The recent sale of the AT&T building in downtown Little Rock for $1.8 million includes an agreement for the telecommunication company's Arkansas staff to remain in the building for the next year, according to a real estate investor who helped broker the deal.
"We cannot be real detailed in terms of what the specific terms are within the contract or the deal," said David Jones, a former Little Rock businessman now living in Dallas, citing a nondisclosure agreement. "But ultimately they are going to continue to be a tenant in the building, at least for the course of the next year."
Jones represents Valk Properties Two LLC of Rockwall, Texas, which closed on the transaction Dec. 18.
The 10-story office building at 1111 W. Capitol Ave. and two blocks east of the state Capitol building totals 370,566 square feet. It has 134 parking spaces, including a 24-space garage.
Jones said several options are being considered for the building but that nothing is definite.
"We don't have definitive plans yet other than we believe it is a structurally sound building. It was in a good location. I'm familiar with that part of the world, and it made a lot of sense for us to do the acquisition," he said.
-- Noel Oman
FAA returning more inspectors to work
Federal officials say they are recalling more aviation-safety inspectors who were idled by the partial government shutdown.
A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday that the agency expects to have about 2,200 inspectors back on the job by the end of this week.
That is up from 500 inspectors who were recalled by the end of last week. The FAA has more than 3,000 inspectors who oversee work done by airlines, aircraft manufacturers and repair shops.
Unlike air traffic controllers and airport security screeners, the inspectors are deemed nonessential government workers. They were furloughed when the shutdown began Dec. 22.
-- The Associated Press
2 charged in SEC hack, trading scheme
NEWARK, N.J. -- Two Ukrainian men hacked into the Securities and Exchange Commission's computers to steal thousands of quarterly and annual reports of public companies and worked with traders to use the information to make more than $4 million in illegal profits, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said Tuesday.
An indictment charged Artem Radchenko and Oleksandr Ieremenko with multiple counts of conspiracy, computer fraud and wire fraud. The SEC also filed civil charges Tuesday against Ieremenko and six others from the United States, Ukraine and Russia plus two offshore trading companies.
Both men are fugitives. Ieremenko is well known to law enforcement through his suspected involvement in a similar conspiracy to hack into the computers of newswire services. He was indicted in connection with that scheme in 2015.
In one example of how the system is believed to have worked, officials said, a report was extracted eight minutes after it appeared in SEC computers -- but before it was publicly available. The group then made trades for roughly 35 minutes and ultimately made more than $300,000 after the information was made public.
-- The Associated Press
U.S. planning to ease drone restrictions
Federal officials plan to ease restrictions on flying small drones over crowds and at night, which would give a boost to the commercial use of unmanned aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration outlined draft rules Monday that would let drone operators do those things without a special waiver from current rules.
For example, waivers for night flights would no longer be needed for operators who go through special training and put anti-collision lighting on their drones.
It's not clear how long it might be before the FAA's easing goes into effect. The FAA said it won't take final action until it finishes another regulation regarding remote identification of small drones, which analysts say could be years away.
Regulators say they are trying to balance the commercial possibilities of drones with the potential threat they pose to safety and privacy.
-- The Associated Press
Amazon fight unites Walgreens, Microsoft
Walgreens Boots Alliance is teaming with Microsoft to design "digital health corners" for its stores as both companies battle an ever-expanding Amazon.com.
For Walgreens, the pharmacy giant must contend with looming competitive threats from Amazon and other upstarts looking to disrupt the drugstore business. Meanwhile, Microsoft is angling to gain ground against Amazon Web Services by offering back-end computing muscle to retail, grocery and health operators that don't want to give more business to one of their biggest foes.
As part of the accord, Walgreens will begin using Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing software, moving applications and data to the tech giant's data centers, the companies said.
Walgreens has forged a series of agreements designed to insulate it from a rapidly evolving health care and retail landscape. After rival CVS Health Corp. agreed to buy health insurer Aetna Inc., Walgreens set up a senior health clinic joint venture with insurer Humana Inc. And to ramp up its technological and e-commerce sophistication, it has signed deals with Verily Life Sciences, a unit of Google parent Alphabet Inc., and cosmetics retailer Birchbox.
-- Bloomberg News
Lampert bids again in Sears auction
Sears Chairman Lampert Eddie Lampert presented a new bid for Sears on Tuesday that included some concessions as talks to save the bankrupt retailer from liquidation continue, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.
The new offer includes terms that are more favorable to the department store chain and its creditors, including more cash, said the people, who asked not to be named as the negotiations are confidential. The overall value of Lampert's offer is still pegged at more than $5 billion, one of the people said.
Parties involved in the talks are evaluating the revised proposal, and there are no assurances that a deal to keep Sears in business will be reached, the people said. The talks are part of an auction for Sears Holdings Corp. that began Monday.
A representative for ESL Investments, the hedge fund run by Lampert that made the offer, didn't provide comment. A representative for Sears declined to comment. Sears is scheduled to file a notice of the auction results with the bankruptcy court today.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 01/16/2019