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John Brackenbury notified Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. on Aug. 23 that he will retire from his board and committee posts with the company and its U.K. subsidiaries, the company said Friday in a regulatory filing.

He will leave the board effective Oct. 5, when the company will hold its 2010 annual stockholders meeting at its Creve Coeur, Mo., headquarters, and won’t stand for re-election. Brackenbury’s retirement from the board isn’t the result of any disagreement with the company, according to the filing.

Brackenbury, 72, had been a director since January 2004 and was on Isle of Capri’s stock option and compensation committee. He has more than 40 years’ experience in the leisure industry in the U.K., and has served as chairman of trade group Business in Sport & Leisure since 1985 free business cards.

Isle of Capri began exiting its international operations with the sale last April of its casino in Coventry in the U.K.

Isle of Capri (Nasdaq: ISLE), led by Chairman and Chief Executive James Perry, reported $999.8 million in net revenue in fiscal 2010, which ended April 25. The company owns and operates riverboat, dockside and land-based casinos at 15 locations in Missouri, Mississippi, Louisiana, Colorado, Iowa and Florida.

The company plans to build a $125 million casino north of downtown Cape Girardeau, Mo., if it’s successful in winning Missouri’s 13th and final gaming license.

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A online cash advance is a service provided by most credit card and charge card issuers.

Exactly what happened behind the scenes at Hewlett-Packard Co. as the board of directors reached a deal for CEO Mark Hurd to resign after an ethics probe over sexual harassment allegations is still not known.

But the back-room dealing that led to one of America's top CEOs to resign with what could be up to a $40 million severance deal from HP (NYSE: HPQ) continues to be one of the most-talked about topics in the business world more than a week after his departure.

In a report this weekend, The Wall Street Journal cited a person it says was familiar with the HP board's thinking who said that the former CEO short-circuited an internal investigation by agreeing to a settlement with former actress Jodie Fisher on August 4, two days before his departure was announced.

The Journal reported that the settlement with the former marketing contractor came without the board's knowledge or input, a day before Fisher and her lawyer were supposed to meet with HP's outside counsel and Hurd's personal lawyer.

That story runs counter to another that the Journal attributes to an unnamed source it said is familiar with Hurd's thinking that HP had repeatedly instructed its CEO for three weeks before the settlement to come to an agreement with his accuser.

That source told the Journal that Hurd gave the board everything it asked for up to that point but the directors didn't let him address them or respond directly to questions.

The paper further said, however, that another unnamed source familiar with the board's thinking encouraged Hurd to speak with the board but he declined. It said, however, that the source on Hurd's side didn't agree with that version of the story.

Hurd led NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR) in Dayton before going to HP, and had helped grow it's data warehouse division into what spun off as Teradata Corp. (NYSE: TDC) while at NCR.

The latest revelations about Hurd's departure come amid continuing scrutiny of the reasons for his sudden exit.

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera called it "one of the great head-scratchers in recent times" in a Saturday piece.

"The consensus in Silicon Valley is that Mr. Hurd was despised at HP, not just by the rank and file, but even by HP’s top executives," Nocera wrote.

The Times columnist suggests that the sexual harassment claim merely gave the board the pretext for doing what it wanted to do, get rid of Hurd without provoking an outcry on Wall Street where he was extremely popular for turning around the company's finances.

"In fact, the directors should be called out for acting like the cowards they are," the columnist wrote in a scathing piece. "Mr. Hurd’s supposed peccadilloes were a smoke screen for the real reason they got rid of an executive they didn’t trust and employees didn’t like."

Fisher, 50, was working as a contractor for HP when the alleged incidents that led to Hurd's resignation on August 6 occurred. She was reportedly paid to appear as a greeter at HP customer events where Hurd also appeared.

HP said an internal investigation didn't find evidence of sexual harassment but did find instances when Hurd's behavior didn't live up to the company's codes of conduct. This reportedly included alleged instances of expenses Fisher was paid that weren't properly reported.

For more on this story, including Hurd's full connections to Dayton through the years, click the following DBJ stories in our continuing coverage:

Mark Hurd - Rise and fall of a CEO

Poll: HP right to force Mark Hurd to resign

Report: Mark Hurd agrees to pay settlement

Hewlett-Packard stock plummets on CEO scandal

HP CEO Hurd to get $12M severance payout

Full text of Mark Hurd's separation agreement with HP

HP CEO Mark Hurd resigns amid sexual harassment scandal

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Apply for a payday loans today and as a first time customer, you can get up to $1000 directly to your account overnight.

Restaurants can get a shot at a business makeover as part of Bernalillo County’s Taste of New Mexico event, which takes place October 8 and 9.

Anyone can nominate and vote for their favorite local restaurant online. The deadline is July 31, although that may be extended.

A team will do the makeover and will also work with the nominated restaurants to provide advice and assistance in marketing and branding.

The winning restaurant must be a local business owner who has great food and a passion for what they do. They must also show community involvement and help need help promoting their restaurant.

Local businesses that want to donate labor or materials to these effort should contact Rick Metz at rick.metz@upublic.tv. For more information, call Jesse Lopez in Bernalillo County Economic Development at (505) 468-7818.

The makeover will be based on what a restaurant needs. That could mean renovations or consulting or marketing and social networking.

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The parent company of First Community Bank said Monday that its stock was being delisted by NASDAQ, effective at the open of business Wednesday.

First State Bancorp (NASDAQ: FSNM ) made the announcement in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The stock closed at 36 cents per share Monday.

First Community lost $25.7 million in the first quarter, $110.5 million in 2009, and $153 million in 2008. It has been trying to raise capital to boost its reserves.

First Community President and CEO Pat Dee said the delisting was “another little bump in the road” for the bank, which has been under a regulatory order from the Federal Reserve Bank since the summer of 2009.

“The good news for our shareholders is that they can continue to trade the shares on the over-the-counter market,” Dee said. “This will not affect the day-to-day operations of the bank.”

The bank announced earlier this month that it had ended an unsuccessful effort to buy back $95 million in trust preferred securities at 15 cents on the dollar Internet Payday loans. The bank holding company announced June 9 that it was attempting to buy back the securities in an effort to rid itself of debt and recapitalize the bank.

The securities, bought by investors between 2002 and 2007, were used to capitalize the bank. The repurchase offer ended at 5 p.m. July 7.

In May, First State revised its first quarter financial statements to add $10 million to its loan loss reserves. That move dropped First Community’s ratio of total capital to risk-weighted assets to 7.53 percent, which put the bank into the undercapitalized category for federal regulatory purposes.

First Community is New Mexico’s third largest bank, with $2.7 billion in assets.

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Bank of America’s stock fell 9 percent Friday after the bank posted a 3 percent drop in earnings and said that new financial regulations could cost California’s largest bank as much as much as $4.3 billion a year.

The Charlotte, N.C., bank also told investors that it will take a third-quarter charge of $7 billion to $10 billion due to a drop in the value of its credit card business once financial reform becomes law.

BofA is also getting slammed as the nation’s largest issuer of debit cards, which has been one of the most lucrative areas of retail banking. New restrictions on what the bank can collect every time a merchant swipes a customer’s debit card will hit the bank’s bottom line by $1.8 billion to $2 no fax pay day loan.3 billion annually. The bank also said its decision to not allow overdrafts on debit cards, doing away with the infamous $40 cup of coffee, will cost BofA another billion dollars.

The bank’s second-quarter performance failed to lift investors’ spirits. BofA saw profit decline among several units, including Merrill Lynch and its residential mortgage business.

The bank’s second-quarter provision for loan losses fell to $8.11 billion from $9.81 billion in this year’s first quarter. BofA’s pace of charge-offs fell to 3.98 percent from 4.44 percent in this year’s first quarter.

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Sales at major retailers rose for a 10th straight month in June, but mixed results reported Thursday signaled that consumers are still cautious.

According to sales tracker Thomson Reuters, which looks at monthly sales for 28 leading chains such as Macy’s (M, Fortune 500), Target (TGT, Fortune 500), Costco (COST, Fortune 500) and J.C. Penney (JCP, Fortune 500), June same-store sales rose 3.1%. That was slightly below the firm’s initial estimate for an increase of 3.2%.

Same-store sales, a key gauge of a retailer’s performance, measure sales at stores open at least a year.

While consumers may still be hesitant to open up their wallets, June’s gain was stronger than May’s 2.5% increase and a significant jump from the 4.9% drop in same-store sales reported in June of last year.

"The bottom line is that consumer spending is continuing to grow, but only modestly and not at the fast pace we saw at the beginning of the year," said Scott Hoyt, a retail economist at Moody’s Economy.com.

"Unemployment is still high, wealth is probably falling again with the declines in the stock market, and overall confidence is very low, so there are just a number of constraints on the consumer right now," he added.

Out of the 28 stores, 44% beat analysts’ expectations, while 56% missed.

Sluggish sales: Sales at discount and apparel stores were the most disappointing in June. Discount store sales rose an average of 2.9% last month, compared with an expected 3 pay day loans.6% jump, while sales at apparel stores increased 2.9%, much lower than the 3.5% rise that had been forecast.

Discounter BJ’s Wholesale (BJ, Fortune 500) said sales rose 3.8% in June, missing estimates of a 5.3% increase, while sales at Target increased only 1.7%, lower than the 2.7% jump that had been expected.

In the apparel arena, sales at Gap Inc.’s Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic stores dragged the overall apparel sector down in June. Same-store sales at Gap Inc. (GPS, Fortune 500) stores remained flat on average in June, while analysts had expected a 3.4% gain.

Excluding Gap Inc.-owned stores, apparel retailers gained 3.8% on average, slightly beating expectations of a 3.5% rise.

Biggest gainers: Department stores, boosted by promotions and steep discounts, posted the largest increase last month, gaining an average 5.8%.

JC Penney (JCP, Fortune 500), Nordstrom (JWN, Fortune 500) and Macys were among the best performers, all beating expectations in June.

Teen retailers also fared well last month, posting an overall gain of 3.7%, compared to the forecast 2.4% rise.

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF), Hollister, Aeropostale and Zumiez (ZUMZ) posted some of the biggest gains, while other teen retailers like the Buckle (BKE) and Wet Seal struggled to lure in back-to-school shoppers.  

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A sharp drop in demand for temporary nurses sent Medical Staffing Network Holdings to bankruptcy court late Friday, when the Boca Raton-based company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization.

The company is the largest provider of per diem health care staffing in the U.S. and among the largest providers of traveling nurses, but many hospitals have scaled back on temporary staff to cut costs. It has 101 branch locations, 915 corporate employees and about 19,000 field employees nationwide.

Medical Staffing (Pink Sheets: MSNW) immediately signed a deal to sell its assets to MSN AcquisitionCo, a company formed by its first lien lenders. The $84.1 million proposed purchase price is the equivalent of the money Medical Staffing owes those creditors. The deal would essentially wipe out the company’s existing shareholders.

However, third parties can submit competing bids by contacting Leon Szlezinger at Jefferies & Co. in New York City. The company hopes to complete its sale by Aug. 31.

As that deal seeks court approval, the company will continue operating and its employees are expected to continue receiving full pay and benefits. The first lien lenders, led by General Electric Capital Corp., provided the company with $15 million of debtor-in-possessing financing to support cash flow needs during the transition.

The bankruptcy filing listed assets of $10 million to $50 million, and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million payday loan. The filing has a list of creditors 493 pages long.

“We believe that the filing of our Chapter 11 petition and the signing of the asset purchase agreement move us one step closer to emerging from the restructuring process with a capital structure that will allow us to successfully operate our business in the future,” Medical Staffing Chairman and CEO Robert Adamson said in a news release.

Although Adamson and other company executives have large stakes in Medical Staffing’s stock, the bankruptcy filing lists Warburg Pincus Private Equity VIII as the largest stockholder, with a 45.4 percent equity stake.

In addition to GECC, the first lien holders set to acquire Medical Staffing include SunTrust Bank, Bank of America, Hewlett-Packard Financial Services Co. and a host of investment funds organized by Dallas-based Highland Capital Management.

Miami law firm Berger Singerman has been retained to represent Medical Staffing in bankruptcy court.

Medical Staffing shares closed Friday at 0.4 cents. The 52-week high was 72 cents on Nov. 16.

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LONDON — Emerson offered to buy Chloride Group Plc for $1.5 billion (997 million pounds) in an effort to derail ABB Ltd.’s planned takeover of Britain’s biggest maker of gear to protect against power outages.

Chloride shareholders would receive $5.59 (375 pence) a share, Ferguson-based Emerson said in a statement early Tuesday morning. That’s 15 percent higher than ABB’s bid, announced June 8 and accepted by London-based Chloride.

Emerson took its offer directly to shareholders after Chloride’s management spurned its approaches.

"The issue that makes them pay up is the fact that there was a threat of losing market share globally from ABB buying Chloride," Ian Robertson, an analyst with Seymour Pierce Ltd., said in a telephone interview. "ABB suddenly joins, from having not been a player in secure power."
Chloride, Britain’s largest maker of backup power equipment, said in a regulatory filing that Emerson’s proposal is "superior" to ABB’s offer. A range of options must be considered before there’s another announcement, Zurich-based ABB said in a statement.

"The people who will pay the most are Emerson," Robertson said. "For Emerson, it’s not just what they gain from Chloride, it’s what do they also make sure of by closing the door on ABB."

Should Emerson win Chloride, it will become the largest supplier of critical power systems in Europe, Robertson said. He added that it’s now the fourth-largest.

Emerson Chairman David Farr said in April that acquiring Chloride would help the company compete with Schneider Electric SA and Eaton Corp cash advance now. in the market for uninterruptible power-supply gear. Emerson bought Avocent Corp., a maker of information-technology management products for data centers, for $1.2 billion last year.

Chloride, which provides power equipment to clients including the London Underground, Ikea and Barclays Plc according to its website, rebuffed Emerson’s initial offer in 2008, as well as a bid in April.

"Emerson is already strong in this area," Vontobel analyst Panagiotis Spiliopoulos said in a telephone interview. "They would clearly strengthen their position. For ABB it’s probably more important to get it than for Emerson."

ABB won’t be constrained by ability to pay for Chloride, Spiliopoulos said. The question is whether the Swiss company can justify the strategic move into a new area, he said.

Nigel Coe, an analyst with Deutsche Bank AG in New York, said he was "surprised" by the amount of Emerson’s offer. The company is counting on cost savings of $40 million (33 million pounds), or 10 percent of Chloride’s sales, compared with typical savings of 6 percent to 8 percent of sales for an acquisition, Coe said in a report Tuesday.

"It is clear that Chloride is viewed as a critical acquisition by Emerson, but shareholders may not like the price," he said.

Emerson fell $1.56, or 3.5 percent, to $43.29 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock has increased 1.6 percent this year.

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State and federal officials have brokered a deal with CSX Corp. to build a high-speed rail line running from Buffalo to Albany, ending months of negotiations.

The breakthrough removes a major obstacle confronting the state as it continues to try to develop high-speed rail.

"This is welcome news and helps give us confidence that high-speed rail will be coming to Upstate New York," said said U.S. Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, who announced the deal.

Back in January, the state was awarded $153 million in federal funding for high-speed rail improvements.

The state and CSX, however, had fought over what the speed limit would be set at on the new high-speed rail line. The state wanted 110 mph as the maximum speed, while CSX wanted 90 mph.

In negotiations, CSX agreed to the 110 mph speed limit. More details of the agreement were not immediately released.

“I appreciate CSX’s readiness to do their part to make the promise of high-speed rail in New York a reality,” said Slaughter savings account payday advance.

Currently, trains traveling in the Buffalo-Albany corridor average less than 60 mph, and hit max speeds of close to 80 mph in certain stretches.

The trains will run on a right-of-way owned by CSX, a freight shipping giant.

To date, New York state has received $151 million of stimulus money for high-speed rail—a fraction of what was awarded to other states much farther along in the planning and development process.

Advocates have touted it as a key economic development tool for the state. For years, the state has studied and pursued high-speed railways, but made little progress.

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Altria Group Inc. earned $813 million, or 39 cents per share, compared with $589 million, or 28 cents. Revenue rose 2 percent.

AMR, parent of American Airlines lost $505 million, or $1.52 per share, compared with a loss of $375 million, or $1.35, a year ago. Revenue rose 4.7 percent.

AT&T Inc. earned $2.5 billion, or 42 cents a share, down from $3.1 billion, or 53 cents. Revenue rose.

EBay Inc. earned $398 million, or 30 cents a share, compared with $357 million, or 28 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 9 percent.
Freeport-McMoRan earned $897 million, or $2 per share, compared with $43 million, or 11 cents. Revenue nearly doubled.

McDonald’s Corp. earned $1.09 billion, or $1 a share, up from $979.5 million, or 87 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose 10 percent.

Morgan Stanley earned $1.41 billion, or 99 cents a share, compared with a loss of $578 million, or 57 cents. Revenue rose.

Wells Fargo & Co. earned $2.37 billion, or 45 cents per share, compared with $2.38 billion, or 56 cents, a year ago. Revenue rose.

From wire reports

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