Nov. 17, 2010 at 10:30 p.m.
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By Kathy Bergen
The stock market is poised to perform well in 2011, but the job market … not so much. That was economic outlook offered by several Chicago-area business experts at a forum Wednesday evening, where some also demanded that city and state politicians tackle swelling fiscal problems.
“I spend a lot of time talking with [company executives] and almost without exception in the last six weeks of the earnings season, the calls have been going better and better,” said John Rogers Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Ariel Investments. “The CEOs seem more confident, the balance sheets are strengthened and they are starting to talk about hiring again.” Get the full story »
July 12, 2010 at 12:13 p.m.
Filed under:
M&A,
Media
By Michael Oneal
Hugh Hefner with a dozen Playboy Bunnies at the original Chicago Playboy Club in 1960. (Playboy)
Shares in Playboy Enterprises Inc. surged nearly 35 percent this morning after its board of directors said it received a proposal from Hugh Hefner to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the struggling media company for $5.50 per share in cash.
Hefner, 84, currently owns 69.5 percent of Playboy’s Class A common stock and 27.7 percent of its Class B common stock, and has teamed with a Michigan private equity firm called Rizvi Traverse Management LLC to fund the bid for the shares he doesn’t own.
The Hefner bid values Playboy at $185 million but could spark an auction for the company. Marc Bell, chief executive of FriendFinder Networks Inc., which owns the rival Penthouse adult franchise, said he is readying a competing bid for Playboy. Get the full story »
