LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Growth in housing starts was extremely strong in the prior three months ... so some giveback is not a concern at this point.” Robert Kavcic, an economist at BMO Capital Markets Article, 1D
Hilton at I-630 to become a Clarion
The Hilton Little Rock Medical Center hotel on University Avenue at Interstate 630 will be rebranded Jan.
6 as a Clarion hotel, according to a news release from Memphis-based Arkansas Hotel Management Group on Wednesday.
The 263-room hotel underwent a major renovation in 2004 after it was purchased by a partnership of Marty Belz of Memphis and Bruce Burrow of Jonesboro, who still own the property.
The Clarion brand is franchised by Choice Hotels International Inc. in Silver Spring, Md.
- Jack Weatherly
Ally Financial repays FDIC $4.5 billion
DETROIT - Ally Financial has repaid $4.5 billion of debt owed to the government after it helped bail the company out during the 2008 banking industry meltdown.
Ally, which used to be called GMAC Financial Services, was the financial arm of automaker General Motors until GM sold its controlling stake in Ally in 2006. The government first invested in Ally in 2008, with the Treasury Department eventually gaining a 74 percent equity stake in Ally in December 2010.
With the repayment, Ally Financial Inc. said Wednesday that it has exited the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. In October it repaid $2.9 billion of debt under the program.
Aside from the assistance Ally received under the FDIC program, the Detroit company also received a $17.2 billion government bailout. So far Ally has repaid $5.8 billion of that by selling off assets.
- The Associated Press
Kodak to sell patents for $525 million
NEW YORK - A group including Apple, Google and Research In Motion agreed to buy patents from bankrupt Eastman Kodak for about $525 million, gaining digital-imaging technology to capture and share pictures.
The group is led by Intellectual Ventures Management LLC and RPX Corp., Kodak said in a statement Wednesday.
Twelve patent licensees form the group that’s participating in the deal, according to a court filing. Under the terms, Intellectual Ventures will split the payment with the licensees.
Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft also are part of the group, the court filing shows, along with Samsung Electronics, Adobe Systems, Fujifilm Holdings, Huawei Technologies, HTC and Shutterfly. The auctioned patents - more than 1,100 related to the capture, manipulation and sharing of digital images - were previously estimated by advisory firm 284 Partners LLC to be worth as much as $2.6 billion.
“This is a fraction of our overall patent portfolio,” said Chris Veronda, a spokesman for Rochester, N.Y.-based Kodak. “We retain ownership of about 9,600 other patents for our ongoing businesses.”
The agreement resolves all patent-infringement lawsuits between Kodak and the 12 licensees, Veronda said.
-Bloomberg News2 ex-Porsche executives face charges
BERLIN - German prosecutors have charged two former Porsche executives with market manipulation in connection with the sports car company’s failed takeover of Volkswagen AG, officials said Wednesday.
Prosecutors in Porsche’s home city of Stuttgart accuse former chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking and ex-chief financial officer Holger Haerter of making misleading statements about the company’s intentions in 2008.
Porsche made at least five public statements denying it intended to increase its stake in Volkswagen AG to 75 percent, despite having decided to do so at least six months earlier, prosecutors said in a statement.
The denials caused VW’s share price to drop at a time when Porsche was secretly preparing to buy stock in VW, Europe’s largest automobile maker, the prosecutors said.
Lawyers for Wiedeking and Haerter denied the charges against their clients and said an independent expert had dismissed the claim that VW shares suffered as a result of Porsche’s statements.
Porsche’s bid for Volkswagen failed, and VW eventually turned the tables to take over Porsche instead.
- The Associated Press
Getco to acquire rival Knight Capital
NEW YORK - Nearly five months after a major software malfunction at Knight Capital roiled financial markets, the trading firm has agreed to sell itself to a competitor, Getco, in a cash-and-stock deal that the companies value at $1.4 billion.
Knight shareholders can choose $3.75 per share in cash or one share of stock in the new holding company. The per-share price - which is more than the $3.50 per share that Getco offered last month - is a 13 percent premium to Knight’s Tuesday closing price. But it’s a fraction of the company’s worth before the meltdown.
Knight’s stock rose 18 cents, or 5.4 percent, to $3.51 in Wednesday trading.
Getco, based in Chicago, is owned mainly by its partners and executive team. Its only outside investor is General Atlantic, a private-equity firm based in Greenwich, Conn. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2013.
- The Associated Press
German business gauge tops forecast
FRANKFURT - A key measure of German business optimism rose slightly more than expected in December, suggesting Europe’s largest economy will avoid a recession despite a recent slowdown in growth.
The Ifo institute said Wednesday that its main index rose to 102.4 from 101.4 the month before. The consensus expectation among market analysts was 102.0
The survey is a leading indicator, suggesting where the economy may be going in the months ahead. It’s based on a poll of 7,000 business executives about how they see things now and six months from now.
Their views about current conditions darkened, suggesting that the fourth quarter may see the economy shrink slightly. But that was outweighed by brighter expectations for the future, suggesting that an outright recession, defined as two straight quarters of falling output, is unlikely.
The German economy grew only a modest 0.2 percent in the third quarter from the previous three-month period, down from 0.3 percent the quarter before.
Economist Alexander Koch at UniCredit is predicting a 0.2 percent quarterly contraction in the fourth quarter, but noted that the Ifo results “signal the end of contraction” and that growth would strengthen next year.
Business, Pages 26 on 12/20/2012