News-Record.com

The Nasdaq Stock Market has named Greensboro's RF Micro Devices to its top tier of companies under its new listing system that began on July 3.
Called the NASDAQ Global Select Market, the tier "has the highest listing standards in the world" according to Nasdaq. Approximately 1,200 companies qualify for this new market tier.
"We're pleased to be added to the more exclusive NASDAQ Global Select Market listing," said Bob Bruggeworth, RFMD's president and CEO. "We expect our inclusion in this new top-tier listing will increase our market visibility as we continue to execute on our strategic growth plan and increase our semiconductor content in cellular handsets and other mobile devices."
The standards for the Global Select Market are higher than those for the Global Market, which continues the criteria previously required of all companies on Nasdaq.
Such requirements include having a majority independent board and an independent audit committee, and independent directors must participate in determining executive officer compensation and the nominees to serve on the board of directors.
RF's shares have had a checkered run, trading below $6 a share early this year, peaking above $9 and sinking back to around $6 recently. The company has shown favorable earnings and expects good growth based on the growth of the cell phone handset market for which it make electronic chips.
Look here for a full list of the Global Select tier.

Liberty Property Trust has sold a major office project to Crown West Realty for $26.55 million, according to a press release.

The development - CentrePort Office Portfolio - is a bundle of four buildings comprising 266,268 square feet of office space at the intersection of Interstate 40 and N.C. 68.

According to the press release (from CB Richard Ellis, which represented Liberty in the deal), the office portfolio includes:

* CentrePort I: A 47,208 square foot Class A office building built in 1986.

* CentrePort II: A 62,720 square foot Class A office building built in 1990.

* CentrePort III: An 81,681 square foot Class A office building built in 1998.

* One Triad Center: A 71,759 square foot Class A office building built in 1986.

CB Richard Ellis reports that the office portfolio historically has seen occupancy rates above 90 percent and was 72 percent leased at the time of sale. Tenants in the buildings include Ernst & Young, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, MARC, Time Warner and CB Richard Ellis.

Crown West has chosen CB Richard Ellis to lease and manage CentrePort.

You just never know where that local phenom Krispy Kreme will show up. Great doughnuts and terrible financials get plenty of publicity, and sometimes a punchline or two.

This time it showed up, of all places, in the July 13 Rolling Stone piece about the Iraq war.

Writer Matt Taibbi scores a trip inside the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, mostly empty except for a nearby military base.

He spends time alone in a cell, just to see what it's like.

Late in the evening, I turned on my laptop and discovered, to my absolute amazement, that there was a functioning wireless hub in the building. I got online and promptly spent most of that night filling out sunny customer-service responses for various Stateside corporations. Dear Krispy Kreme Corporation ... Thank you for being YOU...

It's just one more obscure role for Krispy Kreme, which, given its recent assault on Asia, is once again trying to conquer the world.

** Note: If you looked for this post early this morning and it wasn't on the site, my apologies. For some reason, it didn't actually go up last night when I saved it. **

Monday's meeting of the Greensboro Zoning Commission was fairly low-key. The commission took up 11 rezoning proposals - three of which you read about in today's paper. Proposals reached far beyond the Urban Loop, however. Find a roundup of Monday's events after the jump:

Chief executive officers just don't seem to have staying power anymore.

A report out today from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas documents 728 CEO switchovers this year - a number 6.9 percent higher than the figure released this time last year.

Now, turnover isn't synonymous with firing. Challenger's figures show only 13 CEOs officially getting the boot this year. But the slew of CEO resignations include quite a few spurred by pressure from boards and shareholders.

Challenger concludes, in a news release about the report, that the record turnover is "a testament to the increased power boards and shareholders have in determining the direction and leadership of the organizations."

The turnover - six departures each business day through June - also is a reverberation of the corporate scandals, like Enron, of the early 2000s, the report concludes.

Challenger is predicting as many as 1,500 CEO departures by Dec. 31, surpassing last year's record (an all-time high) of 1,322 departures.

It's official. The controversial Video Competition Act has made it through the state legislature and is headed for Easley's desk.

In case you don't recall our coverage of this, the N&R ran this story breaking down the competition issue last month. (Sorry, that's the best link I could find.)

The gist is that phone companies like BellSouth have been hankering to grab a bit of cable's territory - without the hassle of local franchise agreements.

Now, pending the governor's permission, they'll be able to. The bill would take effect Jan. 1.

Here's the story out on the Associated Press wire.

In an e-mail today, local BellSouth spokesman Clifton Metcalf said the company is optimistic about the bill becoming law, considering the overwhelming support it received in the legislature.

This could shake up the business climate for Time Warner Cable, which serves the Triad. Under the bill, Time Warner and other cable companies also would be eligible to make franchise agreements at the state level, once competition entered their coverage areas.

The Triad Tower still will be 22 stories tall, but its footprint won’t be as mighty as developers once expected.

Developer Harry Falk has settled on a 12,500 square-foot footprint for the massive tower, a blend of office and residential space planned near the intersection of Interstate 40 and N.C. 68. Falk also was considering a 20,000 square-foot footprint for the building, which is slated to open Dec. 31, 2007.

In a Tuesday news release, developers attributed the decision to market demand and a tight schedule. Last month, Falk told the News & Record that the floor size hinged on a large potential tenant scoping out the project.

Developers plan to announce pricing for lease and purchase of tower space on Friday, Sept. 15, the news release said.

JetBlue Airways kicked off service in the state today, starting in the Queen City. Check it out here.

The Charlotte Business Journal has coverage here.

JetBlue plans to expand its N.C. service, launching flights from Raleigh-Durham International Airport on July 20.

Piedmont Triad International Airport here still hasn't made the cut for the low-cost carrier.

Coldwell Banker Triad, of Winston-Salem, ranks 96th on a list of brokerages ranked by transactions. The firm also got props from REALTOR Magazine, which ranks companies in this month's issue, for having some of the most productive salespeople among high-performing companies.

Other N.C. firms included on the magazine's list are Charlotte-based Allen Tate, at #14 for transactions, and Raleigh's Fonville Morisey Realty, Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston and RE/MAX United.Fonville Morisey and Howard Perry and Walston also made the magazine's list for the top 100 sales volumes for 2005.

Only companies that verified their performance data qualified for the magazine's list.

Reality TV junkies, get ready to be truly interactive.

Tuesday, fans of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" can vote for their favorite contestants through the TV - if, that is, those fans subscribe to Time Warner digital cable.

The cable giant, which serves the Triad, has been beta testing an interactive polling option for digital cable customers since March. Subscribers have been able to test out the voting mechanism during "Top Chef" on Bravo and the NBC reality comedy show.

Next week will mark the first time that these poll results actually count, however, toward the outcome of the show.

"This is the first real-life test of polling," says Buck Yarborough, a local spokesman for Time Warner.

After the jump, more details on the TWC program, "Last Comic Standing," and how to vote ...

We've written about this cumbersome beast before.

It's the customer utilization tracker, a measure that allows Piedmont Natural Gas to tweak its rates every six months based on how much gas its customers use. The gist is that Piedmont can up rates to recoup its expenses during a warm winter when customers aren't using enough gas. And the company, which serves the Triad, can slash rates when it's flush with cash from customers using more gas than usual during a cold snap.

Attorney General Roy Cooper isn't a fan of this true-up measure, and his protests against the method could have landed Piedmont in the state Supreme Court. But a news release today from Cooper's office indicates that the AG and the gas company might have found a compromise before coming to blows.

It's not clear what sort of impact this agreement might have on consumers and their bills. But the release states that the settlement could increase the amount of cash Piedmont funnels into conservation and "rate relief" from $1.5 million to $6 million during the next three years.

The full release is posted after the jump ...

Seems like everybody picked up on the potential pending agreement between Piedmont Natural Gas and the AG's office during the weekend.

The News & Record put up its own wire story about the issue. But nothing out there yet has had concrete numbers, really, showing what consumers will save. We'll work on that for you.

From interviews I did back when the AG's office first threatened Piedmont with action at the state Supreme Court level, I got the sense that the conservation benefits of any such agreement could be notable. But the average consumer might not notice much of a change in his or her wallet, either way.

Our original story, re-posted after the jump ...

Let's talk about the economy.

We recently got the Triad Business Index for May, a study of economic indicators compiled by Don Jud over at UNCG. The news isn't stellar - but it's not all that depressing, either.

Here's a rundown for the Piedmont Triad, in general, and then for Guilford County, more specifically. Look after the jump for the scintillating story ...

So if you're bored at 2 p.m., with no place to go, nothing to do and no one to see, consider stopping by the Melvin Municipal Office Building downtown (300 W. Washington St.).

No, really, it'll be exciting.

Things might be looking up here - sort of.

That's the conclusion RBC Centura reached with its most recent study of consumer attitudes and spending in the southeast. The study results, released today, showed that consumers in the region have been buoyed back to pre-Katrina spending levels. But they're not exactly wowed by prospects for the future.

RBC measures consumer confidence on a monthly index - a scale with a baseline of 100 points - first used in 2002. This index gained 25 points between January and June of this year, reaching 99.5 last month. The bank's measure shows national consumer confidence growing more slowly - nine points to hit a total of 83.9 - during the same period.

"The economic outlook in the Southeast during the first six months of 2006 is very similar to where it was in 2005, before Katrina hit," RBC Centura stated in a Tuesday news release.

"We have seen encouraging increases in consumer confidence across the nation, and the Southeast (sic) has outpaced the rest of the country," RBC economist Ivana Rupcic was quoted as saying in the release. "But there are still real concerns about the present and future of the economy."

Other details after the jump ...

Skeptics be warned - Harry Falk plans to show critics just how valuable his Triad Tower project could be to this area.

Falk, the mind behind the 22-story tower planned near Piedmont Triad International Airport, has hired academic and economist Don Jud to crunch the numbers on the project, which could include a series of restaurants, office and residential space, an aquarium and other amenities.

Jud, professor emeritus at UNCG, plans to perform a financial analysis to show the community what the economic impact of the mammoth building could be.

"We are engaging Dr. Jud's services to show, in real numbers, the benefits of this project to our community from an impartial third party," Falk stated in a news release.

Falk's vision for the Tower, originally announced in summer 2004, has provoked skepticism from a number of industry experts. Local commercial real estate players have told the News & Record in the past that the interest in office space like what Falk could be renting or selling just isn't there.

Still, Falk remains confident that the Tower will boost the Triad's economy, bringing business and bustle to the intersection of N.C. 68 and Interstate 40. The building is slated to open Dec. 31, 2007.

1. Metamorphosis: An interior design shop at 524 Elm St., in a former bank building. The owner, Agnes Preston-Brame, was born in Hungary, studied design and has worked in New York City. For more information, visit the Web site.

2. Blue Diamond: This art gallery has taken the place vacated by The Scene on South Elm, Lowell Bridger's short-lived entertainment experiment. Bridger, a partner in the Tin Rooster at Southside, also owns Blue Diamond, which features a showroom and an in-house studio at 604 S. Elm St. For more information, call 510-7509 or 215-2662.

A popular High Point furniture retail store will head into a Greensboro court on August 3 to begin bankruptcy proceedings.

Utility Craft Inc., also known as Wood Armfield Furniture Co., filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 20. The furniture company, in business in downtown High Point since 1939, closed its doors on June 5.