NEWS IN BRIEF

— Atlanta firm takes reins of LR Peabody

Davidson Hotels and Resorts of Atlanta announced Thursday that it has assumed management control of the Peabody Little Rock hotel.

Fairwood Capital LLC of Memphis, a private equity firm, reached an agreement with the city of Little Rock in January on a 40-year lease to operate the hotel.

Fairwood purchased the lease from an affiliate of Memphis-based Peabody Hotel Group and hired Davidson to operate the hotel, which has more than 400 rooms and is located downtown at Three Statehouse Plaza.

The hotel will be operated under the Marriott brand after 11 years as a Peabody, named for the flagship hotel in Memphis of that name. There is also a Peabody in Orlando.

The rebranding of the Little Rock hotel will take place in the second quarter, Davidson said in a news release. Later this year, Fairwood will spend $16 million on renovations.

  • Jack Weatherly

Acxiom shares fall day after layoffs

Shares of Acxiom Corp.

fell 9 cents Thursday, closing at $18.20 on average trading volume, one day after the Little Rock-based company said it laid off fewer than 100 employees company wide, including fewer than 50 at its Arkansas locations.

Acxiom, which employs about 6,200 worldwide and more than 2,000 in Arkansas, said the workers who were let go Wednesday all belonged to the same department within the company.

Wyatt Jefferies, spokesman for the data-mining company, said Thursday that he could not comment on why the employees were laid off.

According to Acxiom’s website, the company had at least 76 job openings Thursday. Jefferies said not all employees are qualified for the job openings.

“We always try to transition or move people into different roles, but this is not always possible as certain jobs require unique skills and experience,” he said.

  • Jessica Seaman

State index follows as U.S. stocks fall

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 0.84 to 262.60 Thursday.

“U.S. stocks turned lower in the last half hour of trading after trading higher most of the day because of better than-expected jobless claims and Chicago [Purchasing Managers Index] data,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock.

“The Arkansas Index moved lower as eight stocks declined and eight advanced.”

Volume for the index was 33.7 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 31.3 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 29 on 03/01/2013

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