Hewlett-Packard once again raised its offer for storage company 3PAR on Thursday, outbidding Dell’s revised deal made earlier in the day.
HP’s new offer is $27 per share, up from its previous bid of $24 a share and Dell’s latest offer of $24.30, which was made Thursday morning.
The deal values 3PAR at $1.8 billion, up from the $1.6 billion that Dell offered. HP’s latest bid represents a 180% premium over 3PAR’s closing price of $9.65 the day before Dell’s initial bid.
Both Dell and HP submitted bids for the company last week, but HP raised its bid to just under $1.6 billion after Dell’s initial $1.15 billion offer was announced publicly. On Wednesday, 3PAR told Dell that Dell had three days to raise its offer, or it would go with HP’s deal.
"Not only is our offer superior to Dell’s proposal, HP remains uniquely positioned to execute on this combination given the number of synergies between the two companies," said Dave Donatelli, general manager of HP’s servers and storage unit, in a prepared statement.
As part of 3PAR’s revised deal with Dell reached Thursday morning, the storage company would owe Dell $72 million if it accepts HP’s higher offer business
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A father and son from the Sacramento region have been charged with stealing more than $1.6 million from clients of their company, according to Attorney General Jerry Brown.
Thomas Rodine, 56, of Carmichael, and Dustin Rodine, 28, of Citrus Heights, are each charged with three counts of embezzlement and one count of submitting fraudulent claims to the state controller.
The Rodines, through their Carmichael-based asset and heir location business, Rodco & Associates, allegedly targeted individuals with assets in the state Controller’s unclaimed property fund, offering to help them claim the money. Once the individuals agreed to work with Rodco & Associates, Brown alleges, the Rodines forged documents in order to reroute the recovered assets to post office boxes they controlled. The Rodines also allegedly forged documents to claim funds that were never disclosed to clients.
In all, the Rodines withheld unauthorized fees and claims totaling $1.675 million, according to Brown. More than $700,000 has been repaid and authorities expect full restitution for victims.
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With many of their rivals on the ropes, Canada’s major banks are nicely positioned to catapult into the top tier of U.S. financial institutions — for the first time ever.
The main reason is that the country’s banks famously skated through the subprime and derivatives meltdown of 2008 with no government bailouts and comparatively few writedowns. As a result they replaced their Swiss rivals as the international standard for banking excellence and readied themselves for cherry-picking the best assets in the distressed banking industry south of the border.
On the surface, it looks like they’re on a U.S. buying spree. Since mid-April, three major Canadian banks — TD Bank Financial Group, Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Bank of Nova Scotia — have collectively acquired six failed U.S. institutions. All the acquisitions were cautiously negotiated with the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which is taking on a heavy share of the potential loan losses.
But critics say the Big Five are playing it too safe, content to remain third- and fourth-string players in the U.S. markets where they operate, when they should be aiming for the No. 1 spot. If ever there was a time to do it, it’s now, but Canadian banks don’t seem to have the nerve to bust out and become truly global players.
That kind of reticence from the boardroom could be fatal for the future of Canada’s major banks, who run the risk of growing stagnant behind cushy domestic regulations that make it impossible for foreign rivals to compete on an equal footing. Consider that the six recent acquisitions add up to a mere US$22 billion in new assets for the buyers. That’s about 1% of total assets for these pillars of Toronto’s Bay Street — little more than a token gesture to make it seem Canada’s banks are not entirely asleep at the wheel.
Analyst Michael Goldberg with Toronto-based Desjardins Securities agrees the U.S. market offers a rich opportunity for Canada’s super-capitalized banks. "TD in recent years has been most aggressive in building its U.S. franchise," he says. "But reaction has been mixed payday advance. Some investors are very skeptical anytime Canadian companies buy anything in U.S."
Earlier this month, TD Bank (TD) acquired South Financial Group for US$61 million, adding more than 100 branches to its 1,000-plus locations in the Maine-to-Florida corridor. This follows on the heels of buying three small Florida-based institutions closed by regulators.
BMO (BMO), which bought assets of failed Illinois lender Amcore Bank, adds 52 branches in Illinois and Wisconsin, building on an existing network of 288 branches at its Harris subsidiary. Toronto-based BMO made its big U.S. push with its C$718 million (US$682.1 million) acquisition of Harris in 1984. It has since spent about C$2.5 billion (US$2.4 billion) buying U.S. banks, but only reached the No. 3 spot in Illinois by deposits.
Scotiabank (BNS) is the third Canadian lender to take advantage of U.S. government-assisted acquisitions, snapping up R-G Premier Bank of Puerto Rico, building on the 17 branches it already has on the Caribbean island. However rival Banco Popular de Puerto Rico acquired the deposits of Westernbank at the same time, securing its position as the largest insured bank on the island, despite the fact that Scotiabank has been doing business in tiny Puerto Rico for 100 years.
Canada’s big banks can afford to casually dabble in foreign markets because their domestic operations are reliable money-making machines that deliver billions of dollars in profit quarter after quarter.
But those profits come at the expense of Canadian consumers and small businesses, poorly served by a clubby group of banks whose domestic operations are perhaps the least competitive in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), an international group of 31 developed countries, including the U.S., Australia and South Korea, with free-market economies.
If Canada’s major banks are not prepared to go big in the U.S., they should just pull stakes and go home
One of Central Ohio’s largest technology companies has a new owner.
Columbus-based Sterling Commerce Inc. has been acquired by IBM Corp. in a $1.4 billion deal disclosed Monday.
Columbus Business First reported earlier this month that Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM was a likely suitor to buy Sterling from Dallas-based AT&T Inc. Sterling Commerce is a software and business-to-business technology company employing about 700 workers in Central Ohio.
IBM spokeswoman Nancy Kaplan said there will be no job cuts tied to the acquisition.
“The idea is not only to get the intellectual property, but also to get the smart people that know the products,” she said.
The deal lets IBM expand its ability to help clients create more intelligent and dynamic business networks by simplifying and automating communications, according to a release from the company.
“The broad global reach and additional capabilities IBM offers make this acquisition great news for our customers and partners,” Sterling Commerce CEO Bob Irwin said in the release. “The combination of IBM’s products, services and skills with the Sterling Commerce (business-to-business) integration and cross-channel capabilities resulting from this acquisition is unparalleled payday loans no faxing.”
IBM becomes the third corporation to take over the 35-year-old Columbus business. AT&T had inherited Sterling Commerce as part of its 2005 merger with San Antonio-based SBC Communications Inc., which had purchased Sterling five years earlier.
Sterling Commerce specializes in selling and hosting technology that helps companies manage customer orders and logistics. The company employs nearly 700 workers at its headquarters on Lakehurst Court, making it one of the 100 largest employers in Central Ohio, according to Business First research. The company employs nearly 2,500 workers at operations in 32 offices, many of them overseas.
The Sterling Commerce client list is a who’s who of blue-chip companies, including Borders Group Inc., Coca-Cola Bottling Co., Kimberly-Clark Corp., Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. and Target Corp.
Big news for the 2010 Dodge Ram's 3500 heavy-duty picky. And I do mean big. For the first time this behemoth of a workhorse is available with a crew cab. That means a full four doors rather than the previous generation's quad-cab mini back doors.
Both the 2500 and 3500 Rams get a complete makeover for this model year with an upgraded interior, revised exterior styling, improved suspension and brakes, increased towing capacity, and new standard features.
Typical of pickups, the new Ram 3500 comes in myriad configurations, starting from $35,630 and shooting up to $51,595. First off, you'll have to select a cab style: regular, crew and mega cab. The latter at 111 inches is longer than a Smart Fortwo stretching interior cargo room, legroom and allowing for reclining rear seats. Dodge is redoing its commercial-grade chassis cab models for the 2011 model year.
Eight-foot and 6-foot-four cargo box sizes are available as are single and dual rear-wheel combinations, rear-wheel and four-wheel drive and five trim levels.
Standard fare under the hood is a 5.7-liter Hemi V-8 gasoline engine, redesigned for 2009 and rated at 383 horsepower and 400 pound-feet of torque.
More heft is available with the 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel engine, rated at 350 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque. Equipped with the big Cummins, the Ram 3500 can tow up to 17,600 pounds. While you do notice the diesel sound, it's not terribly intrusive.
A six-speed manual is standard with both engines, with five- and six-speed automatics available. The new transmissions feature Electronic Range Select, which enables the driver to limit the highest available transmission gear, allowing manual upshifts and downshifts based on road speed and engine speed.
A tow/haul mode is standard on both five-speed and six-speed automatic transmissions.
EPA fuel usage stats are not available for the heavy duty rig.
Improved suspension tuning and C-pillar hydra mounts help improve ride on the 2010 3500, but absent going over bumpy surfaces, you might be surprised at the Ram's comfortable ride.
Beyond its grunt, the new Ram shines with a revamped interior. Not only are seats super comfy, but door panels, arm rests and such feel soft and easy like those in a family sedan - rather than part of a workaholic truck quick pay day loan.
Pertinent data is displayed for quick assessment on the six-ring dash readout and the center stack keeps other controls handy. Storage bins and pockets are abundant. Options include a giant center console with an upper bin large enough for a laptop and a lower been that can house hanging file folders.
Dodge describes exterior changes as giving the heavy duty Ram "a tougher more capable look with improved aerodynamics." Without old and new side by side, I wasn't wowed by those changes, but Ram has always turned a bolder profile than pickups from Ford and General Motors.
Standard features run from the basic ST with air conditioning, cruise control and CD player to the loaded Laramie. The Ram Power Wagon model is equipped with electric-locking
front and rear differentials, electronic disconnecting sway bar, Bilstein shocks, 32-inch BF Goodrich off-road tires, underbody skid-plate protection, 4.56 axle ratio for hill climbing, a 12,000-pound winch, two-tone paint scheme and graphics.
Luxuries available include heated and cooled seats, Sirius backseat TV, 10-speaker surround sound, 30-gigabyte hard drive and navigation. On the safety front, antilock brakes, side air curtains and tire-pressure monitors are standard.
There isn't much competition when it comes to heavy-duty trucks, it's an all-American show with Ford, GM and Chevy the only other choices.
Heavy duty pickup
HealthPartners members are able to price shop for even more health procedures under an expanded Web tool the health insurer offers its members.
The secure website, available only to HealthPartners members, recently added prices for 32 previously unlisted procedures, including various lab tests, MRI/CT scans, immunizations and complex surgeries and outpatient procedures such as gall bladder surgery, hysterectomy, colonoscopy, hip replacement and hernia repair surgery.
“Providing more specific prices for our members is another way we can be as transparent as possible,” said Scott Aebischer, HealthPartners’ senior vice president of customer service and product innovation.
“If you’re paying out-of-pocket fees, seeing the actual price really helps you determine if the care provider is right for you.”
The Bloomington-based health provider and insurer’s members can now check the price of 126 procedures, including several major surgeries and outpatient procedures.
HealthPartners launched its Web price tool in the fall of 2008.
One in 465 homes in the Houston area received a foreclosure filing in March, according to a new report from RealtyTrac Inc.
That’s 53 percent higher than the number of filings in March 2009, and 29 percent higher than the number of filings in February of this year, according to RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.
RealtyTrac is an Irvine, Calif.-based private marketer of foreclosure properties.
In Texas as a whole, 1 in 617 homes received a foreclosure filing and the nation as a whole saw 1 in 352 filings.
Foreclosure filings were reported on 367,056 properties in March, an increase of nearly 19 percent from the previous month, an increase of nearly 8 percent from March 2009 and the highest monthly total since RealtyTrac began issuing its report in January 2005.
“Foreclosure activity in the first quarter of 2010 followed a very similar pattern to what we saw in the first quarter of 2009: A shallow trough in January and February followed by a substantial spike in March,” said James Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac.
“One difference, however, is that the increases were more tilted toward the final stage of foreclosure, with REOs (bank repossessions) increasing 9 percent on a quarterly basis in the first quarter of 2010 compared to a 13 percent quarterly decrease in REOs in the first quarter of 2009.”
If you’re retiring this year, you will need $250,000 in savings to cover your family’s medical expenses during your retirement, Fidelity Investments announced on Thursday.
That’s up just more than 4% over last year and a 56% spike compared to 2002, when Fidelity first issued its Retiree Health Care Costs Estimate.
Each year Fidelity forecasts what a U.S. couple retiring at age 65 would need to cover their health care expenses during retirement, presuming they qualify for Medicare and do not have an employer-sponsored plan.
The spike in what couples must save can be attributed to higher costs associated with treatment costs, new technologies and general price inflation, said Fidelity, which assists companies in planning their employee benefit programs.
But some experts say the estimate can be misleading because a multitude of factors, including life expectancy, could push costs higher or lower than averages.
"It’s important to recognize that most people aren’t average," said Paul Fronstin, director of health research for The Employee Benefit Research Institute, an independent public policy organization.
And based on Fidelity’s findings, retired couples would spend $10,000 a year over an average 25 to 30 years of retirement, which is on par with what they pay now, says Bill Losey CFP, a New York-based financial planner pay day loan lenders.
Still medical costs are expected to become a larger chunk of retirement expenses and many retirees are still unprepared.
The Fidelity study found that only 3 out of 10 retirees saved specifically to cover health care costs while they were working. And 47% said that monthly out-of-pocket costs and insurance premiums were higher than they had anticipated.
Fidelity reported that average health care costs were $535 a month, or one-fifth of a couple’s total monthly expenses of $2,842.
Though Losey says the figure may unnecessarily scare people, he added that a little fear might not be such a bad thing if it improves awareness and planning, especially in the face of health care reform.
"This statistic is going to scare people," says Losey, "but maybe in a good way that forces people to get off their behinds and eat better, exercise more, and hopefully keep their health insurance costs in check."
When radio was invented in the late nineteenth century by the likes of Marconi, Edison, and Tesla, government and industry faced a conundrum. Who would own the limited band of electromagnetic frequencies that made this new invention possible?
By the 1920s the decision was made that the public would own the airwaves, with the government leasing frequencies to companies that were required to follow certain rules. A century later this system isn’t perfect, but it does bring us every day everything from text messages to Youtube, to the latest hits from Lady Gaga.
Society now faces a similar ownership predicament with who owns human genes — another kind of spectrum that always existed, but was unsuspected until we discovered it. This time, however, the story is different. Instead of a public ownership model granting licenses, the U.S. Patent Office has spent the last twenty years awarding patents to companies, universities and others who discover genes — with over 20% of human genes already claimed.
Controversial for decades, the validity of issuing these patents has erupted again in a case brought last year by the American Civil Liberties Union against Myriad Genetics (MYGN), which holds patents on two genes that in a mutated form can cause a person to be high risk for breast cancer. According to the ACLU and a long list of plaintiffs that includes research and patient advocacy groups, the U.S. Patent Office (also listed as a defendant) was wrong to issue these patents — and by extension all genetic patents.
"Genes are naturally occurring entities, like air or gravity," says ACLU attorney Chris Hansen, "and therefore under the law they are ineligible for patenting."
The ACLU also claims that Myriad’s patents block access to the genes by researchers and patients who want a second opinion on breast cancer results, but are barred by the exclusivity of the Myriad patent. They criticize Myriad’s access prices, which can range as high as $3,000.
Myriad General Counsel Richard Marsh counters that Myriad and researchers working at the University of Utah — which co-own the patents, and are co-defendants in the suit — did discover something that exists outside of nature. By extracting the genes from the human body, the company claimed, and the U.S. Patent Office agreed, that it had created an isolated sequence that is patentable, whereas the sequence as it occurs inside a person is not — a contention being directly challenged by ACLU.
Marsh also insists that researchers and patients have benefited from Myriad patenting the BRCA I and BRCA II genes and certain mutations within these genes that are linked to breast and ovarian cancer. He also defended the company’s pricing, saying that it is the essence of patent protection — that Myriad can charge what it likes on something it has created, until the patent lapses and the gene enters the public domain.
More critically, Myriad and others in the pharmaceutical industry claim that without patent protections, no one would invest in developing products based on genetic markers for disease. "Without patents, who is going to do the work and spend the money to make this product accessible to people?" asks Marsh cheapest personal loan rates.
Both sides are now waiting for federal Judge Robert Sweet to rule on whether or not the case will go to trial in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York. Last month Sweet refused to dismiss the case in a motion filed by Myriad, suggesting that he may want to hear the case, although no one knows for sure.
"If not now, it will have to be dealt with later, because there are core issues at stake that impact the entire pharmaceutical industry," says Robert Cook-Deegan, Director of the Center for Genome Ethics, Law & Policy at Duke University.
Which brings us back to the invention of the radio and the electromagnetic spectrum — and potential solutions that demand some imagination and creativity beyond the tried and true pharma track of slapping patents on everything in sight.
One idea would be to turn genetic discoveries — many of which are initially found using taxpayer funds — into publicly owned entities that could be licensed to companies like frequencies on the radio dial. Licensees would be required to follow certain rules such as allowing researchers and patients access to DNA sequences, and requiring that pricing be in line with costs.
A variation of this model has been used for decades to govern the extraction of natural resources such as oil and gold from public lands. Businesses bid on and receive licenses that allow them to extract these resources (and to earn back investments) for a period of time if they follow certain rules.
Yet another idea comes from a 2004 global agricultural pact — The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture — ratified by the United States and other nations that allows patent holders to own a genetic discovery for modifying plants, but not to block others from licensing and using it. Last month, an advisory committee at the Department of Health and Human services issued recommendations that patents on genetic diagnostic tests also be modified to allow greater access by researchers and patients.
Ultimately, the tussle over who owns genes may be decided not by government agencies, lawyers, or judges, but by advancements in science. Already the notion that one gene marker can best determine a person’s risk for a common disease is becoming outmoded. The latest science suggests that risk factors for maladies such as diabetes are increased by the interaction of dozens — or even hundreds — of genes and other molecular structures in the body. A legal system that does not retain flexibility in incorporating this rapidly moving science will cause confusion down the line.
Finding clarity in the issue of who owns our DNA will take time, and will be far more complex than, say, a simple frequency on a radio carrying a song by Lady Gaga. Yet it’s crucial in this new age of genomics and molecular biology that we are as clever about how we implement new discoveries as the discoveries themselves.
Toyota is planning to suspend production at two U.S. plants as sales lag following the automaker’s massive recall of its vehicles.
Mike Goss, a Toyota spokesman, said the company will retain all of its workers during the suspensions, which will take place at plants in Kentucky and Texas in the weeks ahead.
The temporary shutdowns are aimed at adjusting production levels following a series of recalls that forced Toyota to halt sales of some of its most popular models.
"We don’t want inventory to build up for our dealers," Goss said. "We can’t keep sending vehicles to dealers until they can start moving those vehicles."
He said the company has used other methods to slow production in the past, such as limiting overtime, but that "elimination days are kind of the final step in that process."
The Kentucky plant, where Toyota’s top-selling Camry is made, will not produce cars on Feb. 26. Goss said the plant could go dark on a few more days the following week, though no official plans have been made.
The Texas plant will halt production the week of March 15 and again in mid April. The plant, where Toyota makes Tundra pickup trucks, will be modified to begin producing Tacoma trucks during the suspension, Goss said.
Toyota has recalled more than 8.1 million vehicles worldwide for problems related to sudden acceleration and unresponsive break pedals, among other things. The company has apologized for the safety lapses and pledged to repair the recalled vehicles quickly.
Meanwhile, the number of customer complaints filed with federal safety regulators has spiked in recent weeks. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there have been a total of 34 Toyota complaints alleging fatalities since 2000.
The widely publicized safety issues have taken a toll on sales. Earlier this month, Toyota said January sales fell 16% from a year earlier, worse than a forecast of a 12% year-over-year decline from sales tracker Edmunds.com.
To help revive sales, the automaker is considering a variety of incentive options aimed at drawing customers back into its showrooms.
At the same time, Toyota has launched a public relations campaign aimed at salvaging the company’s once-sterling reputation.
Toyota’s president, Akio Toyoda, and other company executives will take questions about the recall efforts Wednesday at a press conference in Tokyo.
The company has been ramping up lobbying, consulting and attorney teams ahead of appearances on Capitol Hill. Toyota is scheduled to go before two House committees next week and a Senate committee next month.
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