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Talk of the bay

By TIMES WIRES
Published February 9, 2007

Tampa company turns on profit with IPO listing

In a bit of dot-com deja vu, Tampa's Switch & Data Facilities Co., struggling to turn a profit since its 1998 inception, raised about $200-million Thursday in an initial public offering of 11.7-million shares. The company, which trades as SDXC on NASDAQ, runs 34 data centers in North America for telecommunications companies to set up switches. The company relied in the past on private venture capital, and will use money from the IPO to pay off $92-million in debt. The market embraced the Switch pitch: The stock closed its first day at $19, 12 percent above the IPO price.

State has identity (theft) trouble

Floridians filed 43,682 consumer complaints with federal authorities last year. Our No. 1 beef? Identity theft, says the Federal Trade Commission. Forty percent of callers accused someone of using their personal data to pilfer a credit card, bank account or government check; obtain a loan or job; or pawn off a phone or utility bill. Lower down the complaint list: shop-at-home/catalog sales; prizes and sweepstakes; Internet services and computers; and Web auctions.

Regional Fed boss has world of insight

Look for Dennis Lockhart to bring an international perspective to his new role as president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Lockhart, 60, takes over March 1, replacing Jack Guynn. Lockhart teaches international business at Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins University and had on-the-ground experience with Citibank, which sent him to the Middle East and Latin America as well as New York and Atlanta. To take the Fed job, he'll resign as chairman of a nonprofit operating venture capital funds in emerging markets. The Atlanta bank is one of 12 in the Federal Reserve system, serving Florida and parts of five other states.

St. Louis bank gets 10 percent of Coast

Financially strapped Coast Financial Holdings of Bradenton may be attracting interest from out-of-state banks. James Dierberg, chairman of First Banks Inc. of St. Louis, has paid $5.3-million for nearly 10 percent of Coast, facing losses from 482 loans to customers of idled St. Petersburg builder Construction Compliance Inc. Coast, under state and federal scrutiny, has been shopping for possible buyout partners.

All about money

Times personal finance editor Helen Huntley talks about money topics and answers your finance questions at blogs.tampabay.com/money.

[Last modified February 8, 2007, 23:44:37]