LOCAL BUSINESS
Realtor board chief named
Sandy Naragon is the new CEO of the Akron Cleveland Association of Realtors, the group that is the merger of the Cleveland Area Board of Realtors and Akron Area Board of Realtors.
Her appointment as head of the 4,500-member group is subject to contract negotiations.
Naragon was the CEO of the Akron Area Board of Realtors for 15 years, and has served as the co-CEO since the merger of AABOR and the Cleveland Area Board of Realtors on Oct. 15.
Naragon has named Mike Valerino chief operating officer of the Akron-Cleveland board.
Naragon has a bachelor’s degree in business and organizational communication from the University of Akron, and held various positions at the Akron board throughout her 30-year career with the group.
Energy company bought
A Colorado energy company will pay $20.7 million for the assets of bankrupt D&L Energy Inc. Resource Land Holdings Inc. was approved Tuesday as the auction winner by the federal bankruptcy court. D&L Energy had filed for Chapter 11 protection last April, according to the Youngstown-based Business Journal.
The asset purchase includes D&L’s participation in joint ventures in pipeline agreements, operating agreements, lease inventories, real estate, equipment and its subsidiaries.
D&L holds 30,581 gross acres in the Marcellus and Upper Devonian shale in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, the publication said.
The D&L subsidiaries involved are Petroflow Inc. and three disposal-well operations. A fourth disposal well is to be purchased separately for $4 million.
Under the agreement, Resource Land Holdings does not acquire any D&L liabilities.
Efforts to reach Resource Land Holdings were unsuccessful.
Former D&L CEO Ben Lupo has been charged with illegal dumping of drilling wastes into a Youngstown storm sewer that drained to the Mahoning River. Also charged were a D&L subsidiary, Hardrock Excavating, and former employee Michael Guesman. Guesman had pleaded guilty; Lupo pleaded innocent.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources revoked the permits held by D&L.
The company was in the spotlight after one of its Youngstown injection wells triggered small earthquakes in late 2011 and early 2012.
— Bob Downing
WALL STREET
GM stock sale set
General Motors shares rose Thursday after the U.S. government said it expects to sell its remaining stake in the company by the end of the year. The Treasury Department got shares after bailing out GM five years ago, but once its sells, the automaker will be free of restrictions on executive pay that came with the bailout. It would also be free to pay dividends if it chooses. GM gained 43 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $38.12. The stock is up 32 percent this year.
LEGAL
Apple wins lawsuit
A Silicon Valley jury on Thursday ordered Samsung Electronics to pay Apple $290 million for copying vital iPhone and iPad features. The verdict covers 13 older Samsung devices that a previous jury found were among 26 Samsung products that infringed Apple patents.
The previous jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion. But a new trial was ordered and $450 million of the damages were thrown out after the previous jury was said to have miscalculated.
Compiled from staff and wire reports