Acxiom sells call center to Europe firm
Acxiom Corp. has sold 2Touch -- its call center operation in the United Kingdom -- to Parseq Ltd., a European business process outsourcing company, the Little Rock company said Friday.
Acxiom declined to disclose the amount of the sale.
2Touch generated about $35.3 million in revenue and contributed about 2 cents per share in earnings during Acxiom's 2014 fiscal year, according to a news release.
The company said the "transaction represents yet another step in Acxiom's journey toward becoming a marketing technology company with a clear vision and singular focus."
"The 2Touch sale provides an excellent opportunity for Acxiom to focus on growing its core business in Europe, while allowing 2Touch to realize its potential under a company dedicated to business process outsourcing," Scott Howe, Acxiom's president and chief executive officer, said in the release.
-- Jessica Seaman
U.S. oil, gas rigs increase by 9 to 1,866
HOUSTON -- Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. increased by nine this week to 1,866.
The Houston firm said in its weekly report that 1,536 rigs were exploring for oil and 326 for gas. Four were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago there were 1,771 active rigs.
Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Oklahoma gained eight rigs, Texas gained five, Wyoming gained two, and Alaska and California each increased by one apiece.
North Dakota lost five rigs while Kansas, New Mexico and Ohio each decreased by one.
Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Utah and West Virginia were all unchanged.
The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.
-- The Associated Press
N.M. city deciding who gets E.T. games
ALAMOGORDO, N.M. -- Officials in a New Mexico city are working on a plan under which film companies, museums and the public could get Atari video games that were dug up from an old landfill last month.
Workers for a documentary film production company recovered the games from the garbage heap in Alamogordo.
According to the Alamogordo Daily News , city documents indicate Atari consoles and 1,377 games were found, including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
The search for the E.T. cartridges will be featured in a future documentary about the biggest video game company of the early '80s. The game contributed to Atari's demise.
A draft plan being considered by Alamogordo officials would provide some of the games to the companies that paid for the excavation. Some would go to national, state and local museums, while hundreds could be sold to the public.
-- The Associated Press
Virgin Galactic signs FAA agreement
LOS ANGELES -- Virgin Galactic, British billionaire Richard Branson's commercial space venture, announced an agreement Friday with the Federal Aviation Administration that helps clear the path to send paying customers on a suborbital thrill ride from a spaceport in New Mexico.
The agreement does not give the company a license to launch routine missions. Rather, it sets the parameters for how these missions will take place in national airspace.
Virgin Galactic hopes to make its first commercial flight sometime this year from Spaceport America in New Mexico, where the flights will start and end. The company said it has taken more than 600 reservations for the ride.
Even though Virgin Galactic is planning for flights this year, there is a long road of approvals, involving safety concerns, environmental effect and insurance matters.
The agreement announced Thursday spells out how the FAA's Albuquerque air traffic control center and the state's spaceport authority will work with Virgin Galactic to clear airspace for the flights.
-- Los Angeles Times
McDonald's warns Thais not to use logo
BANGKOK -- McDonald's famous golden arches have become part of the iconography of anti-coup protests in Thailand, and it is warning activists to "cease and refrain" from using its trademark.
A McDonald's in Bangkok has become a gathering place for protests following the May 22 military coup. Some protesters have used the McDonald's logo in their anti-coup signs, replacing the "m" in democracy with the yellow arches.
McThai, which operates McDonald's restaurants in Thailand, said it is maintaining a "neutral stance" amid political turbulence in the Southeast Asian kingdom.
The company said it could take "appropriate measures" if protesters continue to appropriate its logo.
Thailand's army seized power after six months of protests in Bangkok aimed at ousting the elected government.
-- The Associated Press
States, cities to offer more debt sales
Localities in the $3.7 trillion municipal market are planning the largest wave of debt sales in almost three months, bucking a trend of diminished borrowing that's pushed yields to the lowest since June.
States and cities have set $8.6 billion of bond sales over the next 30 days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That's 35 percent above this year's average, and close to the highest since March, when Puerto Rico issued $3.5 billion of general obligations in the largest municipal deal of 2014.
At 2.26 percent, benchmark 10-year municipal yields are sinking as demand for tax-exempt securities outpaces the slowest period for bond sales since 2011. Investors have added $2.9 billion to municipal mutual funds in the past four weeks, the most in 16 months, Lipper US Fund Flows data show. A wave of maturing and refinanced debt in coming months is poised to add to demand.
"We're coming into the reinvestment season, and there seems to be cash on the sidelines," said Ken Kollar, a trader with Arbor Research & Trading Inc. in New York. "Supply will be easily absorbed."
Next week, Phoenix; the Miami-Dade County Expressway Authority; the Chicago Park District; and Portland, Ore., join issuers offering $5.9 billion in debt, compared with almost $5 billion in this holiday-shortened week. Miami-Dade will borrow to upgrade highways, and Portland's debt will help finance a bridge.
Phoenix and the Chicago Park District are refinancing debt. Municipal bondholders are set to receive $92 billion from maturing and refunded bonds in the three months through August, Citigroup Inc. estimates. That may exceed issuance by $20 billion.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 05/31/2014