Newspaper leader takes Gannett post
Jason Taylor, who has served as president and general manager of the Chattanooga Times Free Press since 2007, is leaving the newspaper for a position with the Gannett Co.
Taylor, 39, has been appointed president and publisher of the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger and East Group regional president for Gannett.
Nat Lea, president of WEHCO Media, Inc., said the search for Taylor's replacement will start immediately. The Times Free Press in Tennessee and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette are owned by WEHCO Media.
Taylor led the Times Free Press during a time of change in the newspaper industry.
He oversaw the paper's shift to more digital content and to a model of paid online subscriptions. He expanded the company's portfolio, which now includes the daily newspaper; six weekly community newspapers; a Spanish weekly paper; three magazines; creative advertising services; and a digital agency that offers marketing, website design and search engine optimization.
-- Chattanooga Times Free Press
Maverick pays more, lifts bonus wait
Maverick Transportation is waiving its waiting requirement on its driver bonus plan and increasing mileage rates paid for all drivers.
Raising driver pay is among the tools being used by Maverick to fight a driver shortage in the industry. Recruiting and retaining drivers has become an increasingly competitive prospect in an industry where driver turnover can eclipse 100 percent annually.
Under Maverick's new plan, all incoming drivers are eligible for an introductory pay-for-performance rate between 2 cents and 4 cents per mile. Bonuses for first-time drivers are paid upon completion of driver training and being cleared to drive solo. Previously, drivers had to be on the road by themselves for a certain period or with the company for several months before being eligible for what amounts to a signing bonus.
Starting pay for Maverick drivers is now set between 35 cents and 53 cents per mile. Factors including experience and division are used in determining starting pay, and first-year drivers with the company can earn between $51,000 and $58,000, the company said.
Maverick, a privately held firm based in North Little Rock, is ranked No. 80 among Transport Topics' top 100 for-hire carriers and reported $315 million in revenue for 2013.
-- Chris Bahn
IBM buybacks raising stock's value
IBM shares are getting scarcer as the company acquires its outstanding stock, making each share of the company more valuable.
International Business Machines Corp.'s repurchases reduced the company's share count to 998 million at the end of June, the first time it's closed a quarter below 1 billion since at least 1999, when it last split its stock. The company, led by Chief Executive Officer Ginni Rometty, spent $3.7 billion on buybacks in the three months starting in April. Fewer shares in circulation means more profit for each piece of stock, helping earnings per share go up even as the company's revenue declines.
Rometty has kept herself bound to a financial road map designed by her predecessor to reach at least $20 a share in adjusted earnings by 2015. Nine straight quarters of falling sales have forced her to look elsewhere to reach that goal. With the second-quarter buybacks, IBM has surpassed the $50 billion in repurchases the company projected in 2010 that it would spend through 2015.
"Buybacks have obviously been a nice part of the story," said Amit Daryanani, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets.
Even before the second-quarter results, IBM had one of the lowest share counts among similarly sized companies. Of the 41 companies around the world with a market value of $150 billion or more, IBM ranked 36th in shares outstanding, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The shares rose a penny Friday to close at $192.50.
-- Bloomberg News
Dimon scores $37 million in options
JPMorgan Chase & Co. let Jamie Dimon collect about $37 million in stock options created during the financial crisis, as the board stands by its leader after risk-management lapses and investigations that cost billions of dollars.
Last year, the firm delayed vesting the options by 18 months to address flawed internal controls exposed by botched derivatives investments. JPMorgan resolved a variety of investigations in the months that followed.
The board "decided not to further defer the vesting of these options at the July 2014 meeting," Joe Evangelisti, a spokesman for the New York-based bank, said Thursday after the vesting of the grant was disclosed in a regulatory filing.
Since the package's creation, JPMorgan has become the nation's largest lender, acquiring Bear Stearns Cos. and Washington Mutual Inc.'s bank units at the height of the crisis. As Dimon, 58, navigated the regulatory setbacks, the board signaled support for his work as CEO and chairman, boosting his pay 74 percent to $20 million in January.
JPMorgan's stock closed Thursday at $57.86, giving the award a value of about $37 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
-- Bloomberg News
Google ad sales top quarter forecasts
Google Inc.'s sales exceeded estimates in the second quarter as the company sold more advertising alongside Web-search results.
Revenue, excluding sales passed on to partners, was $12.7 billion, the company said Thursday. That topped the average projection of analysts for $12.3 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Larry Page is adding new features in mobile, video and Web services to increase user traffic and attract marketers as he seeks to bolster Google's main ad business.
"They're the largest player, and they're gaining share," said Youssef Squali, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, who rates the stock a buy. "It was a very good quarter."
Google shares rose $21.35, or 3.7 percent to close Friday at $595.08.
Net income rose to $3.42 billion, or $4.99 a share during the second quarter, from $3.23 billion, or $4.77, a year earlier.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 07/19/2014