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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana)
What now at Findwhat?
Remember Findwhat.com?
Well, the Fort Myers paid-search Internet company is called Miva Inc. now. And there is rampant speculation around the dotcom space that Yahoo or Google might acquire Miva.
Fueling the rumors, Miva filed amended employment agreements for some of its top executives with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
The new agreements include a clause that allows these executives to vest immediately their stock options, if there is a change in control of the company. The company amended employment agreements for Tom Wilde, senior vice president and general manager of Miva Media North America; Anthony Garcia, chief technology officer; and Sebastian Bishop, chief marketing officer.
Rich Duprey, a sharp-eyed contributor to the Motley Fool, spotted the filing and wrote about it on the personal-investing Web site. Expanding the number of people covered by severance plans in the event of a change of control of a company is usually a sign that a sale is on the horizon. Miva officials couldn't be reached for comment.
A sale may be a holiday treat for shareholders. They've seen their investment drop 73% over the last year. Recently, Miva shares were trading at $5.05, just above their 52-week low of $4.07 in April. But that was well below their high of $19.87 last December.
Moving on down
Corvus International LLC likes Sarasota so much it decided it needed to be closer to the heart of the city. Instead of constructing a new headquarters building on the southeast corner of University Parkway and U.S. 41, the former Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based developer plans to occupy part of its planned mixed-use Avalon project on Fruitville Road, which will run from Central Avenue to Lemon Avenue. The national headquarters will have a staff of 10 to 12 people.
"Based on input from some of the people who worked here that have to commute from other areas, everybody preferred to be in downtown," says Tim Morris, a principal of Corvus International.
Over the past 18 months, Corvus International pursued acquiring the entire block on Fruitville Road and Fourth Street. The firm made three purchases on the block totaling $8 million, starting with Hibbs Farm & Garden Supply. About six months ago, Corvus International purchased the parking lot at Blue Line. In October, the last piece came together with the purchase of the Salvation Army site.
The 60 residential units at The Avalon will be priced in the range of $600,000 to $900,000 and will range in size, from 1,500 square feet to 2,200 square feet. Michael Saunders & Co. is handling the sales.
Corvus also is leasing out space along Fruitville and Lemon that will serve as a design center and sales center. Sales are expected to begin in March.
No capital shortage here
Why does a startup bank need $100 million?
Coffee Talk wanted to know, after the Nov. 29 announcement that a new super-community bank was coming to Tampa.
So we called Texas and talked to a fellow who is putting up the vast majority of that $100 million for the proposed American Commerce Bank.
"The benefit of planning a bank with a lot of capital is that you'll have income during the early formation," says Donald A. Adam, who would be chairman and chief executive of American Commerce.
Adam plans to put what money he doesn't need to open a headquarters in Westshore and making his first loans into U.S. Treasury securities. "We're going to run some losses early on, but we won't go as deeply into the red as, say, a bank starting out with only $20 million," said Adam. "If you have excess capital, it helps to mitigate the losses you might have at the beginning."
Fair enough. But this takes Coffee Talk back to a conversation earlier this year with a banking industry observer who decried the overcapitalization of some new Florida banks. "Quite frankly, there is not a banker in the world that can deploy that kind of capital out of the box," the observer said in reference to an Orlando bank's $100 million capitalization.
If Adam's fellow investors are worried, they're not letting on. His star-studded board of directors includes Tampa Bay area real estate developers Lee Arnold Jr. and Mel Sembler as well as University of South Florida President Judy Genshaft.
Adam plans to open branches much faster than a normal de novo. American Commerce's first stops outside of Tampa will be Orlando and Naples. After that, Sarasota and Fort Myers. Adam believes American Commerce will succeed by serving customers who get ignored by the Southeast regional banks dominating the state but need to borrow more than the community banks can handle.
A part-time Florida resident who will be spending more time with us in the future, Adam, 70, is not a novice at this. After getting into the cable television business early, Adam bought more than a dozen failed Texas banks from federal regulators in the late 1980s. He combined and built them into a $3.5 billion-asset institution that he sold to Citigroup last year. The price wasn't disclosed, but it was estimated to be somewhere between $700 million and $800 million.
Murdock's owner: Could it be you?
The controversial Murdock Village plan in Charlotte County is nearing an important turning point. On Dec. 15, Charlotte County government will open the Request for Proposal for developers interested in creating a town center on the southern 870 acres of the site located in West Murdock.
Murdock Village has been a lightning rod in the battle over private-property rights since Charlotte County commissioners declared the roughly 1,100-acre site blighted and designated it for government acquisition for redevelopment in May 2003.
Although the text of the RFP has not been made available, Coffee Talk has learned that the RFP will ask submitters to decide whether another 35 acres along U.S. 41 is needed to make the project viable.
According to the schedule for the RFP, the county will hold a pre-submittal meeting for interested developers Jan. 13, and proposals are officially due to the county purchasing department Feb. 23. The RFP notice will be posted at charlottecountyfl.com/purchasing.
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