Audax acquires Ready Mixed Concrete
Audax Group, a private Boston investment firm, said it has acquired Ready Mixed Concrete Co. for $210 million in a buyout deal that also included Ready Mixed management. This is the sixth deal in the past four months for Audax, which invests in companies on behalf of college endowments and pension funds, said cochief executive Geoffrey Rehnert. Audax has 13 companies in its portfolio, he said. Ready Mixed operates a network of concrete plants and mixing trucks in North Carolina, South Carolina, and southern Virginia. (Kimberly Blanton)
Hearing device distribution resumes
Boston Scientific Corp.'s Advanced Bionics Corp. unit is resuming worldwide distribution of its HiResolution cochlear implant systems, effective immediately. The Valencia, Calif., unit voluntary recalled the ear device on Sept. 24, amid concerns that moisture in the internal circuitry could cause it to stop working. Boston Scientific said the implants are used to treat severe or profound bilateral hearing loss. Boston Scientific had estimated that 440 of the cochlear implants were shipped but not implanted. A Boston Scientific representative was not immediately available to say how many devices had been recalled. (Dow Jones)
Technology publisher plans magazine
A Needham technology publisher, TechTarget Inc., is set to disclose plans today to launch a monthly magazine called CIO Decisions, starting in April. The magazine will target a controlled circulation of 60,000 chief information officers and senior information technology executives at midmarket companies with $50 million to $2 billion in annual revenue. The magazine's publisher will be Joseph L. Levy; its editor will be Maryfran Johnson. Both were formerly with TechTarget's rival, International Data Group of Boston. TechTarget also plans to launch an affiliated website and conference series. (Robert Weisman)
THE NATION
Crude oil prices continue downward
Crude futures prices fell, briefly sinking below $49 a barrel, as the US supply of oil grows and traders said institutional investors shifted their capital from commodities to equities. After dropping as low as $48.60 per barrel, light sweet crude for December delivery settled 52 cents lower at $49.09 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Nymex oil prices are now 11 percent below the settlement high of $55.17 a barrel set on Oct. 22 and Oct. 26. Commercially available inventories of crude oil in the United States have risen for six straight weeks, according to the Energy Department, and analysts expect the agency to report another build in supply when it releases weekly data tomorrow. Extra barrels of crude are coming into the market from abroad, thanks to high prices, and daily oil output in the Gulf of Mexico is recovering as the industry repairs damage to pipelines and platforms caused by Hurricane Ivan in mid-September. December heating oil futures fell less than a penny to $1.3664 per gallon on Nymex, where natural gas futures dropped 34.4 cents to $7.60 per 1,000 cubic feet. (AP)
SEC probing brokerages trading patterns
Federal regulators are investigating more than a dozen major brokerage firms for possibly executing some stock trades in ways that favor the firms at the expense of their customers, people familiar with the matter said. Examiners at the Securities and Exchange Commission discovered the trading patterns -- in which the brokerages apparently failed to obtain the best available stock prices for customers -- and notified the agency's enforcement attorneys about two weeks ago, two people said, confirming a report in The New York Times. They spoke on condition of anonymity. In an investigation described as preliminary, SEC examiners also formally notified the firms of the problems, according to these people. They include Ameritrade, E-Trade Financial, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Charles Schwab. By law, brokers are required to secure the best available prices for customers, a mandate known as "best execution." SEC spokesmen declined to comment, as did spokesmen for the brokerage firms. (AP)
Ousted CEO receives $10m contract
Cost-cutting stock brokerage Charles Schwab Corp. is keeping recently ousted chief executive David Pottruck on its payroll under a $10 million contract that also contains potentially lucrative stock awards. The company outlined its arrangement with Pottruck in a quarterly report filed nearly four months after Schwab's dissatisfied board demanded his resignation. Less than two weeks after Pottruck stepped down, Schwab drew up a 30-month contract requiring him to perform an unspecified set of duties to be defined by his replacement, company founder Charles Schwab. The deal included a lump sum payment of $6.2 million and a raise from the $1 million salary that Pottruck received as chief. Effective Oct. 1, the new contract raises Pottruck's salary to $1.63 million annually. The deal runs through January 2007. The company ended September with 14,800 employees, down from 26,300 at the end of 2000. Schwab expects to eliminate an additional 400 to 500 jobs this year. (AP)
Short-term Treasury bill rates increase
Interest rates on short-term Treasury securities rose in auction. The Treasury Department sold $21 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 2.045 percent, up from 1.950 percent last week. An additional $19 billion was sold in six-month bills at a rate of 2.260 percent, up from 2.140 percent. The three-month rate was the highest since Oct. 29, 2001, when the bills sold for 2.050 percent. The six-month rate was the highest since Oct. 1, 2001, when the rate was 2.325 percent. The new discount rates understate the actual return to investors -- 2.084 percent for three-month bills, with a $10,000 bill selling for $9,948.88, and 2.318 percent for a six-month bill selling for $9,886.37. In another auction, yields on three-year Treasury notes also rose. The yield was 3.090 percent, up from 2.842 percent at the last auction on Aug. 9. It was the highest since three-year notes sold for 3.199 percent on May 11. The notes carry a coupon interest rate of 3 percent, with each $10,000 in face value selling for $9,974.40. A total of $22 billion in notes was sold out of bids totaling $49.2 billion. The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, said the average yield for one-year constant maturity Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages, rose to 2.35 percent last week, from 2.27 percent the previous week. (AP)
Sale of N.Y. Times Co. headquarters set
A group led by Tishman Speyer Properties LP will pay $175 million for The New York Times Co. building, headquarters since 1913 of the third-largest US newspaper publisher. After selling the 15-story, 750,000 square-foot building at 229 West 43rd Street, the company will remain there until 2007 as Tishman's tenant, according to a joint statement by the buyer and seller. The Times is then scheduled to move into a new 52-story office tower on Eighth Avenue between West 40th and 41st streets. The building is a half-block west of Times Square. (Bloomberg)
. . .Etc.
Auspice Corp., a Framingham software company, said it signed a multimillion-dollar, multiyear licensing deal with Comcast Corp., which will use Auspice automation software to improve and automate its high-speed Internet and Net phone services to customers and to monitor the Comcast network for service outages . . . Heywood Wilansky, president and chief executive of Filene's Basement, was named president and chief executive of the Basement's parent company, Retail Ventures Inc. Mark Shulman, currently chief operating officer of Retail Brand Alliance, will replace Wilansky as Filene's Basement president. (Globe staff and wire services)
