Walgreens acquires Rite Aid

Walgreens has acquired rival drug store company Rite Aid for about $9.41 billion in cash.
This deal will cause the drug store giant to have close to 18,000 stores worldwide. Rite Aid has about 4,600 locations in the U.S.
The Associated Press reported Tuesday Walgreens will pay $9 for each share owned by Rite Aid Corp. and the shares of both companies increased after The Wall Street Journal first reported the story.
Both companies expect the deal to close during the second half of 2016 but the agreement could draw scrutiny from anti-trust regulators. The acquisition of Rite Aid could lower sales prices for Walgreens customers because of the growing amount of prescriptions and provide the company with more buying power with drug companies.
Rite Aid will keep its name after the deal is finished but that may change over time.

Solar developments
Indiana Michigan Power broke ground Monday for a 2.6 megawatt solar generation facility and launched IM Solar, a program allowing Indiana customers to purchase solar power.
The company expects the 29,000 panel Twin Branch Solar Facility northeast of Mishawaka to generate enough electricity to power more than 350 homes each year.
Indiana Michigan Power also has solar facilities planned near New Carlisle and Watervliet, Michigan and expects to provide a total of 15 megawatts of solar power by the end of 2016.
Customers can subscribe to 50-kilowatt-hour blocks of electricity for $2.21 per month. The money will help support additional large-scale solar projects, which are cheaper than customers individually putting panels on their roofs.

Up in September
Mercer County’s unemployment rate increased from 2.7 to 2.8 percent in September, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
The county had the lowest unemployment rate in the state until tying with Delaware County in January. New data from ODJFS show that 700 of the 23,100 people in the county are unemployed.
Neighboring counties jobless rates in September include Auglaize at 3.2 percent, Van Wert and Darke at 3.6 percent, Shelby at 3.7 percent and Allen County at 4.1 percent.
The county with the highest unemployment rate is Monroe County at 8.4 percent.

Director resigns
Tim Ehlerding resigned Friday from his position as Executive Director of Wells County Economic Development.
According to a press release from the Wells County Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development board of directors, Ehlerding will take a position as corporate accounts manager for the Northeast U.S. for Varco Pruden Buildings, a steel building system supplier with home offices in Memphis, Tennessee, effective Sunday.
He will be based in Decatur for his duties.
Ehlerding served as executive director since 2012. He is a resident of Decatur and member of the North Adams Community Schools board of education. During his tenure as director he lead efforts in workforce development, the food cluster and an economic development project in financing.
The board of directors has begun a search to fill in the executive director position.

Packing plant closes
A packaging plant in New Albany for Pillsbury products will close by next summer, leaving nearly 80 workers jobless.
The Sonoco Protective Solutions plant told the Indiana Department of Workforce Development it will close down the plant by August 2016. The company will begin to lay off its 76 employees in January.
General Mills announced in February it would shut down the packing plant by mid-2016. The plant makes paper and metal cans for Pillsbury dough products and delivers them to an adjacent company plant. This closure would cost 400 workers their jobs.
Sonoco has a plant in Portland.

Profits decline  
Franklin Electric Co. Inc. profits decreased from July to September.
The Fort Wayne company had only reported $20.8 million, 43 cents, per diluted share on $232.5 million in sales.
It is an eight percent decline since last year’s third quarter in which the company earned $22.7 million, 46 cents a share, on sales of $278.1 million.
Chairman and CEO Gregg Sengstack said in a statement that the decrease earnings is because of the decline in foreign currencies against the U.S. dollar and low oil prices, causing a reduction in new oil wells.

Profit from Internet
The cable giant Comcast revealed this year it has more Internet subscribers than TV customers and wants to capitalize on the trend.
Comcast currently takes in more revenue from video customers than Internet buyers but this may not be the case for long. More consumers are watching video online than on television.
The company lost 48,000 cable subscribers in its third-quarter but reported adding 320,000 Internet customers. Comcast said this loss is still small in the third quarter since 2006 when it gained 10,000 subscribers in the July-September period.
Revenue for the company grew 8.3 percent to $18.7 billion during the period but net income decreased 23 percent to $2 billion because of tax gains last year.
The company used to impose a 250-gigabyte data cap but ended it in May 2012 to find ways to experiment with bandwidth management.

Results increase
Park National Corporation announced Monday its financial results for the third quarter, which ended with an increase in net income and continued loan growth in the commercial, consumer and mortgage areas.
 The financial company said from July to September, its net income was $20 million compared to last year’s $18.3 million during the same period, which equals a $1.7 million increase, up 9.7 percent. By the end of the nine-month period, the company earned $60.1 million from what it made last year, $59.7 million.
A subsidiary of Park’s, The Park National Bank, reported net income of $61.2 million for nine months compared to $60.9 million for the same period. It had assets totaling $7.2 billion by the end of September unlike the $6.9 billion it made last year in property.