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CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS
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FEBRUARY 18 - 24, 2013
THEINSIDER
THEWEEK FEBRUARY 11 -17 The big story:
Cardinal Health of Dublin, Ohio, plans to buy Twinsburg-based AssuraMed, a provider of medical supplies to patients in the home, for $2.07 billion. The transaction is expected to close by early April, according to Cardinal Health, which distributes pharmaceuticals and medical products. AssuraMed in 2012 had sales of about $1 billion, which includes the sales of the recently acquired Invacare Supply Group. AssuraMed operates Independence Medical and Edgepark Medical Supplies. The company, formerly known as Edgepark Medical, was sold in 2010 for nearly $900 million to two private equity firms.
Cliff diving: Cliffs Natural Resources Inc. reported a loss of $1.62 billion for the fourth quarter, and its board slashed the company’s quarterly dividend by 76%, to 15 cents a share from 62.5 cents. The Cleveland-based producer of iron ore and metallurgical coal also announced plans to sell in two offerings 9 million shares of its common stock and 20 million depositary shares, which each would represent a 1/40th interest in a share of new mandatory convertible preferred stock, Class A. The combination of news drove Cliffs’ stock down 20% in trading last Wednesday. In sync: The Cleveland Clinic soon will be able to share electronic medical records with University Hospitals Health System and other Ohio hospitals. The Clinic has agreed to share electronic records through the state of Ohio’s CliniSync electronic medical record exchange system, said Dan Paoletti, CEO of the Ohio Health Information Partnership, which runs CliniSync. UH announced a similar agreement Feb. 6. The MetroHealth System has yet to sign on but is discussing the idea with the partnership.
REPORTERS’ NOTEBOOK BEHIND THE NEWS WITH CRAIN’S WRITERS
Hey, divas — it’s time to shut up and deal ■ A New York City-based program is coming to Cleveland to teach women to know when to hold ‘em and fold ‘em during poker — and in business. Hosted by ACG Cleveland and Women in Transactions, Poker Prima Divas will present Cleveland Poker Night Feb. 28 at Osteria di Valerio & Al, 408 W. St. Clair Ave. in Cleveland. The event is marketed as “a night of reading the competition, developing your strategic skills and enhancing your ability to negotiate.” “Poker’s a boys club, like corporate America’s a boys club,” said Ellen Leikind, founder of Poker Prima Divas. “We wanted to make sure women are included. Our objective is to let woman have an opportunity to participate, to learn what other people (who are) playing — mostly men — learn. “We’re not trying to create a bunch of vultures, but we are trying to let women recognize that it’s OK to be the bettor, not the caller all the time,” Ms. Leikind added. “It (poker) makes you more assertive. You learn that it’s a game of personalities, not just cards.” Since its founding in 2004, the organization has hosted more than 100 events, including a co-ed program it’s delivered to incoming associates at BakerHostetler for the last five years, Ms. Leikind said. ACG Cleveland contacted Poker Prima Divas after another chapter of the association for M&A and corporate growth profes-
WHAT’S NEW
Back in town: The new Cleveland convention center will get its first consumer show in March 2014. The Cleveland Home + Remodeling Expo will take over the still under-construction convention center on March 14-16, 2014. Show promoter Marketplace Events of Solon said the three-day event will showcase trends in home remodeling and design. This marks the return to downtown Cleveland of the kind of consumer home show that moved to the I-X Center more than a decade ago. A bit of history: The Nordson Corporation Foundation will make the largest single donation in its history with a $1.5 million grant to Second Harvest Food Bank of North Central Ohio. The gift will be paid in installments over the next five years and used as the lead donation for Second Harvest’s capital campaign for construction of a new center to better serve those in the region struggling with hunger.
This and that: Gary Ginstling, general manager of the Cleveland Orchestra since 2008, was named CEO of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, effective March 18. … Jim Foster, executive director of The City Club of Cleveland since 1993, is retiring from the organization. Ratliff & Taylor is directing the search for Mr. Foster’s replacement.
Scott Roulston isn’t M.I.A.; he’s at MAI ■ If MAI Wealth Advisors LLC were to keep growing at its existing clip, the firm’s leader needed some help. So said managing partner Rick Buoncore of his hiring last month of Scott D. Roulston, a former competitor and tenured wealth manager, to handle business development for the Cleveland-based wealth and investment management firm. Between 2007 and this January — “in a less-than-favorable environment” — MAI tripled its assets under management to $3 billion, according to Mr. Buoncore, who said he has handled business development himself since he bought the firm in 2007. “As we get bigger … I’m not going to be able to do this by myself,” Mr. Buoncore said. Mr. Roulston, who last summer launched a fund for Burdette Asset Management of Kirtland Hills that invests in life insurance policies, said he will continue to consult clients on that niche investment strategy, and he remains invested in the fund himself. “My goal … was to take the concept of
(Burdette) and make it a reality, and we did that,” he said. But joining MAI, he said, allows him to put his experience to work for more than one strategy. “It takes advantage of much more of my bandwidth, so to speak,” said Mr. Roulston, now a managing director for MAI. Mr. Roulston, who worked for Burdette since July 2011, previously was CEO of Roulston & Co. and its successor firm, Fairport Asset Management. — Michelle Park
UH serves as model for doing development right ■ A group of national researchers have zeroed in on University Hospitals’ $1.2 billion Vision 2010 construction initiative, which resulted in a slew of new medical buildings, as a model example of how an anchor institution in an urban city can drive economic development. According to the report from researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Maryland at College Park, University Hospitals’ targeted approach of hiring local workers, contracting with minority and women-owned businesses and using locally produced materials for the project “set a new standard in the city of Cleveland” for large construction initiatives. “Vision 2010 is the story of what can occur locally when a place-based anchor institution — in this case, a very large, nonprofit hospital system — commits itself to conducting its business in a way that benefits its surrounding community and region,” the report said. — Timothy Magaw
BEST OF THE BLOGS Excerpts from recent blog entries on CrainsCleveland.com.
A Flying leap …:
Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam returned to his role as CEO of Pilot Flying J, a surprising move the Browns say won’t affect the day-to-day operations of the team. Flying J, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based chain of truck stops and travel centers, hired former PepsiCo president John Compton as CEO last Sept. 11, when Mr. Haslam stepped down to become chairman and focus more of his efforts on the Browns. Five months later, Mr. Haslam is back as CEO, and Mr. Compton will be the strategic adviser to Pilot J, the Browns and the Haslam family.
sionals spoke “glowingly” about the program, said Wendy S. Neal, a local ACG board member and vice president of marketing for Cleveland-based investment bank, Brown Gibbons Lang & Co. Program space is limited to 40 people, and RSVPs are requested by this Friday, Feb. 22. To register or for more information, email admin@acgcleveland.org. — Michelle Park
He’s on the money
COMPANY: Global Lighting Technologies, Brecksville PRODUCT: LED-based ring light Global Lighting, which makes edge-lit, LEDbased light guides for general illumination, has introduced a ring light that it says can be integrated into a variety of products, including desk lamps, vanity mirrors and automotive cup holders and clocks. “The applications are limited only by the imagination of the designer,” says Brett Shriver, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing. The optical portion of the ring light features a two-piece design. An optical light guide incorporating two LEDs aligned on the input edge of the product “evenly distributes the light rays around the ring,” according to the company. An injection molded diffuser plate containing a custom array of optical features is used to create uniform visual light distribution, Global Lighting says. The company says it works with customers to integrate the ring light into their custom product, providing full engineering and prototyping services. For more information, visit www.glthome.com.
Send information about new products to managing editor Scott Suttell at ssuttell@crain.com.
■ When Arun Raha talks — at least about the economy — everyone should listen. Mr. Raha, director of economic analysis at Eaton Corp., was the top U.S. economic forecaster of 2012, according to The Wall Street Journal’s annual rankings. The rankings are based on predictions made last January about how inflation, unemployment, interest rates and economic output would fare over the course of the year, the newspaper notes. Mr. Raha, who was at the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council when he made his predictions last year, “had a near perfect score in the Journal’s methodology developed by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta,” The Journal reported. He took the top spot “due in large part to his pretty much spot-on inflation predictions,” according to the newspaper. “His forecast for 8% unemployment for the fourth quarter was a little higher than the actual of 7.8%, and his 2.1% prediction for year-over-year gross domestic product growth was a little too strong.” The Journal noted that Mr. Raha is making forecasts alongside Eaton colleague Jim Meil. They “expect tepid 1.9% GDP growth this year, and just a slight drop in the unemployment rate to 7.7% by the end of 2013,” according to the newspaper. The consensus of 52 economists surveyed by The Journal is more optimistic, with an average projection of 2.4% growth.
You must read this ■ Cleveland landed at No. 14 on Central Connecticut State University’s annual list of America’s 50 most-literate cities. The study, conducted by university presi-
dent John Miller, is based on data that includes the number of bookstores, library resources, newspaper circulation, Internet resources and educational levels. USA Today noted that for the digital age, the survey expands the definition of reading by counting online book orders, e-book readers and page views on local newspaper websites. Cleveland’s standout quality is library resources, which includes holdings, circulation and staff. It ranks first in that category. “Cleveland may be a Rust Belt city, but it continues to invest in its libraries,” Mr. Miller told USA Today. Among other Ohio cities, Cincinnati is No. 12, Columbus is No. 32 and Toledo is No. 44. The No. 1 city is Washington, D.C.
Dollars go far here ■ Cleveland and Atlanta are the most-affordable big U.S. cities, according to the new Worldwide Cost of Living survey, done every other year by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The survey of 131 cities worldwide — and 16 in the United States — uses New York as a baseline in its international comparisons. Tokyo and Osaka in Japan, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia and Oslo in Norway were listed as the top five most expensive cities in the world on the Economist cost-ofliving list. In the United States, Cleveland and Atlanta offered the most value, both 30% cheaper than New York. Vancouver is the most expensive North American city in which to live.