Corporate Report

Corporate Report

by Sean Roth | Real Estate Editor

Compress Technologies works with Haitian broadcasting

Sarasota technology company Compress Technologies Inc.'s North American licensee Ludwig Enterprises Inc. entered into a joint venture with Haitian American Broadcasting Corp. to deploy Compress Technologies' FM-SCA technology in Haiti. Compress Technologies' FM-SCA technology allows a larger than normal number of digital channels to be transmitted in the empty signal space next to a conventional FM broadcast signal.

Haitian American Broadcasting plans to use the technology to produce French, English, Jamaican, Cuban and Spanish language rebroadcasts of Haitian news, talk radio and other programming from Miami and New York. The technology is initially being focused on Port-au-Prince and Cap Haitien. As part of the agreement, Compress Technologies will receive royalty payments from the Haitian operations.

The FM-SCA technology is currently in development and testing. Prototype units are currently transmitting 15 digital channels adjacent to analogue FM signals. Final product distribution is scheduled to start in 12-14 months.

Elder Automotive buys Tampa's Saab dealership

Elder Automotive Group, owner of Aston Martin Jaguar of Tampa, purchased Saab of Tampa from General Motors. The company now owns 14 automobile dealership - most of which are in Michigan - including two other Saab dealership. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed. Since the sale, Elder Automotive Group has renovated the showroom and doubled the staff.

Saab of Tampa sold more than 400 new and used vehicles last year. Under the new ownership, sales are projected to more than double.

The Elder family has been in the auto industry since 1967.

Diamondhead, Trump end development discussions

Largo-based Diamondhead Casino Corp. announced that negotiations have ended on a development deal with Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. for land owned by a Diamondhead subsidiary. Diamondhead Casino's Mississippi Gaming Corp. subsidiary owns about 404 acres in Diamondhead, Miss., fronting Interstate 10 and the Bay of St. Louis, which Diamondhead Casino hopes to develop as a casino resort with condominiums.

"We are moving forward with discussions with other potential partners, ground lessees, investment banking firms, and potential purchasers of all or part of the property," Deborah Vitale, president and chairman of the board of Diamondhead Casino, said in a press release addressing the failed negotiations.

Seminole Electric seeks

renewable energy providers

Seminole Electric Cooperative Inc. in Tampa issued a request for proposal seeking renewable capacity and energy produced in Florida.

The request for proposal, according to the company, was designed to spur the development of new renewable energy projects in Florida.

Seminole is asking for proposals from bidders to provide up to 150 megawatts of renewable capacity and energy, starting as early as Dec. 1. Renewable resources specified by the RFP include wind, photovoltaic, landfill gas, biomass, municipal solid waste, anaerobic digester, and hydropower fuel sources. The cooperative is looking for proposals with terms of 10 to 20 years.

The RFP is available online at the company's Web site and is due by 5 p.m. on April 16.

Seminole is the wholesale energy supplier for 10 electric distribution co-op systems in Florida. Its members together serve more than 850,000 consumers, in 46 Florida counties. In 2007, Seminole plans to serve approximately 4% of its members' energy needs through contracted renewable resources.

NeoMedia Technologies links users at Mexico tennis match

Fort Myers-based NeoMedia Technologies Inc. reported its qode technology, which links users via cell phones to the Mobile Internet, will be used by Ideas Telcel for The Abierto Mexicano Telcel - Mexican Tennis Open tournament. The Abierto Mexicano Telcel is one of the top tennis tournaments in Latin America and attracts many of the top-ranked male and female tennis players from around the world.

Telcel is the first Mexican company using the qode technology to interact with consumers, who can use their mobile phones to receive more information about each game, player profiles and statistics and pictures. Everyone who interacts with qode during the event will receive free cell phone wallpaper with the new "Abierto Mexicano Telcel" character.

Telcel is a wireless services provider in Mexico with more than 43 million clients and 76% of the Mexican wireless market.

Mobalis, a multimedia mobile marketing agency and one of NeoMedia's partners in Latin America, is responsible for the interactive implementation at the Mexican Open.

"The use of qode at the Mexican Tennis Open represents two significant milestones for our product," Roger Pavane, NeoMedia's Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales said in a press release. "The first is the emergence of qode in Mexico; the second is qode's debut at a world-class sporting event."

Raymond James Financial division tops national brokerage survey

In a national study of bank brokerage and retail investment services conducted by American Brokerage Consultants and American Banker, St. Petersburg-based Raymond James Financial Services' Financial Institutions Division earned the second place ranking overall among the 14 major third-party marketers.

The firms were assessed in 22 categories. RJFS-FID earned an "A" and number one ranking in the categories of diversity and quality of products, scope and quality of automation and due diligence expertise. Raymond James also ranked in the top three in customer service, quality of training, investments knowledge, and ease of sales processing.

"Our company spends over $100 million a year on technology, which benefits Raymond James brokers across the firm, not just in the financial institutions division." John Houston, senior vice president of RJFS-FID, said in a press release. "...[T]he high ranking for our diversity and quality of products is also rewarding and critically important."

Raymond James is the only firm of the 14 surveyed to be ranked at the top in both 2006 and 2004.

Raymond James Financial's three principle wholly-owned broker/dealers, Raymond James & Associates, Raymond James Financial Services and Raymond James Ltd. have more than 4,600 financial advisors serving 1.6 million accounts in 2,200 locations worldwide.

Nicholas Financial opens new offices

Clearwater-based Nicholas Financial Inc. opened branch offices in Birmingham, Ala., and Pompano Beach. The company's branch office network now includes 47 offices in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland and Alabama.

The Birmingham office marks the first Nicholas Financial office in Alabama, while the Pompano Beach location is its fourth office in South Florida.

Nicholas Financial acquires and services automobile and light truck installment sales contracts. Founded in 1985, with assets of $165 million as of Dec. 31, 2006, Nicholas Financial, Inc. is one of the largest publicly traded specialty consumer finance companies based in the Southeast.

NeoGenomics ready to open California LAB

NeoGenomics Inc., Fort Myers-based clinical laboratory company, announced that it has received a laboratory license for its new Irvine, Calif. laboratory and certification from the California Department of Health.

"Revenues will start out modest as we continue to hire staff for this location, but, over time, we believe that California and the surrounding markets will be substantial contributors to our revenue and earnings growth.," Robert Gasparini, NeoGenomics president said in a press release. "As cancer is primarily a disease of the elderly, the cancer genetics industry tends to do very well in areas where there are high concentrations of senior citizens."

NeoGenomics currently operates labs in Nashville; Irvine, Calif.; and Fort Myers.

NeoGenomics's clinical laboratories specialize in cancer genetics diagnostic testing including cytogenetics, fluorescence in-situ hybridization, flow cytometry, morphology studies, anatomic pathology and molecular genetic testing. NeoGenomics officials have scheduled the release of the company's fourth quarter and full year earnings on Wednesday, March 14.