Moving and Storage Business News

The News Review:

- Changes Benefit Russell 2000 Index Funds
- Company Stumbles its way to $75 million Internet startup’s…
- Shrimp processors find new home in Harlingen
- Plan aims to get gas to evacuating residents | Chron.com – Houston…

Changes Benefit Russell 2000 Index Funds
wsj.com – Jun 24, 2007
That’s because, in the past, the largest, most heavily weighted stocks in the Russell 2000 could more easily migrate up to the Russell 1000. Based on preliminary data, two companies that are staying in the Russell 2000 this year because of the new banding rule are apparel maker Columbia Sportswear and restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill. Among the companies that are graduating to the Russell 1000: Data-storage company Brocade Communications and discount retailer Big Lots. Russell in recent years has also begun adding initial public offerings to the indexes quarterly rather than just once a year, requiring less trading at reconstitution. Changing market conditions are also helping to make index membership more stable. Since market volatility has been relatively low recently, fewer stocks are moving in and out of each index’s market-cap range. During this year’s reconstitution, fewer than 300 companies are moving into the Russell 3000, well below the 10-year average of 405…
Changing market conditions are also helping to make index membership more stable. Since market volatility has been relatively low recently, fewer stocks are moving in and out of each index’s market-cap range. During this year’s reconstitution, fewer than 300 companies are moving into the Russell 3000, well below the 10-year average of 405. What’s more, the growing popularity of alternative strategies like short-selling is one factor helping to diminish the trading opportunities traditionally offered by the index reconstitution, says Stephen Wood, senior portfolio strategist at Russell. Short-selling involves selling borrowed shares with the hope of buying them back later at a lower price. Recently, many money managers have been betting against small-cap stocks, and those short sales have weighed down the prices of stocks set to be added to the Russell 2000 Index. Between the end of May and Thursday, stocks expected to be added to the Russell 2000 fell 0.

Company Stumbles its way to $75 million Internet startup’s…
San Francisco Chronicle – Jun 24, 2007
After toiling in obscurity for four years, the founders pulledtogether an A-list of Silicon Valley investors in late 2005, moved to SanFrancisco in early 2006, and rode the Web 2. Last monththey sold their 14-person company to eBay for $75 million. “The entire nature of StumbleUpon technology is based on serendipity,and the entire history of the company has been a series of fortuitous,serendipitous coincidences that mirror the technology,” said Brad O’Neill,the Silicon Valley investor who discovered the company and who has become amentor to the founders. “There is something going on at a higher order thatis difficult to grasp, something about the ‘pay-it-forward’ goodwill natureof it. The founders, Garrett Camp, Geoff Smith and Justin LaFrance, all intheir 20s, worked on the technology while Camp pursued his master’s degreeat the University of Calgary. Camp had been best friends with Smith’sroommate, and Smith, who hailed from Victoria, had met LaFrance in highschool at a technology camp…
By early 2005, it had 50,000 users. O’Neill, now 35, is an expert in data storage at the Taneja Group, aconsulting firm in the Boston area. But he is also a technology enthusiastwho recognizes pathbreaking developments, and he instantly recognized thepotential of StumbleUpon. “I became an active Stumbler, and befriendedGeoff and Garrett and Justin,” he said. They now refer to him as “UncleBrad. ” He questioned them about their business, expecting to find that theyhad terabytes of storage — huge amounts, which often present a challengefor small tech firms that try to grow.

Shrimp processors find new home in Harlingen
Brownsville Herald – Jun 24, 2007
South Texas Shrimp Processors is moving its shrimp freezing and packaging plant from a 42,000-square-foot facility in San Benito to a 71,000-square-foot facility in Harlingen, according to Matt Gorges, chairman, and Robert Dalzell, president. Harlingen and the city’s development corporation approved a $363,500 grant to partially fund the move as long as the company invested at least $3…
Packers and Processors, which will be owned by a group of local investors. Gorges will be chairman and president of the holding company, and Dalzell will be vice president. The agreement with the development corporation requires South Texas Shrimp Processors and Valley International Cold Storage to employ 358 full-time workers within three years, which would boost employment at the two companies by 107 positions. The move and reorganization will allow the company to have more processing and freezing capacity, and its owners hope to diversify its product line to be able to process food year-round, instead of being so dependent on seasonal shrimp cycles. For the move, South Texas Shrimp Processors acquired the Advance Foods processing plant in a cash sale in which the shrimp processing company will invest about $4 million to move and set up operations. The San Benito plant will be sold to a Valley-based okra and spinach processor. South Texas Shrimp Processors processes and packs Gulf Coast shrimp from waters off the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Texas, including some that come through Brownsville and Port Isabel.

Plan aims to get gas to evacuating residents | Chron.com – Houston…
Houston Chronicle – Jun 24, 2007
Little, former Shell Oil Co. president and CEO, whom Perry tapped to oversee his Task Force on Evacuation, Transportation and Logistics. “Every company was on their own. The problem arose when the voluntary evacuation was overlaid on top of the mandatory evacuation and the roads were clogged. How to solve it? Hunker down with the gasoline industry and map out a plan. It wasn’t that easy. When oil executives come to the government table, they don’t travel alone…
An intense public awareness campaign urging motorists to keep their tanks at least half-full during hurricane season is expected to offset spikes in consumer demand during an emergency. Buses transporting the elderly and disabled will move out of a hurricane zone much more quickly, reducing gridlock and the potential for health issues for those aboard. And though there is no uniform free-fuel program during a hurricane, one state service already assisting those stranded without fuel on evacuation routes is being tweaked in an attempt to keep traffic moving and tempers down. Fresh images of Hurricane Katrina, no coordination with the fuel industry beforehand and a lack of understanding about mandatory evacuation created a perfect storm of headaches for what will be remembered as the Great Texas Evacuation of 2005. More complicationsBy the time Rita’s 175 mph winds followed Katrina into the Gulf of Mexico and made a beeline for Texas, motorists had tapped just about every drop of gas available in Houston and the surrounding area. Complicating the exodus was that until Rita, no Texans had ever been told they must evacuate from a storm area. Exactly who would call a mandatory evacuation was decided only three months before the hurricane struck.