Touting the alliance as an effort to drive down health care costs, Wal-Mart and 1-800-CONTACTS announced a long-term agreement today to offer contacts through the retailer?s nearly 3,000 outlets.
The two firms say their partnership will create efficiencies across their call centers, websites, purchasing, and distribution efforts, a series of moves [...]
Simmons First National Corp. announced its fourth quarter and full year 2007 operating results.
The Pine Bluff-based bank holding company posted earnings of $6.9 million for the fourth quarter, an increase of $186,000 versus the same period in 2006. Simmon?s net interest income for the fourth quarter of 2007 increased 5.6% to [...]
Mike Huckabee gets front-page treatment in today?s Wall Street Journal. The article centers on Huckabee?s struggles to run a national campaign on a shoestring budget.
?The demands of logistics, policy, press and fund raising are swamping a campaign powered by an inner circle with little experience. Thin policy positions, an unorganized [...]
Former natural gas company executive Sheffield Nelson has submitted his proposal for raising the severance tax in Arkansas to the state?s Attorney General and he expects the PR battle to be brutal.
?You?re going to have threats. You?re going to have innuendo and otherwise these people saying they?re going to leave [...]
Home BancShares, Inc. announced its fourth quarter and full year results, touting a record for the Conway-based bank holding company.
Net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was $5.4 million, a 20.5% increase over net income of $4.5 million for same period last year. For the full year, Home Bancshares [...]
The wait is over.
Acxiom Corp., which saw its $3 billion private equity sale fall apart last year, has found a new company leader.
Today, Acxiom announced that John Meyer would take over the beleaguered database marketer after a search for a successor to long-time chief executive Charles Morgan was announced [...]
We?ve reported in the past on a trend by retailers like Wal-Mart to install health care clinics in stores to address non-emergency room situations, such as flu shots, minor injuries, and non-threatening illnesses.
Last week, MedBasics Family Health Centers, a national operator of retail-based health clinics, opened its first three in-store [...]
Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies (AERT) is going outside the company to improve its communications efforts.
The Springdale-based recycled deck product maker, which has seen its stock price struggle of late, has retained The Birkhill Group to handle corporate communications and investor relations. Birkhill is a New York-based merchant bank led by [...]
This Friday, January 18th is the start of the fifth season ? the Oaklawn season, as the commercials used to tout. Talk Business caught up with the Hot Springs racing track?s assistant general manager David Longinotti to find out what to expect in 2008.
Talk Business: What will be different at [...]
Don?t look now, but Acxiom?s stock price has sunk to yet another multi-year low.
Yesterday, Acxiom shares closed below $10 per share, falling 28 cents to settle at $9.80 at the end of the day. The stock traded as low as $9.79 on Tuesday amidst slightly below average trading volume.
While the [...]
Bank of the Ozarks reported fourth quarter net income of $7.7 million, up 5.2% from one year ago when the Little Rock-based bank holding company posted earnings of $7.4 million.
Loans and leases were $1.87 billion at December 31, 2007 compared to $1.68 billion at December 31, 2006, an increase of [...]
We reported back in December that Little Rock-based Aristotle had made the cut for the upcoming Federal Communications Commission airwave auction. The slice of spectrum to be auctioned has been described as ?beachfront property? because of the robustness of the airwaves for carrying wireless signals. Development of the airwaves up [...]
The odds for a casino in Fort Smith just got dicier.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Washington, D.C., has rejected a proposal to accept Fort Smith land into a federal trust for the purposes of Indian gaming.
In an January 4th Department of Interior document, BIA Assistant Secretary Carl Artmann [...]
Governor Mike Beebe released $4 million to the University of Arkansas today to advance nanotechnology research. The money will be used by the university for research and facilities in the College of Engineering and the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.
?This is cutting-edge research with strong potential for short-term and [...]
The fabled New York Historical Society has named Alice Walton, daughter of the late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, to its board of directors for a three-year term. The society was founded in 1804 and is New York?s oldest museum and research library.
It holds one of the country's greatest collections of [...]
Murphy Oil Corp. was the successful bidder on three land parcels in a mid-December land sale in British Columbia. These three parcels account for roughly 42,000 acres. El Dorado-based Murphy Oil acquired the western Canadian acreage for approximately $220 million.
?This position adds to the acreage purchased earlier in 2007 [...]
The latest housing report from the Arkansas Realtors Association (ARA) is out and the trend of a dramatic year-over-year decline in home sales continued for key areas of the state.
Overall, home sales fell 19.9% in November 2007 compared to one year ago. The average price of a home rose 1.6% [...]
W.W.S.T.? ? What Would Sam Think?
The legendary Saturday morning meetings between Wal-Mart managers, executives and employees will reduce to one meeting a month.
Kimberly Morrision with the Morning News files a report, which notes that Wal-Mart is not making additional comment on the announcement revealed this past Saturday.
?To many, the move [...]
A California investment group has nearly tripled its holdings in Springdale-based Tyson Foods, according to a new proxy report.
Hedge fund operator Eastbourne Capital Management of San Rafael, California has upped its position in the protein giant to about 21 million shares, roughly a 7.35% stake in Tyson Foods.
Eastbourne is now [...]
We knew last month that he?d likely face no competition, but now it?s official.
State Rep. Robbie Wills of Conway was elected today to serve as Speaker of the House for the 2009 General Assembly. The vote was 98-0.
Wills tells Talk Business, ?We have a lot of work to do in [...]
Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced today that social networking website MySpace has agreed to take significant steps to better protect children, including creation of a broad-based task force to explore and develop age and identity verification technology.
Specific changes and policies that MySpace agreed to develop include: allowing parents to [...]
Governor Mike Beebe today announced a new workplace-readiness credential aimed at reducing employee turnover, building job-seeker confidence, and increasing a graduate?s chances for hire.
The Arkansas Career Readiness Certificate (CRC) designates that an individual has core employability skills required across multiple industries and occupations, such as reading, mathematics, and teamwork. [...]
Today, Wal-Mart announced the appointment of Vicente Trius as President and CEO of Wal-Mart Asia International. In this role, Trius will lead Wal-Mart's operations in Asia, where the retail giant is making huge investments in Japan, China and India.
Trius joined Wal-Mart in 1996 as Vice President for Operations in the [...]
Wal-Mart ? An analysis of 20 years from the Feds shows that Wal-Mart is not a community killer. The report studied economic data from towns with a Wal-Mart versus those without. Now, Wal-Mart typically doesn?t go into declining communities, so the results were predictable. Still, Wal-Mart gets a [...]
The major stock indices are off to their worst annual start in years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen 5% this year ? its worst start since 1991 when the economy was in a recession.
The tech-laden NASDAQ has plummeted 8% this year, and the S&P 500 [...]
A Conway bus factory will be laying off 300 workers later this month, the second time in the last year that job cuts for the busmaker have been announced.
Navistar announced Friday that its subsidiary, IC Corp., will cut 300 jobs and idle the plant for a week in late January [...]
Multichannel News, a technology industry news source, reports that Wal-Mart may restart a paid video-download service on its own less than a month after a partnership with Hewlett-Packard was abandoned.
News of the possible resurrection of service comes from conversations held at this past week?s Consumer Electronics Show. Wal-Mart declined [...]
A 2,000-foot broadcast tower collapsed while workers were restringing guy wires Friday, knocking two area television stations off the air. One minor injury was reported.
Little Rock station KATV Channel 7 and KETS Channel 2, part of the Arkansas Education Television Network, lost their signals at least temporarily. The collapse [...]
Developers of a new $65 million condo project will unveil their plans next Tuesday for The Ashford, billed as ?a luxury high-rise residence.?
The $65 million condominium tower will offer panoramic views of the Arkansas River and downtown Little Rock skyline. The Hathaway Group is developing the project similar to other [...]
Chesapeake Energy, one of the major players in the booming Fayetteville Shale region, will dedicate its new Searcy field office in a ceremony later this morning.
The company also says it will announce a major contribution to a local institution at the 11 am press conference.
Last month, Chesapeake and the city [...]
Dillard?s Department Stores enjoyed one month of good sales fortune, but the holiday shopping season will be viewed with disappointment.
The Little Rock-based mall retailer reported December sales of $1.17 billion, down 5% from one year ago when the company posted overall sales of $1.22 billion. Same store sales also tumbled [...]
Wal-Mart?s overall sales rose 8.4% in December and same-store sales rose a stronger-than-expected 2.7%. Total sales for the five-week reporting period in December reached $46.6 billion.
The retail giant saw the bulk of its sales growth in its U.S. stores, which rose 5.6% to $29.7 billion. Sam?s Club revenues jumped 4.3% [...]
Maria Haley has found her man.
AEDC Director Maria Haley has named Hideichiro Chikahiro, former president of Hino Motors Manufacturing USA, as the new director of the agency?s Japan office. Chikahiro will be based in Tokyo, Japan.
He replaces Yutaka Kajita who is retiring and has been director of the Japan office [...]
Fitness centers, gyms, and personal trainers all experience an influx of new business at the beginning of each year as a result of those resolutions for personal improvement. But, it?s one thing to set goals and another to achieve them. What patterns for accomplishing personal goals can also be applied [...]
Dr. John White, chancellor at the University of Arkansas for the past 11 years, is stepping down from his post on June 30, 2008. White will resign from administration, but remain as a faculty member in the College of Engineering.
?The time has come for someone new to continue the remarkable [...]
Call it damage control, risky PR, or a no-choice situation, Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies (AERT) is outlining its case to shareholders.
Publicly-traded AERT received a notice from NASDAQ in late-December that it was in jeopardy of delisting due to its low stock price over the last several months. The Springdale-based maker [...]
The tough housing sector in northwest Arkansas is putting a hurt on many upscale homebuilders in the region. More than 70 building industry-related bankruptcies were filed in the Western District of Arkansas in 2007, according to court records.
Construction companies such as McMahon Brothers Custom Homes, Legacy Building, and Gene Knight [...]
Petrohawk Energy Corp. has upped its position in the Fayetteville Shale play again. The Houston-based energy firm signed an agreement to acquire an additional 18,500 acres in the heart of the shale region, primarily in Van Buren, Conway and Cleburne counties.
The $222.5 million acquisition comes on the heels of Petrohawk?s [...]
?I listened to you and I found my own voice.? Those were the words that Hillary Clinton shared with New Hampshire voters on Tuesday night.
For the Democrats, last night?s New Hampshire election returns were a shocker.
After the past few days of poll data showed Barack Obama surging to a potential [...]
Wal-Mart has certainly fought its fair share of battles at the local level. Grassroots groups ? sometimes stoked by union interests, community activists, environmentalists, landowners, and those opposed to big-box developments ? have often led opposition to Wal-Mart locating in their cities, towns and neighborhoods.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis [...]
It?s been a few years, but do you remember the bizarre story of Martin Frankel, the world traveling con artist who defrauded a number of insurance companies of hundreds of millions of dollars? The case was a mainstay in business headlines back in 1999 and 2000 and one major company [...]
The Gadberry Group, a Little Rock-based data and IT company that recently struck a deal with Wal-Mart competitor Tesco, has released a list of the fastest growing U.S. and Arkansas cities based on population trends in 2007.
Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas is the fastest growing U.S. city, according to [...]
By 9 pm tonight, the New Hampshire primaries will be in the books and another chapter in this year's Presidential campaign will have closed.
Aaron Sadler, with our content partner Stephens Media, is on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. He?s sizing up Mike Huckabee?s expectations in the Granite State, which [...]
Simmons First National Corp. has named two new members to its board of directors: William E. Clark, II and Edward Drilling.
Clark, chairman and chief executive officer of CDI Contractors, LLC in Little Rock, is on the executive committee for Arkansas Children?s Hospital Foundation, and is a member of the board of [...]
If you made good money last year, you may want to call your accountant, especially if you normally pay your taxes early in anticipation of a refund.
After a fair amount of Congressional wrangling late last month, federal lawmakers tweaked the tax code to remove many middle and upper-middle income taxpayers [...]
Wal-Mart may appeal a North Carolina judge's ruling that would prevent the retail giant from a $33.5 million state refund. Wal-Mart contends that it is entitled to the return of taxes and penalties it paid after the state of North Carolina said it could not deduct store rents to Wal-Mart [...]
Waschka Capital Investments, Inc. has officially changed its name to Metropolitan Capital Management effective Tuesday, January 1, 2008. Waschka Capital Investments is a $100 million investment firm founded in 1990 by Larry Waschka, who passed away in November 2004. Metropolitan had acquired the company after his death.
?This is truly an [...]
Mike Huckabee ? For Presidential contenders, it?s all about managing the expectations game at this point. You don?t have to win to win. Huckabee?s Iowa caucus victory met (maybe even exceeded) expectations. A third place finish in New Hampshire would only add to his momentum. He?ll do [...]
