Business North Carolina articles from June 2006

Business North Carolina archives from June 2006

Road rage.(UP FRONT)
June 1, 2006... I grew up on wheels. My family has a picture of me steering a big John Deere tractor when I was 4. Now, even though I'm old enough to know better, I still get excited about road trips. I plug in a vintage Creedence Clearwater Revival CD--Big...

Trend.(Table)
June 1, 2006... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Latest Previous Previous % change from month month year last year ...

Stock watch.(Table)
June 1, 2006... SPOTLIGHT Salix Pharmaceuticals stock continued its slump after the feds eased testing standards for some generic drugs in mid-March. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Highest price/earnings ratios ...

State pays a high price for low minimum wage.(ECONOMIC OUTLOOK)(Interview)
June 1, 2006... State Treasurer Richard Moore wants the General Assembly to increase the minimum wage in North Carolina to $6.15 an hour. It would be the first time since 1973--and only the second time in history--that the state's minimum wage exceeded the...

Survey: there's been a run on the Banks.(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... The Outer Banks are becoming overdeveloped, says an editor of the National Geographic Society's travel magazine. Speaking to the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, Jonathan Tourtellot of National Geographic Traveler said its published survey of how...

Collins & Aikman.(EASTERN)
June 1, 2006... FARMVILLE -- Bankrupt Collins & Aikman plans to shut down its automotive-fabrics business, which makes material for seat covers and headliners, closing four North Carolina factories with 1,105 workers. A factory here employs 560; the rest are...

International Paper.(EASTERN)
June 1, 2006... ROANOKE RAPIDS -- Stamford, Conn.-based International Paper sold 77,000 acres of forest, mostly in northeastern North Carolina, to two Raleigh nonprofits. The Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Fund paid $80 million for the land. About...

R.W. & Able.(EASTERN)
June 1, 2006... ROCKY MOUNT -- A company that makes parts for hot-rod cars and trucks has begun relocating from Chico, Calif., to a former Pillowtex textile plant. R.W. & Able will employ about 50 during the next three years. The average wage will be $585 a...

Working capital.(REGIONAL REPORT)
June 1, 2006... Source: Employment Security Commission, February. Figures are not seasonally adjusted. The index is the number of jobs as a percentage of the average in 2000. [GRAPHIC OMITTED]

The brim reaper: Red Hat will buy JBoss.(TRIANGLE)
June 1, 2006... Red Hat, a Raleigh-based software maker, agreed to buy Atlanta-based JBoss for as much as $420 million in cash and stock--$350 million upfront and $70 million that's performance-based. Red Hat packages and services the Linux operating system, a...

United Therapeutics.(TRIANGLE)
June 1, 2006... RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- United Therapeutics, a Silver Spring, Md.-based developer of treatments for cancer and cardiovascular and infectious diseases, plans to spend $54.3 million to expand its RTP operations, which employ 28. It will add 160...

Crescent Financial.(Capitol Bancorporation Ltd. acquired)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... CARY -- Crescent Financial, parent of Crescent State Bank, agreed to buy Wilmington-based Port City Capital Bank for $39.3 million in cash and stock. Crescent had assets of $445 million on March 31; Port City had $164 million. Crescent operates...

Salix Pharmaceuticals.(TRIANGLE)
June 1, 2006... RALEIGH -- Salix Pharmaceuticals won federal approval to market OsmoPrep Tablets, used to clean colons before colonoscopies. They are patent-protected until 2013. Salix sees the tablets as an improvement over liquid colon cleaners.

Progress Energy.(TRIANGLE)
June 1, 2006... RALEIGH -- Progress Energy agreed to sell its coal operations in eastern Kentucky to Abingdon, Va.-based Alpha Natural Resources for $23 million, plus Alpha's assumption of $8 million in reclamation liabilities. Progress will use the money to...

Sicel Technologies.(device that measures the radiation reaching tumor being licensed)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... MORRISVILLE -- Sicel Technologies won federal clearance to market a device that measures the radiation reaching a tumor. The Dose Verification System features a sensor about the size of a rice grain. It is implanted on or near a tumor and emits...

Credit Suisse.(TRIANGLE)
June 1, 2006... Credit Suisse, a Swiss financial-services company, plans to spend $40 million to expand operations in Research Triangle Park in the next two years and double employment to about 800. The company moved the support staff for its New York-based...

International Textile Group.(TRIAD)
June 1, 2006... GREENSBORO -- International Textile Group, the manufacturer created by the merger of Burlington Industries and Cone Mills, plans to build a $100 million Cone denim plant in Managua, Nicaragua, by fall 2007. It will employ about 750.

Reynolds American.(TRIAD)
June 1, 2006... WINSTON-SALEM -- Cigarette manufacturer Reynolds American agreed to purchase Memphis, Tenn.-based Conwood for $3.5 billion. Conwood makes Kodiak and Grizzly moist snuff and other smokeless-tobacco products. The deal was expected to close this...

Isometrics.(TRIAD)
June 1, 2006... REIDSVILLE -- Isometrics, which makes fuel trucks, won a five-year, $5.3 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense. Company officials don't expect to add to their existing 10 jobs.

IDVelocity.(TRIAD)
June 1, 2006... GREENSBORO -- Dayton, Ohio-based NCR acquired IDVelocity, which makes systems that track company inventory with radio frequencies, and will move most of its 30 employees to Atlanta. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sara Lee.(TRIAD)
June 1, 2006... WINSTON-SALEM -- Chicago-based food and apparel maker Sara Lee promoted Lee Chaden, 63, to chairman of its Winston-Salem based branded-apparel division, which will be spun off later this year as Hanesbrands. His replacement as CEO is Richard...

Hooters Air.(TRIAD)
June 1, 2006... Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based Hooters Air will not begin commercial flights (Tar Heel Tattler, April) at Smith Reynolds Airport. The struggling carrier ended commercial service altogether, though it said it will offer some charter flights from the...

IPOs: Targacept slips as Sealy springs.(TRIAD)
June 1, 2006... Two Triad companies went public, and each collected tens of millions in capital. Winston-Salem-based Targacept, which plans to make drugs to fight neurological disorders, had hoped to sell 5 million shares for at least $11 per share. That would...

Bank branches out in its biggest deal.(CHARLOTTE)
June 1, 2006... Charlotte-based Wachovia agreed to buy Oakland, Calif.-based Golden West Financial for $25.5 billion in cash and stock--its biggest purchase yet. Wachovia will increase its assets from $542 billion to $669 billion but will remain the...

First Charter.(First Charter Bank N.A. to sell its headquarters builing in the Charlotte region)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- First Charter, a bank with $4.2 billion in assets, plans to sell its headquarters and move to a smaller one elsewhere in the Charlotte region. The bank occupied its 230,000-square-foot office near UNC Charlotte in 2001 but uses...

Fischbein.(CHARLOTTE)
June 1, 2006... STATESVILLE -- Fischbein, which makes equipment that bags bulk products such as dog food and building materials, will double the size of its factory with a 60,000-square-foot expansion. The company has about 90 employees at the plant; the $2.5...

JetBlue Airways.(CHARLOTTE)
June 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- Low-cost carrier JetBlue Airways will begin July 12 four daily round-trip flights between Charlotte and New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport. JetBlue also will start July 20 four flights between Raleigh-Durham and JFK....

Stanly Memorial Hospital.(CHARLOTTE)
June 1, 2006... ALBEMARLE -- Stanly Memorial Hospital changed its name to Stanly Regional Medical Center and adopted a new branding statement, "Look No Further." The changes are intended to attract patients who frequently travel to Charlotte for medical care....

Childress Klein Properties.(CHARLOTTE)
June 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE -- Developer Childress Klein Properties is spending $31 million to build four warehouses with nearly 800,000 total square feet of space, three in Charlotte and one in Winston-Salem. The company had not built any industrial space on...

Marriott International.(CHARLOTTE)
June 1, 2006... Bethesda, Md.-based Marriott International bought Charlotte's upscale Park Hotel. Long a mainstay for travelers with business in the booming SouthPark office and retail area, the 192-room hotel had been owned by the Bissell Companies since it...

Cherokees fold on raising new casino.(WESTERN)
June 1, 2006... A bid by the Eastern Band of Cherokee to build a second casino and bring Las Vegas-style card games with live dealers to its reservation has collapsed. Chief Michell Hicks says Gov. Mike Easley demanded that the tribe contribute about $10...

Rabun Apparel.(WESTERN)
June 1, 2006... FRANKLIN -- Rabun Apparel, owned by Chicago-based Fruit of the Loom, will close its Rabun Gap, Ga., plant in August. About 300 workers who live in Macon County will lose their jobs. Executives blamed imports. Western North Carolina has shed...

Wal-Mart Stores.(WESTERN)
June 1, 2006... ASHEVILLE -- Facing nearly certain defeat in a vote by the City Council, Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores withdrew a request for zoning approval of a 164,000-square-foot store on 28 acres on the west side of the city. Wal-Mart had not...

Paxar.(WESTERN)
June 1, 2006... LENOIR -- New York-based Paxar, which makes apparel labels and tags, will lay off 112 of 532 workers here by 2007. A spokesman said some production will be moved to China. The plant, Paxar's largest, was expanded in 2003 when about 50 jobs were...

Comair.(WESTERN)
June 1, 2006... ASHEVILLE -- Cincinnati-based Comair, a Delta Airlines commuter line, ended its 12 daily flights here May 1, though the move will have little local impact. Indianapolis-based Chautauqua Airlines, another Delta commuter line that is already...

N.C. office supplies are cheaper by the doesn't.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
June 1, 2006... Chances are, when you need paper clips, you have two concerns: price and speed. Lots of vendors carry them, so you want the one that will get them to you cheapest and quickest. That's not necessarily what the state got when it signed a...

Town makes sure its boat slips stick.(TAR HEEL TATTLER)
June 1, 2006... "I think it's highway robbery." That's Topsail Beach Mayor Butch Parrish's opinion of municipalities using eminent domain--forcing property owners to sell land to the government--for private projects. But he has no qualms about using it to...

Lax attitude won't nuke Duke's repute.(Duke University)
June 1, 2006... It's too early to tell if the Duke University lacrosse players accused of raping a stripper will have any impact on donations to the school, student applications, faculty recruitment and the like. But some experts think the economic effects of...

Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and How Baseball Got Big.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
June 1, 2006... Tom Shaheen, executive director, N.C. Education Lottery Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits and how Baseball Got Big by Jose Canseco Jose discusses the rampant use of steroids by professional baseball players and how team...

Miracles on the Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack.(Tom Nagorski)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... Dave McRae, CEO, University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina Miracles on the Water: The Heroic Survivors of a World War II U-Boat Attack by Tom Nagorski This real-life historical review shows that heroes come in the form of young...

Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America.(WHAT THEY'RE READING)
June 1, 2006... H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler, president and general manager, Lowe's Motor Speedway Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America by James Webb Not only should every Southerner read this work but everyone who has relocated to the South in...

She believes her software can size up manufacturing.(PEOPLE)
June 1, 2006... Ping Fu thinks a lot about your shoes. As president and CEO of Geomagic Inc., a Research Triangle Park software developer, she sees a future when manufacturers will turn out goods customized for each buyer. Your shoes will be made to fit the...

Horizon skipper is a big fan of boxing.(PEOPLE)
June 1, 2006... The business Chuck Raymond is in is on the sea. But the president and chief executive of Horizon Lines Inc. has spent much of the last three years on the road and in meetings. Since 2003, the Charlotte-based container-shipping and logistics...

VF's new president expands wardrobe.(PEOPLE)
June 1, 2006... Greensboro-based VF Corp. looks different from when Eric Wiseman joined the apparel giant in 1995. Long known for its jeans and intimate apparel, it now also outfits skateboarders with studded belts, preppies with polo shirts and students with...

Founder: indoor football has it made in the shade.(SPORTS SECTION)
June 1, 2006... American Indoor Football League founder Andrew Haines insists that he is still enthusiastic about the future of his sport in North Carolina. So far, five indoor-football franchises, from his league as well as two others, have failed in the...

Leaving lost wages: with furniture manufacturing moving overseas, Las Vegas bets on winning the world's biggest market--High Point's.
June 1, 2006... The cool quiet of the marble stairway to the Radio Building's mezzanine contrasts with the carnival atmosphere outside on Main Street. A performer on stilts sidesteps a woman leading a pig. It wears a vest advertising a furniture maker. High...

Home wreckers: before putting up a multimillion-dollar monster manse at the right address, builders often tear something down.(BUILDING NORTH CAROLINA)
June 1, 2006... David Smoots steers a white Chevy Suburban along the tree-lined streets of his neighborhood on Charlotte's south side. Many houses in Myers Park went up well over half a century ago, but a lot are vanishing, pushed down by bulldozers and...

Wet and wild: builders try not to get in over their heads renovating the Pine Knoll Shores aquarium.(BUILDING NORTH CAROLINA)
June 1, 2006... Nature spent millions of years building the seabed that the U-352 settled onto after the Coast Guard sank the German sub off Cape Lookout in 1942. In the state aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores, Clancy & Theys Construction Co. re-created it within...

Law Journal 2006.(Sponsored Section)
June 1, 2006... "I don't want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do; I hire them to tell me how to do what I want to do." --John Pierpoint Morgan In its annual Law Journal, BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA tries to do just that--provide information to tell...

State of North Carolina: North Carolina board of science and technology.(Editorial)
June 1, 2006... I am pleased to introduce this issue of Innovation North Carolina, a forum for sharing information from North Carolina companies and institutions about their research programs and achievements. As we all know, our economy is in transition--a...

For pharmaceutical companies, these chambers mean commerce: Environmental Specialties quietly grows to national prominence building insulated custom chambers to further drug research.(Company overview)
June 1, 2006... North Carolina is rightfully proud of its expanding capability to attract biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms, both established and start-ups. But the state also is home to firms that support those industries, often nationally and often in...

Across North Carolina, regions find their biotechnology niches: aquaculture in the Southeast, medical technology in the East, tissue regeneration, nanotechnology, other specialties elsewhere.
June 1, 2006... Raleigh-Durham, home to Research Triangle Park, major universities and more than 300 bioscience companies, ranks alongside Boston, San Diego and San Francisco as the nation's top biotechnology cities. But from the mountains to the coast, other...

Expertise in nonwoven textiles keeps NCSU ahead of the field: research center on Centennial Campus refines the process even as it continues to attract new industry to North Carolina.
June 1, 2006... Inside N.C. State University's Nonwovens Cooperative Research Center--home to the most comprehensive nonwoven textile lab in the world--heavy machines roll out 300 meters of material a minute. That's at least 1,000 times faster than the looms...

BioNetwork ensures workers can do the job: community colleges across the state work to offer training for jobs in the pharmaceutical and biomanufacturing industries.
June 1, 2006... The N.C. Community College System BioNetwork is one of North Carolina's most effective economic-development tools, and its impact has been unmistakable. The pharmaceutical and biomanufacturing industries are highly regulated, and the state is...

Best-kept secret in research is too prolific to remain hidden: North Carolina A & T State University's prowess in discovering and developing technology is attracting global attention.
June 1, 2006... When the topic of research is mentioned in North Carolina, one tends to think about the two largest state universities located just a few minutes apart. But perhaps the best-kept secret in research in the state is North Carolina A & T State...

Zebrafish among the innovations NCCU uses in studying diseases: Biomedical and Biotechnology Research Institute also calls on drama to try to eliminate health-care disparities among minorities.
June 1, 2006... Innovation is taking center stage at North Carolina Central University's Julius L. Chambers Biomedical and Biotechnology Research Institute through the use of zebrafish in research and drama-based health education initiatives. NCCU is one of...

Ethanol dreams corny, but they're coming true: Novozymes North America is developing enzymes that will allow renewable energy sources such as ethanol to become competitive.
June 1, 2006... "Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true." When Dorothy Gale sang those words on that Kansas farm, it's almost certain she wasn't dreaming about renewable energy (there probably...

Economic future of the region a major focus for WCU leaders: university officials see critical need to link education with entrepreneurship, engagement and innovation.
June 1, 2006... There was a time when an institution of higher education was regarded as an ivory tower, involved in research and esoteric scholarship with little relevance to the rest of the world. How times have changed! At Western Carolina University, one...

Bricks & mortar.(Tryon Palace is being visited by 100,000 tourists every year)(Brief article)
June 1, 2006... As a building project, it was a prelude to revolution. Mobs rioted over the tax levied to build a residence for royal Gov. William Tryon in New Bern. Completed in 1770, it burned in 1798. Rebuilt, Tryon Palace reopened in 1959. It still stirs...