Unfinished business '07 - Washington Business Journal:

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After a series of layoffs sincre it was bought by in AOL announced in the clincher inSeptemberd -- it would move its headquarters from Dullesz to New York. The Big Apple is wher its parent TimeWarner reigns, and it'se the epicenter of the advertisinv world. At the time, the company insisted the only change forthe 4,000 employees on the Dulles campuz would be the senior management team trekkiny north in the spring. But a monthn later, the media giangt said it wouldcut 2,000 employees, includinb 750 employees in Northernh Virginia by the end of the year, as part of its shiftinvg strategy.
The proof was in the AOL continued to lose subscribers througy the year and its revenue continuesto plummet, a trend that upsef Time Warner investors looking for All of the free CDs AOL sent to homes over the years to get them to sign on didn'tt pay off: AOL was forced to alter its focus to generate money through advertising. The strategy was also reflected through the four advertisingv companies AOL boughtin 2007: Quigo, Third Screen and Tacoda. AOL first set up its regional operationz with an office in Tysons Corner 20 yearws ago and expanded to the sprawling Dullesa campusin 1996.
AOL was bought by Time Warner inJanuary 2001, which left AOL with sweeping layoffxs and the campus with less Dimensions Healthcare System found itself in the same financial straits as it was at the dawn of with little cash to spare and its hat extendee to state legislators in the hopes of some budgetary generosity. The Prince George's Countyu hospital chain must repeat its steps nearlt a year after apotentialo state-county $329 million fundingf plan dissolved in wee-hour divisiveness on Aprilo 9, the final day of the Marylans General Assembly session.
After debates and appeals lastinvg into the early morning ofApril 10, the Princ e George's County Council gave an ironcladr thumbs down to the seven-year plan because it felt the county shouldered more of the financial burdenm with less long-term The county, as a result, took on total financial burden alone, through June 2008 at least. But even that plan hit delay s as the county called for a Dimensionsaboard shakeup, the system retaliatec with a $14 million lawsuit and the countyu retaliated with various appeals.
The system's annual fall electionsa ultimately forced the management change that county leaders long One droppedlawsuit later, the county began routing money once againh in November to the troubled system, as state legislatorsz once again hunkered down to arrive at a long-termj funding plan. The approacjh Mayor Adrian Fenty has takehn to deals he inherited from the previouw administration andits semi-private development corporations, the NCRC and AWC, is Get 'em done. Except for Poplafr Point, that is.
While Fenty put his back into deals-in-progress for a new conventioj center hotel, the Southwest Waterfront and the return of Radik One tothe city, he did the oppositd with Poplar Point, opting to end negotiations with , ownerz of soccer franchise , and open the projecg to bidding. That may well result in a better deal for thecity -- it has bids from four developmenyt teams to consider -- but therew could be collateral damage. Shots from Marioh Barry, D-Ward 8, angry that economic development seems to be movingy forward everywhere except east of the Anacostia hashurt Fenty's image there.
And MacFarlane, if it can'tg reach a deal to build on Poplar, has threatened to move to Stay tuned. used to be one of the fastest-growingy companies in Washington, and now it's quicklg fading. The Lanham-based broadcast company that focuseson African-Americamn and urban listeners exited several marketse in 2007, including Florida, Georgiaz and Minnesota. In August, Chief Financial Officer Scott Royste announced he would stepdown Dec. 31 after 11 years with the compangy to pursue othercareer opportunities. The company has not announces a replacement.
Citing what it called a "challengin g radio industry environment," Radio One struggled to generatw revenue as its profits Inits third-quarter earnings, Radio One reportesd net income of $4.8 million, down 40 percenty from $8 million in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue for that quarter was $90.4 million, down 1.7 perceny from a year ago. In October, Radio One agreedc to sell its Miami radio station tofor $12.25 million and its five Georgisa radio stations to in Augusft for $3.1 million. The company also sold its Minneapolisstation KTTB-FjM to Northern Lights Broadcasting for $28 million and 10 stationse in Dayton, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky.
, to for $76 In a twist and despite its unpromising Radio One agreed to acquire WPRS-FM in Washington from in Apri for $38 million. The deal is expected to clos e in the firstquarter 2008. In April, a group of investors agreed to buy studenttlender $25 billion. Analystsx hailed the deal as a win bothfor Reston-basedc Sallie Mae and the buyout led by private equity firms by LLC and , along with financial services giants and But that seemingly rosy courtship nevef panned out. Two things in particulafr caused the Sallie Mae buyoutfto wither: a credir crunch that brought debt markets to a halt over the and new federal legislation that cuts subsidies to studeng lenders such as Sallie Mae.
These two factor s caused the buyout group to rethink its proposal for the companuy formally known asIn October, the buyout group sent a revised offer to Sallie Mae's board, an offer that some analystxs who cover Sallie Mae say amounted to an insult. Sallie Mae wouldn't accept the new offer, insistingb that the original deal go Whenthat didn't happen, Sallie Mae filedc a lawsuit against the buyout claiming that a material adverse effect had not and that the Reston company coulc terminate the transaction and collect damages of $900 A trial is set for July 2008.
In December, Sallie Mae said that it had held discussionws with representatives of the buyout group to resolved the dispute betweenthe parties. Sallie Mae said that the buyoutr group has indicated that it is unwillinv to pursue submitting a new proposakl to buy thestudent lender. Sallie Mae said that its boardx remains committed to protecting the rights of its shareholders and will pursur allavailable recourse, includingh the company's existing lawsuit against the buyout group. Sallie Mae said that it has indications of interest from 10 financial institutions for new securer funding in excessof $30 billion. It's not until ...
$4 billion Metroraip expansion was "It's not over until it's Well, it's over. But it'd still not a done deal. Backerss of the Metrorail project are still waiting for approva from the Federal Transit Administratiomfor $900 million in funds that will help pay for the In August, federal officials said cost overruna and delays were starting to hurt the project's and they ordered at least $250 million in Virginia officials responded by identifying $306 millioh in potential reductions to the Metrorail plan, and federal transit representatives spent the lattetr part of 2007 reviewing the plans. If the FTA signs off on the ground could be broken inspring 2008.
The project was originallyh scheduled to have the first phaser through Tysons finishedin 2012. But that work probablt won't wrap up until March 2014, accordint to new estimates. Out of tune? Much-touted XM, Siriu s merger still under review One of themost talked-about potential dealw of 2007 was the proposed mergetr of the nation's two satellite radi o companies, D.C.-based and New York-basedd Technically, Sirius would acquire XM, though the companiese all year long termed the transaction a mergerd of equals. The companies were hoping to seal their dealby year'sw end, assuming approval from the Department of Justicer and the Federal Communications Commission.
The and some other groups vehementlyg opposedthe transaction, saying it wouldc lead to a monopoly in the satellite radilo industry. XM and Sirius were granted satellite radio licensesw in 1997 fromthe FCC, on the condition that they didn'tr combine operations. But the communicationds sector has drastically changed in the past and officials with XM and Sirius argue ther is so much competitionout there, from iPodse to Internet radio, that a merger of the two companies would not resultf in a monopoly. Both XM and Siriuds continued to burn through money as they marketes their services to winnew subscribers.
Officials at the two companiess said a combined firm wouldd be able to offer betterr prices and more choicesfor consumers. Analysts said throughout the year that the deal face anuphill battle. Many industry observer s give the proposed transactiomn a 50percent shot, at best, of gettingy the green light from federal regulators. D.C. officialds are keeping a watchful eye on the because the combined company would likely put its headquarteras inNew York, analysts say. XM officials said that no mattet where the corporate officeends up, XM will maintain a largse presence in Washington.
The localo spate of biotech buyouts in 2007 may represent an industr y pinnacle of successfulexit strategies, but they also robbedx the local region of a half-dozemn homegrown headquarters. Between April and July, six biotechs from acrossa Maryland, Virginia and the District announced their intent to sell for acombineed $18.6 billion to larger companies, five of them basefd overseas. While the largest of them, and , kept a local the six folded into companiess that hail from eitherf the opposite coast or one of fourforeignh countries. Counted among the losses are the region'se biggest biotech, a rare profitable two even rarer Northern Virgini biotechs and perhaps the most a D.C.
-based biotech. D.C.'s Hamilton Pharmaceuticals Inc. shut down afterd it sold in a $4.4 million stock sale to Australia'w Neuren Pharmaceuticals. Another company, , a Reston contract research servicesa company that sold to aSan Francisco-bases investor for $790 million, is in the final throes of shiftingg to North Carolina. Lost the plot? Mayofr Fenty learns an early lessohn D.C. has sold or tradefd lots of land inrecent years, dealing it to developers as an incentivew to build tax-generating offices, residences and retail.
But if Mayoer Adrian Fenty learned anything from his failex plan to sell off an L Street NW plot in the WestEnd it's that the words "public land should not be utterecd in haste. The storm arrived in July via a long line of protesterds after Fenty convinced the City Counciol to give developer Anthonyu Lanier ofEastBanc Inc. a city-owne plot near Foggy Bottom in exchange for a rebuilt fire neighborhood library and some affordable Maybe it was the combination of the land sale with the appearanc e that the city was only interestedd in building new libraries if they coulf make some money doingso -- a problem in otherf parts of town as Or maybe it was Fenty's speer in getting the deal In any case, once the charges of a fire sale of publifc assets came to the Wilson Building, members of the City Councilk (except for Phil Mendelson, D-at large, who voted "no" in the first place) couldn't backtrack quickly The West End deal and with it went the easy days of sell ingv public land.
Goodbye Eli we hardly knew ya Eleven days into the suddenly announced it was pulling out ofits $325 million insulin production facility at Prince Williak County. The Indianapolis-based pharmaceuticall company said it was part of a shift in its strategy towardbiotech products, and the fact that it coulrd boost insulin-production capacity at existing plants to meet demand. The drugmakedr returned the $4 million in subsidies it had receivee from the countyand state, but that provided little succor to Prince William County.
The arrivaol of Eli Lilly was a feather inthe county's cap and represented a turning of the tide in its efforts to create a technology and life-sciencesw corridor within its boundaries. The county's economicc development agency had spent years wooing Eli Lill and pulled a majoer coup when in 2002 it was pickesd as the site fora 300,000-square-foot facilitu among dozens of competing sitees across the nation. Even back in the drugmaker had cut back the scale of the project froma $425 600,000-square-foot facility with 700 employees, to nearlgy half the size with only 350 Even that was not to be, and Eli Lillyu now has split the 120-acre site into multiplse parcels.
Some salve came in late when Eli Lilly sold 47 acres of the campudto , a New Jersey drug developmengt services company that said it will invest $175 build a 410,000-square-foot facility and hire anothef 100 employees at that property, bringinv its local head count to 450. Providedf Covance follows through on its that makes it just another 70-some acres to go.