
It might seem as though the low cost of labor overseas has shifted the entire U.S. textile industry to Asia, never to return. Indianapolis-based leotard-maker Motionwear Inc. proves otherwise. The 120-employee company was acquired this month by the Italian sportswear firm FILA for an undisclosed sum and, as a result, it’s poised to expand locally. Tom Wilson started the company in his attic in 1988 because his daughter Erin, an aspiring dancer, couldn’t find performance apparel she liked in retail…
Indianapolis entrepreneur Tim Durham has run into trouble with one of his lenders. Evansville-based Old National Bank says
in a Dec. 1 lawsuit that Durham’s Indianapolis-based holding company,Obsidian Enterprises Inc., is in default on $2.6 million
in loans that came due Nov. 1.
They all have high-tech surveillance systems from Greenwood-based American Sentry Guard. The company specializes in building and distributing “intelligent video” systems capable of linking digital video with other computer-based information, such as sales transaction records. Clients include schools, banks, casinos, government agencies and small businesses. Founded in 1999 by father-son team Jack and Jeff Brummett, American Sentry has become one of the nation’s fastest-growing privately held companies. This year, Inc. magazine ranked the company 150th on its “Inc. 500” list,…
When cousins Michael and Morris Maurer decided to start a bank from scratch in 1993, they had several major issues to work through. There were regulatory approvals to win and federal deposit coverage to secure. They needed investors, bankers, office space and technology. But even the seemingly small details required time-consuming care. For one: selecting a name. It had to evoke a feeling of local control and continuity. It had to call to mind the company’s strategy of long-term relationships…
Just more than a year ago in this column, I suggested Kimball International’s stock might be an attractive investment. At the time we felt that, here was a company in our own back yard-Jasper-that possessed the kind of favorable investment c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s investors should seek. The column noted that the company had “no long-term debt and holds $117 million, or $3 a share, in cash. The stock…
Emmis Communications Corp. has a new mantra when it comes to emerging technology some say will kill the radio industry: If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. Emmis entered a relationship with California-based Apple Computer Inc. nine months ago that is paying big dividends. Since launching one of the radio industry’s first iTunes storefronts on its stations’ Internet sites, Emmis officials said they have become the No. 2 iTunes affiliate based on sales. Only Internet behemoth Yahoo Music sells more….
The terms for emerging Internet technology are enough to make the less savvy long for the days when e-mail seemed cutting-edge. The communication tool, especially among teens, has given way to instant messaging, of course. So it’s no wonder colleges and companies alike are starting to shun standard e- mail and Web-page marketing efforts in favor of video-on-demand clips, known as vodcasts. “The computer was meant to be watched; it wasn’t meant to be read,” said Jon DiGregory, who founded…
Anyone surprised that at age 62, Jim Cornelius would take on the bruising job of leading embattled drugmaker Bristol-Myers Squibb shouldn’t be. After all, the Zionsville businessman has surprised observers before. This is an executive who 12 years ago gave up one of the top jobs in corporate America-chief financial officer of Eli Lilly and Co.-to become chairman of Guidant Corp., then a much-maligned collection of medical-device firms that Lilly was spinning off into a stand-alone company. A risky move,…
Westerners have been dreaming about the riches of the Far East for centuries. Christopher Columbus didn’t set out to discover America. He was looking for a faster route to India and China. More than 500 years later, the dream is not completely fulfilled, but riches can still be had, as long as you have some to begin with. I just returned from Singapore. This tiny nation-state is the most densely populated country on earth, and it is smack dab in…
BEHIND THE NEWS First Internet’s acquisition is no run-of-the-mill bank Bank mergers happen all the time in Indiana, but this one is about as unique as they come. The buyer, Indianapolis-based First Internet Bancorp, was one of the nation’s first Web-only banks when it opened its doors in 1999. Today, it’s among the top five in that field, with assets topping $445 million. The seller is Indianapolis-based Landmark Financial Corp., parent of Landmark Savings Bank. Landmark Financial, with assets of…
A Marion County judge has ordered an Indianapolis credit union to pay its former CEO $3.4 million, saying it wrongly froze the executive’s accounts after accusing him of financial improprieties three years ago.
Union Federal Bank’s Fort Wayne-based parent is locked in a dispute that could put in peril the Indianapolis financial institution’s $330 million sale to Bowling Green, Ohio-based Sky Financial Group Inc.
Abby Joseph Cohen, chief equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, stopped by my office last week after a brief stint on CNBC. I took advantage of the opportunity and sat her down for a good, oldfashioned interview. This is a rare treat, so let’s enjoy, tongue planted firmly in cheek. HAUKE: Abby, thank you for paying us a visit. You have climbed to the peak of Wall Street and it is an honor to speak with you. COHEN: Well, I am…
Toothpaste. Laundry bleach. Cat food. Banking services. Despite the hopes of many bank executives, vast numbers of consumers rarely elevate their banks beyond everyday commodity status. Through traditional advertising and marketing, many banks attempt to differenti ate themselves as the bank of choice or the bank that makes a difference. Repeat the tag line often enough and hopefully potential customers will start to believe it. One fact underscores this unfortunate commodity service status: According to recent market research, the No….
