PhillyInc

Things are heating up (even more than usual) at Mace Security International Inc. (NASDAQ:MACE) in Mount Laurel. Andrew Shapiro's Lawndale Capital Management, one of Mace's biggest shareholders, based in Mill Valley, Calif., told the SEC last week that it has formally notified Mace - led by Louis D. Paolino Jr. - that it will put up four candidates for an expanded board at the next annual meeting. It previously had named three. The fourth, first mentioned in a late August filing, is Philip B. Livingston, the vice chairman of an auditing software company Approva Corp. in Reston, Va. (who also has an affinity webite www.phillivingston.com). The others are listed here and in the filing. Lawndale's letter states that the firm has raised its complaints with Paolino and his team several times:

... such discussions to date have been fruitless and, in Lawndale's opinion, only highlight the existing Board's lack of independence. As a result, Lawndale currently believes that the only way Lawndale can achieve the improvements in the Company's governance structure necessary to create value for all shareholders is to conduct a proxy contest to change the Board and approve the other items set forth in the Lawndale Notice. As described in the Prior Letters and the Lawndale Notice, Lawndale believes that replacing all of the Board members (other than Mr. Paolino) with truly qualified and independent directors who will act solely in the best interests of the Company's shareholders is the best way to improve the Company's governance structure. ...

No date for the annual meeting, yet.

Couresty Source

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mothers Work, Inc. (Nasdaq: MWRK), the world's leading maternity apparel retailer, today announced that Mothers Work and Sears(R) were unable to reach terms on a renewal of their leased department relationship. The Company currently operates the maternity apparel department in 502 Sears stores through sale of the Company's Two Hearts(R) Maternity branded merchandise. The Company anticipates that its relationship with Sears will terminate on June 20, 2008, the expiration date of its current agreement with Sears.

Rebecca Matthias, President and Chief Creative Officer of Mothers Work, noted, "While we are disappointed about the end of our relationship with Sears, we feel the decision not to proceed with a renewal is in the best interest of our stockholders since we were unable to reach terms on a renewal which would be favorable for Mothers Work and our stockholders. As we have previously stated, we are focused on generating sales that also generate an adequate return on investment and help us to increase shareholder value -- we are not interested in generating sales that do not help deliver shareholder value. We believe our current relationship with Sears has been a beneficial one for both parties and, most importantly, for the Sears customer. Even after our relationship with Sears ends, we remain well positioned to service the needs of that customer through our Destination Maternity(R) and Motherhood Maternity(R) stores as well as through our exclusive licensed relationship with Kohl's(R) and our leased departments at Macy's(R), Babies "R" Us(R), Boscov's(R) and Gordmans(R)."

- Thomas Ginsberg

By a hefty margin, PhillyInc poll respondents say Philadelphia businesses have no particular responsibility to help to combat the city's worsening gun and violence problem. At least that's what they said in our unscientific and anecodotal, though perhaps indicative, online poll.

We asked: "Do local businesses and/or executives have a responsibility to help combat rising violence in Philadelphia?" The most popular answer, chosen by 45 percent, was: "No, their job is to prosper and create jobs, period." The second-most popular chosen by 29 percent was: "Yes, but they have shirked it and could do more." Two other options accounted for the rest. (Click below for bigger chart).

We were prompted by Philadelphia's ex-managing director Phil Goldsmith and Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney, who say city businesses with so much at stake have been more talk than action on the problem. Responding to our poll and disputing Goldsmith, Mark Schweiker of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce insisted on the Chamber's blog that businesses have done quite a bit. Even so, he and Goldsmith do implicitly agree that businesses have a responsibilty to the community to help deal with the problem.

And that's where this poll is interesting. It seems most PhillyInc poll respondents think both guys are off-base on that point. In total, the share who answered "no" on whether business have such a civic obligation was 62 percent. That was 36 out of 58. (Yes, just 58 plus 1 write-in. We actually get hundreds of visits a day). You could argue, correctly, that our online poll is soft, anecdotal and unreliable. But perhaps no more unreliable than the way most people form opinions about what others think. Imagine it this way: Over the course of a year you attend 58 dinner parties, and 22 guests insist over apetizers that businesses ought to step up to the plate, while 36 scream during dessert that the job of businesses is business, period. For most people, just three people saying something make them think it's trend. Here's 36. Of course, that doesn't mean they're right. We intend to run Q&As with people on both sides of the topic. Stay tuned.

- Thomas Ginsberg

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported last week that Boeing Co. has fired an employee at its St. Louis facility for "having a conversation" with the newspaper about the company's ability to protect its computers from fraud and manipulation. The newspaper ran an investigative story in July on the subject, although it does not confirm whether it used information from the fired employee. A company spokesman, Tom Downey, told the newspaper it had no comment on personnel matters and he also demurred when asked whether Boeing was conducting surveillance of employees. Boeing employs roughly 5,000 people in the Philadelphia area.

- Thomas Ginsberg

The former Pennsylvania governor and Homeland Security Department chief formallly unveiled his consulting shop today in Washington, Ridge Global LLC, to provide "strategic and operational guidance to clients worldwide." In fact, he's been running the consulting business for awhile and boasts contracts already with the govenment of Albania and Deloitte & Touche USA LLP. (Also see the Philadelphia Business Journal here). Indeed, the New York Times documented his entrepreneural offering of access and insights last year in a look at 94 former security officials who have turned their government experience into consulting or lobbying work. And Forbes already lists Ridge's company in its bio page.

In any case, Ridge's announcement says his advisory committee will include Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Ret.), former U.S. Homeland Security Advisor Gen. John Gordon (Ret.), former U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thomas Collins (Ret.) and former White House Cyber Security Advisor Howard Schmidt. Not clear what role they will have in actual contracting or advising clients.

- Thomas Ginsberg

And what does George E. Norcross III get from this Commerce-TD Bank deal? In the least, Commerce will be "negotiating" to sell its insurance division back to the South Jersey Democratic powerbroker, who had started and ran the division. Norcross is chairman and chief executive officer of Commerce Banc Insurance Services Inc. and is still a director on the Commerce board. The statement today said the side deal with Norcross is still "subject to the approval of TD Bank Financial Group." Commerce said the sale to Norcross was part of its effort to "take certain actions with respect to its balance sheet."

Vernon Hill had brought in Norcross to run Commerce Bank's insurance division. And Hill evidently played a very active role picking up the pieces and looking for a buyer after Hill's removal. "People who underestimate George Norcross make a lot of mistakes in life." That's how Orin Kramer, the investor and N.J. Democratic Party powerbroker and fundraiser (and chairman of New Jersey's state pension fund), reacted to the news of Norcross' deal in a conversation today with Joseph Distefano of The Inquirer.

- Thomas Ginsberg

It's no surprise that Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) and Ebay Inc. (Nasdaq:EBAY) top the list of shoppers' 50 favorite online retailers published by the National Retail Federation trade group in their Stores magazine. But among the top 50 are two online sites from Charming Shoppes Inc. (NYSE:CHRS), the Bensalem-based retail chain that operates Fashion Bug and Lane Bryant stores. LaneBryant.com ranks number 19 on the list with the comment, "no dangerous curves here. Right Fit helps shoppers find jeans that flatter fuller figures." Buzzing in at number 50 is FashionBug.com. "Led by plus-size sales and the return of Gitano, shoppers seem smitten -- or, in this case, bitten." Everyone's a comedian. Number 15 on the list is QVC.com, which is based in West Chester. "With videos, value, live TV and designer merchandise, QVC epitomizes multichannel retailing," the magazine says.
- Jane M. Von Bergen

Scott McCartney at the WSJ writes today about the financially successful, but operationally abysmal, merger of US Airways and America West. Among other things, he says this:

Tying two networks together has been a financial success, saving thousands of jobs at two distressed airlines and creating a nationwide low-cost carrier. But almost every airline that has bought another has suffered service declines while workers, equipment, facilities, computer systems and aircraft try to mesh. Reservation systems proved a particularly difficult problem for US Airways, leading to many customer problems.

And their service was stellar before the merger? Check a few installments at Road Warrior.

O Canada
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

Thousands of bankers in Philadelphia and New Jersey may soon be learning the lyrics of their new owner's national anthem. Commerce Bancorp (NYSE:CBH) has signed an agreement to be purchased by TD Bank Financial Group (NYSE:TD), one of Canada's largest banking and financial companies.

From the Philadelphia region's perspective, this sale is probably good. It puts Commerce in the hands of some very deep-pocketed folk who can fund, if they wish, continued branch and employment expansion. It lets Commerce move past the era of Vernon Hill and any drag he may still have on the bank after his resignation. And, possibly most importantly, it gets the regulators out of the boardroom and leaves management time to manage.

But all that glitters is not gold. Both customers and employees will likely see new policies. And shareholders will be subject to a new risk: currency exchange risk. As a Canadian business with most of its earnings in Canadian dollars, TD Bank shareholders in the United State will see the value of their stock rise or fall in part based on exchange rates between the U.S. and Canadian dollars. And, as the Canadian dollar is near historic highs against the U.S. dollar, we may well expect to see some strengthening of the U.S. dollar in the years ahead, to the detriment of owners of Canadian businesses including TD Bank.

If I were a gambling man, I'd now keep an eye on Commerce's Pennsylvania look-alike bank, Commerce Bank/Harrisburg N.A. (NASDAQ:COBH). It may follow its parent and minority owner in joining with TD Bank. TD Bank will own 10.8 percent of Commerce/Harrisburg stock and 100 percent of its Series A preferred stock. And it's a logical direction for TD Bank to expand. Wait and see! Such a move would certainly be most welcome by many Pennsylvania regional banks who may be looking for a "sugar daddy" to buy them out and solve their credit, sub-prime mortgage, earnings and other challenges.

- Larry Jilk is a former Pennsylvania bank executive, who does not own any CBH or COBH but does own stock in several commercial banks headquartered in Pennsylvania.

Opinions expressed by contributors to PhillyInc are exclusively those of the contributors.

Was Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) punished for not cutting the FCC a break? Last week its news program, CN8, became the first show to be fined by the Federal Communications Commission for airing parts of a video news release (VNR) without identifying the source - in this case, the maker of the product CN8 was reporting on. It was just $4,000. Still, some people wondered why Comcast, which vociferously rejects the fine and is fighting it, was singled out? Many other cable and broadcast TV stations have been criticized for doing the same thing, including Philadephia's KYW-TV once in 2005, after which it gave full disclosure on other VNRs.

So now comes the FCC's chairman, Kevin Martin, on the topic. Yesterday he told some reporters, including from Broadcasting & Cable magazine, that Comcast got the first fine because it didn't agree to waive the FCC's time-limit on studying such alleged infractions. According to B&C, Martin said there actually were "dozens, if not hundreds" of complaints against many companies over VNRs but that the other companies all agreed to give the FCC more time to examine the complaints in something called "tolling agreements." Then he said:

"I believe Comcast had initially told our Enforcement Bureau that they would also agree to a tolling agreement. ... But then they decided they would not. So we were faced with a choice of issuing the NAL [notice of apparent liability] or allowing the time to lapse so we would never be able to take any enforcement action against them. And so, faced with that decision, we decided we would issue an NAL."

Does this mean Comcast would not have been fined if it gave the FCC more time? This seems Ironic. Is the time limit unreasonable? Was Comcast, led by Brian L. Roberts, trying to force FCC regulators' hands on a rule that it opposed?

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice told B&C: "The commission had our response to the VNR inquiry for several months when they requested a continued delay. ... We declined because we were -- and remain -- confident of our position on the merits: That the statute does not apply to cable programming, and that even if it did, there was no violation because there was no exchange of value or benefit to CN8 or Comcast."

- Thomas Ginsberg

Innovation Philadelphia, the Philadelphia city office created by John Street to juice the local entrepreneurial economy and which probably has had more than its share of ups and downs, said today it has unveiled a new Web site. Take a look at www.innovationphiladelphia.org and give it a review. Wonder why George Burrell couldn't wait to leave before it unveiling this?

The tally is in, and in the end, the King Tut exhibit at Philadelphia's Franklin Institute fell short of breaking the record for North American museum attendance, even after weeks of buildup publicity by the Franklin Institute. So says the museum in a statement this week, also reported by AP.

No matter. No. 2 may be just as good. (Just ask Avis). The museum's "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" closed Monday with 1.29 million visitors, second only to a 1979 exhibit (also King Tut) at Chicago's Field Museum. That beats King Tut's other current stops and is the most in Pennsylvania history. But let's call this whole record-setting thing off. The show looks like a big hit anyway in revenue, reputation and educational heft for the "Frankitute" (as our pre-schooler calls the Franklin Institute). Marketing V.P. Karen Corbin says the numbers are still being crunched and only dangles this to PhillyInc: "Our expectation was we would not lose money, and we have not." We're betting that will be Philadelphia's understatement of the year.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Women talk about this all the time: Why are men so willing to plunge right in on the job, even when they don't completely know what they are talking about and why, conversely, do women seem to hedge their bets until they are certain they do? Of course, this is a gross stereotype.

But a computer science Ph.D. from Oregon State University, assisted by Susan Wiedenbeck of Drexel University has conducted some interesting research on how this stereotype gets played out in technology.

The Ph.D., Laura Beckwith, picked up on previous research that found that women were less inclined to use a debugging program unless they were fully confident with it. The problem, as reported in last Sunday's Inquirer, is that debugging is an important way to check and troubleshoot glitches in new software -- so it must be done. However, the less confident women relied on other checking methods and actually caused more problems.

Beckwith wanted to find a way to get women to use the debugging program without having them spend 50 years on the shrink's coach getting psychoanalyzed about their confidence issues. So what she did was design debugging software that worked around this confidence issue. If a woman looking at a particular aspect of a software program felt there was problem, she could click an option that said "seems wrong maybe," instead of "wrong." The less confident women didn't like the word "wrong" because it was too definite. "Seems wrong maybe" matched their assessment, and so they were willing to click on it. The debugging program performed the same way in either case, checking for glitches. Clever.

So what does this mean? Maybe software designers, aka tech cowboys, can give a little bit more thought to this important, careful and conservative group of workers when they develop technology. After all, it's not a sin to be careful. We need all types -- men and women who plunge ahead, and others who carefully manage their work. The sin would be to waste this insight and also waste an opportunity to increase productivity among a full spectrum of workers.
- Jane M. Von Bergen

It's hard not to get right to the bottom line in reading a judge's order and Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Mark I. Bernstein's bottom line was impressive: $62.3 million more for Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) workers that a jury found had not been properly paid for rest breaks.

On the way to the bottom line, Bernstein had a great phrase about how "the law in its majesty applies equally to highly-paid executives and minimum wage clerks."

What he was talking about was the issue of fringe benefits -- benefits that are spelled out in contracts between employees (remember even CEOs are employees!) and their companies. In the case of CEOs, Bernstein writes about how, through litigation, they manage to get their "equity interests" or "put options" even though they had received their substantial base pay properly.

The same, he said, should apply to clerks and cashiers at Wal-Mart. They don't have equity interests or put options, but when their manual includes, under the heading of "my money," a promise of paid breaks -- that has to be considered legitimate or supplemental fringe pay, just as equity interests and put options are for CEOs. Everyone's protected under Pennsylvania's Wage Payment and Collection Law.

Wal-Mart says it should not be penalized because workers chose to work through their breaks, as some employees testified in last year's trial in Philadelphia. But other workers told the jury that they had no choice but to work through their breaks. The workload was so intense that there was no time for a breather. The jury agreed with those workers, awarding 187,000 current and former Pennsylvania Wal-Mart employees $78.5 million. The judge's order yesterday added an additional $62.3 million in penalties. Read more about the case in today's Inquirer.

- Jane M. Von Bergen

Philly Future is running a poll: "How often do you make it a point to shop at a local small business?" Posted by bean9493.

Marcia Gelbart at The Inquirer reports today on something akin to a great sign of relief that David L. Cohen has agreed to become the next chairman of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce a year from now. She quotes outgoing chairman Joe Frick telling a chamber conference today that Cohen's return to a civic role and Michael Nutter's impending election may help release some "pent-up energy" for a business-friendly tone from City Hall than they've had under Mayor Street.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Seems like a perfect target for the Philaelphia Film Office: Reuters is reporting today that the actor-writer Tim Robbins has gotten a contract to direct a pilot for a new TV drama about a family that runs a pharmaceutical company. He calls it "Possible Side Effects." Hey, imagine the Philadelphia backdrops.

___________________
From: Brady, Tom
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2007 2:06 PM
Subject: Tom Bradys of the world, Unite!

When last you heard from me on a personal level, I was writing about how tough it was being named Tom Brady when some guy of the same name was quarterbacking the New England Patriots to a win against our beloved Eagles.

Well, the other day, lo and behold, I received a letter here. I began reading and thought Whoa!, why is this person talking about school matters to me of all people? I'm not the interim CEO of Philadelphia schools just as I'm not the once and present New England quarterback.

Finally, I took a closer look at the address. Sure enough, it was addressed to Tom Brady, interim CEO of the Philadelphia School District. I decided that it might be nice to forward the letter to the newest TB on the block, whose office after all is right next door in what was originally built as the TV Guide Building at 440 North Broad St. A number of Tom Bradys had worked in this very building over the years, including one TB who had driven a truck here while pursuing a career as a fine artist.

Here in its entirety, is the letter I wrote to the chief executive officer:

Dear Tom Brady,

I must admit I feel I've known you all my life. I'd like to welcome you to the neighborhood. The enclosed letter was mistakenly sent to me next door at the Philadelphia Inquirer. My colleagues have been telling me that I can now look forward to receiving your much larger salary. Wish it were so. By the way, good luck in Monday's game against the Bengals.

Best Wishes,

Tom Brady

Now I'll just relax and await the arrival of the next Tom Brady to make use of my good name.

Who's that with Girard-diCarlo?

- Thomas Ginsberg

We recently got wind of the fact that Wharton's new dean, Thomas Robertson, has shared ownership of a Cape Cod vacation house for more than two decades with ex-Wharton marketing professor L. Scott Ward, the convicted (and now sentenced) pedophile. We were in the process of checking it out when Philadelphia magazine ran this piece last week. It includes Robertson's statement that he is "appalled" and had no idea that his old friend was leading some kind of double life. Robertson says he first learned about Ward's other life in 2006, when Ward was arrested for the last time. Robertson was named to the Wharton job in June 2007. Nothing illegal, of course, in co-owning a house with a colleague who has an arrest record. And as far as we can tell, the friendship was nothing that should have disqualified a highly qualified person like Roberston for a high university post after an apparently exhaustive (see p.2 of of Gutmann's original announcement) search. After all, Lots of people at Wharton knew and were friends with Ward, too, during the whole period. Not sure where all this goes. But there it is, for now.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Environmental Tectonics Corp. (AMEX: ETC) of Southampton, led by William F. Mitchell III and occasionally rescued by H. F. "Gerry" Lenfest, may not be able to call itself a U.S. defense contractor anymore. ETC said in an SEC filing last week that the Navy Department has barred ETC from all government gigs. That'll hurt, but probably not surprising after ETC already lost most of its government contracts amid back-and-forth lawsuits with the Navy -- finally settled last summer -- over its decompression chambers. Mitchell's team told the SEC it will appeal at a meeting set for this Wednesday with Navy officials, who we guess know something about not holding their breath.

- Thomas Ginsberg

When it comes to funding new businesses, the Delaware Valley is a pretty languid place, according to Jeffrey Babin, a lecturer on entrepreneurship at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and an angel investor himself at his firm Antiphony Partners LLC. Data from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC shows that the Philadelphia area attracted $195.8 million in funding from venture capital funds in the second quarter this year. That was below the $278.7 million a year earlier and less even than the quarterly median of $205.3 million over the preceding decade. (See data here.)

These figures are near the middle of pack for major U.S. venture markets and far below areas like Boston and San Diego. That's something Babin calls concerning for the region and Wharton, which not only wants to train people to start businesses but also keep them here.
Babin, who funds small startups in the hopes that they may become the next Google and serves as program advisor to Wharton's Venture Initiation Program, discussed the region's advantages and obstacles in an interview Jonathan Berr for PhillyInc.

PhillyInc: How has the entrepreneurial climate in Philadelphia changed?
Babin: The balance of power has shifted more to the entrepreneur. ... We still have a fair bit of money that people need to invest.

For years the U.S. banking industry has been fighting the tax exemption enjoyed by credit unions. A recent report from the Treasury Department ($ sub required) suggests credit unions are avoiding paying some $19 billion in taxes each year.

Credit unions respond that if taxed they would have to decrease their savings and CD rates and increase their loan rates, both of which are generally more favorable than banks. This, they say, would negatively affect primarily the average Joe or Jane - the man or woman on the street. And credit unions argue that their presence in a community creates more competition for banks, forcing them to keep their loan rates and fees lower than they otherwise would.

Banks, in turn, argue that credit unions are exempt from the requirements of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that requires banks to serve areas of the community that may not be fully profitable but do some societal good. Credit unions argue they work in the under-served marketplace on a daily basis.

Most credit unions are membership credit unions which are limited to serving individuals and their families who work for a particular company or institution. For their part, credit unions are lobbying for reduced membership requirements so they may serve anyone from a specific geographic area. And, not surprisingly, the banking industry is suing to prevent this liberalization of membership requirements.

Now the battle has gone to the Internet. Several sites have recently sprung up that show short videos showing the differences between banks and credit unions in a humorous fashion - naturally focusing on those areas credit union excel (low fees, etc) and emphasizing the perceived weaknesses of banks (greedy, corrupt, etc). The site www.bankerspank.com has several parody videos that take-off of the Mac/PC commercials. Here's one:

And the fight goes on. The Philadelphia area is indeed fortunate to have its share of credit unions that have done a wonderful job of helping the working person and his/her family. But $19 billion buys a lot of tanks and bullets. How will it all come out? It may take several decades. But at least we're getting some good video humor out of it along the way.

- Larry Jilk is a former Pennsylvania bank executive.

Opinions expressed by contributors to PhillyInc are exclusively those of the contributors.

Remember the old caveat to beware a guy offering to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge? Now there's a new twist, so says the Doylestown Intelligencer: a California-based auction company called LandAuction.com has sold to Brooklyn resident Mustafa "Steve" Keser a picturesque parcel of land in Warrington, which has turned out to be a bike path that Warrington now claims as its own. The paper says the parcel was sold in 2005 by Barbara E. Osder of Glenside to the auction company, which in turn put it up for auction last March in New Jersey with no mention of the bike path and only the words: "Be sure to pre-inspect this one!" No kidding.

- Thomas Ginsberg

The U.S. pharmaceutical division president of GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK), David Stout of Philadelphia, has lost GSK's rather unusual contest to become the next CEO. See AP story here.

- Thomas Ginsberg

If you're a Comcast e-mail user and noticed a lot more spam lately through its normally clean system, it's not your imagination. Comcast confirmed the chatter we were hearing that its e-mail filtering system suffered a hiccup yesterday for about an hour around midday EST and let a load of blathering muck spill through to an undetermined proportion of its 12.4 million subscribers. Spokesman Charlie Douglas said at first he had not heard about the problem, then he got back to us pretty promptly with this statement:

"Comcast has taken an industry-leading position to fight spam and has successfully reduced inbound and outbound spam by nearly 70% in the past 18 months. Earlier today, some customers experienced a higher than normal amount of spam due to a filtering issue that we were able to fix in less than an hour. We apologize for the inconvenience."

-------------------------
From: [Redacted]
Sent: Tue 10/9/2007 1:52 PM
To: Ginsberg, Tom
Subject: RE: Comcast Spam Filter Has Gone Bust

Here's something to consider looking into. Comcast's trusty spam filter has gone AWOL during the past week or so (perhaps connected to the Atlantic City mayor's disappearance.) Customers in this region (confirmed on Comcast's online forums) are getting slammed with spam that was previously captured. I'm getting about 500 spams a day that I previously did not make it past Comcast's filter. ...

In any event, the spam getting through to me, my kids, etc. is all the usual (and easily filtered) stuff about anatomy size, performance enhancing drugs for men, etc. I've been a Comcast internet customer for about 8 years and have never experienced anything like this.

And this one slightly more graphic:

------------------------------
From: [Redacted]
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 3:24 PM
To: [Forwarded]
Subject: RE: is your comcast account getting a lot more spam lately

I'm glad you asked me that, because I was about to blame my husband and/or son-in-law for visiting untoward sites on my machine.

YES. Don't they know that my penis is just the size I want it? That I don’t shop at Walmart except under duress (Utica)? That I don’t need a new laptop? Oh, so many things that I didn't want before and REALLY don’t want now.

So, knowing that you've got the same problem, I shall prrrrrrotest.

Dunno what to make of all this. And don't know how often this happens. E-mail spam is an irreversible hazard of modern digital life. When we asked Douglas about these supposedly longer-term bogeys, he welcomed folks to call customer service and said Comcast would run them down. Comcast certainly appears to take spam seriously.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Don Russell, who writes the Daily News' Joe Sixpack column, got his 15 minutes (or 370 words) of fame on Wall Street yesterday when the Wall Street Journal's Deals Journal blog did a Q&A with him about the MolsonCoors-SABMiller merger. His take on "BudMillerCoors" beers elicited some reader criticism of "beer elitists" vs. guys who'll drink anything vs. beer that tastes like, well, it rhymes with "kiss". Just another day at the office for Don (uh, Joe).

- Thomas Ginsberg

Global warming isn't just a problem, it's an opportunity for American businesses, says Ralph Izzo, chairman of New Jersey's Public Service Enterprise Group. In testimony today (Download the text) before the U.S. House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Izzo called for a national cap-and-trade program to limit carbon emissions and insisted that U.S. companies could benefit. If Congress gets the incentives right, he said, meeting the climate-change challenge "will unleash our nation’s innovative skills, create jobs, and truly transform the economy."

- Jeff Gelles

Take Comcast at its word: Its spam problem seems to have been fixed.

-----------------------
From: [Redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2007 12:09 PM
To: Ginsberg, Tom
Subject: Re: Comcast Spam Filter Has Gone Bust

... The flood of spam stopped this morning.

It always amazes me how some companies respond to problems only when the media calls -- rather than responding to (presumably) thousands of complaints from their paying customers. ...

- Thomas Ginsberg

Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) reported to the SEC yesterday that it gave CEO and president Douglas R. Conant total compensation last year worth $13.43 million. That's a lot, and evidently much more than before, although figuring out just how much is tough despite -- or because of -- the SEC's demand for clearer reporting. Campbell said it bumped up his base salary to $1.13 million from $1.07 million. The biggest gain came from $6.49 million in stock awards this year compared with zero (yes, $0) last year. This week's SEC report on its review of compensation disclosures called for clearer reporting, but we may have to wait till next year to see the real trend.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Rolling Stone magazine's annual Hot Scene issue this week calls Philadelphia (for the first time, evidently) a "Hot Scene" for its "diverse, thriving music scene, where everybody knows each other, sounds cross-pollinate and commercialism hasn't intruded on a grassroots DIY ethic." (See PDFs of the print pages here and here). It hails the fact that talents like bassist Peter MoDavis and rapper Spank Rock can thrive musically and financially in a place downright cheap compared to Big Time Hot Scenes like NYC and LA. Call it validation of what some locals knew already. Still, www.Philebrity.com was unimpressed, predicting Baltimore soon will be hotter. Then www.uwishunu.com snapped into action to promote the recognition and called out Philebrity for being "glass half-full" about it, although we suspect it meant half-empty. We'll stay out of it.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Beneficial Mutual Bancorp (NASDAQ:BNCL), parent of Beneficial Bank, has recently announced its intention to buy back 5 percent of its stock, subject to approval of its regulators. Remember, BNCL led by Gerald Cuddy had a stock offering several months ago in July 2007, where it sold 23,606,625 shares at $10 each.

Now why would a company pay legal and investment banking fees of a minimum of $3,716,000 and incur a substantial commitment of management time to sell shares, then just three months later start the process to buy some of them back? And not just a few shares, but a number equal to the maximum permitted by the Office of Thrift Supervision?

Two powerful brands with strong ties to the Philadelphia region have been front and center in the news last week: The Hershey Co. (NYSE: HSY) and Commerce Bank (NYSE: CPH). Both events have important marketing implications.

Last Monday it was announced that Hershey’s CEO Richard H. Lenny would be retiring at the end of this year. That story was eclipsed when TD Bank Financial Group the following day announced it was acquiring South Jersey-based Commerce Bancorp. The first story was a mild surprise; the second was not, given the departure of founder Vernon Hill this summer, although the identity of the acquirer was somewhat of a surprise.

Perhaps it was a secret hiding in plain sight. But Peter Rost at BrandweekNRX got our attention this morning by saying that Jeff Kindler at Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) not only contributes to Democrats but is a major supporter of Hillary Clinton for president. He bases this on a clear pattern of pro-Hillary campaign donations, and he poses this question:

Question is what this means as far as Hillary goes - if the big drug companies start to support her, she sure has come a long way since she tried to implement healthcare reform.

We also might wonder how this might play with other C-level pharma executives, who by and large are Republicans and support Republicans, according to our experiences and a raft of research. Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK)'s CEO Dick Clark is a registered Republican in Montgomery County. So is Wyeth's R&D chief Bob Ruffolo. The list could go on. And of course the industry's lobbying generally has been skewed toward the GOP, and the GOP has been skewed to support the industry. Then again, the political landscape for Big Pharma began changing last year with the Democratic takeover of the House. Stay tuned.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Mark S. Schweiker of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce says businesses are pivotal to the city's anti-violence efforts and blames the media for missing it. On the other hand, health-insurance company CEO William George says businesses could be doing even more to combat violence.

And so it goes. In the last couple of years, many horrific slayings in Philadelphia, a rising homicide rate and an intense debate over gun-control laws have led officials, residents and activists to scour the community for solutions. The city business establishment says it has joined in efforts to tighten gun laws and improve the job situation. That claim has been questioned by former Philadelphia Managing Director Phil Goldsmith and Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney. In our unscientific, anecdotal online survey on the topic, most respondents indicated they think businesses need to focus on prospering and creating jobs, period. (See all our previous posts here.)

Now we've conducted Q&As with two thoughtful leaders on the topic: Schweiker of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber, and George of Health Partners, a nonprofit health plan. These CEOs don't seem to disagree in substance as much as in tone and focus. Each insists they are not adversaries on the topic. In fact, their approaches strike us more as complimentary than contradictory, maybe even the foundation for some new efforts.

Both Q&As are published in full below. Or you can jump straight to the Schweiker Q&A or the George Q&A. Shorter versions are appearing in print today and tomorrow in The Inquirer's business section. Please, feel free to comment, pontificate or criticize (politely, please).

The Financial Times says today that David Stout, the Philadelphian who lost the race to become CEO of GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK), may now be invited to join the GSK board along with the other passed-over executive, Chris Viehbacher. At least we get an answer to our last post on the topic. Ed Silverman at Pharmalot observes it would also change the balance of execs to non-execs on the GSK board.

- Thomas Ginsberg

One of the largest radio networks serving African American listeners, Radio One Inc. (NASDAQ: ROIA) of New York, says its will begin tracking listener preferences in Philadelphia and 14 other cities using Arbitron's electronic Portable People Meter. Radio One owns, among other shows, the Tom Joyner Morning Show. Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) already has been testing the so-called PPM in several cities, including Philadelphia, as a replacement for paper-and-pencil journals to create its radio ratings.

Arbitron in early September had reported sluggish enlistment of listeners for its PPM service in Philadelphia and Houston. But it's still gotten good reviews from the ad-sales side, as far as it goes. Here's a list so far of Philadelphia participants, ranging from KYW to Burlington County College.

National Boss Day was today. Not to be confused with International Bite Your Tongue Month or National Kiss Up Week. The idea is to honor bosses for being kind and fair, and definitely not for beating sales' projections or coming in under budget. (Leave that to their bosses.) Created in 1958, it apparently didn't become well-known until Hallmark started marketing cards in 1979. Same criteria today? The staffing-accounting firm Robert Half International Inc. did a survey in August asking how important it is that bosses have a sense of humor: 97 percent said "very" or "somewhat" important. And 87 percent said their bosses actually were good for a laugh. That includes ours. OK, we're off now to ask for a raise.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Philadelphia has snagged $60 million in federal tax credits for development projects along commercial corridors citywide. So crows Mayor John Street and the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., which competed against other places for the funds.

Give the city credit for pursuing the money, although its publicity was a week late and bit curious. According to the city's press release, PIDC was "the only allocatee in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in this fifth round of awards." Yes, but the U.S. Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, which administers the grants, lists at least eight allocatees from other places that will be investing in projects specifically in Pennsylvania, meaning credits may be available on the ground here, whether or not they come through PDIC. (There are 10 listed for New Jersey.) An odd omission from the city, although technically PDIC is correct in calling itself the only allocatee from Pennsylvania that facilitate credits.

According to the PDIC, "the New Markets Tax Credits Program permits taxpayers to receive a credit against federal income taxes for making qualified equity investments. The credit provided to the investor totals 39 percent of the cost of the investment and is claimed over a seven-year credit allowance period."

- Thomas Ginsberg

Louis D. Paolino Jr., CEO, president and chairman of Mace Security International Inc. (NASDAQ: MACE) of Mount Laurel, has buried the hatchet with its major dissident shareholder Lawndale Capital Management LLC, run by Andrew Shapiro, after many months of acrimony. Or have they? It appears that the hatchet was used to chop out Paolino's legs, and it may be positioned for more whacking.

Lawndale and Mace, marketer of the well-known security spray by the same name, finally have agreed (see Mace's press release and Lawndale's SEC filing) that Mace will expand its board to six seats from five currently, and will boot Paolino's brother Matthew and Burton Segal, a Bryn Mawr accountant. On the new board, five members (80 percent) will be independent, up from three (60 percent) currently, and three will be entirely new. Paolino gets to remain chairman and avoids a likely nasty proxy fight with Shapiro at the coming annual meeting. He also gets to keep two current independent members, Mark Alsentzer and Constantine Papadakis, and will get to appoint a third, Jack C. Mallon. But Shapiro gets two of his four nominees on the board, Gerald LaFlamme and Dennis Raefield, the latter appointed immediately this week.

And then there's the governance hatchet. Mace has agreed to Lawndale's bylaws demand that at least "66.667 percent" of the board members will be independent. And Mace has amended its guidelines to require that the board approve all committee assignments -- read: compensation committee -- by a majority vote. One of the many complaints of Shapiro (and other dissident shareholders) was the boards formula for setting Paolino's compensation, which they claimed created incentives for him to make acquisitions regardless of performance, something chairman Paolino has denied.

Mace didn't respond to our call today. But it appears Lawndale has mostly prevailed in this drawn-out and sometimes dramatic tug-of-war. Frankly, we may miss the fireworks. But the resolution actually may enable Mace to straighten itself out, with Lawndale looking over its shoulder.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Well, listen to a story about a man named Vern ... as in Vernon Hill, founder and ousted chief of Commerce Bancorp (NYSE: TD). The Courier-Post reported today that Hill has gotten part of his large residential property in South Jersey declared farmland and has claimed roughly $60,000 in tax credits (his property tax bill was $270,331). What does he harvest? Roughly $1,000 per year in firewood. We'll give him a call.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Here's yet another clever gimmick by one of the country's most prolific "rapid resellers" of decrepit homes. The franchiser HomeVestors of America Inc., a Dallas company responsible for those loud "We Buy Ugly Houses.com" billboards, is sponsoring an Ugliest House of the Year contest -- among its own properties, that is. The 10 "finalists" in its nationwide inventory include this North Philadelphia student-rental house near Temple University, owned by HomeVestors franchisee Nick Cifaldi of Cifaldi Property Investments L.L.C. (Nasty, yes. But our choice was the shack in Phoenix.)

Ugly, in fact, is HomeVestors' stock in trade. The company quotes Cifaldi as proudly sayng: "The property was a complete dump. We replaced everything from the floors, walls, roof, windows, beams and heater. You could literally see through to the basement." HomeVestors' business model seems to be based on the particular ability, as the company's CEO has been quoted as saying, to buy stressed homes for two-thirds of what they would be worth in good condition, then quickly spruce up and sell them. Hence the term "rapid resellers."

Cifaldi of Philadelphia already seems to be a cottage celebrity for HomeVestors, having been featured in an article about rapid resellers by The Daily News and a less-than-glowing piece in the New York Times last year. The Times noted that some traditional brokers are miffed at this kind of business, but it also reports fnding a dearth of actual consumer complaints about them.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Neely Tucker at The Washington Post nailed, uh, this tale of a hammer-wielding customer at Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) in surburban Washington. And there's much more of the story at ComcastMustDie.com. By the way, note all the riffs off Comcast's multimillion-dollar slogan "Comcastic," something we've done also. Seems everybody is getting their money's worth from that one.

Today, October 19, 2007, is the 20th anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash, still the worst one-day percentage drop in NYSE history. The NYSE itself has embraced the event in part by e-mailing to all financial reporters several spreadsheets (here, here and here) detailing just how far it's come since then, which indeed is pretty far.

Commentators at blogs, newspapers and magazines have offered everything from warnings that current conditions look similar to 1987, to snickering that it was a great day to buy. Conrad de Aenelle in the NYT goes into some detail from Henry J. Herrmann, chief executive of Waddell & Reed, on the similarities. Jaclyne Badal at the WSJ ($ req) leads on the perfect-hindsight fact that "Black Monday" turned out to be one of the best stock-buying days in history. Tim Paradis at The Associated Press neatly summarizes all the retrospective, and prospective, thoughts.

One comment caught our eye from Citigroup Inc. strategist Tobias Levkovich, quoted in the New York Post: "That kind of crash doesn't happen when people are worried about everything, but when they are euphoric about everything."

In other words, anxiety is good? That may not be quite as resonant at "greed is good" (a la Gordon Gekko and Ivan Boesky) but perhaps it's more appropos today than Oliver Stone's epithet for the 1980s.

- Thomas Ginsberg

This morning the Associated Press dropped a little bomb in the world of hardcore online users that probably deserves the attention of everybody else, too. It reported the results of its own investigation from several cities, including Philadelphia, that seem to confirm allegations that Philly-based Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) has been preventing some of its high-speed online customers from uploading large blocs of data through the file-sharing service BitTorrent. (See the full story here and sidebar here.) This interference by Comcast is not illegal. And it could be justified as a way of keeping some users' heavy online activity from affecting the Internet speeds of others.

So why does this matter? The AP story, written by Ron Harris, Brian Bergstein, Kathy Matheson and Deborah Yao (in Philadelphia), summarizes the implications:

The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users. ... The principle of equal treatment of traffic, called "Net Neutrality" by proponents, is not enshrined in law but supported by some regulations. Most of the debate around the issue has centered on tentative plans, now postponed, by large Internet carriers to offer preferential treatment of traffic from certain content providers for a fee.

In response, according to the AP, Comcast spokesman in Philadelphia, Charlie Douglas, reiterated that the company "does not block access to any applications, including BitTorrent." But Douglas did confirm, as Comcast has confirmed in the past, that Comcast uses "sophisticated methods" to keep Internet connections running smoothly.

The financial and legal implications of such actions are much harder to judge for both Comcast and BitTorrent. The AP identifies several other file-sharing services that seemingly would be, or have been, affected. "If widely applied by other ISPs, the technology Comcast is using would be a crippling blow to the BitTorrent, eDonkey and Gnutella file-sharing networks. While these are mainly known as sources of copyright music, software and movies, BitTorrent in particular is emerging as a legitimate tool for quickly disseminating legal content."

- Thomas Ginsberg

Comcast has put out a statement in response to the AP investigation into its alleged interference in some customers' sharing of huge files over its network:

"Comcast does not block access to any Websites or online applications, including peer-to-peer services like BitTorrent. Our customers use the Internet for downloading and uploading files, watching movies and videos, streaming music, sharing digital photos, accessing numerous peer-to-peer sites and thousands of applications online. We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that they can continue to enjoy these applications."

This file-sharing issue has been simmering for months and affects a relatively tiny number of users among the millions of Comcast online subscribers. But the widely disseminated AP story seems to have cranked up the heat considerably. The bottomline financial or legal impact, if any, on Comcast and BitTorrent is still unclear. But Comcast -- the largest cable TV operator and No. 2 Internet provider in the U.S. -- seems to be moving quickly to prevent anybody from getting the impression that it's restricting Internet activity in any way for the typical user. If users in big numbers begin to think, however incorrectly, that Comcast limits access to any Web sites, then start looking for a real bottomline impact -- and local economic impact. We've also asked Comcast about any other fallout, such as legal action. Stay tuned.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Bowling is in Jon Perper's blood. His late father Irvin built Playdrome Woodcrest in 1960 and Jon started working at the alley when he was 13, working his way up from porter to assistant manager. He has expanded his family's bowling business, adding Playdrome Cherry Hill (then known as Erlton Bowl) in 1980. The 52-year-old resident of Mount Laurel now owns another alley in Allentown and manages others in Devon, Pa. and Pennsville, N.J.

But as his career took off, the bowling business changed. Alleys could no longer rely on league bowlers for their revenue and began catering to casual bowlers, who may not know a strike from a split. He believes entrepreneurs today need more capital and have more difficulty getting it than he did. Further complicating the picture for Perper is New Jersey's very controversial smoking ban, passed last year, which he says puts him at a competitive disadvantage to Pennsylvania alleys.

In an interview with Jonathan Berr for PhillyInc, Perper discussed his career, his regrets about not going to college, and his plans to make his flagship location in Cherry Hill more attractive to families.

PhillyInc: What was the biggest lesson you learned from your father?
Perper: [My dad taught me that] even though you might slave away ... the bottom line is that it didn't matter how hard you work. It mattered what the customer saw when they walked in the door. He really knew how to talk to people. He always tried to focus on resolving the issue and not dwelling on problems.

West Pharmaceutical Services Inc. (NYSE: WST) of Lionville was one of many companies left gasping by New York-based Pfizer Inc.'s (NYSE: PFE) surprise decision last week to shelve its inhalable insulin product Exubera. West Pharmaceuticals had been contracted to help make the devices. CEO Donald E. Morel Jr. said in a news release that the company it was stunned and is still evaluating the fallout. Other local companies had a role or stake in Exubera, including Plexus Ventures LLC.

- Thomas Ginsberg

We confess we didn't know this: Philadelphia is the home base of www.barelypolitical.com, which made the hit political parody video "I Got a Crush on Obama" and other political-military tributes. Last week, the Web site's owner, Ben Relles from Willow Grove, a Wharton graduate, announced he had sold the Web site to Next New Networks based in NYC. He and the team will keep working in Philadelphia, now as employees with a development budget.

In the past four months, their "Obama Girl" video has been viewed 3,919,702 times on YouTube, thanks to its star, Amber Lee Ettinger of Hazelton, Pa. She's an official "Playboy Babe of the Month" who single-handedly may solve all our worries about voter apathy. (And of course she has her own blog). That's her in a suitable-for-Mom photo at the upper left. And here's the video:

The video was made in New York, but turns out most of the Web site's team members are locals. The song producer, Rick Friedrich, is from Cheltenham. The singer, Leah Kauffman, is from Abington and attends Temple University. A writer is Rusty Ward of Collegeville, Pa. The whole crew's bio is here. Their San Francisco-based PR firm, LaunchSquad, which alerted us to the Philly angle, has gotten plaudits from the trade magazine PRWeek for the way it orchestrated the viral marketing, including creating Amber's blog.

Relles, the 32-year-old creator of BarelyPolitical.com who is originally from Fort Washington, declined to tell us how much Next New Networks paid for his Web property. But he does tell us he is "thrilled" with the deal and will retain some "ownership" benefits. He says the team now will be setting up a permanent office in Philadelphia with funds from Next New Network "for bloggers, editors, writers, everything to run the website."

Relles told us his "goal is to have writers and directors in the same office, to see what is happening [in the news] and think about how we can respond." The business model is to produce regular daily video or other content, starting this week, like this recent interactive piece called "Goodbye Bushies" (a farewell card to Tony Snow, Karl Rove, etc). They also would produce a longer, more elaborate video like "Obama Girl" once a month or so.

Most of the revenue will come from advertising. Relles said the model is to create videos that get massive hits on YouTube and other video sites, then drive traffic back to their own Web site, which will turn the eyeballs into high ad revenues. Relles knows the sexual tone of the videos so far has been the key to success -- the site's slogan is "Bare and Balanced," after all -- but he harbors hopes that other, cleaner kinds of innovative videos can also be hits and even increase political engagement by a wider, young audience.

"Agreed, the Amber Lee thing was successful because of the skin," Relles told us. "We need to do something really innovative to get that kind of success again ... but it is a challenge."

As for Relles' own politics, he won't go there: "I'll be 'no comment' on that. The Web site is positioned to be an equal-opportunity offender and not-partisan ... And I think it is."

- Thomas Ginsberg

J.P. Garnier, the Philadelphia-domiciled, soon-to-retire, notoriously outspoken CEO of GlaxoSmithKline PLC (NYSE: GSK), told a conference of business editors that newspaper journalists are shooting themselves in the foot in the way they cover the pharmaceutical industry. According to a blog account of the Society of Business Editors and Writers conference, Garnier said that "two out of every three" readers don’t trust the media. "And that will be the cancer that will kill the media." He also faulted journalists for, among other things, relying for information on plaintiff attorneys who “are in it for the money, and they want to use the newspaper to make their case to the public." On those two points, Garnier may know what he's talking about, because both quotations might apply to the pharmaceutical industry, too.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Siemens AG’s (NYSE: SI) Malvern division is getting into the online video craze. It is holding a contest to give away, free, one of its newly developed Magnetom Essenza Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) systems to any small U.S. hospital without its own MRI that produces the best self- promotional video, as judged by online viewers. "E.R." wannabees are welcome. Siemens told us that the device normally would fetch between $800,000 and $1 million. So figure that's the promotional cost of this innovative product launch: Siemens is inviting hospitals to stuff the ballot and promote their entries in the Siemens' MRI contest to local media and anybody who can click a mouse. So far about 15 videos have been posted at www.winanMRI.com. Watch out "Scrubs," a few are actually pretty funny.

- Thomas Ginsberg

Jim Rohr, the chief executive of PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE: PNC), and PNC's regional president, Bill Mills, today are unveiling an infusion of funds to support a pilot math curriculum at the North Philadelphia Head Start Program, part of the bank's $100 million decade-long charitable effort. That's great. But there's something else interesting here: the bank is specifically tying its action to calls to fulfill the hopes of the 1997 volunteer summit. Its spokesman Edward Kozmor attached the following note to the top of the press release to Inquirer reporters:

One business angle stems from a commentary that ran in the Inquirer last Thursday: "Ideas on easing poverty reflect a sense of its burden on Phila.," by Douglas Pike. Look at the background material below and I'll think you will find a good story that answers some of the questions posed by Mr. Pike's commentary.

It's telling that anti-poverty and community-building concerns may now constitute a hook for publicity about corporate charity efforts. PNC's donations (evidently a long time in the works and part of a broader charitable vision) happen to come as people seem to be making more noise about local businesses' role in fighting Philadelphia violence and poverty. This past week, organizers of the "Call to Action" anti-violence program, including A. Bruce Crawley, pleaded specifically for "corporate Philadelphia" to support them. And today, Lynne Korman Honickman -- the philanthropist and wife of retired bottling kingpin Harold Honickman -- has launched a new city campaign against gun violence. It's enough to make one wonder: Does the city need some kind of summit meeting again, this time to coordinate these disparate efforts of businesses and activists?

- Thomas Ginsberg

From Berwyn to Leblon Beach

No word from Bacardi. But according to Bonney, it all started when he and his Penn State buddy Steve Luttmann, a former brand manager for Grand Marnier, saw an opportunity to market a new rum in North America to meet a growing demand for premium, exotic spirits. They went to Brazil and taste-tested various recipes. Then Luttmann hit on a brand name while visiting Leblon Beach, not far from Ipanema Beach, that one made famous by Antonio Carlos Jobim's hit musical homage to a nameless Girl. Evidently Ipanema was taken, so they used Leblon, a beach conveniently named for a 19th century Brazilian distiller (who had no connection to their rum, but that's a small detail.) Bonney told PhillyInc: "We were looking for something with a little panache." They selected the bottle, the slogan, the whole tone: Berwyn conquers Brazil.

CMF, Bonney and Luttmann still retain a share of ownership in Leblon, and Luttmann still serves as Leblon's CFO. But Bonney said they eventually would like to sell Leblon entirely. For now, Bonney said Leblon is hoping to piggyback on Bacardi's national distribution network and leap into upscale restaurants and bars. As for CMF, Bonney says he hopes to focus on its core business of providing financial management, due diligence and advisory services to private-equity and middle-market firms. Then again, he says: "I've been getting requests from other spirit producers."

- Thomas Ginsberg

Don't try this at home - at least not anymore. Quantina Moore-Perry, 33, of North Carolina, has pleaded guilty to snookering QVC, owned by Liberty Media Corp. (NYSE: LINTA), out of $412,000 worth of high-end handbags, then trying to sell them on eBay. Prosecutors tell us that she had discovered, by accident, that if she ordered QVC items, then cancelled immediately, her credit card would be reimbursed but the items would be shipped anyway. QVC ultimately shipped 1,803 items to Moore-Perry that she did not pay for. She got caught after she posted some handbags for sale on eBay at a one-third of their market value. Savvy eBay shoppers who recognized the bags from QVC shows called QVC security. Moore-Perry pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in federal court in Philadelphia. Prosecutor Paul Gray says the scam may cost her two years in prison.

- John Shiffman

Though Jennifer Wilson has been in business for less than a year, she has shown a knack for public relations. When NJ 1015's "Jersey Guys" spoke about how they needed a cake for an event they were hosting in Atlantic City, the owner of Red Carpet Cakes offered to provide them one -- free. Several months later, she rang up WMMR's "Preston and Steve" team and offered to bake them a "gadzooks" cake named after the morning team's catch phrase.

The result was public relations gold. The 27-year-old Cherry Hill native got tons of free publicity and a jump in orders at her Mount Holly bakery. She even heard from some soldiers based in Iraq, who wanted the gadzooks cake delivered to them. (Alas, not possible because it needs to be refrigerated.) Then there was the request for a birthday cake designed with a picture of mooning hippies in a green Volkswagen bug with the words "Happy Butt Day" written on it.

In an interview with PhillyInc, Wlson discussed the trials and tribulations of balancing family life with the demands of running a business 13-hour days, six days a week. Plus, she offers some insight on how she's lost weight even while surrounding by delicious baked treats.

PhillyInc: Why did you locate in Mt. Holly ?
Wilson: There was an opportunity here for a bakery. Every other area is saturated with bakeries and grocery stores.

The AP's Marc Levy has done a solid investigation of the Rendell administration's aggressive policy of granting tax incentives to companies to create jobs in Pennsylvania. It says that out of 56 businesses that were awarded $44 million in incentives in 2003-2004, "only 25 had hired the number of workers they had promised to hire." (Chart is here, and one local paper, the Bucks County Courier Times, fleshes out the results here a bit.)

The Rendell administration did far better on the total number of jobs, as opposed to number of companies, though it still was behind its own goals. The AP found that the jobs added by all 56 companies combined was 9,654, or about 88 percent of the total 10,917 promised.

We'd note some caveats: the AP said it was unable to get data on "more than 800 projects" that were offered money from the Rendell administration for a variety of reasons. We also would note that the number of jobs "promised" may not correlate to a company's total economic impact, nor does it necessarily mean the money was wasted in the "arms race" with other states that also throw their own incentives. Still, the report is great new fodder for debate over the value of and return on corporate welfare. Sure, the government's role in part is to take risks and make investments for the greater good that the market won't or cannot undertake. But how much loss is too much? (Note Karl Stark's story today on GlaxoSmithKline PLC).

- Thomas Ginsberg

Douglas R. Conant, the president and chief executive officer of Camden-based Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB), may soon spend a bit more time in New York. He has been elevated to chairman of the Conference Board, the influential business-executive organization that, among other things, produces the Consumer Confidence Index and the leading economic indicators index. The group's leaders and members may be what people unwittingly mean when they say "captains of industry." Its board boasts CEOs of many global corporations. Its other Philly-area CEO is Richard T. Clark of Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK). A chairman's tenure usually lasts two years.

- Thomas Ginsberg

When David Mangini resigned from Mothers Work Inc. (NASDAQ: MWRK) last July as executive vice president of merchandising after a weak quarter, the company said he would stick around to help find his successor. Now the company says that Rebecca Matthias, the cofounder and president, actually will step into the job "on an interim basis" until a full-timer is found. Mangini now will formally take the consultant gig the company promised him as part of his separation.

With all the super casinos sprouting up, or at least being planted, in Atlantic City, folks in the gaming industry and local developers have taken up a game of “Who’s next?” Rumors began circulating last winter that Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which operates Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, was scouting for its own spot in Atlantic City. Conventional wisdom had it that the tribe did not want to get left out in the cold since its chief in-state rival, Foxwoods Development Co., was chosen in December to build a half-billion-dollar gambling hall on the Philadelphia waterfront, a mere 60 miles from A.C.

Those same rumors have become louder of late since Wall Street investment banker Morgan Stanley got behind the Revel Entertainment Group L.L.C., and Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. and MGM Mirage -- both out of Las Vegas -- have confirmed plans to build their own billion-dollar-plus monster casinos in the nation’s No. 2 gaming market. Seems that New Jersey’s gaming tax rate of 9.25 percent is only helping the trend.

Jeffrey E. Hartmann, chief operating officer of Mohegan Sun Casino, told us earlier this month: “Mohegan Sun in Atlantic City would complement our Pennsylvania and Connecticut properties. … We like the low tax rate. We will consider how the market reacts over the next 18 months.”

That said, Mohegan Sun has placed a hedge in case its Atlantic City dreams fall apart. The Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority also owns and operates the $250 million slots palor at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, a Pennsylvania slots parlor that opened last November (2006) in Wilkes-Barre with 1,203 slot machines, which cater to the New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania gaming market. An expansion underway will bring it up to 2,500 slots by late summer.(2008)

– Suzette Parmley

The Atlanta Business Chronicle apparently got ahold of an internal memo from Wachovia Corp. (NYSE: WB) that details an executive shake-up, including the promotion of mid-Atlantic region CEO Hugh Long to north region CEO. A Wachovia spokeswoman confirms this to the Philadelphia Business Journal. It says Long will oversee Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Norfolk and Richmond, Va., in addition to current responsibilities in eastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and Washington. Unclear who will succeed Long as mid-Atlantic CEO. Wachovia's current president of Greater Philadelphia and Delaware is William Knott.

Kenneth Melani, the president of Highmark Inc., wanted brownie points for the Pittsburgh-based health insurers' public awareness campaign against bullying in schools.

But instead, his company got dissed .... for bullying.

The person doing the dissing was none other than Pennsylvania Senator Donald C. White, the Republican that heads the state Senate committee on banking and insurance. Melani and Joseph A. Frick, his counterpart at Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia testified before the committee yesterday on their plans to merge. You can read today's Philadelphia Inquirer story about the hearing here.

And now for the diss: "I find it ironic that they are trying to stop bullying. They own the bully pulpit as far as I am concerned." He went on to say that he had people who want to testify against the merger, but they are afraid because they think they will face retribution.

White was preaching to the choir, Highmark's business rivals, who told the committee they have faced predatory pricing and other secret deals designed to cut them out. Indeed Highmark was fined by the state's Insurance Department for certain anti-competitive practices several years ago.

One fear in this merger is that as the companies become bigger they'll have a heavier hand in negotiations -- the better to hammer doctors and hospitals in reimbursement negotiations. Melani and Frick said that they will have more clout, but only against national vendors, such as drug companies. Local negotiations will remain unchanged, they said.

- Jane M. Von Bergen