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CURRENT NEWS TOPICS FOR INVESTING:
 Slideshow: Top stock investments by members of Congress
 Stock ownership by members of Congress has been an issue recently after several media reports that were critical of what some viewed as politicians capitalizing on inside information about the financial crisis, including a featured report on CBS news program "60 Minutes."
Just this week, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, called his peers in the Senate to be forbidden from owning individual stocks, saying it creates conflict of interest on several issues. Brown has reportedly sold all of his individual stock already...
Five Star Bank to shut Wyoming branch
There will be one less Five Star Bank branch in Wyoming County this year, pending approval from state banking regulators.
The Warsaw-headquartered bank has applied to the state Department of Financial Services to shutter a branch located at 5 South Academy Street in Wyoming. The closing is scheduled to take place by June 30, leaving five offices in Wyoming County.
Bank spokesperson Matthew Murtha said business at the branch has dropped as more customers use the Pavilion or North Warsaw offices...
Express Scripts issues debt in preparation of Medco deal
 Express Scripts Inc. (NYSE: ESRX) announced today it will be issuing debt through its wholly owned subsidiary, Aristotle Holding Inc., to fund the acquisition of Medco Health Solutions Inc.
Express Scripts said the net proceeds from the private offering will help repay debt in connection with the planned acquisition of Medico and to address any related fees and expenses, according to a regulatory filing by Express Scripts.
In December, Express Scripts issued $4.1 billion worth of bonds to help fund the cash portion of the $29 billion cash and stock acquisition of Medco...
Bank of Hawaii to close three branches in April
Bank of Hawaii plans to close three free-standing branches on Oahu and the Big Island April 27 and open three new in-store branches within supermarkets this year.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that Bank of Hawaii's plan to close its branches at Aikahi Park Shopping Center and Laie on Oahu and the Kohala branch on the Big Island, is part of a larger trend toward moving to in-store branches, and that the bank plans to open one in-store branch on Oahu and two on the Neighbor Islands later this year...
KPMG Centre reverts to receiver; JLL to manage property
 KPMB Centre, a 34-story, 828,000-square-foot office tower at 717 North Harwood St. in downtown Dallas, has been transferred to a special receiver and is being managed by Jones Lang LaSalle.
The receiver, Keith Ward, has selected Jones Lang LaSalle team Steve Everbach and Blake Shipley as the skyscraper's leasing and management team.
The team's primary focus is to dramatically increase the level of service to tenants at KPMG Centre, said Everbach, Jones Lang LaSalle's regional director of leasing and management...
State Bank posts $43M annual profit
 State Bank Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: STBZ)
The holding company for State Bank & Trust Co. saw a decrease in profitability in 2011.
Net Interest Income: $145.2 million, up 10.8 percentNet Income: $43 million, down 5.5 percentEarnings Per Share: $1.32, down 5.7 percentTotal Assets: $2.75 billion, down 2.9 percentTotal Deposits: $2.3 billion, down 5.1 percent
State Bank Chairman and CEO Joe Evans:
?I am very pleased with the progress we made on strategic priorities in
2011. Our focus on lending in the communities we serve and growing core
deposit relationships is clearly reflected in our financials...
MetLife to cut 804 positions in Irving
As part of its exit from the business of originating home mortgages, MetLife Inc. will cut a total of 804 positions at two locations in Irving.
The New York financial services company disclosed that in a Jan. 27 letter to the Texas Workforce Commission and Irving mayor Beth Van Duyne.
The layoffs, which MetLife's letter characterized as permanent, will take place at 1555 Walnut Hill Lane ? where 204 people will lose their jobs ? and 4000 Horizon Way (600 employees) in Irving. The job cuts will begin on March 30 and should be substantially complete by May 31, the letter says...
Mayo Clinic spin-out Tenex Health raises $11.8M
Tenex Health Inc., a startup that?s commercializing Mayo Clinic technology for treating tendon injuries, has raised $11.8 million in capital.
The company rounded up the funding via a reverse merger with a publicly traded company and a PIPE (private investment in a public entity) deal.
Tenex launched in 2009. It was initially based in Rochester, Minn., but moved its headquarters Lake Forest, Calif., in 2010. But the company has maintained some ties to Minnesota, as it announced plans last summer to produce its device at the MinnWest Technology Campus in Willmar, Minn...
N.C. pension system investments returned 2.1% in 2011
 Investments made by North Carolina?s $71 billion pension system returned 2.1 percent for calendar year 2011, State Treasurer Janet Cowell reported Friday.
Fourth quarter 2011 returns were 3.82 percent.
?Though markets ended the year on a positive note in the fourth quarter, 2011 was highly volatile overall,? said Cowell, who pointed to positive gains in some asset classes. ?For the year, however, the fund was not able to overcome rough stock market performance brought on by conflicts in the Middle East, the debt crisis in Europe, and the first ever downgrade of sovereign debt in United States history...
Brightcove sets IPO share range, boosts offering to up to $69M
Online video services firm Brightcove has boosted the amount of money it's looking to raise from its IPO, to up to $69 million from $50 million, and said it expects to sell shares for up to $12 a piece.
The details came in an update Monday to the Cambridge-based company's IPO-intentions filing with the SEC.
The company said it expects to sell up to 5.75 million shares, in the range of $10 to $12 each. That would give Brightcove a market value of $260 million at the low end of the range to $317 million at the high end...
Bank of America?s mortgage chief to retire
 Barbara Desoer will retire from Bank of America after her long-suffering stint as head of the bank's troubled mortgage operations, The Wall Street Journal reports.
BofA (NYSE: BAC) announced her retirement in an internal memo in which she said, "I have given it my all," according to the Journal.
Desoer will end a 34-year career at Charlotte, N.C.-based BofA and its predecessors. She has served in various senior leadership roles, reported directly to two CEOs and has been listed among the most powerful women in banking...
Bank of America mortgage chief to retire
 Barbara Desoer will retire from Bank of America after her long-suffering stint as head of the bank's troubled mortgage operations.
BofA announced her retirement in an internal memo. The Wall Street Journal was first to report the story.
"I have given it my all," she said in the memo, according to the Journal.
Desoer will end a 34-year career at Charlotte, N.C.-based BofA and its predecessors. She has served in various senior leadership roles, reported directly to two CEOs and been listed among the most powerful women in banking...
Romney draws the most donations from Missourians
Mitt Romney?s presidential campaign last year drew more than $1 million in donations from Missouri, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
That tops the nearly $800,000 attracted by President Obama. Both candidates pulled heavily from the St. Louis area, with donations to Obama picking up after an October fundraising visit to St. Louis, the report says.
Other presidential hopefuls fell markedly behind in terms of dollars from Missourians.
Chase, Wells Fargo, BofA sued over mortgage databases
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued banking?s Big Three -- JPMorgan Chase & Co. Inc., Bank of America, Wells Fargo & Co. -- on Friday over their use of an electronic mortgage database that played a key role in financing the nation?s historic housing bubble.
Schneiderman, who gained additional clout last month when President Barack Obama named him co-chairman of a new federal mortgage-crisis unit, filed suit against Bank of America, (NYSE: BAC) Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) in New York State Supreme Court...
IPO costs pull down Nielsen profit
Nielsen Holdings N.V. reported net income of $86 million, or 24 cents a share, for 2011, compared to net income of $132 million, or 46 cents a share in 2010.
The 2011 results included $206 million of charges associated with the company's initial public offering, a written statement said.
Revenue for 2011 was up 8 percent to $5.5 billion.
Nielsen Holdings (NYSE: NLSN), headquartered in New York, has more than 3,000 employees in the Tampa Bay area in five facilities, including its Global Technology and Information Center in Oldsmar.
Banking Report: More failures, brand shakeup
The DBJ compiled a report on the banking industry this weekend that included a number of stories about what some people expect to happen in the next year or two, and it's not all good.
In fact, the report indicates the rate of bank failures could grow to a new record for the next two years, with 750 banks at risk nationwide, and 17 of them in Ohio.
Another report features a slideshow of the top banking brands and how they changed from last year. There were a number of banks on the list with large Dayton operations, including JPMorgan Chase & Co...
Palo Alto Networks seen IPO-bound
 Palo Alto Networks Inc. is reportedly seeking bankers to help with an initial public offering.
Dow Jones Venturewire cited unnamed sources who said that the Santa Clara-based network security company has put out a request for proposals for banks to act as bookrunners for an IPO.
The company also last week named a new chief financial officer, Steffan Tomlinson. This is the third position for Tomlinson since leaving Aruba Networks Inc., which he helped take public in 2007 as CFO, last February. After leaving Aruba (NASDAQ:ARUN), Tomlinson joined Silver Lake Kraftwerk as a partner and chief administration officer and then in November was named CFO at Arista Networks Inc...
Despite hot start, S&P can't boost consumer confidence
The Standard & Poor?s 500 Index is off to its best start since 1987, but Americans are largely dismissive of recent market performance, Bloomberg Businessweek reports.The S&P has increased 99 percent since March 9, 2009 and economic numbers in the U.S. have been hopeful, but sentiment is still at its lowest since the early 1980s.
Slideshow: Most-popular Congressional stock picks
Stock ownership by members of Congress has become an issue recently after several media reports critical of what some viewed as politicians capitalizing on inside information about the financial crisis. Now a report lists which stocks are most-widely owned by members of Congress.
Last week, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, demanded that his peers in the Senate to be forbidden from owning individual stocks, saying it creates conflict of interest on several issues.
Note: Click here for slideshow of top stocks owned by members of Congress...
Mortgage deal closer; $10B profit for GM?
Business news from around the Web:
? Deal closer for a U.S. plan on mortgage relief (NYT)
? GM aims to reach $10 billion profit (WSJ)
? 4G phone users bemoan battery issues (WSJ)
? NASA: Astronaut program gets 6,000 applications (Portfolio)
Wangard buys Good Hope Road strip mall for $900,000
 A strip mall facing West Good Hope Road outside a Pick ?n Save sold for $900,000 to an affiliate of Wangard Partners Inc., which is lining up tenants to fill 3,700 empty square feet in the building.
Wauwatosa-based Spectrum Development Group LLC, which developed the outlot mall in 2006, sold the property southeast of the busy retail intersection of West Good Hope and North 76th Street in Milwaukee.
?A lot of retailers today that would lease space in a strip center like this, they want to be out front of a large retail anchor that is going to generate traffic,? said Tony DeRosa, vice president of development for Wangard Partners, Milwaukee...
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