Business news in brief

In this Monday, Sept. 1, 2014 file photograph, the closing Revel Casino Hotel, right, is seen next to the already closed Showboat Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. When the $2.4 billion Revel Casino Hotel on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, closed, it was the most spectacular and costly failure in Atlantic City's 36-year history of casino gambling. On Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014, a bankruptcy court auction for Revel is scheduled to resume. An auction that began a week earlier was suspended due to the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
In this Monday, Sept. 1, 2014 file photograph, the closing Revel Casino Hotel, right, is seen next to the already closed Showboat Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. When the $2.4 billion Revel Casino Hotel on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, closed, it was the most spectacular and costly failure in Atlantic City's 36-year history of casino gambling. On Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014, a bankruptcy court auction for Revel is scheduled to resume. An auction that began a week earlier was suspended due to the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

Stephens Media selling off some papers

Stephens Media LLC is selling multiple newspaper holdings across the country to Black Press and its subsidiaries.

Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press, has agreed to purchase West Hawaii Today and the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. No financial terms of the deal were disclosed, but the purchase becomes official Dec. 1.

Sound Publishing Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press, has acquired the Aberdeen World, a three-day-a-week paper in Aberdeen, Wash., from Stephens Media. No financial details of the deal were available. Also included in the transaction were the Montesano Vidette, the North Coast News and the South Beach Bulletin, all weekly papers in Washington state. The purchase was completed Wednesday.

Stephens Media is based in Las Vegas and is owned by members of Little Rock's Stephens family.

"While we have appreciated the opportunity to serve these wonderful markets for a number of years, we concluded that they were no longer a strategic fit for Stephens Media," Ed Moss, Stephens Media CEO, said Wednesday.

Before the transactions, Stephens Media published 75 newspapers in nine states, including nine dailies. Stephens Media owns two dailies and 14 weekly newspapers in Arkansas. Northwest Arkansas Newspapers LLC is part of a joint venture between WEHCO Media Inc., owner of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, and Stephens Media.

-- Chris Bahn

U.S. taps startup adviser to boost region

Fayetteville-based Startup Junkie Consulting has been awarded a $500,000 contract from the U.S. Small Business Administration as part of a plan to build and strengthen regional innovation networks supporting small businesses across the United States.

The contract is one of four given by the administration from a field of 40 applicants. The money is used to provide mentoring, counseling services and mentor-protege programs. It also will be used to showcase and pitch events to investors and public-private sector users of new technology, according to a release.

Startup Junkie works to establish vibrant environments where fledgling companies and small businesses can thrive, Brett Amerine, director of operations, said Wednesday.

The Ozark-region contract earned by Startup Junkie will fund programs and services offered in Northwest Arkansas, northeast Oklahoma and southwest Missouri.

The contract is renewable for four more years if certain goals are reached.

-- John Magsam

Frost PLLC merges with Phoenix firm

Frost PLLC, an accounting firm based in Arkansas that specializes in agriculture, food processing and family business, has merged with Thompson & Co.

As a result of the merger, Frost will now have offices in Phoenix, Thompson & Co.'s home, in addition to Arkansas and North Carolina. The merger went into effect Wednesday.

Merging with Thompson & Co. allows Frost to add dairy and date-palm production to its portfolio of clients and gives the firm additional work with row crop farmers. Frost, an independent member firm of Moore Stephens North America, now has business in 48 states.

-- Chris Bahn

Spinoff gives Windstream interim CFO

Windstream Holdings Inc. said Wednesday that Bob Gunderman will become the company's interim chief financial officer.

Gunderman will replace Tony Thomas who will become president and chief executive officer of the new company Windstream plans to form by spinning off some of its telecommunications assets.

Windstream said earlier this year that it would turn copper and fiber networks into a real estate investment trust in 2015. Thomas will leave Windstream when the new company is formed, according to the news release.

Gunderman is senior vice president and treasurer for Windstream. Previously, he was vice president of financial planning for the company, according to a news release.

-- Jessica Seaman

Auction victor to reopen Revel as casino

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- A Canadian asset-management company won a bankruptcy court auction Wednesday for the failed Revel casino hotel in Atlantic City and plans to reopen it as a casino.

Toronto-based Brookfield US Holdings LLC said Wednesday that it plans to operate the Boardwalk property as a casino-hotel, adding it to casinos it owns in Las Vegas and the Bahamas.

It submitted a bid of $110 million in an auction that began Tuesday morning and lasted until early Wednesday. An opposing bidder, Florida developer Glenn Straub, was selected as the backup bidder in case the Brookfield bid did not close on the deal.

"Revel is a brand-new trophy asset on the beachfront, which we are acquiring at a substantial discount to replacement cost," said Andrew Willis, a spokesman for Brookfield Asset Management, the parent company of the firm that won the auction. "This acquisition is consistent with Brookfield's history of contrarian investing and always on a value basis."

He said the company is not ready to reveal specific business plans for Revel but confirmed the plan to operate it as a casino-hotel.

-- The Associated Press

Ireland said to plan home-loan limits

Ireland's central bank plans to impose limits for the first time on how much banks can lend homebuyers as real estate values soar again in the home of western Europe's worst property collapse, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The regulator is preparing to publish a consultation paper on its proposals within weeks, said one of the people, who asked not to be named. Banks and lobby groups will have a chance to comment on the plans, which center on introducing loan-to-value and loan-to-income restrictions. A spokesman for the central bank in Dublin declined to comment.

Irish homes prices are surging even as banks grapple with the aftermath of a mortgage crisis that forced the government to bail out most of the nation's lenders. A quarter of the country's owner-occupier home loans are in arrears or had their terms eased.

-- Bloomberg News

Business on 10/02/2014

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