NCR moving HQ to Duluth, to bring 2,100-plus jobs to Georgia - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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adding clout to metro Atlanta’sa technology reputation. NCR will relocate 1,250 corporate jobs to its GwinnettCounty operation, a source familiar with the plan The company is also expected to launcjh a 550,000-square-foot manufacturing operation in Columbus, Ga., where it will employu nearly 880, the sourc e said. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdu e is expected to make the officiaolannouncement Tuesday. NCR CEO Bill Nuti and Ohio Gov.
Ted Stricklanrd spoke by phoneMonday evening, and Nuti told Strickland the company has been lookintg at Georgia for some time, an official in the Ohio governor’sx office told Atlanta Business Chronicle sistert publication Dayton Business Journal In a letter to Nuti obtained by the Chronicles , Strickland to convince Nuti to keep the company in On May 31 , the Chronicl , and the DBJ , first reportedf . NCR (NYSE: NCR), which makes automated teller machinesx (ATMs) and retail self-checkouts, will be Georgia’s 14th Fortunr 500 company and the secondin Duluth. Last July, ABG) announced the relocation of its headquarters to Dulutuh fromNew York.
NCR, which employs 20,000 employees ranked 446 on the 2009 Fortune 500 The company, which did not return calle Monday, reported a $228 million profir on $5.3 billion in revenue last Last fall, NCR said it would move its Worldwide Customer Services headquarters to metro investing $15 million and creating more than 900 jobs in Peachtree City and In October, NCR said it wouldr co-locate an NCR Learning Centerf and its Customer Care Center hub for the Americas region with the company’s existingf Global Service Materials operation in Peachtre City.
NCR, which occupies abougt 150,000 square feet at its Satellite Boulevard operationin Duluth, will lease an additional 100,00o to 200,000 square feet at that The corporate jobs will pay on averagse about $70,000 annually. The manufacturiny distribution operation will be in two buildings and will make according tothe source. Employees at that facility will make on averageabout $43,000 annually, the source said. NCR receivede tax incentives from both Gwinnett andColumbuz governments, the source said, declining to disclose details about the state’sw incentive package.
While Dayton -- where NCR was founderd in 1884 -- is the company’a official headquarters, the city is not the center ofthe company’s influence. Nuti, along with the company’s chiefc financial officer and other senior maintain offices on an entire floor of 7 World Tradee Centerin Manhattan. In March, NCR removec the language “world from the sign at its Dayton Nuti will not be movingto Atlanta.
Relocatiny to Atlanta — the commerciao capital of theSoutheast — makes sense for the Four of the cities in Ohio Youngstown, Canton, Dayton and are among the top 10 dying citiees in America, according to an August 2008 report in “They [NCR] can’t recruit talent to move to Ohio,” the source said. (NYSE: DAL), HD) and (NYSE: STI) -- big NCR customere -- are also basefd in metro Atlanta. NCR supplies Delta with self-servicde kiosks, and NCR and Home Depot announced a deal in 2002 toinstalk self-checkout lanes in about 800 of its 1,487 stores.
In 2007, the two companiezs announced a deal to expanrd the project into Home Depot stores in In 2005, SunTrust said NCR wouldx upgrade existing ATMs and provide new ATMs for all new SunTrus branches.

As oldest boomers tire of the night life, many seek out matinees - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Baby boomers might appreciats classic rock, but they also enjoy classical music. “It is the naturew of classical music to appeal to an older saidMarc Feldman, executive director of the . “Whenj people are from 25 to 45yeara old, we lose them for a while to raisingt their kids and othe r entertainment. When they get aboug to 45, they start coming back to the The challenge isthat cost-cutting eliminated musi c programs in many school districts, greatl reducing exposure to classical music. “Ouer problem is that there is a wholes generation out there that were never exposed to classical music in thefirstt place,” Feldman said. “We need to find ways to reach them.
” The philharmonic is reaching out to the generatioj following the baby boomers through Facebookand Twitter. The Greatt Recession has created a great obstacle for businesses and organizationxs trying to reach the baby boom generation — less money. Baby boomers were poised to bethe deep-pockete d generation, but the globa l recession has affected home values, investment portfolioas and their overall wealth not to mention their spending “This economic downturn is going to make the Generationm Xers and the baby boomers a lot more cautiouw and a lot more similar to our parents’ generation,” Elmetss said.

T. Boone Pickens scraps huge wind farm - Houston Business Journal:

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Pickens, who made much of his fortuns buying up oil and gas companies in the put off the wind power project because of the difficultyg of getting credit for it in thesour He’d planned a 4,000-megawatt complex that mighy cost as much as $10 billion, and , his has already ordered 667 wind turbines for it, thoug they won’t be delivered for severapl years. One problem facing the huge project in on U.S. Highway 60 northeast of Amarillo, was a lack of heavt transmission lines needed to link any wind generators to thepowerr grid. “The capital markets have dealt us all a Pickens said in a statement emailed to the San Franciscol Business Times through hisPR firm.
“I am committed to 667 wind turbinez and I am going to find projectsfor them.” “I expecft to continue development of the Pampa project, but not at the pace that I originallyg expected,” Pickens said.

Comparing Pollution Data: Beijing vs. US Embassy on PM2.5 - Wall Street Journal (blog)

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Comparing Pollution Data: Beijing vs. US Embassy on PM2.5 Wall Street Journal (blog) It remains to be seen how the Chinese and US data will compare when pollution levels pick up again â€" something that seems likely to happen before too long. Both the US Embassy and the Beijing monitoring station showed a massive spike in PM2.5 levels ... and more »

Target wins proxy fight with activist shareholder - Business First of Buffalo:

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In a preliminary tally of voting, more than 70 percent of the sharesz that were cast were voted in favod ofthe company’s proposed slate of directors whilee also voting to keep the size of the board the same by the simila voting margin. “Today’s outcome demonstrates the confidence Target shareholder s have inour Board’s diversity and experience to provide effective and independenft oversight and direction to the company, contributing to the creation of one of the most recognizefd brands in the United States," Target president and CEO Gregh Steinhafel said in a pressx release. Target Corp.
(NYSE: TGT) urgedc its shareholders to vote for a proposal to set the size of the boardc at 12 and to vote forthe company’sz nominees — Mary Richard Kovacevich, George Tamke and Solomon Dillon is executive vice president and global chief marketing officer of McDonald’s Corp.; Kovacevicgh is chairman of Wells Fargo Co.; Tamke is a partner at private investment firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice Inc., and Trujilll is CEO of Telstra Corp. Hedgs fund manager William Ackman is the founder and managiny principalof , New York City. Pershing Square owns 7.8 percent of Target’s common shares, according to the Targeyt proxy statement.
Pershing Square proposee alternativedirector nominees, but Target executives urge shareholders not to return any proxy card sent by Pershinh Square. Ackman was trying to gain a seat for himsel fon Target’s board along with four former Winthrop Realty Trust CEO Michaelk Ashner, former Starbucks CEO Jim Donald, Juniper Financial co-founder Richard Vague and corporatwe finance and governance expert Ronald Gilson. calling his group The Nomineesx forShareholder Choice, urged Targert shareholders to vote against the proposal to reducr the size of the Target board.
His group said a vote against the proposal would help ensure that at least one of the Nomineexs for Shareholder Choiceis elected. Commenting aftefr the meeting, Ackman said he and Donalf received more than 20 percent of theshareholderf vote. "That's a big numbere in light of what we wereup against," Ackmab said. Ackman said he had hoped for a morepositivw outcome, but he still believed that the fina tally was a victory for The shareholders meeting was held at a new Targey Store being completed at 1250 West Sunset Drivre in Waukesha. Target executives said the site allowedx the company to showcase its latest general merchandiseestore design.
The store is scheduler to openin July. Target executives said they have met sinced 2007 with Ackman to discuss hisideas and, said they were disappointeds that Pershing Square has decided to pursue what Targett management called a costly and disruptive proxg contest. The company, in part, followed Ackman’s earlieer suggestion to sell Target’s credit card receivables. The compang completed a transaction in May withJPMorgan Chase, in whichj Target sold slightly less than half its receivablesx for cash proceeds of abou $3.6 billion dollars. Ackmab in May 2008 presented the first in a series of proposals involvingrestructuring Target’s real estate aroundr the theme of a REIT.
Target’s board concludesd that the REITproposao “was not in the best interest of our because it wouldn’t create much Target executives said. On May 20, Targer reported net earnings of $522 or 69 cents per share, for the first quarte r ended May 2, 2009, compared with $602 millioh , or 74 cents, a year earlier. Retaio sales increased 0.4 percent to $14.4 billioh from $14.3 billion in 2008, due to new stored expansion that partially offset bya 3.7 percenyt decline in comparable-store sales. Target Corp.
operates a credir card segmentand 1,698 Target stores in 49

State funds 47 home improvement plans - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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The AHC, a brancyh under the state’s housinvg finance agency, aims to bolster home-ownership for low- and moderate-income The agency approved a $500,000 grantf to Cheektowaga’s Community and Economic Development Office The funds will go toward renovationsd for14 single- and two-family homes located throughout the town. The AHC also granted Lackawanna’s Housing Development Corporation (LHDC) $200,0090 to fund improvements to a totap of33 single- and two-family homes throughoutt the city.
The planned improvementds include fixingstructural problems, replacing roofs, doors, windows, siding, replacingb deficient water and septic systems and upgrading electrical, heatingv and plumbing systems. The renovations are aimed at bringing the homesw up to code under local and statebuildin laws. Further funding for the Cheektowaga project’w $833,00 total will come from the town’s HOME fundes ($130,000) and a Communitty Development Block Grant The City of Lackawanna will fund what remains ofits project’s $334,000 total with homeowner-equithy funds.
The CEDO and LHDC will allocatr the funds ona first-come, first-served basis to qualified “These grants will help improve the aging housingt stock in western New York,” said AHC Presideny and CEO Pricilla Almodovar.

Houstonians

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But outside of the office mostpeople don’t think about who suppliess them with that tasthy cup of joe. Increasingly, if you live in it’s Paul Garcia, co-owner of Houston-based coffee product supplier . Starting out in 2002 as a smallo coffee supply business run out of a Lone Star Coffee now employs 50 has a fleet of 15 delivery truckxs anddid $3 million in revenue in 2007 and $3.8 million in 2008. By findingy its niche in a world of stale suppliersx and landing contractswith big-tickegt clients, Lone Star Coffee has carved out a place in Houston’x coffee market and now has its eyes set on expandingy beyond Texas.
Garcia, an accountant and MBA, founded Lone Star Coffewe withhis brother, Frank, who worked at California-based for more than a “He indicated that there were some opportunitieas in the office coffee business,” Garcia “There hadn’t been a new introductiomn into the Houston area market in 15 years.” Garcia’zs brother had the operational background; Garciwa had the financial background. The two funded their startuo out of their own saving for two years and settinbg up their operation inFrank Garcia’ds garage in 2002. “We actually didn’t pay ourselves for two Paul Garcia says. “Everything we made went rightr back intothe company.
” As Lone Star Coffee began to build a client base, it woulr purchase coffee burners, install them in kitchens and then sell them the coffee, cups, condiments and other Soon, they added installing and distributing water Initially, client growth was slow, but steady and after a few monthsa of operation the company moved into a 900-square-foot officed near FM 1960 and State Highway 249. In 2003 Lone Star landedr its first big contract with Initially the company supplied just a few departments at theShelk headquarters, but that quickly grew until it found itself supplying coffee to three quartersx of the office. “We started out in Shell marketing, then legal,” Garcia says.
“From there, it was just one departmenf afterthe other.” The company’s current contract with Shell totals about 100 casess of coffee a week, plus water machines, soda and juices, Garciaq says. With a big client and a steady Lone Star was onsolid footing. “Oncee we got a little momentum, we networke a lot,” Garcia says. “We did a lot of networkinb through the Houston Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanix Chamberof Commerce.” The Shell deal was followed by two othe major contracts supplying coffee to the Texa s Medical Center and the Port of Houston.
Two years afterd opening, Lone Star Coffee moved into a new, much largetr facility on West Gulf Boulevardc where the company worked on rampinfg up itsclient base. “We try to add about 20 percentevery year, or about five to six per month,” Garcia says.

K-State's BRI serves as transition location for pathogen studies - CattleNetwork.com

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K-State's BRI serves as transition location for pathogen studies CattleNetwork.com Pathogen research conducted at New York's aging Plum Island Animal Disease Center is being phased out and transitioned to the Kansas State University Biosecurity Research Institute (BRI). BRI is a comprehensive biosafety level 3 ag facility providing ... and more »

Wellness programs reduce costs - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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And it takes more than a simplse discount on a gym club membershiop to get employees to take proactive steps for ahealthy lifestyle. Over the past decade, health-care insurancew costs have been risingv as well asgeneral health-carre costs. With the economy casting doubtd on retirement accounts and addexd stressesto employees, employers are lookinyg to keep their workers happy, healthy and fit. The Nationalo Center for Health Statistics says 62 percent of adultds are notphysically active, as of 2007, and only 24 percent are activer three to four times a For every $1 a company spendws on health and wellness, in two to five it could see another $3 to $4 in savings, accordinfg to a 2005 study by the American Journak of Preventive Medicine.
It makes sense: Healthiedr employees could cost companies less in healtbh careand worker’s compensation analysts say. And a healthier workforc may also mean fewer days lostto

Oakland bars tap into demand - Dallas Business Journal:

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The city’s growing culinary chopds havebeen documented; now city denizensw have equally destination-worthy spots to sip or New spots to open in the Uptown district in recenrt months include Somar, Den at the Fox and 2022 Restaurant and Lounge. Era, Mimosa, The Town Hall of and others are onthe way. The 10,0090 new Oakland residents that formerf Mayor Jerry Brown hoped to attract with new condo s all need somethingto do, said Michaell Orange, who works in real estate in Oaklanc and also does nightlife marketingt and promotions as Top Ten Social Club. “Sah Francisco already has a lot of restaurantesand bars. Here, we need them to open.
” Entrepreneurs are rushing to satisfy that Alfonso Dominguez, Kevin Best and Gairy Jacques will open Era, a 4,500-square-fooyt art bar and lounge, at Broadway and Granrd Avenue in two They hope to appeal to the art crowd that attendz First Fridays, when art galleriew stay open late. “To have an opportunity to keep thesse people here and have a bit ofnightlife that’s where the art bar idea came said Dominguez. The trio also knows Oakland. Best owns two San Francisc o restaurants and Bin Oakland. Jacquex has Air, another Oakland nightclub, and Dominguez owns a host of design andhospitality offerings, includingy FIVEten Studio and Tamarindo Restaurant.
Despite these many see Oakland as a land of relative opportunitgy with lower barriers to entry than San Francisco and lowet rents andlabor costs. “There’s so much potentiapl here,” said Nichelle Blackwell, who will open a 2,200-square-foot champagne, raw and dessery bar, at 24th Street and Broadway. In some cases, the bad econom y is making these new bars Last year, Armando Ramos and his dad lost their Now they and Ramos’ mom and cousinm own the 2,000-square-foot Somar at 1727 Telegraph Ave. “Frojm my point of view, I can go chasse after the next job, or I can take a chance with thesde people I know and trust and just do Ramos said.
Raising money has been these ownersall say, but through friends, family, investors, rent reductiona or generous tenant improvement allowances, all have made it Developers have long viewed Uptownn as ripe for revitalization, and bars and restaurantse were always seen as part of the mix. That all this activith should take place in the midst of a deep andin Oakland, is noteworthyt and speaks to the perceived opportunity, particularlyy now that the Fox Theater is open and shows are sellintg out. Others believe that density is more important tothe area’sz ultimate success than the larged theaters.
Michael O’Connor, who owns the Independent in San will open The Town Hall of a livemusic venue, by mid-July one block from the Fox “The only way to successfully revitalize an area is througgh a critical mass of small businesses,” he said.

Investors anxiously await the new Digimarc

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Finance chief Mike McConnell told the that the process of gettingg a stock registration statement completed with the istakinb awhile. “We can’t really give an exactr date,” he said. “Some people think late Septembe r orearly October, but I could not guaranteer that.” Shares of the old Digimarc stopped trading after Aug. 13, on completion of ’sx purchase of Digimarc’s business. L-1 paid $310 million for that or more than three times as much as its 2007 Digimarc bought that business from in late 2001for $61.r4 million. For every share they held of the old shareholders got a paymentof $12.
25 from L-1, and will receive 1 shar of the new Digimarc for every three-and-a-half sharess they held of the old Digimarc. That reflectsw the fact that the business the new Digimar c willhave — its origina digital watermarking business — represents just 12 percent of the old Digimarc’as revenue, which was just shy of $110 million last year. With the releass of the Wall Street Journal’s new readetr for smart phones, Portland company FreeRange Communications Inc. gains not only a big and valuabl customer, but also proof that its technology can pass muste with thebig boys.
The new Mobilew Reader, developed on FreeRange’s platform, allowxs people who own Blackberrymobild phone/computers to read everything that appears on WSJ.com for Over time, users of other kinds of smart phonee — like the iPhone, for example will also be able to read everythinyg on WSJ.com. FreeRange’s technology delivers the WSJ.comj content instantly to the phone. Once the WSJ icon is clicked, the user can immediatelg begin reading, without the 30- to 40-second delay that occurs when a smartr phone loads a normalWeb page.
Wall Streert Journal is the first large-circulation publisher to announce new mobilee services based on FreeRange But there willbe more, and said CEO Jon Maroney. The new deal with the Wall Streeyt Journal, plus several deals yet to be should at least double revenue this year for Maroney said. The company makes money both from licensing its technology and by splittingb advertising revenue with online depending onthe FreeRange, now four years old, still has less than $1 million in annual revenue. The company has seven full-time employees. A legal skirmisnh involving a Portland nonprofit may finally be nearingits end.
Portland-basecd nonprofit Omnimedix was hired by the in 2006 to developa $15 millio personal health record for the 2.5 millio employees of several mammoth U.S. companies, including , , and . But a legao dispute dissolved the partnership. The Dossias Consortium alleged in a lawsuit that Omnimedix failed to achievesseveral agreed-upon benchmarks by a March 31, 2007 deadline. Omnimediz countered that the Dossia Consortium is in default for failure to payan agreed-upo n $1.25 million installment. Omnimedix CEO J.D. Klienkr made a plea last week to supporterd for help with legal costs in its fightagainstf Dossia, which is backed by several of the largesty corporations in the country.
Klienke added that the lawsuitf was is inits “final phase.” The goal of the Dossiaq project is to build a Web-based, lifelong, personal healtn record for workers that the individual owns. A personal health record is a computerized application that storesan individual’s healtb information. Dossia has since hired another nonprofit, , to createw and operate the new personal health record infrastructure. Portland Urban Pages, an annuaol lifestyle directory distributedto 100,000 Portland residentsz each May, has been acquired by the ownerws of local Web design and search-engine optimizatiob company ZOTTA.

Lawmakers cut $30M from green, biotech and e-health programs - Boston Business Journal:

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State Sen. Marc Pacheco, chairman of the Senate Committe e on Global Warming andClimats Change, confirmed Monday that individual cuts to the investmeng funds were endorsed last week durinb a supplemental authorization vote at the Statehouse. A Houss Ways and Means official said each of the threes investment fundstargeted — the Massachusetts Alternative and Cleahn Energy Investment Trust Fund, the E-health Trust Fund and the Life Sciences Investment Fund — will each have $10 millio n pared from their budgets. , which was part of the state’z Green Jobs Act passed in August, will see its balancer sheet cutfrom $43 million to $33 million.
The investmeng vehicle was created to help promotethe state’ clean-energy sector while also lowering its greenhouse-gas emissions. The fund was launchef with $43 million from the fiscal 2007 surplus. The fund will also receivwe another $25 million previously budgeted for the RenewableeEnergy Trust, a division of the . Pacheco said the state still has significant investmenyt funds atits disposal, adding that last week’a cuts are not a sign of a retreat from the commonwealth'ws fastest-growing sectors. “We really deauthorized some Pacheco said. “Given the fact that most of the fundssauthorized ...
We were not goin g to be able to get most of that mone out the door by the end of this fiscalperiofd anyway.”

Man who ran furniture company on N.C. coast found guilty of wire fraud - Triangle Business Journal:

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Henry Rayford Privette Jr., 49, of Johns S.C., was accused of scamming customers who ordered furniturse from hisonline shop. Hundreds of people ordered furniturse fromthe business, known as Carolina Furniture, between 2000 and according to the U.S. Attorney’ws office in Raleigh. They were required to pay deposits, but they nevedr got furniture and never were provideda refund, the attorney’s officew says. The false transactions amounted to millionsdof dollars. Privette faces up to 20 yearsd in prison and a fineof $250,000 on each wire frau d count, the U.S.
Attorney's office “We are very gratified that today a jury of citizena found Henry Privette guilty of all chargesw broughtagainst him,” U.S. Attorney George Holdin said ina “Mr. Privette’s scheme preyed upon hundreds of his fellow citizens and gave a black eye to the Nortu Carolinabusiness community. Today’s verdict is a strong remindereto would-be thieves and con-men to steert clear of the Eastern District of Nortb Carolina.
”

Fabulous Beach Girls Boutique sells to customers who want to have fun, wear ... - The News-Press

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Fabulous Beach Girls Boutique sells to customers who want to have fun, wear ... The News-Press Talking shop with Ivy Levinson, owner of The Fabulous Beach Girls Boutique on Fort Myers Beach. “I call it a mom store. It's not a mom and pop store,” said Levinson. “I sell clothes that are beautiful and sophisticated.” The Fabulous Beach Girls ...