In a move not necessarily stranger than fiction, Herb Simon has bought Kirkus Reviews, the venerable journal of prepublication
book reviews. The owner of the Indiana Pacers co-owns an independent bookstore in California and is described as a voracious
reader.
Indianapolis is on the verge of losing one of its most prominent public companies. The Steak n Shake Co. is planning to
change its name to Biglari Holdings Inc. and move its headquarters to San Antonio. The Steak n Shake restaurant chain would retain a presence in Indianapolis.
Unable to raise the $1.5 million to $3 million needed to operate an Indy Racing League team this year, Tony George folded
Vision Racing this morning.
Struggling West Lafayette life science contract research firm will search nationally for a new permanent leader.
From 1999 to 2008, Steak n Shake Co. spent an average of $55 million a year to add dozens of restaurants and buy equipment
for existing
ones. In 2009, the locally based
chain spent just $5.8 million.
For banks, the last two years have been among the most tumultuous in history. Financial institution CEOs across the country
responded by trimming their raises in 2009. But in Indiana, bank chiefs didn’t follow form.
Some—but not all—not-for-profit executives took pay cuts in 2008, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s
annual salary survey.
Take the money while it’s there. That’s what a handful of insiders at WellPoint Inc. decided in
the past month as they sold off nearly 150,000 company shares for gains of more than $3 million.
HHGregg Inc. shares have enjoyed a spectacular runup this year. But the company’s biggest shareholder is making a
huge bet that the good times are only beginning.
Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences LLC will have a new CEO after its parent organization moves Jerome Peribere into a new
position, the company announced today. Antonio Galindez, 54, vice president of Dow AgroSciences’ crops business, will step
into the top job.
Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences LLC will have a new CEO after its parent organization moves Jerome Peribere into a new
position, the company announced today.
While transparency is a stated goal of many corporations, deliberations regarding distribution of shareholder property
to executives are not subject to light of day or to review. Instead, decision-making is camouflaged by
thousands of words that appear substantial but disclose little.
The big cheese at Simon Property Group is wedged among the “top gun” executives in the U.S.
The city’s third-largest law firm is poised to tie the knot with Kentucky’s Greenebaum Doll & McDonald. But differences in the way the firms compensate partners are taking longer than expected to sort out.
An exaggerated share of the nation’s wealth is paid to CEOs of public companies, their minions and directors, through agreements
made inside boardrooms, by highly compensated individuals who commit shareholders’ money and are not subject to effective
oversight.
For investors, 2008 was the worst year since the Great Depression. Even so, more than half of the state’s public-company executives
saw the value of their pay packages rise from 2007—despite the fact that only 10 of the companies posted a positive total
return in 2008, and 46 companies shed more than one-third of their stock market value.
Forrest Lucas is following through on plans to take his namesake brand of oil and fuel additives to the mass market.
Within a month of joining the board of Evansville’s Integra Bank Corp. Mike Alley, former CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp’s central Indiana operations, had become Integra’s interim CEO.
Barney Levengood, executive director of the financially-struggling Capital Improvement Board, is one of the state’s highest-paid public employees, and some wonder if his pay should be cut.
Ind. Gov. Mitch Daniels will call the Legislature into special session to pass an acceptable budget, but some legislators think a budget that would satisfy the governor cannot be crafted by the contentious partisans in this developing fiasco.
