Qwest to upgrade business Internet network

Wow, there are many news about it on internet, well Qwest Communications International Inc. will upgrade its Internet network for businesses over the next 16 months to make it fast enough to transmit 90 mammograms per second or a two-hour movie in nine seconds.

The Denver-based telecom plans to be able to offer 100 gigabits-per-second broadband speeds to businesses and governments using Ethernet services.

The upgrades will benefit the overall Qwest network by reducing the pressure on it created by steadily increasing bandwidth consumption of businesses and individual customers.

The project should also reduce the amount of power necessary for the network, making Qwest’s network not only faster but greener, the company said.

Qwest has already started the work. The upgrades are part of an overall deeper relationship with Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent, a major supplier of network technology.

Qwest is not disclosing how much the network upgrades will cost.

Source: Bizjournals.com

2nd UPDATE: Medtronic Consolidate Businesses Into Two Groups

Medical-devices giant Medtronic Inc. (MDT), which has been restructuring amid efforts to control costs and manage pressure on top businesses, said Monday it is moving its various business units into two main groups.

The moves include some changes among Medtronic's top managers, and Medtronic said it's searching outside the company for someone to run a new group covering its cardiology franchises. The other group includes businesses making orthopedic, diabetes, neurology and surgical devices, Medtronic said in a release.

"This new structure enables us to capitalize on existing synergies across our businesses," Chairman and Chief Executive William A. Hawkins said in a statement.

Shares of Medtronic recently traded down 55 cents, or 1.4%, at $38.12, although they've generally been on an upswing since March. The company, which is battling to stabilize its position in markets for key devices amid a slumping economy, has enacted job cuts and other moves in its restructuring efforts this year.

The "CRDM, CardioVascular and Physio-Control" group will contain Medtronic's big cardiac-rhythm business, which includes implantable defibrillators. It will also cover the business that makes stents to open heart arteries and Physio- Control, an external defibrillator business Medtronic would like to spin off once issues raised by the Food and Drug Administration are resolved.

Medtronic said it's currently conducting an external search for someone to run this new group. Segment leaders from the three businesses within the group - Pat Mackin, Scott R. Ward and Brian Webster - will report to that person.

Morgan Stanley analyst David Lewis called Medtronic's decision to search outside the company for this spot the "biggest surprise." Outside perspective has worked before, but the decision to not promote either Mackin or Ward "will come as a surprise to some investors," Lewis said.

"We are not convinced this sends any message regarding the outlook for these businesses," he added.

Christopher J. O'Connell, who had led Medtronic's diabetes franchise, was promoted to head the "Spinal and Biologics, Neuromodulation, Diabetes and Surgical Technologies" group. Catherine Szyman, formerly senior vice president of strategy and innovation, will now run the diabetes business.

Richard E. Kuntz, who had run Medtronic's Neuromodulation business, which includes "deep-brain stimulation" devices used to treat neurological disorders, was named chief scientific clinical and regulatory officer. Tom Tefft, formerly vice president and corporate controller, will take over the neuromodulation unit.

In addition, Jean-Luc Butel was promoted to a new position overseeing international operations.

Last week, the company reported its fiscal first-quarter profit dropped 38%, weighed down by charges from a recent legal deal, but core earnings and sales beat expectations with help from extra time on the fiscal calendar.
Source : cnn

SBA to host downtown small-business fair -Thursday

The U.S. Small Business Administration will host a resource fair in downtown Denver on Thursday, Aug. 20, for those who own a business or are thinking of starting one.

The free "Small Business Resource Fair" will be held at 10:15 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at the Denver Public Library's Central Library at Civic Center, in the level B2 conference room. The library is co-hosting the event.
No advance registration is required.

On hand will be representatives from commercial lenders, federal prime contractors, business assistance organizations, local chambers of commerce and state and federal agencies.

The fair is intended "to answer questions relating to all aspects of starting, operating and growing a business. Small business owners will also learn how they can take advantage of the various programs initiated by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act," SBA said in a statement.

Source: Bizjournals.com

Commercial real estate deals off, prices up !

Commercial real estate sales in metro Denver dropped 68 percent to $1.68 billion for the 12 months ended June 30, from the same period last year, according to a recent report by LoopNet Inc.

Though overall sales volume was down period over period, selling prices per square foot in some property categories actually increased, often countering the national trend.

Metro-area office buildings, for example, sold for an average of $194 per foot during the recent 12-month period, compared to $165 a foot for the prior period. Per-square-foot selling prices nationwide, on the other hand, dropped during those periods — to $227 from $251.

Average selling prices for industrial buildings such as warehouses and distribution centers also rose — to $72 per square foot in the 12 months through June from $63 a foot for the previous 12-month period. Similar prices nationwide dropped in those periods, to $68 from $73.

LoopNet, an online commercial property listing service, included sales of office, industrial, retail and apartment properties of more than $2.5 million in its Denver-area data.

Here’s what local sales performance looked like, comparing the 12-month periods, by building type.

Office properties:

• $677 million in total sales volume, compared to $2.42 billion in sales for the prior-year period.

• Downtown Denver’s total sales volume ($469 million) topped suburban sales ($208 million).

• Leading buyers of office buildings included Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (NYSE: JLL), HRPT Properties Trust (NYSE: HRP) and GDA Real Estate Services LLC.

• Leading sellers included Broadreach Capital Partners LLC, Transwestern Investment Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Company (NYSE: JPM).

• Top lenders for office deals included Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), Wachovia Corp. and FirstBank of South Jeffco.

• Biggest sales were the World Trade Center ($157.8 million/$206 per square foot), Seventeenth Street Plaza ($134.3 million/$201 psf) and Regency Plaza ($55.5 million/$179 psf).

Industrial properties:

• $261 million in total sales volume, down from $694 million period over period.

• Biggest sales included 345 Inverness Drive South ($25.7 million/$145 psf) and ProLogis Park 70/Building 8 ($19.3 million/$54 psf).

• Top buyers of industrial properties included Hines Interests LP, TA Associates Realty and JMDH Real Estate LLC.

• Major sellers included SVN Equities LLC, First Industrial Realty Trust Inc. (NYSE: FR) and Denver-based ProLogis (NYSE: PLD).

ALL BUSINESS: What is fair executive pay?

The scrutiny of executive pay in Washington isn't knocking down the compensation of banks' head honchos. It's just changing what form the money comes in.

Just look at Wells Fargo & Co.'s recently altered pay plan. Earlier this month, the San Francisco bank raised CEO John Stumpf's salary to $5.6 million, through a mix of cash and stock. That's more than six times his salary last year.

The generous bump doesn't violate any rules Wells Fargo is bound by under the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, which doled out $25 billion to the bank last fall to shore up its capital base. That's because the new pay scheme doesn't include a bonus, just a guaranteed higher salary.

But the move stretches what's allowed to its limits. It's that tactic the Obama administration's new pay czar Kenneth Feinberg has to be on the lookout for in the coming months as he reviews the compensation plans of seven companies that have received "exceptional assistance" from the government. Feinberg received the pay information over the last week, and his findings due in October are expected to be a blueprint for pay programs throughout the financial industry.

Wells Fargo isn't one of the companies on Feinberg's to-do list, but it well illustrates the struggle to determine what is "fair" pay in today's corporate world.

"There is no denying that some of these executives have really hard jobs," said J. Robert Brown, a professor of business law and corporate governance at the University of Denver. "But there is another element to all this over what is politically acceptable."

Soaring bonus payouts to financial service company executives tied to short-term results clearly played a role in the financial crisis. In recent years, 80 percent to 90 percent of executive compensation was driven solely by annual performance, according to compensation consultant David Wise of the Hay Group.

That led to excessive risk-taking, which ultimately backfired and resulted in losses so large that the government had to step in with multiple rescue plans.

Congress and the White House have been wrangling over how to shift the compensation paradigm. The House on July 31 voted to prohibit pay and bonus packages that encourage bankers and traders to take risks so big they could bring down the entire economy.

The Obama administration has proposed giving shareholders at all public companies a nonbinding vote on compensation packages. In addition, it wants to diminish management's influence on pay decisions by banning members of board compensation committees from having financial relationships with the company and its executives.

Feinberg is the first federal official to have veto power over the how much private-sector executives are to be compensated. Included in his review are pay plans submitted by American International Group, Citigroup, Bank of America, General Motors, Chrysler and the financing arms of the two automakers.

All this political intervention isn't intended to drag down executive pay to nothing. In fact, financial companies will continue to pay sums to executives that will likely astonish average workers.

The goal is to force companies to come up with compensation programs that better align shareholders' and executives' interests. Getting there won't be easy because there isn't a magic metric for fair pay.

The compensation changes at Wells Fargo shows how deciding what's appropriate can get murky.

Its CEO Stumpf will get $900,000 in cash as part of his 2009 salary, the same as last year. But he will also get another $4.7 million in stock that has been labeled as being part of his salary. Stumpf and three other executives who also got large salary increases can't sell these new shares until the company repays the government's bailout money.

Stumpf will also receive 108,528 in restricted share rights this year, valued at $2.8 million when they were granted earlier this month. Those shares will begin to vest in 2011.

That brings his total compensation in stock and cash at the time it was granted to $8.4 million for 2009. Last year, his total compensation in cash and stock options was valued at about $8.8 million when it was granted.

"We are using stock to increase their salaries to keep the pay of these leaders closely tied to the success of the shareholder," said Wells Fargo spokeswoman Melissa Murray. "We must pay our senior leaders competitively for the long-term success of our company."

But another way of looking at this is that Wells Fargo's top brass are getting guaranteed pay not necessarily tied to financial results. At the end of every two-week payroll period, Stumpf will get a portion of that $4.7 million in stock, with the amount of shares determined by where the stock is trading then. If the stock goes down, he gets more shares; if it goes up, he gets fewer.

That means a short-term drop in Wells Fargo stock could actually benefit the bank's executives. They also benefit from the fact that the stock now trades around $28 each, about a third less than what it was last fall.

"How can this be called a well designed plan because all the executives have to do is sit around in order to get paid?" said Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate at The Corporate Library, an independent corporate governance research firm.

Hay Group's Wise said financial companies that took government money don't have many options in how they can structure their pay programs at a time when there is talk of a potential brain drain of top talent. He believes the amount of compensation won't change much, just the makeup — most likely meaning salaries will grow while bonuses could shrink.

"Wells Fargo is doing exactly what the taxpayers were afraid banks would do, and the Treasury led them there," Wise said.

The coming months will be very telling for the future of executive pay, especially for financial firms. Feinberg's recommendations for the seven firms he reviews will be closely watched, and likely mimicked.

What's becoming ever more apparent is the fine line between allowing for competitive compensation and creating imbalanced incentives.

Source: Rachel Beck