Free workshop offers small-business advice
Aspiring small-business owners are invited to a free workshop, “Starting Small: Help is on the Way,” sponsored by the Entrepreneurs Forum of the Great Northwest.
The event will be held today from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Sirti building’s fourth-floor board room, at 665 N. Riverpoint Blvd.
Washington Sen. Lisa Brown will give updates on her efforts to help startups and microenterprises. Also scheduled to speak are J.R. Sloan, a business consultant who’s worked with the Spokane Neighborhood Development Alliance, and Betty Buckley, co-founder and executive director of Stone Soup, a nonprofit that supports female entrepreneurs in rural communities.
Philadelphia
Homebuilders see steep drop in orders
In a sign of a deepening housing slump, two major homebuilders on Tuesday reported steep declines in new orders and weaker fourth-quarter results.
Luxury home builder Toll Brothers Inc. of Horsham, Pa., said home-building revenue fell by 10 percent and signed contracts were down by 55 percent compared with a year ago. The company, which released its quarterly outlook ahead of earnings, also said it will incur a hefty charge against profits as it pares down the number of lots it controls.
Beazer Homes USA Inc. of Atlanta reported a 44 percent decline in profit as higher revenue was offset by squeezed margins. The company said there was “significant” discounting in most markets.
Orlando, Fla.
PepsiCo raising orange juice prices
PepsiCo Inc. said Tuesday it will boost prices on Tropicana and Dole orange juice by 4 percent to 8 percent at the start of 2007, further fallout from what’s expected to be the worst Florida citrus crop in more than a decade.
The company also said it would trim the size and frequency of discounts offered to consumers. Combined with price increases announced in September, the changes effective Jan. 1 amount to a 20 percent increase for Tropicana and Dole over orange juice prices that had already been on the rise.
Tropicana is the largest buyer of oranges from Florida, which is by far the largest domestic producer. The state is second only to the country of Brazil in world orange production.
New York
Nymex ownership seat fetches $5.8 million
The New York Mercantile Exchange reported Tuesday an ownership seat fetched $5.8 million, a record amount as the bourse prepares to become a publicly traded company.
The price, which includes 90,000 shares, beat out the previous record of $5.5 million set April 28. The Nymex did not identify who acquired it.
Nymex Holdings Inc., the exchange’s parent company, said last Tuesday in a regulatory filing that its initial public offering could raise up to $358.8 million. The company plans to list 6.9 million shares on the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 17 under the symbol NMX.