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Talk of the bay: Takeover bid for developer awakens stock

By Times Staff
Published March 14, 2007

There's nothing like a takeover bid to boost your stock price. Just ask South Florida developer WCI Communities Inc., whose stock jumped as much as 20 percent Tuesday after billionaire investor/corporate raider Carl Icahn bid $956-million for the condo and single-family homebuilder. Hit hard by Florida's housing crunch, WCI's shares have fallen 29 percent over the past year while its profit has eroded. Icahn, who has a 15 percent stake in WCI, wants to dump the company's directors and replace them with a group including himself. WCI was once headed by Al Hoffman Jr., a major statewide and national fundraiser for the Bush family.

Mansion auction nothing but a dog

Bad news for Washington Mutual Bank: A Clearwater mansion once owned by singer Lisa Marie Presley failed to draw a single bid at a courthouse auction Tuesday in St. Petersburg. Speculators bought the nine-bedroom waterfront estate for $4.3-million in 2005 but quickly fell behind on the mortgage. Now WaMu will have to unload the home privately. Perhaps Elvis will come to the rescue.

Companies: We'll stay if you pay

What does a $165,000 tax credit buy you? About 55 new jobs at Oscor Inc., a heart pacemaker manufacturer in Palm Harbor. The extra hires will require a new 20,000-square-foot building off Alt. U.S. 19. An undisclosed financial services company is seeking an even greater giveaway to expand in Pinellas County. In exchange for 300 new jobs, the company wants a $900,000 break on its property taxes. Absent the incentive, the company is dropping hints about leaving Largo for California or perhaps Puerto Rico. County officials seem reluctant to say hasta la vista.

[Last modified March 13, 2007, 23:17:09]