TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Top 10 business stories of 2006
December 31, 2006

1. Changes at Mellon

Dec. 4: Mellon Financial Corp. jolts the business community with the announcement of a $16.5 merger into The Bank of New York to create the world's largest investment manager and securities processor. The deal could produce up to 2,000 jobs in the region in the next five years. It was orchestrated by new Mellon CEO Robert P. Kelly, a former top executive of banking giant Wachovia Corp., who in January was chosen to replace Martin McGuinn as Mellon's top executive, ending months of uncertainty about the company's leadership.

uction since January 2006 and has space for seven to 10 businesses. A UPS Store has been open there since November. Other stores that plan to open include Great Clips, Dry Cleaning Station and AT&T Wireless.

2. Westinghouse boosts region

Dec. 6: Westinghouse Electric Co.'s decision to hire and base at least 1,000 nuclear engineers in Western Pennsylvania will light up the region's economy, economists said. The expansion comes on the heels of Westinghouse's ownership change to Toshiba Corp. The Japanese conglomerate acquired the company from British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. on Oct. 16 for $5.4 billion. The selection by Westinghouse marks a victory over Charlotte, N.C., which had been competing for the facility.

3. Heinz' proxy battle

Sept. 8: Dissident shareholders Nelson Peltz and Michael Weinstein won seats on the H.J. Heinz Co. board, leading some experts to speculate the company could be sold or CEO William Johnson might leave. Heinz executives and the Trian Group fought a six-month battle that some outsiders called the nastiest proxy fight seen in years, complete with shareholder cajoling, dueling press releases and name calling. Trian is Heinz's second-largest shareholder, having spent some $750 million for a 5.5 percent stake.

4. Rolling Rock farewell

May 19: Anheuser-Busch Cos., the world's largest brewer, purchased the Rolling Rock brands for $82 million from parent InBev. Later, InBev sold the Latrobe Brewing Co. plant to LaCrosse, Wis.-based City Brewing Co., which plans to restart production of beer, malt beverages and non-alcoholic beverages in early 2007. The deal could put as many as 250 workers back on the job within three years.

5. LeNature's troubles

Nov. 1: A group of creditors forced LeNature's Inc. of Latrobe into bankruptcy, claiming they are owed more than $1.4 million. The filing comes amid allegations that CEO Gregory Podlucky and other officials raided the company's bank accounts of "tens of millions of dollars" just a few days after a Delaware judge barred Podlucky from access to company funds. The company also faced a lawsuit against the company was filed earlier in the year by two investment groups that had invested $23 million in LeNature's.

6. Alcoa to Big Apple

Feb. 24: After more than a century headquartered in Pittsburgh, Alcoa Inc., the world's largest aluminum maker, quietly uprooted its headquarters. Alcoa directors declared the "principal office" to be New York at a board meeting on Feb. 17 in a securities filing. Later, Alcoa said it plans to slash 6,700 jobs worldwide over the next year as a plan to boost profits.

7. Utility merger

March 2: Equitable Resources Inc. said it will spend $970 million to acquire Dominion Peoples Gas and Dominion Hope, its sister company in West Virginia, creating the largest natural gas distribution company in Pennsylvania. North Shore-based Equitable would deliver gas to more than 750,000 homes and businesses -- triple its current customer base.

8. Pittsburgh Brewing struggles

Oct. 24:Bankrupt Pittsburgh Brewing Co. faced continuing questions about its survivability. It filed a financial reorganization plan, and U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge M. Bruce McCullough expressed doubts that the brewery will successfully emerge from bankruptcy. The Lawrenceville brewery probably will need $12 million to survive, McCullough said, rather than the $7 million it said it needs to modernize operations and market Iron City and IC Light and other beer brands.

9. US Airways bids for Delta

Nov. 15: US Airways made an $8 billion offer for bankrupt Delta Air Lines in a move that would create the nation's biggest airline, but winning over Delta's management and resolving antitrust concerns are hurdles. The new airline would use the Delta name.

10. Retail in transition

Sept. 8 -- Kaufmann's officially becomes Macy's at nine local locations, including the venerable Downtown Kaufmann's, part of Pittsburgh life for 120 years. Boscov's Inc., a 40-store, family-owned retail chain based in Reading, purchased and opened two former Kaufmann's at the Monroeville Mall and South Hills Village. Also, Nordstrom, the Seattle-based fashion specialty chain, said it enter the Pittsburgh market when it opens a new store in Ross Park Mall in fall 2008.

Cronology of Business Events -- 2006

January

Jan. 2: Independence Air, with three daily flights at Pittsburgh International Airport, started the new year by announcing it would cease operations. The low-cost carrier had 2,700 workers. The airline filed for bankruptcy in November.

Jan. 19: Surging consumer demand for flat-panel, liquid-crystal display televisions forced Sony Corp. to announced it will close its American Video Glass Co. plant in Westmoreland County that employs 300 people making glass for picture tubes in older-model TV's.

Jan. 31: The U.S. Senate approved the nomination of Ben Bernanke as the 14th chairman of the Federal Reserve, succeeding retiring Chairman Alan Greenspan. His 18-year run was the second longest in the central bank's history.

February

Feb. 20: Mittal Steel Co. announced a buyout offer of cash or health care benefits to 1,000 employees in Weirton, W.Va., under a plan to shut down the plant's blast furnace and convert it into a finishing mill.

Feb. 23: NASCAR SpeedPark, one of the much-ballyhooed anchors for Pittsburgh Mills, the $285 million shopping, dining and entertainment complex that opened in Frazer Township, Allegheny County, in July 2005, decided not to open, officials said.

March

March 16: Del Monte Foods Co. bought Milk Bone brand pet food products from Kraft Foods Inc. for $580 million. Del Monte, whose pet foods business is based on Pittsburgh's North Shore, two weeks earlier spent $705 million to buy Meow Mix Holdings Inc.

March 17: JetBlue Airways Corp., a low-fare airline, said it would start service at Pittsburgh International Airport with four daily flights between Pittsburgh and New York City, and two daily flights between Pittsburgh and Boston.

April

April 4: 84 Lumber Co. rolled out a strategic plan to greatly expand the company, with 125 new locations nationwide. It also closed 67 stores, including seven in Western Pennsylvania.

April 7: Duquesne Light Co. said customers would see bills rise by about $12 a month, or 18.8 percent, under the utility's request for a rate increase, the first in almost 20 years.

May

May 8: Laboratory equipment maker Fisher Scientific International Inc. announced it would be acquired for $12.8 billion in a stock and debt deal by New England neighbor Thermo Electron Corp. The combination won't affect 900 local jobs.

May 9: US Airways Group reported a net profit of $5 million for the January-March period, the first quarterly profit since the airline merged with America West Airlines in September.

June

June 13: Medrad Inc., a medical equipment maker with headquarters in Indiana Township, announced its second major expansion in the last seven months. It's new site in Butler county could add 500 jobs new jobs over the next five years.

June 13: Buchanan Ingersoll and Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling, two of Pittsburgh's biggest law firms, said they will merge to form Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, a firm with about 555 attorneys.

June 19: Seven Springs Mountain Resort near Champion, Somerset County, -- a family-owned ski resort for 74 years -- was sold by the Dupre family to Robert Nutting, chief executive of Ogden Newspapers and Ogden Publications.

June 20: Walnut Capital Partners, a Shadyside development firm, said it plans to buy the closed former Nabisco bakery in East Liberty and redevelop the structure into a mix of office, retail and residential uses.

July

July 5: The $3 billion sale of Duquesne Light Co.'s parent firm to a consortium headed by a unit of Australia's Macquarie Group isn't likely to bring changes to electric service or monthly bills for customers, the companies said.

July 6: The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership kicked off a plan to provide outdoor wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, access to computers throughout the Golden Triangle and nearby areas.

July 17: Esmark Inc., a Chicago-based group of steel service companies, lauched a $1.1 billion bid for troubled Wheeling-Pittsburgh Corp., parent of Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel.

August

Aug. 11: General Nutrition Cos.' parent GNC Corp. has indefinitely postponed a initial public offering, blaming market conditions.

Aug. 14: General Motors Corp.said it hopes to sell its metal-stamping plant in West Mifflin, a move that could save about 400 jobs at a plant the automaker intends to close next year.

Aug. 24: Rite Aid Corp. agreed to acquire 1,858 Eckerd and Brooks pharmacy stores from Montreal-based Jean Coutu Group in a $3.4 billion deal.

Aug. 29: US Airways told government officials in Pittsburgh, Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C., that the airline wants significant tax incentives before deciding where to put a new flight-control center with more than 600 jobs by early 2009.

September

Sept. 8: "Pittsburgh: Imagine what you can do here" is the theme of the region's first collaborative marketing campaign, a multiyear, $3 million campaign that will play up the city's 250th birthday in 2008.

Sept. 14: Owners of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette threatened to sell the newspaper if new contracts aren't reached with the paper's 14 unions by Dec. 31. The company said it has lost $23 million since 2003.

October

Oct. 16: Allegheny Technologies Inc. of Pittsburgh said it won an eight-year deal worth $2.5 billion to supply Boeing Corp., the second-largest maker of commercial airplanes, with titanium.

Oct. 24: Developers Diversified Realty Corp.'s $6.2 billion deal for Inland Retail Real Estate Trust Inc. will result in roughly 90 acres and 750,000 square feet of buildings changing hands at the Waterfront, which spans the communities of Homestead, West Homestead and Munhall.

Oct. 31: About 12,000 retired steelworkers and spouses in Pennsylvania who lost health care coverage when LTV Steel and Bethlehem Steel went bankrupt will get reimbursements of $500 to $1,000 from a trust fund set up to pay for health care coverage.

November

Nov. 8: Findlay-based Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. will put its name on a suburban Denver sports complex that will be home to Major League Soccer's Colorado Rapids for an estimated $40 million over 20 years.

Nov. 30: Duquesne Light Co. delivered bad news to customers -- their monthly bills will jump an average of $10.36 a month, or 16.2 percent. Most customers won't notice the change until the February billing cycle.

December

Dec. 8: Latrobe Steel is sold for $215 million by The Timken Co., of Canton, Ohio, to private investors The Watermill Group, of Lexington, Mass., along with Hicks Holdings and Sankaty Advisors. The new company, Latrobe Specialty Steel Co., has more than 800 employees, including 530 in Latrobe.

Dec. 8: Plans to put what may be the nation's largest ethanol plant in Westmoreland County moved closer Friday when Commonwealth Renewable Energy Inc. said it completed the purchase of Sony Electronics Inc.'s closed American Video Glass plant in Hempfield.

Dec. 14: Federal trade regulators voted to lift 13-year-old tariffs and duties against imports of high-grade steel used in vehicles, drawing praise from the auto industry and criticism from steel companies and unions.

By the numbers in 2006

9

Pittsburgh's rank on Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's first "50 Smart Places to Live" list, based on affordability and livability. (May 13)

90 percent

The percentage of small businesses in Southwestern Pennsylvania that consider the state's high business taxes to be a "significant drag" on the state's economic growth, according to SMC Business Councils. (Feb. 18).

787

The model number of Boeing Co.'s new Dreamliner aircraft, set to debut in 2008 with Allegheny Technologies titanium, Alcoa aluminum and PPG Industries "dimmable windows." (Nov. 18)

8,000

New jobs created in the Pittsburgh region in the 12 months ended in July, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Sept. 23)

$94,935

The average starting salary of the 2006 MBA graduates from Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. (July 29)

$1 billion

Annual sales of Respironics Inc., which celebrated its 30th anniversary as a company. (Oct. 7)

$1.48 billion

Third-quarter profit posted by PNC Financial Group. (Nov. 4)

$4 billion

Estimated loss in productivity from workers watching college basketball's championship tournament, dubbed "March Madness." (March 4)

$5.4 billion

Cash that Toshiba Corp. agreed to pay for Westinghouse Electric Co. (Feb. 11).

$36.13 billion

Profit of Exxon Mobil Corp. in 2005, the highest ever for a U.S. company (Feb. 4)

21.5 trillion

The number of calculations per second that will be performed by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center's "Big Ben" supercomputer when it doubles the computer's capabilities. (Nov. 25)

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