LOCAL BUSINESS
Engineers schedule banquet
The Akron Area Engineers Week Group will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a banquet Feb. 21 at Emidio’s Banquet Center, 48 E. Bath Road, Cuyahoga Falls.
The event coincides with the annual National Engineers Week and focuses on the new technological developments in the engineering field in the area.
The program will involve recognizing engineering achievements, a salute to professional engineers and educators, and will recognize local engineering achievements. The hosting society is the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Tickets are $25 by Feb. 3; $30 afterward. Student tickets are $20.
For more information, go to www.akroneweek.org.
Chamber offers Akron app
The Greater Akron Chamber has launched a smartphone app dubbed Save Local Now, where members can offer deals and promote events to consumers. The mobile app, developed by a company in Chagrin Falls is being used by various chambers nationwide; each chamber localizes the app.
Chad Hamman, vice president of membership for the Greater Akron Chamber, said more than 100 members have signed up to use the app. The app can be downloaded for free from iTunes or the Android market. For more information, go online to the site www.savelocalnow.com.
ENERGY
Executive’s bonus halted
Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s board of directors withheld Chief Executive Officer Aubrey McClendon’s annual bonus after investors criticized the performance and management of the second-biggest U.S. natural gas producer, Bloomberg News reported.
The board cut 2012 incentive compensation “substantially” for executives and reduced perks, the Oklahoma City-based driller with Ohio operations said Monday in a filing.
The board cut McClendon’s bonus entirely “in accordance with Mr. McClendon’s recommendation to such effect,” according to the filing. McClendon’s 2011 bonus was $1.951 million.
Lower natural gas prices from the glut and the crunch in profit margins forced McClendon to put assets up for sale including oilfields and pipelines to raise cash and meet his drilling commitments. The company’s debt in 2011 reached $16.1 billion and assets were sold to reduce that debt. The board stripped McClendon of the chairman’s role, replaced more than half the directors and cut board members’ pay by 20 percent.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Chrysler stock plan suggested
A trust fund that pays medical bills for Chrysler blue-collar retirees has asked the company to set up a public sale of Chrysler stock. The United Auto Workers trust, which owns 41.5 percent of Chrysler’s shares, asked the company to start the process for an initial public stock offering. The trust wants the company to sell 16.6 percent of the stock owned by the trust, Chrysler said. Italian carmaker Fiat SpA, which owns the remaining 58.5 percent of Chrysler, is fighting the trust in a Delaware court over the value of Chrysler shares. Fiat has options to buy up to 16.6 percent of the trust’s shares. It has filed plans to buy 6.6 percent and says it wants to buy the rest.
Fiat and the trust got their shares after the U.S. government bailed out Chrysler in 2009.
The request for Chrysler to file paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is the first step toward a public sale that could take many months. Fiat has made offers to the trust to raise its stake to 65.17 percent. But sales have been held up by the court fight.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Facebook offers invitations
Shares of Facebook Inc., owner of the largest social-networking service, rose 5.3 percent to a six-month high amid optimism that the company will benefit from new advertising efforts to drive revenue. The stock jumped to $30.59, the highest level since July 13, and has rallied 73 percent from a record low in September.
Facebook sent invitations to an event on Jan. 15 at its Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, titled “Come and see what we’re building.”
While the company gave no details on the event, the announcement could include news about a video advertising service or an expansion of its Gifts program, which lets users buy items for friends on Facebook, according to Victor Anthony, an analyst at Topeka Capital Markets Inc. The event also could be related to deeper integration efforts with wireless mobile carriers, he said in a note to clients.
“Facebook is a must own core stock in the media and Internet space, with several potential growth catalysts over the next two years,” Anthony wrote.
Facebook’s fourth-quarter results will be on Jan. 30.
Compiled from staff and wire reports