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Talk of the Bay: Tidbits from the Tampa Bay business world

By Times Staff
Published March 19, 2007

Inconspicuous no more, Wales is a cover boy

Jimmy Wales, the St. Petersburg resident behind online encyclopedia Wikipedia, is breaking from his normally inconspicuous tendencies. He's on the cover of Fast Company magazine's April issue, behind the headline "Google's Worst Nightmare." As detailed in a St. Petersburg Times story in January, Wales and his for-profit Silicon Valley spin-off, Wikia, are working on a search engine to challenge the behemoth that is Google. Among his ideas: Rely on volunteers (like Wikipedia does), be transparent about how search results are garnered (that's Wales' main beef with Google) and team up with other small search engines. But for all his plans, Wales professes nonchalance. "As long as it's fun, I don't care," he told Fast Company.

Wedding bells delayed for OSI?

So, is the spring wedding between OSI Partners Inc. and two private equity firms on schedule? The Tampa parent of chains such as Outback Steakhouse and Bonefish Grill recently struck a deal with banker Wachovia to extend a $50-million line of credit until May 30. That's a month later than the investor groups were supposed to close on their purchase of OSI. OSI has a $40-million line of credit with Wachovia, according to a filing with regulators. The bank is a lender in the company's $225-million syndicated line of credit.

No rest in the subprime fallout

Another day, another subprime lender takes a hit. The parent of Ameriquest Mortgage Co., once one of the biggest provider of home loans to Americans with checkered credit, fired a large number of workers last week and closed four call centers. ACC Capital said it was closing Ameriquest centers in Schaumburg, Ill.; Shelton, Conn.; Phoenix; and Sacramento. Those activities will be consolidated at ACC's headquarters in Orange, Calif. ACC is also closing the processing center for its Argent wholesale mortgage lender in White Plains, N.Y. The company, which had 6,000 employees before the layoffs, refused to say how many people were affected.

1-million pounds of pesticides down

Um, we think this is a positive milestone: Last week, the state said it had collected 1-million pounds of unwanted or outdated pesticides since starting its "Operation Cleansweep" program 12 years ago. The program picks up pesticides from nearly 1,500 farms, golf courses and other businesses throughout the state and disposes of them for free. Cleansweep is a perk for businesses, because proper disposal of pesticides can be costly and complicated. Operation Cleansweep is a joint effort of the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Department of Environmental Protection.

[Last modified March 16, 2007, 20:27:58]