LOCAL BUSINESS
Convention workshop set
The Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau is hosting a free workshop, Packaging The Experience — Leave Your Visitors Wanting More! Aug. 28 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the John S. Knight Center, 77 E. Mill St., Akron, 44308. The event is the second in the Bureau’s new, Partnerships in Motion — The Workshop Series.
Featured presenters include: Allyson Bussey, Canton/Stark County Convention & Visitors Bureau; Tiffany Gerber, Tuscarawas County Convention & Visitors Bureau; Allyson Ford, Akron/Summit Convention & Visitors Bureau; and Paul Travaglianti, Great Day Tours.
The workshop is free but registration is requested. Call Jennifer Eckman at 330-374-7560 or email her at jeckman@visitakron-summit.org.
Public company conference
CFA Society Cleveland (CFASC), a non-profit, investment-related organization, said it will conduct the first Midwest Investment Conference on Nov. 19 at the new Cleveland Convention Center.
Public companies that are scheduled to make presentations include: Cliffs Natural Resources, Lincoln Electric, Materion, Nordson, Applied Industrial Technologies, Olympic Steel, Kimball International, PolyOne, Park-Ohio, RPM, Universal Stainless & Alloy Products and Worthington Industries.
For more information, call 216-696-8066 or send an email to admin@go2mic.org.
Changes at MedPro
MedPro Federal Credit Union, with more than 4,200 members at Akron-area hospitals and medical facilities, announced it has merged with Ohio Healthcare Federal Credit Union of Columbus.
Both credit unions will continue to maintain brand and operations separately but the partnership allows the credit unions to share what are called “back office” duties and expenses, officials with both credit unions said.
“I am very excited for Northeast Ohio healthcare professionals and their families,” Becky Howell, who will remain chief executive officer of MedPro, said in a news release. “I look forward to offering expanded services by the same friendly staff that currently serves their financial needs.”
MedPro has one branch on Battles Avenue in Kenmore. Members can use ATMs inside many of the medical facilities and area gas stations free, the credit union said.
Goodyear presentation today
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. will webcast a financial overview presentation at 2:40 p.m. today as part of the JPMorgan 2013 Auto Conference in New York.
Darren Wells, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will provide a business overview and discuss the company’s strategies for about 35 minutes. A live audio webcast of the presentation will be available at 2:40 p.m. at http://investor.goodyear.com. The company will post financial and other related information on its investor relations website about 45 minutes before the webcast. A webcast replay will be made available.
FINANCE
Dole to go private
Dole Food said its CEO will take it private in a deal that values the company at approximately $1.21 billion. Dole shareholders will receive $13.50 per share, a 5 percent premium to its $12.81 Friday closing price. This is a sweetened bid for the fresh fruits and vegetable business, up from the $12 per share Chairman and CEO David Murdock offered in June.
Dole sold its packaged foods and Asia fresh business for $1.69 billion in a deal that closed in April. That allowed Dole to become solely an international commodity produce company, with a narrower focus that also makes its earnings more volatile. In May, Dole said it would indefinitely suspend its $200 million share repurchase program and use its cash instead to update its shipping fleet to enhance growth prospects.
Unilever makes sale
Pinnacle Foods is buying Wish-Bone salad dressings from Unilever for $580 million. Combined annual sales, which include the liquid and dry-mix salad dressings under the Wish-Bone and Western brands, total about $190 million.
Pinnacle Foods Inc., based in Parsippany, N.J., went public in March. Its other products include Vlasic pickles, Duncan Hines frosting and cake mixes and Birds Eye frozen foods.
Pinnacle Foods will pay for the deal with available cash and new debt. It anticipates approximately $125 million in tax benefits.
Unilever PLC will continue to produce the brands for an undetermined period of time under a third-party manufacturing agreement. Unilever said that this production will occur at its Independence, Mo., plant, which is not included in the deal.
Pinnacle Foods plans to invest $40 million to $50 million to consolidate production at one of its existing plants.
Compiled from staff and wire reports