Day: April 24, 2008

Wall Street, the lifeblood of New York City’s economy, could lose more than 36,000 jobs because the financial credit crisis has rocked markets and stunned the U.S. economy, estimated James Brown, a labor market analyst with New York state’s labor department, AP reported. Losing one in five jobs on Wall Street could have dire consequences for the city’s economy.

The Boston Red Sox jersey secretly buried under the new Yankee Stadium in a failed curse attempt sold Thursday for $175,100 in a charity auction for the Jimmy Fund, AP reported. The bid was the highest of 282 for the battered No. 34 David Ortiz jersey, which the Yankees jackhammered out from under two feet of concrete this month.

After two past rejections, the owner of Arby’s shaved roast beef sandwich restaurants is buying Wendy’s for roughly $2 billion, AP reported. Triarc Companies Inc., which is owned by billionaire investor Nelson Peltz, said Thursday it will pay some $2.34 billion in an all-stock deal for the nation’s third-largest hamburger chain.

Stocks rallied Thursday as investors focused on a drop in weekly unemployment claims and stronger-than-expected results from Ford Motor Co. rather than weak housing figures and cautious comments from some retailers, AP reported. A rise in the dollar pushed prices for oil and other commodities lower.

A top U.S. official said the Syrian nuclear reactor allegedly built with North Korean design help and destroyed last year by Israeli jets was within weeks or months of being functional, AP reported. The official said the facility was mostly completed but still needed significant testing before it could be declared operational.

Performance Technologies Inc. beat analyst estimates by 2 pennies a diluted share in the first quarter, the local system developer announced Thursday.
PTI logged $591,000 in the first quarter, or a nickel a diluted share, up from a net loss of $618,000, or a nickel a basic share, one year ago.
Revenue for the quarter totaled $11 million, up from $9.4 million a year ago.
When the first quarter ended, March 31, the company had 11.7 million common shares outstanding, down from 13.2 million shares a year ago. PTI purchased back 1.6 million common shares in the open market for an approximately $8.1 million.
In a statement this afternoon, John Slusser, president and CEO said the company was pleased to have exceeded estimates.
“Our key initiatives of market diversification for our embedded systems products, revenue growth for our signaling systems products and emphasis on gross margin all demonstrated continued traction,” Slusser said.
“Although the going forward visibility remains challenging and there are growing concerns about the overall economic climate, we believe 2008 is an important year for the Company to pursue evolving market opportunities to further strengthen its foundation for longer-term growth,” Slusser said. “During the year, we expect to make additional strategic investments in our signaling products and organization while continuing to focus on our near-term business potential.”
PTI’s stock (NasdaqGM: PTIX) closed Thursday at $4.56 a share, down 13 cents from Wednesday’s close.

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Gradient Corp.’s Hawkeye Precision Boroscope will be featured again, on Thursday night’s episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
The tool, which is manufactured locally and is used to help people see into areas that are otherwise inaccessible, appeared on the hit show several times in 2006.
The company said that in tonight’s episode which airs at 9 p.m. on CBS, one of the investigators discovers a bullet hole in the ceiling and asks a co-worker to hand him the Hawkeye. He then inserts the tool in the hole in the ceiling and discovers a dead body in the floor above.
Gradient was founded more than 25 years ago by Duncan Moore, now vice provost for entrepreneurship at the University of Rochester and director of the Center for Entrepreneurship there.

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First Niagara Financial Group Inc. on Thursday reported quarterly net income of $20 million, or 19 cents a share, nearly identical to the first quarter 2007.
The Niagara County-based bank reported quarterly operating income of $89.4 million, including $60.1 million in net interest income and $29.3 million in non-interest income. That was up 7.6 percent from $83.1 million in the first quarter 2007.
“We have stayed focused on growing profitability by maintaining our credit and pricing disciplines,” President and CEO John Koelmel said in a statement. “We will sustain our credit vigilance as the current economic uncertainties unfold while retaining our cautious optimism on the health of our regional economies.”

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Ithaca-based Tompkins Financial Corp., parent of Bank of Castile branches and AM&M Financial Services Inc. in the Rochester area, on Thursday reported net income of $7.5 million, or 77 cents a share, in the first quarter, up 29 percent from $5.8 million, or 58 cents a share, a year ago.
First-quarter revenue was bolstered by $1.6 million in income from Visa Inc.’s initial public offering, but would have surpassed last year’s revenue even without Visa income.
“These results provide reassurance that our strategy, which includes a focus on reasonable growth, maintenance of high standards for credit quality and diversified revenue streams is proving successful,” President and CEO Stephen Romaine said.

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Joseph Mancuso, who in 1959 developed the world’s first business incubator, in Batavia, died Tuesday, April 22. He was 88.
Mr. Mancuso coined the term incubator after subdividing a massive warehouse among dozens of tenants—one of which was a company that incubated chicks.
The building previously had housed Massey Ferguson, a manufacturer of heavy equipment and the largest business in Batavia. It closed in 1956, leaving an 850,000-square-foot complex of multistory buildings vacant and driving unemployment to more than 20 percent.
Mr. Mancuso was recruited to Mancuso Business Development Group to fill the building, and with his incubator concept, he did. He developed the Batavia Industrial Center, which within five years, reached capacity and created thousands of jobs for the area.
The Industrial Center spurred so many spinoff companies that it helped lead to the creation of the Batavia Industrial Park.
The National Business Incubator Association estimates there are 5,000 incubators operating in the world; more than 1,400 of them are in North America. A few years ago an incubator in Anshan, China, honored Mr. Mancuso by erecting a bronze statue commemorating his role as the inventor of the business incubator.
During his life, Mr. Mancuso was a World War II Army veteran and Eagle Scout; he also was active in community efforts.
Today, Mancuso Business Development Group is led by his son, Thomas Mancuso. It operates more than 2.5 million square feet of business properties in Upstate New York.
Mr. Mancuso is survived by his wife of 58 years, Beverly; five children; and five grandchildren. Services in honor of him will be held May 2 and 3 in Batavia.

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Rochester’s help-wanted advertising fell in March for the third consecutive month, the Conference Board Inc. reported.
The local index was 11 last month, compared with 12 in February and 12 a year ago. The Syracuse area’s help-wanted ad index increased to 101 in March from 99 in February and 98 a year ago. The Buffalo area is not surveyed.
Nationally, the index fell to 19 last month from 21 in February and 29 in March 2007. Some 39 percent of labor markets had rising want-ad volume in March, up from 33 percent in February but down from 51 percent a year ago.
The Middle Atlantic region, which includes Rochester and Syracuse, was unchanged at 14 from February to March, but was down from 17 a year ago.
“Print want-ad volume has shown a slightly declining trend over the past half year,” labor economist Ken Goldstein said. “The cumulative impact of the housing crisis, financial market turmoil, higher energy and other prices is slowing the overall economy and resulting in job cuts and reduced hiring intentions—with the prospect that declines may steepen.”
The labor market likely will get worse before it gets better, Goldstein said.
“This is precisely the fear driving consumer and business expectations down to levels only seen during recessions,” he added.
In the last three months, help-wanted advertising declined in all nine of the U.S. regions surveyed, with the steepest declines in the East North Central region, which includes Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin.
The Conference Board surveys 51 major newspapers nationwide for their help-wanted advertising volume. A large volume of ads suggests a strong job market, while fewer ads indicate a weak market, with job candidates willing to accept lower pay.
The seasonally adjusted index is based on a value of 100 in 1986. The index looks at the change within a market but does not compare help-wanted ad indexes between markets. Rochester’s dip from the base value occurred early in the Conference Board’s surveying, due primarily to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the area.

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Financial Institutions Inc., parent of Five Star Bank, on Thursday reported first-quarter net income of $3.8 million, or 31 cents a share, up 5.5 percent.
A year ago, the company reported profits of $3.6 million, or 29 cents a share.
Peter Humphrey, president and CEO of the Warsaw-based bank (Nasdaq: FISI), attributed the growth to a disciplined approach to loan portfolios and to an increase in net interest income.
“Asset quality showed continued improvement with a meaningful reduction in our non-performing assets,” he said in a statement. “The current interest rate environment and economic conditions will most likely pose challenges for the financial services industry for the remainder of 2008. However, we feel we are well-positioned to meet the challenges of this economic environment.”
The company is on track to open branches in Henrietta and Greece in the second half of 2008, Humphrey said.

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Eastman Kodak Co. on Thursday said it has broadened the retail availability of its consumer inkjet printers, which it launched just more than a year ago. It also added a new printer to its inkjet line.
Kodak (NYSE: EK) has added retail partnerships in existing markets including Target Corp. department stores in the United States, and London Drugs and Canadian Tire in Canada.
Beginning in the second half 2008, Kodak will broaden its current distribution network of more than 8,000 retail stores by expanding into Latin American countries.
In addition, the company introduced the Kodak ESP 5 All-in-One, which features print, scan and copy capabilities, and has a 3-inch color LCD display along with memory card and USB slots to allow consumers to view, edit and print with or without a computer.
Kodak also late Wednesday received good news on the financial side. Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services raised its outlook on Kodak to “stable” from “negative.”
The credit-ratings firm said Kodak has substantial liquid resources, and it believes Kodak’s digital business is gaining traction.
Kodak stock was trading up slight Thursday afternoon at $18.72.

(c) 2008 Rochester Business Journal. Obtain permission to
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Eastman Kodak Co. on Thursday said it has broadened the retail availability of its consumer inkjet printers, which it launched just more than a year ago. It also added a new printer to its inkjet line.

Financial Institutions Inc., parent of Five Star Bank, on Thursday reported first-quarter net income of $3.8 million, or 31 cents a share, up 5.5 percent.