Corporate Report

Corporate Report

By Sean Roth

Odyssey Marine to team with

Intersal for a site exploration

Tampa-based, deep-ocean, shipwreck exploration company Odyssey Marine Exploration reached an agreement with fellow industry firm Intersal Inc. to conduct operations at a site off the coast of North Carolina.

Intersal holds an exploration permit from the state's Department of Cultural Resources, which includes the site and several surrounding areas, some that correlate with Odyssey's "Firefly" shipwreck project.

The agreement also entitles Odyssey to receive research and data acquired by Intersal regarding the site's shipwreck and all of the work completed to date in the permit area. A number of artifacts have been recovered from the site, which is the subject of an admiralty arrest action by Intersal in the Eastern District of North Carolina. Documents are being prepared to request the substitution of Odyssey as plaintiff in that case.

The area covered by the permit and admiralty arrest is located near Odyssey's current "Firefly" project, which was acquired by Odyssey from BDJ Discovery Group in 2007 and includes one arrested site that has already produced a small number of gold and silver artifacts. The new Intersal site and permit area may also be related to the high-value, Colonial-era merchant vessel believed to be in the area. The agreements with BDJ and Intersal are similar but separate and the areas do not overlap.

"This agreement with Intersal is a win/win situation for both parties," Mark Gordon, president of Odyssey Marine Exploration, said in a press release. "Intersal's remarkable body of research and preliminary work has already yielded promising results, including the recovery of several interesting artifacts from the site. We are looking forward to using our own advanced technology and expertise to further explore the search area and are committed to continuing Intersal's excellent relationship with the state and local governments of North Carolina. Even though our own arrested 'Firefly' site falls outside the state's jurisdiction, we anticipate including them in archaeological activities at that site as well as Intersal's."

Odyssey's CEO Greg Stemm and Intersal's late President Phil Masters worked together in the creation of the code of ethics and best practice commercial archaeological standards promoted by the Professional Shipwreck Explorers Association.

David Paul Horan, the admiralty attorney who in 1982 won Mel Fisher's high-profile Atocha case before the U.S. Supreme Court, represented Intersal in the negotiations.

Brown & Brown Inc. buys

assets of Nashville firm

A subsidiary of Tampa- and Daytona Beach-based Brown & Brown Inc. purchased the assets of Al Phillips Insurance Agency Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., which sells general commercial property and casualty insurance in the state.

Al Phillips Insurance Agency reports annualized revenues of $4 million. Phillips and his staff will join Brown & Brown's existing Nashville, Tenn., center which is headed by Danny Simmerman.

Brown & Brown also made some unintended news recently when someone at the company released the company's financials for the third fiscal quarter before the data had been finalized and audited. After the company reported the premature information release, trading of the company's stock was temporarily halted. The official financial report was released on Oct. 20.

Brown & Brown offers insurance and reinsurance products and services, as well as risk management, third-party administration, managed health care, and Medicare set-aside services and programs.

CL Verify releases Tracker,

new debtor-tracing service

Largo-based CL Verify has released Tracker, a new skip-tracing tool offering both online and retail lenders a unique source for updating contact information about current borrowers, small-balance loan customers and delinquent debtors.

"As the credit markets continue to retract, we anticipate lenders may begin experiencing an increased percentage of defaults and loans which may go delinquent," Kim Anderson, CEO of CL Verify, said in a press release. "Tracker enables the lender to contact the unable-to-locate delinquent borrower to seek repayment, and keep a closer eye on consumer changes which may signal a potential default. The CL Verify network delivers more current data from more lenders, banks and retail points of service than any other similar provider."

Subscribers receive daily updates on consumer information including addresses, phone numbers and bank information.

Founded in 1998, CL Verify LLC, a subsidiary of the DP Bureau, provides specialized decision support solutions to the small-balance loan industry.

U.S. Army awards General

Dynamics $33-million contract

The U.S. Army Sustainment Command, Rock Island, Ill., has awarded St. Petersburg's General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems a $33-million contract with up to four option years for the production of a variety of 20-mm PGU ammunition.

General Dynamics will produce the 20-mm PGU-27A/B and the PGU-30A/B Training Practice with Tracer plus the PGU-28A/B Semi-Armor Piercing High-Explosive Incendiary tactical rounds. The contract will ultimately be worth more than $500 million if all of its options are exercised.

The PGU 28 A/B is multipurpose ammunition capable of destroying "soft" and lightly armored air and surface targets. It is used by F-14, F-15, F-16, and F/A-18 fighter aircraft and the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter.

Work will be conducted at the company's manufacturing facility in Marion, Ill.

General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems manufactures large-, medium- and small-caliber direct and indirect-fire munitions, mortar weapons and systems, artillery projectiles, bomb bodies, Ball Powder Propellant and metal components. It also provides explosive load, assemble and pack services for a variety of munitions, tactical missile and rocket programs; and designs and produces shaped charge warheads and control actuator systems.

Homeowners' Choice subsidiary

assuming 45,000 home policies

Homeowners Choice Inc., a Clearwater-based insurance holding company, reports that subsidiary Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Company Inc. has assumed 45,000 homeowners' policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-created insurance company.

The policies were assumable under the state's "take-out" program, designed to reduce the state's risk exposure by encouraging private insurance companies to assume policies. Under its rules, affected policyholders are entitled to opt out before and after the assumption and remain with Citizens.

Homeowners Choice announced in September that it had 18,000 policies. The assumption of the new policies is a more than three-fold increase in the company's policy count.

Etc...

Syniverse Technologies

introduces new roaming hub

Syniverse Technologies, a Tampa provider of technology and business telecommunications products, launched a roaming hub to help mobile operators better handle the complexities of wireless roaming.

The Syniverse Roaming Hub, featuring a suite of roaming services, including data clearing, financial clearing and fraud protection, was developed to replace the more common bilateral agreement business model which the company says is inefficient. The new system is focused on letting operators expand their roaming footprint more economically, quickly launch new services and better manage roaming-partner relationships.

American Integrity offers

manufactured home policies

Tampa-based American Integrity Insurance Co. of Florida has begun selling new manufactured home insurance policies. Called the Gold Manufactured Home Insurance Program, the policies are available through independent insurance agents statewide for homes that were manufactured after 1994.

American Integrity Insurance Co. holds more than 90,000 policies that were assumed from Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and plans to take over more of Citizens' policies this year. It has surpluses of more than $25 million.

FairWarning Inc.

releases updated software

St. Petersburg-based FairWarning Inc., a supplier of cross-platform healthcare privacy surveillance products, has released a new version of its software that features event filtering, an improved interface with additional convenience features, incident status tracking and greater ease in deploying.

"The first three priorities of this FairWarning software release are performance, performance, performance," Kurt Long, founder and CEO of FairWarning, said in a press release. "We are serving increasingly large customers, and we have prepared for their privacy surveillance needs. Privacy surveillance is a global market that massive healthcare organizations must address and this release significantly extends our ability to serve the very largest of those organizations."

FairWarning provides products to nearly 100 hospitals and 600 clinics including Baptist Health Care Corp., Columbus Regional Hospital, Cookeville Regional Medical Center, Halifax Regional Health System and Marion Regional Healthcare System.

Perfect Neighbors markets to

new homeowners via Realtors

Perfect Neighbors, the Sarasota lifestyle management and home- watching company, has launched the new Passport to a Simpler Lifestyle program to market its services to new homeowners through Realtors.

Personalized certificates are being provided to Realtors that can be given to clients when they buy a home, providing up to 12 months free membership in the Perfect Neighbors Lifestyle Management program.

"Moving into a home is an exceptionally busy time and we want to be able to help people and introduce them to the benefits of our lifestyle management service and help them settle into their new home," Mark Sharman, COO of Perfect Neighbors, said in press release. "We can help with utility switchover, assist in planning the move, arrange contractors for a variety of services and help with other activities. We can also help with managing every part of their lifestyle, from leisure to travel to entertainment over the long term, giving them more quality time to spend on the things they want to do while we take care of the things that have to be done."

Murphy Business, Financial

Services opens Tampa office

Clearwater-based Murphy Business & Financial Services Inc., one of the nation's largest business brokerage firms, has opened an office at 3239 Henderson Blvd. in Tampa.

The company has facilitated more than 4,000 transactions involving privately held businesses, including franchises, and other commercial properties.

Illum Productions to provide

animation for "9 to 5" show

Sarasota-based animation and visual effects studio Illum Productions has been chosen by Peter Nigrini Design Studios of New York to create 2D and 3D animation for the Broadway run of "9 to 5: The Musical."

The production features an original score by Dolly Parton and is directed by Joe Mantello, formerly of "Wicked."

Illum Productions will animate a fantasy sequence in which the musical character Violet Newstead dreams that she is Snow White singing to bluebirds while demolishing the castle of the evil Franklin Hart Jr.

The show finished a six-week run at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles last week and will head to the Marquis Theatre on Broadway in April.

RK