Real estate firm takeover still rumored - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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Grubb & Ellis, said earlier this montjh that it had terminated talks withan "unrelated thirsd party." Officials at CBRE's corporate office in Los Angeles wouls neither confirm nor deny the negotiations, fuelinhg speculation that Grubb & Ellis' vagu e reference to a "third meant a suitor other than CBRE. Grubb & Ellis CEO Barryy Barovick indicated thatprice wasn't the issue that dividesd it and the third party, rather differences in "vision regarding the industry in general, and our integratedd business model in particular.
" Barovick added that it had became "increasingly apparent that there were significant overlaps of personnel and which led us to believe that too many of our all of whom we greatly would not be retained." Barovick told GlobeSt.com's John Salustro that "Grubb & Ellis is not for In fact, it was nevetr up for sale. The potential mergefr partner camein unsolicited. But if there was anotherd unsolicited offer, we would have the fiduciaryg responsibility to our shareholders toconsider it.
" Salustri "no one at Grubb & Elliw would state for the record what insiders have confirme -- that it was indeed CB Richard Elliw who had the firm in its acquisition John Lewinger, co-owner of the Albuquerque Grubb & Ellizs office, confirmed that the companuy has made no secre of its interest in a purchase and that it has been in othee talks with at least three potential buyers in the past Sixty-seven percent of the firm is owned by an investment company that has held the investmentg for several years and thoser investors might be interested in a said Lewinger. He added that his business has receivede purchase offers in the past fromnationalo firms.
During all of the receng innuendo about a potential deal with twonational firms, which he didn't want to called him. "They thought we mightg be interested in an associationh with them if the merger took Lewinger said. He admits that there are a numbed of nationalcompanies he'd consider if he were put in the positionj of having to decide what to do shouls Grubb & Ellis merge with a competito who already had an Albuquerque The national affiliation with Grubb Ellis, said Lewinger, providea his firm with educational networking and access to national Based on market size and the client activity the national affiliation might bring his firm, Lewinger said he pays an annuaol fee to the corporate headquarters for that Nationally, Grubb & Ellis reported a first quarter 2002 net loss of $5.
2 millionj or 35 cents per diluted before non-recurring charges, compare d with a net loss of or 6 cents per diluted common for the same period last year. Barovick said the economic slowdownn continued to impactthe firm'se revenues during the Total revenue for the nine monthws that ended on March 31, were $236.3 million, down about 28 percent from the $330 millio n in revenues for the same time in 2001. Earnings befored interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for Q1 2002 showeed a loss of $5.7 millio n before non-recurring charges, versus income of $1.5 million for the firstg quarterof 2001.
Grubbn & Ellis says it has more than 8,000 peoplre in more than 200 officew in30 countries. The local CBRE office is one ofthreew "partner offices" owned by an out of statwe investor who also owns the Fresno, Calif. and Salt Lake City CBRE Formerly a publiclyheld company, CBRE went privatw last summer. CBRE's corporatde parent, , said it generated revenuez totaling $224 million during Q1 2002, an 18 percenft decline from Q1 2001. EBITDA for the quarterf totaled $11.1 million, a 21 percent decrease from results reportefd inQ1 2001. During the first quartef of last year, said the CBRE financial release, the company recorded a $5.
4 million net gain from the sale of amortgages fund. Excluding this one time gain, EBITD A increased "by $2.5 million or 29 percent during the firsty quarter of 2002 as comparedto 2001," according to the company's May 14, 2002 CBRE says it "serves real estate investors and occupiers" through 221 offices in 47 countriea and employs 9,700 worldwide.

Grand Lacuna golf course hit with foreclosure - South Florida Business Journal:

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This marks the second golf coursr in Palm Beach County with a pending foreclosure actionagainsty it. A different lender is suing the 110-acre Emerald Dunes Golf Course in Royal Palm OnMay 29, R.I.-based filed a foreclosure actiohn against and managing member Kenneth W. Brown, accordingg to records. The lawsuit was basedr on a mortgage last modifiedat $2.7 million in 2004 the same year Grand Lacuna Grouo bought the golf course for $3.5 million. An official at the Grand Lacuna golf course said he woul d forward a messageto Brown, who did not immediatelyt return the call. According to county propert y records, Grand Lacuna has 7,320 square feet of facilitiez onthe 115.
4-acre site, at 6400 Grandf Lacuna Blvd., in Lake Worth – near the southwes t corner of Lantana Road and Florida’s Turnpike. The par-71 course was developed in thelate 1980s. Tampa-based attorney Mark J. Wolfson, who represent Textron in the lawsuit, did not immediatelgy return a callseeking comment.

Telmar expands Plano operations - Dallas Business Journal:

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Officials at say the company’s Nortnh Texas head count has growb from 60 to nearly 150 in the past six Employment growth has include a combination ofnew hires, consolidation of employees from otherr Texas facilities and a handful of employees who are movingy from the company’s Calif. location, though that facility will remain Telmar officials say the new jobs in Plano cover a variety of functions and salary such as people working in the company’s technical assistance center and Steve Pickett, Telmar’s president and CEO, also is located in and has been sincr he was hired last Company officials say they will hire in Plano and worldwide as the business grows, but they declinesd to give numbers on how many peoplw will be hired or specify the time frame.

Stadium deal faces injunction attempt - Business First of Columbus:

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Grace Solares and Elvis Cruz, who filed suit in February, filedr an emergency motion Monday in an effort to stop the sale of thebondsd altogether. A copy of the temporart injunction motion provided by the plaintiffsd alleges the county is exceeding its constitutional tax and spending powers by issuing bond tied to the professionalsports tax/tourist development tax. As a result of the motion and to avoix a cloud that could affecgt the interest rate on the the county has pushed back the bondsale dates, Miami-Dade spokeswomah Vicki Mallette said. However, the closinhg date for all the bonds remaindJuly 14.
The county had already planned to push back the bond closinh date due to a request chang e on how some financing fees are paidto , whichu has provided the county with a letteer of credit for the project. Wachovia’sd letter of credit is for two yeares atapproximately $100 million. The Wachovia change would require an amendment to the bond ordinance that allowed the county to issue Professional Sports Franchises Tax and Tourist DevelopmenyTax bonds. County commissioners will get a chanc e to consider the change at a special meetinfgon Friday. A public hearing and second reading is scheduled forJune 30.
If countuy commissioners approve theWachovia change, the thred parties would have until mid-July to close on instead of the end of Miami-Dade County and the parties also will be given until July 15, instead of July 1, to pull out of the The change would not impact the projected financing expenditurew the county commission already has according to a statement from County Managere George Burgess. “Our confidence in the project and its underlyingv funding plan hasnot changed,” he said in a statement on Monday. On Friday, Burges also wants to make “minord technical corrections” to the county deed that conveys two parcele to the city of Miami for thestadium garage.
Burgess also is working with Miami to modify the deed on the stadiumn site to reflect the change inthe deal’s new termination date. The city of Miami commissionh will meet Thursday to consider the Wachovia In April, county commissioners approved issuingb bonds totaling a maximum of $536 millionm toward construction of the $640 37,000-seat ballpark.

Complex Problems Have Complex Solutions - Huffington Post (blog)

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Complex Problems Have Complex Solutions Huffington Post (blog) The world is a complex place, facing complex problems that have complex solutions, and we need to make complex decisions everyday. Living in a complex world, requires that inhabitants act as global citizens, and responsible citizenry requires ...

International Marketing Expert, Nitin Chhoda's Instant Dental Newsletter Now ... - Albany Times Union

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International Marketing Expert, Nitin Chhoda's Instant Dental Newsletter Now ... Albany Times Union Instant Dental Newsletter is a content-rich marketing solution that boosts internal referrals from patients by providing dental practices with a very content rich dental newsletter that is s specifically engineered to promote internal referrals. and more »

Video gaming market adds CDC Games - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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CDC Games is looking to become a majorf international publisher of multiplayer onlinevideo games. In the company, which has more than 100 millio playersin China, is planning to invest up to $100 millionh in video game development here and abroad. Heading up the new CDC Gamess USA is former software architect Ron He says the company is hiring 40 or so game developerw and project managers and hopes to partnet withthe state's universities to hire part-time studentf talent.
In deciding to open a headquartersin Atlanta, Williamss says, the company concludede that the city had "the righty mix of talent and cost of In addition, Atlanta is already a hub for CDC parent company, (Nasdaq: CHINA), a business softwarw developer with 2,500 employees worldwide. Eventually, William says, CDC Games will get into direct publishinyhere -- producing its own games. But for the time the company will license other studio's games, helping to launch and market titles Within a month, CDC Games will release the multiplayee online fantasy game "Battle of in the United States and is working on another titl for release by the end of the year.
The plan callz for six releases in the United Stateas by the endof 2008. As for investments, the companyy has already taken minority interests in two the Chinese-based "Yulgang" and Australian-based "Fury." Williams expects more to CDC Games also is localizingt games, changing language, for example, to suit culturapl differences. Plus, certain game-play nuances are oftem needed. In addition, the company had to recentlhy remove blood splatterings from a violent videok game so it could be releasesin China. The government there has strict laws governinhmedia content. The company publishes "The Lord of the Rings Online" and "EVdE Online" in China.
"EVE Online," produced by Iceland-based CCP hf, which also has its American headquarterxsin Atlanta, is a science fictiobn multiplayer online game with more than 190,000 global players. CDC Games helpedf pioneer the "free to play" model in Asia that has gamerse playing for free but payin for virtual items suchas weapons. Over Valentine'zs Day, CDC Games' Yulgang sold hundreds of thousands of virtuall wedding dresses to gamers for a fewcentes each. The online game, which encouragesz cooperation and teamworkbetween players, has seen tremendous success sincr launching in 2005 and now has 42 million users in Asia.
While still in its infanc in theUnited States, Williams predicts the free-to-play model will somedah be mainstream here. "In Southeast Asia, it's incredibly popular," Williams said. "They're years ahead of us. But we thinko the U.S. is heading into that spacre pretty rapidly." Although data isn't availabls on free to play, online gaming as a whol e is on firein China. Market researchg firm IDC says online game subscriptions in the country will increasefrom $673 million in 2006 to $2.1 billion in 2010. There are some companies in the U.S. free-to-play including Atlanta-based The Virtual World of Kanevazat .
The company, formed last year by technolog entrepreneurChristopher Klaus, is less of a game and more of a socialo experience like virtual world Second Life. Kaneva, which went into open beta testinfin March, plans on charging for itemd such as apartment upgrades. In addition, Finland-based , which operatew the virtual world for teensat , has already been successfupl here. Sulake is expectedd to post $75 million in real money in 2007 from sellinhgvirtual goods, according to published reports.
Ian Bogost, a professorf of digital media at Georgia Tech and CEOof , an onlinw game focusing on social and politicaol issues, says the cultures in China and particularlh in South Korea -- perhapd the hottest game market in the world -- are drivingh big growth in the online game While the average casual gamer in the United States primarilt plays console games, Asians have adoptedr Internet gaming as a social experience, he says. It'z somewhat akin to the "arcade of the late 1970s and earlh 1980s, Bogost says, when American youthg would socialize in videogame parlors. Since the introduction of game consolex such as andSony PlayStation, that has virtually disappeared here.
In Korea, onlinew gaming is so popular that top gamers are consideredcelebrities there. Korean youthh even go on videogame dates. "If the averagde North American describes avideo game, they talk aboutt the thing you connect to the TV rathed than a network PC game with thousands of people interacting," Bogost said. "In China or it's the opposite." As for the free-to-playy market, Bogost predicts Americans willcatcgh on. Albeit slowly. "Americans seem ready to spendx small amounts of money forvirtual gimmickry," he "But it's not yet a mainstream ideal.
" A look at CDC Gamezs USA: One of the biggest publishers of onlined games there, with more than 100 million players Introducing Asian online games in United Statesw and U.S. games into Asia CDC Games, staff research