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Followups
An update on companies
and trends featured in recent issues.
Virginia Business
January
2005
Hilb
Rogal & Hobbs Co. the world’s eighth
largest insurance and risk management intermediary,
announced in November that it plans to acquire the stock
of Smith, Bell & Thompson Inc., a Vermont-based
managing general underwriter with 2003 revenue of more
than $13.5 million. Terms of the transaction were not
disclosed. HRH was featured in a special
section on commercial insurance in December’s
issue.
Infineon
Technologies AG announced in late November
that the Munich, Germany-based chipmaker may cut back
on plans for a $1 billion expansion at its Henrico County
plant. The
magazine reported in its November issue that the
company’s plans for expansion were unchanged despite
pleading guilty to a price-fixing charge and agreeing
to pay a $160 million fine. The company now says that
changing market conditions have forced it to review
the first phase of its investment at the plant. Three
hundred of the 800 new jobs expected at the plant already
have been filled.
Smithfield
Foods Inc., the country’s largest hog
producer and processor, has agreed to pay a $2 million
civil penalty to settle charges with federal regulators
over the company’s acquisition of shares in competitor
IBP Inc. The Department of Justice’s Antitrust
Division alleged in a lawsuit that Smithfield Foods
twice failed to comply with notification requirements
before buying stock in IBP, which at the time was the
nation’s second largest pork packer. Smithfield
said that that the stock purchases were exempt from
filing requirements, because they were solely for the
purpose of investment. The department said the exemption
did not apply, because Smithfield was considering merging
with IBP at the time of the purchases. As part of the
settlement, the company — the subject of the
cover story in November’s issue — made
no admission of wrongdoing. IBP was later acquired by
Tyson Foods.
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