Conseco Inc. has won another round in court against former Merchants National Bank CEO James D. Massey this month, ringing
up a $29 million judgment against him in a court in Illinois. But Massey shows no sign of throwing in the towel in the years-long
litigation over millions he borrowed to buy Conseco stock. Massey was a director of Conseco from 1994 to 2000.
Most public companies say they tie executive compensation to performance, but an IBJ review of pay data from 65 Indiana-based
firms shows otherwise. Last year, more than two-thirds of Indiana-based public companies saw their share prices decline, yet
many continued to award eye-popping compensation to their executives.
Angela Braly, Wayne DeVeydt and the rest of the top brass at WellPoint Inc. face wrath over the company’s recent stock swoon
from a new group: ex-employees. Four former WellPoint workers have filed lawsuits against the Indianapolis-based health insurance
giant over the losses its 401(k) retirement plan suffered in March when the company slashed its profit forecast for the year.
Emmis Communications chief Jeff Smulyan today was more positive about the companyâ??s fiscal fourth-quarter performance
than heâ??s been about an earnings report in a long time.
Revenue at its U.S. radio stations, which have been dogged by an industry…
Some local Starbucks workers are looking like they tangle with cats.
Theyâ??ve taken to putting bandages over piercings to meet the letter of Starbucksâ?? dress code, which minimizes
the number of earrings and other piercings visible to customers.
Band-Aids beat the hassle…
Conseco has dropped off the Fortune 500, leaving WellPoint, Lilly, Cummins and NiSource as the only Indiana companies remaining. Several Indiana firms are closing in on the elite list, though. One is Steel Dynamics, the Fort Wayne company that recycles scrap metal….
Two executives with longtime ties to The Steak n Shake Co. have joined a dissident Texas investor in his quest to overhaul
the Indianapolis-based restaurant chain. Shareholders who have agreed to work with Sardar Biglari include a former board member
the company once described as a “modern-day founder” of the restaurant chain, along with a former partner in Kelley & Partners
Ltd., the investment firm led by company patriarch E.W. Kelley before his 2003 death.
CALPERS, the big pension fund, doesnâ??t want Eli Lilly and Co.â??s new CEO, John Lechleiter, to be voted onto
the board at Lillyâ??s annual meeting on Monday.
Lechleiter was a high-level player within Lilly in recent years while the…
As postmortems fly on ATAâ??s second, and final, nosedive into bankruptcy, another Indianapolis airline is
doing
a lot better and getting hardly any attention.
Republic Airways Holdings Inc. isnâ??t a household name because it quietly flies regional routes on…
Barring a small miracle, ATA Airlines is dead, now that itâ??s lost a major military contract.
The carrier was headquartered in Indianapolis until it moved to the Atlanta area late last year.
How big a blow would ATAâ??s demise be…
Tomorrow, John Lechleiter takes over from Sidney Taurel as CEO of Eli Lilly and Co.
A chemist who came up through Lillyâ??s labs, marketing and finally, as president and chief operating officer,
Lechleiter faces major pressure.
Lilly stock has trended…
Texas investor Sardar Biglari rode a wave of shareholder anger to a landslide victory in his quest for Steak n Shake Co. board
seats. Now, the dissident 30-year-old investor who models his approach after Warren Buffett’s is hoping to deliver on his
promise to turn around the Indianapolis-based chain, with or without the chairmanship he covets.
Congress and the courts long have tried to balance regulations to try to protect consumers while giving companies
space to operate.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to limit lawsuits against medical device makers if the Food…
Californians are howling over the recent discovery that one of WellPointâ??s units made a practice of asking
doctors to report conditions that the insurance company could use to cancel medical coverage for new patients.
The letter amounted to asking doctors to…
Health insurance companies including Indianapolis’ own WellPoint Inc. have been relentless in trying to suppress
spiraling health costs. So relentless, in fact, that doctors are pushing back.
Physician groups in Kokomo, Rushville and other cities are refusing to take new patients…
Itâ??s no secret that banks are in upheaval thanks to the subprime mortgage crisis and the domino affect mess
itâ??s creating.
In an IBJ story over the weekend, reporter Cory Schouten discusses the local grab for market share, as…
If you’ve memorized the local radio dial, you can forget a lot of it beginning next month.
As IBJ reporter Anthony Schoettle wrote in this weekend’s paper, several stations are starting new formats.
We’ll hear plenty of promos as they try…
June McCormack, the top-ranking executive at Sallie Mae's Fishers operation, is leaving the student loan giant, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company and McCormack are negotiating a severance agreement, the company's Dec. 12 SEC filing said, but her departure date was not disclosed. McCormack has led the 2,300-employee Fishers […]
Eli Lilly and Co.â??s announcement this morning that President and Chief Operating Officer John Lechleiter would
succeed CEO Sidney Taurel in April was a picture of smooth succession planning.
Lechleiterâ??s ascension had been expected for so long that the news was…
Itâ??s been awhile since the Indianapolis area has had two initial public offerings in the works at the
same
time, but thatâ??s exactly what we have. And theyâ??re software firms to boot â?? businesses Indianapolis
and other
Midwestern cities have…
