Big win for city ports; big letdown for others
It was a big week for port news. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania and New Jersey made a deal that would allow the proposed Delaware River channel-deepening project to go forward. That was followed the next day by Gov. Rendell's announcement of a $300 million bond issue to fund a slew of port improvement projects. Rendell also announced that day that he canceled plans to move the Philadelphia Regional Produce Market to the Navy Yard, saying it would cost too much and would block future expansion of seaport operations. See: http://go.philly.com/PORT20a
It was a big week for port news. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania and New Jersey made a deal that would allow the proposed Delaware River channel-deepening project to go forward. That was followed the next day by
Gov. Rendell's
announcement of a $300 million bond issue to fund a slew of port improvement projects. Rendell also announced that day that he canceled plans to move the
Philadelphia Regional Produce Market
to the Navy Yard, saying it would cost too much and would block future expansion of seaport operations. See:
Trump Entertainment is entertaining bids
Private-equity and gaming firms are said to be making offers for struggling Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. The company, which owns three casinos in Atlantic City, enlisted Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. in early March to explore deals. See:
Tyco settles for $3 billion; Radnor law firm led charge
The
Tyco International Ltd
. case may have been the most complex securities litigation ever, said
Richard Schiffrin
, a founding partner of
Schiffrin, Barroway, Topaz & Kessler
in Radnor, a 60-lawyer firm that represented Tyco investors. The firm focuses on securities-fraud, derivative and transactional litigation against public companies. Tyco agreed to set aside $2.975 billion to pay claims filed by shareholders arising from actions by former chief executive officer
L. Dennis Kozlowski
and other top officers convicted of looting the company. No word yet on the Radnor lawyers' share of the settlement. See:
Drexel agrees to refund $250,000 in Cuomo probe
New York Attorney General
Andrew M. Cuomo's
probe of the $85 billion student-loan industry hit close to home Tuesday when
Drexel University
agreed to refund about $250,000 to students who borrowed from a California lender. The Philadelphia university said it "administered its student-loan programs with integrity and in the best interests of its students." See:
Conshohocken med-tech firm fetches $1.42 billion
Viasys Healthcare Inc.
said it would be acquired by
Cardinal Health Inc.
, the second-largest U.S. drug distributor, for $1.42 billion. The deal, announced Tuesday, represented a 35 percent premium to Viasys' closing share price of $31.55 the previous week. Viasys shares soared 36.9 percent to close up $11.63 at $43.18. On Friday, the shares closed at $43.75. Viasys has about 40 employees at its headquarters in Conshohocken and 2,400 worldwide. See:
Consumers remain unhappy with TV service
A survey released Tuesday found that consumers' satisfaction with cable and satellite-TV service continues to erode. Those industries scored a 62 out of 100 on this year's University of Michigan American Customer Satisfaction Index. That's down 1.6 percent from a year ago, and the lowest for any industry in the annual survey of 80,000 consumers. The airline industry had the second-lowest score at 63. Philadelphia's
Comcast Corp.
saw its cable TV score fall 6.7 percent to 56. DirecTV, a Comcast satellite competitor, did better with a score of 67, but that was down 5.6 percent. See:
Coming tomorrow
Many business leaders appear to have almost no familiarity with
Michael Nutter's
12-page plan for Philadelphia's economic development, which is heavy on support for small business, workforce development, and tax incentives for neighborhood development. But they like his attitude - toward business (positive), taxes (they should be lower) and the role of the mayor as a chief salesman for the city.