Finance Blog number 1

Insulet Corp. Chief Executive Duane DeSisto realized $2.3 million from stock option exercises last year as he leads the company’s expansion in the insulin market.

DeSisto’s gains came from exercising options on 100,000 shares of the company’s stock, the Bedford, Mass.-based company said in a regulatory filing.

Insulet shares are down 25 percent this year, but over the last week they’ve rallied, surging 17 percent.

Insulet’s chief product is the OmniPod Insulin Management System. The company’s sales more than doubled in the fourth quarter to $4.4 million. But Insulet is still losing money, posting a $15.7 million net loss in the fourth quarter, compared to a $10.9 million net loss in the year-ago quarter payday loan cash advance loan.

For 2008, Insulet projects revenue of $40 million to $45 million. Its net operating loss is expected to be $55 million to $60 million, with positive quarterly gross margins by the fourth quarter of 2008.

The company plans to accelerate manufacturing capacity and has said it will increase its investment in its sales force.

Last year, Insulet increased the base salary for DeSisto, 53, to $325,000 from $300,000, according to regulatory filings.

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Dole Food Co. is selling land in Hawaii and California to avoid default on $350 million on bonds, according to reports from Bloomberg News.

The Westlake, Calif.-based company is raising money after European banana tariffs and shipping costs both increased, affecting the company's ability to repay debt, according to the report.

Dole had agreed in February to sell 2,000 acres in Hawaii for about $39 million according to filings. The company owns 28,000 acres of pasture, forest and farmland in Oahu and relies on less than 3,000 acres of that land for pineapples, coffee and cacao, the report said bad credit payday loans.

California land and a flower unit, worth $76.2 million combined, may also be sold,.

Dole Food Co. Inc. is the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruit, vegetables and fresh-cut flowers.

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Epiq Systems Inc. has expanded its London office by purchasing PinPoint Global Ltd. for an undisclosed amount.

In a release Monday, Epiq (Nasdaq: EPIQ), based in Kansas City, Kan., said that it is building its international electronic-discovery business through internal growth and acquisitions. Epiq develops software used in bankruptcies, class actions and other legal proceedings.

PinPoint offers an e-discovery service for legal and litigation support departments, corporate counsel and lawyers who want to extract evidence from electronic data and review it in a more flexible format.

PinPoint came to the United Kingdom as Diskcovery London in 2004, with 12 years of experience in the Asia Pacific region. It rebranded in September to PinPoint to reflect its European focus no teletrak payday loans.

A spokeswoman for Epiq couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

"The international dimension of our electronic discovery business represents an attractive opportunity for additional growth and market leadership," Epiq Chairman and CEO Tom Olofson said in the release. "Increasingly, our major corporate and law firm clients require sophisticated support for cross-border, multilingual engagements that operate under high scrutiny and tight time frames."

Epiq ranks No. 23 on the Kansas City Business Journal's list of area public companies.

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Skybus Airlines, which had planned low-fare flights from Niagara Falls International Airport, is going out of business.

The airline said it will cease all operations effective Saturday, April 5.

A statement from the Columbus, Ohio-based company said: "Skybus struggled to overcome the combination of rising jet fuel costs and a slowing economic environment. These two issues proved to be insurmountable for a new carrier."

The airline also underwent several managerial changes in the past few weeks.

"Our financial condition is such that our board of directors felt it had no choice but to cease operations," Skybus said americashadvance.

The airline announced earlier this year a plan to fly between Columbus and Niagara Falls, hoping to capture a portion of the Western New York and Southern Ontario marketplace with flights as low as $10. The company, however, shelved the April start date before closing down.

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A Pennsylvania auto-glass replacement company that last year ended a lengthy legal fight with Belron US has been cleared for a $7 million credit facility as it tries to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Kingston-based Diamond Triumph Auto Glass Inc. on Friday said a Delaware state bankruptcy judge approved a $7 million loan facility with Guggenheim Corporate Funding LLC, a New York investor that has stepped up with plans to buy the company. Diamond Glass said it has clearance to borrow up to $3.1 million from the facility in the next three weeks.

The court also cleared Diamond Glass to pay employees, fund benefits and continue key programs, including warranty guarantees for customers. Diamond Glass also has approval to negotiate agreements with vendors to ensure supply is uninterrupted during the Chapter 11 reorganization.

Diamond Glass, which employs 1,600 workers and runs one of its three distribution centers in Columbus, filed a lawsuit in 2002 against Belron, the former Safelite Group Inc., alleging it misled customers who arranged auto-glass replacements through its call centers about their options for choosing repair shops low rates payday advance.

Belron countersued and a Pennsylvania court dismissed the bulk of Diamond Glass' claims. The companies last year dropped their remaining claims under a settlement that stipulated Diamond buy an undisclosed amount of glass from Belron over five years.

Diamond Glass on Tuesday filed for Chapter 11 protection to deal with debt it has acquired over the years. It plans to seek approval this month for an auction that would allow others to compete against Guggenheim's undisclosed buyout offer.

"The company expects that if Guggenheim is the successful purchaser, Guggenheim would continue the business in substantially the same manner as before," President Bill Cogswell said in a release.

Diamond Glass, founded in 1923, has 217 service centers in 42 states.

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West Oahu business owners have formed the Kapolei Chamber of Commerce, which will hold its inaugural meeting on April 7.

The group of about 100 will hold its first meeting Monday at the Kapolei Hale atrium at 1000 Uluohia St.

The chamber also will install its board of directors at the meeting, which will be held from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m. and feature keynote speaker Leroy Laney, an economist who will speak on "Kapolei's Economic Future."

By 2025, chamber organizers say new and expanding business in Kapolei are expected to create more than 40,000 jobs payday loan.

Hawaii has 25 other chambers of commerce.

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The median price of a single-family home on Oahu rose back above $600,000 last month after dipping to $599,000 in February, but still came in slightly less than March of last year.

The median price of a single-family home in March was $628,000, down 2.4 percent from the same month last year, when the price was $643,500, but up 4.8 percent from February, when the price was $599,000, according to statistics released on Monday by the Honolulu Board of Realtors.

"The Oahu median prices for both single-family homes and condominiums are still constant, while the sales volume for the market has slowed," said board President Dana Chandler. "Even with the instability in the finance industry, the market for Oahu residential properties appears to be holding, unlike the very negative conditions we hear about on the Mainland."

The number of sales in the Oahu single-family home category, however, fell 14.5 percent last month to 282 homes sold, compared to 330 homes sold in March 2007 payday loan.

The median price of a condominium was $329,300, which was 2.6 percent higher than March 2007, when the price was $321,000, but down from the record high last month of $335,000.

Sales of condos dropped 27.5 percent to 392 units, down from 541 units sold in March 2007.

"There is a continued demand for residential properties, especially in the high end, which could be an outgrowth of the weaker U.S. dollar and other local factors, such as our low unemployment and pleasant climate," said Harvey Shapiro, the board’s research economist. "The limited availability of land and housing on Oahu should prevent any significant downturn in prices."

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