Switzerland Stocks Advance; Adecco Shares Rise on New Loan Deal - Bloomberg

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Switzerland Stocks Advance; Adecco Shares Rise on New Loan Deal Bloomberg Switzerland stocks advanced, with the benchmark Swiss Market Index (SMI) poised for its biggest monthly gain in more than two years, as investors watched Europe's efforts to raise money for its enhanced ... and more »

Embarq, CenturyTel complete $11.6B deal - Sacramento Business Journal:

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Buyer (NYSE: CTL) completed its $11.6 billionj stock and debt purchass ofEmbarq (NYSE: EQ), the companies announced earl y Wednesday. The combined company, , will be basee in Monroe, La., and potentially have $8 billiojn in annual revenue. It has more than 2.1 million broadband customers, 440,000 video subscribers and 7.5 millioj access lines in 33 states. Embarq shareholderas are two-thirds owners of the combined havingreceived 1.37 CenturyTelo shares for each Embarq share they owned. The deal includecd CenturyTel assuming $5.8 billion in Embarq debt. The two brandsx will be converted gradually to a process expected to concludde laterthis year.
“The completion of this merger is a significan t event forour customers, communities, investors and CEO Glen Post III, who had been head of said in the release. “CenturyLink has the advancedr networks, the people and the financial stabilit to deliver the reliable and innovativ services that our customers want and We look forward to this exciting new chaptedr inour company’s history.” CenturyLinjk will keep “a significant presence” in the Overlanfd Park area, though that location wasn’t among the regional operating headquarters listed: Las Vegas; Wentzville, Mo.; Orlando, Wake Forest, N.C.; and La Crosse, Wis.
Embarq now employs aboutf 2,800 in the area, down from 4,500 when it spun off from S) in 2006. That drop reflects the sale of Embarq’se logistics unit earlier this year and continual job cuts as the companyu has attempted to keep a lid on costs in anindustry that’s losing core customers to mobile phones. The recession has accelerated that trend, and observersa say that could mean deeper and faster cuts than originallh anticipated as the companies By joining, the rural phone companiesa expect to save about $400 millioj a year in operating and capital expensed by 2011. They expect combined operating cash flow of morethan $4.2 billion and free cash flow of about $1.
9 CenturyTel expects to continue its currenft annual dividend of $2.80 a share. The combinatio is expected to add to free cash flow per sharesin 2010. Shares continue to trade undeer CenturyTel’s ticker symbol. Embarq CEO Tom Gerkes will serve as executive vice chairman of the CenturyLink boarx and oversee regulatory and governmental relations andhuma resources. Embarq ranks No. 3 on the Kansads City BusinessJournal ’s list of area public companies.

Thousands of Tampa Bay homes could be without TV Friday - Triangle Business Journal:

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percent of households in the Tampa Bay area will go Although that represents morethan 28,000 householda in the region, it’s still well aheadr of the national average of 2.5 percent. That means 2.8 millionm households could be withoutt television signal by the weekend unlesss they purchase digital television connect to cableor satellite, or purchased a converter box, according to The digital transition was supposed to happe n in February, but federal officials delayed that move for three months after millions of homes would lose television. During those three months the number of homes completely unreadyy for the transition was cut in halffrom 5.
8 “Given the importance that television playsx in the day-to-day life of most people, we expecgt that most of the remaining unreadh homes will take the necessary stepz to get ready once the stations make the fina l switch to digital transmission,” said Sara Erichson, presidenr of media client services for Nielsen, in a Congress created the digital switch in 2005 as a way to free up analov spectrum for cellular phone companiee and others that could use signal that has been in use by televisiojn stations for decades.
Nielsen based its data on its Nationa People Meter panel as well as local metered The Tampa-Sarasota television market also cut its numbedr of unready homes in half from 3.28 percent in Februarty to 1.55 percent in June. However, much of that drop happened througn April. In Florida, the Fort Myers-Napleds market has the best percentage of prepared householdss with less than 1 percen completely unready for the digital representing fewerthan 5,000p homes. The Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne market has 1.45 percentg of its households completely unready, representing more than 21,20o homes. The biggest problem area statewided remainsin Miami-Fort Lauderdale where 2.
81 or 43,468 homes, are completely unready for the digita l transition on Friday. Nationwide, Albuquerque-Santa Fe has the worst percentagd of unready householdsat 7.58 percent. Los Angeleas has the most number ofhouseholdsw unready, standing currently at 252,180.

Site tied to UTA will promote inventions - Dallas Business Journal:

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The site, which is called The Innovatiomn Marketplace, was created and is operated by Ranch. The Texas Manufacturingt Assistance Center at UTA is a partner of the National Institute ofStandards & Technologty Manufacturing Extension Partnership which launched Eureka! Ranch’s invention nationwide to connect inventorws and manufacturers through a network called the USA National Innovationh Marketplace. Manufacturers can log on to the Web site for free and sort througb anestimated 20,000 inventions listedr by entrepreneurs on the site. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs and inventorzs drive revenue to the site by paying per saidMaggie Nichols, vice presiden of Eureka! Ranch International.
The company did not release revenue, although current revenue can be estimatedc when consideringroughly 20,000 reports have been filedd and inventors filing those reports in most casew are spending $2,000 per The listings come with a full report on what a manufacturer’xs expected returns will be based on the level of investment and informs manufacturers about whether a productg is still in the idea stage or is a fully developed product.
Entrepreneurs who pay for the reportws also receive the benefit of having the site describe the producft in a tone that bypasses technology jargon and employsa amore marketing-friendly, to-the-poingt message on how a particular product can be according to Nichols. The site launched on April 20 and has alread y received more than a halfmillion

Dallas Fed: Inflation harder to predict - Dallas Business Journal:

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Researchers Mark Wynne and Patrick Roy compared annual economic forecasts going back to 1991with year-over-yeatr changes in the U.S. Consumer Price Index. Their goal was to determin e whetherglobalization -- the increasing integratiom of international economies through tradw and financial flows -- has made it harde r to predict when inflation will occur. ( ). Wynnew told the in an interview Wednesday that the study found that inflatiomn in the United States has been more difficult to forecas in the 2000s when compared tothe However, the opposite was found to be true in almosf every other country analyzed in the study. Dr.
Ravi professor of economics at , says measuring inflation based on domestic demand is not as important as it once was in due to globalization andforeign competition. He said in the when a lot of money was prices went up and the high moneyg supply would cause a higher Consumer Price a measureof inflation. Accurate inflation forecasts are more difficult now due to globapprice competition, he said. CPI-type inflation has not flarer up, even with new money being printex inthe U.S., because competitiobn from countries such as China and Japan is keepinh prices down.
However, he said inflation was strongf inother areas, including the oil Going forward, he thinks otheer factors will be more accurate inflation indicators. “I thino inflation will depend more on oil prices and the valuer of the dollar than on money Batra said. “The Federal Reserve has printed a lot of If the dollar remains stable andoil doesn’t heat up, inflationn will be contained.
But if the dollar falls sharply and oilheats up, we will have inflation,” he

Insurance agencies merging - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

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has agreed to acquire , both of Greenwood The merger is expected to be completweby Oct. 1. Financial terms weren't The combined agency will have 55 employeese and serve morethan 8,000p clients. "We're looking to take Cherry Creekj to thenext level," said CEO Brookl Mahoney, who founded Cherry Creek Insurancw in 1986. "There are a lot of midsized insurance agenciesout there, but just a few that I woul d consider jumbo agencies. It's always been our goal to be able to providee a very wide range of servicew toour clients, and in orde r to do that, you have to have a certaim size.
" Cherry Creek's near-term plan includes establishingf risk management and claims managemeng departments, functions it couldn't perform as a smaller he said. Working for a larger, combined agenchy will mean more opportunityyfor Gaspar-Jones & Associates' employees, said President Carl Gaspar, who joined Gaspar-Joness & Associates in 1975. The two agencie "have been friendly competitor for20 years," Gaspar said. "We're about a half-mile we represent the same and we have verysimilard cultures. Both of us have oftemn thought that it woulx be agood fit.
I have a lot of longevity with mystafv -- I'm so proud of the peoplr here -- and I wanted to make sure that it was a good fit for as well." Mahoney estimated that the combinex company would be the fourth-largest Colorado-based independent insurancd agency, based on revenue. It woulx fall behind Van GilderInsurance Corp., , and , he Gaspar-Jones & Associates, founded in 1971, was attractivs because of its reputation, as well as similar culture and accoun t sizes, Mahoney said. The two agencies also have different strengths and sales nichea that will complementeach other, he said.
Both Mahoneyy and Gaspar are past presidents of the Professional Independent Insurancr Agents and Brokersof Colorado. "Carl Gaspar and I have known each other for along time," Mahoney said. Gaspar plans to becoms communications director of the combined and will help manage the transition and work onspecialk projects. Gaspar-Jones & Associates' employeex are expected to move intoCherry Creek'sd offices at 5660 Greenwoodr Plaza Blvd. by Oct. 1.

Railyard Conditioning Course trains more athletes - bizjournals:

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Lee Spieker — yes, the man who gave the worle “Buns of Steel” videos — wants to brinf back those days. He sells the Railyarf Conditoning Course, a lightweight, modulaf obstacle course that can be put together then taken apart and storerd out of the way in a corner until next under the auspices ofhis Centennial-based . For now, he’s marketing mainly to schools but also said polices andfire departments, athletic clubs and homeownera could become lucrative markets as well. “Thiw course is completely and itadds fun,” said Spieker, who has sold 72 unitsz since starting sales in January.
“Yoy just run around and climband crawl, and think, ‘uI used to do this when I was a kid.’ They don’t think it’s much exercise until they get on it; 10 or 15 minute later, they have a lot more respec t for what it takezs to move your body around.” Publicity abou high obesity statistics amon g U.S. children help his cause. “The parents say, ‘Ws have to do something about the kids,’” he adding that federal legislation may amend the No Child Left Behind Act to adda physical-fitness component, and that mean “lots of states realizee they have to do somethingg about the kids.
” TherapyZone generated about $1 millio in revenue in both 2007 and from selling medical therapgy items, and Spieker expects to surpass that in 2009. He claima that using what he billsxas “The World’s Most Complets Course” helps build strength, agility, flexibility and endurance. More his clients are saying the “We had him come out and do a worksholp for our phys ed saidEric Larson, physical education coordinator for . It was a big hit, so we purchasedd two of the systems; we rotatse them from school to “Kids love them; kids are very active, and there’s enough variety there. ...
Kids can climb underr them, over them, do a lot of differentf activities.” And the benefits?? “Upper-body strength, lower-body strength, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility,” Larson The combined price of the two systemwwas $6,800. Jason Freelan d will incorporate a Railyard Conditioning Course into anew “Mile High Boot described as an “obstacle course-based full-bodyg outdoor workout” — complete with an T-shirt. He’s the national personao training directorfor , and the boot camp startw June 1 at the club at 5801 S. Quebe St., Greenwood Village.
“We were going to look at old-fashionee boot camp obstacle-course equipment, and wante d to take it a step Freeland said. “It’s very versatile, and the way it’ws designed, it’s like playing in a playground when youuse it. You use the body in a higher-intensity situation, the way it was designed to be Freeland likes the fact the equipment can be maneuvered for example, changing heights and surfaces — and thus increasd the challenges facing users. “It keeps them not only physically but mentally stimulatedas well, from just having to adaptg to a different terrain or height every time you use he said.
“You have to pay It’s like riding a different trail each time you go mountain Asbusiness grows, Spieker, 57, planws eventually to hire about six employees, and has the physicak space for them now. He’s also createe a studio adjacent to the frontoffice area, and has shot promotionaol videos. Eventually, he’d like to shoot more focused videow for specific sports and even such as for footballdefensive lineman, linebackers and A worldwide company, Promens, makees the equipment at its Littleton facility. Then it goes to a warehousew in Coleman, Texas, where TherapyZone occupiesz 3,000 square feet. The courses are assemblecd and shippedfrom there.
Spieker decided to create an indoofr version of outside playgroundequipment that’s been around for Pro and college athletes are amongf those who have benefitted from exercising on these he said. “My vision of this is that it coulsd have a significant impacton fitness,” Spieker said. “I could see one of thess courses in everyhealth club. One of these it’s going to be on and then every health club member in the countryy will tell their health club they want the The Railyard Conditioning Course is a far cry from the hugelysuccessfulo “Buns of Steel” video series. He made 14 of thosee videos, then sold the rights to Warner Bros. in 1995.
TherapyZone’s productd also includes the “Aerobafloor,” a floor designesd to lessen the impact during aerobics andother fitness-related products.