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Finance

Financial data startup YCharts gets $3.9 million investment

http://ycharts.com/ YCharts is a young company but says it has 1 million monthly users of its web site. Staff Chicago Business Journal Online financial research company YCharts has raised a third investment round of $3.875 million, with Morningstar Inc. and Reed Elsevier Ventures as lead investors. The latest round brings the total investment in the company to $8.625 million. YCharts said it will use the funds to accelerate growth of the company’s financial terminal[1]. YCharts, based in Chicago and New York, was founded in 2009 by Shawn Carpenter[2], a former Google executive, who is the company’s chief executive, and Ara Anjargolian, former lead developer for Tribune Co., who is chief technology officer. “This latest funding round -- led by two globally prominent information companies, each with great strategic relevance to YCharts -- will enable us to be even more aggressive in growing our institutional business,” Carpenter said in a statement. The company said it has 1 million users monthly, with clients focused within the investment, management consulting, and insurance industries as well as corporate sales teams. YCharts said its mission is to collect all financial data, globally, across all asset classes, and make it available via the web. YCharts tracks 350,000 economic indicators from around the world and more than 2,000 metrics for each listed equity. References^ financial terminal (ycharts.com)^ Shawn Carpenter (feeds.bizjournals.com)...
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Tattoo you; The crowdfunding game: This week in photos - May 3, 2013

Scott Paulus George Wang is owner of Waukesha Tattoo Co., a thriving tattoo business that also serves as an art gallery. David Schuyler[1] Digital Producer- The Business Journal Email[2] | Twitter[3] | LinkedIn[4] A Milwaukee chef is looking to start up his own restaurant and a game store owner is waiting on friends online to help raise money for product growth. And there's no use in crying for Joe Bartolotta[5], who's got a new taste for life after decades as a slave to juvenile diabetes. To give Business Journal readers a chance to further see our subjects and their businesses, we run a slideshow of additional photos that didn't make the week's issue. This week's feature includes photos that help tell and illustrate the stories from our May 3 issue. Digital content producer, Reporter, Business of the Arts and Nonprofits References^ David Schuyler (feeds.bizjournals.com)^ Email (feeds.bizjournals.com)^ Twitter (twitter.com)^ LinkedIn (feeds.bizjournals.com)^ Joe Bartolotta (feeds.bizjournals.com)...
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Private equity leaves Salem with $1B

Cathy Cheney | Portland Business Journal The Oregon Investment Council has made commitments of nearly $1 billion to three private equity funds. Staff Portland Business Journal The Oregon Investment Council on Wednesday made commitments totaling nearly $1 billion to funds being raised by Apollo Global Management, Lone Star and Blackstone Group. As the Oregonian reports[1], the state has invested in previous funds by all three private equity firms. The money will come from the Public Employees Retirement Fund. The Apollo fund will target buyout and distressed debt opportunities, the Lone Star Fund will target distressed debt and real estate assets, and the Blackstone fund will invest in what it called "tactical opportunities." References^ the Oregonian reports (www.oregonlive.com)...
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Auto lenders, beware: Government encourages guesswork

Greg Edwards[1] Reporter- St. Louis Business Journal Email[2] | Twitter[3] | Facebook[4] More trouble lies ahead for lenders trying to stay away from risky borrowers: The federal government wants to force auto lenders to guess the race, ethnicity and gender of potential borrowers and adjust interest rates accordingly. It’s a proposal from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau[5], a creation of the Dodd-Frank Act. The idea is to make sure “protected classes” get the same interest rates as others. “Put bluntly, they want lenders to profile you,” based on your name and address, Rep. John Campbell[6], a Republican from California, wrote in an op-ed piece[7] Monday in The Wall Street Journal[8]. “Does that mean a person named Jefferson who lives in the Bronx is to be presumed an African-American, but not a Jefferson in Wichita?” Recall that last week Mariner Kemper[9], chairman and CEO of UMB Financial Corp., warned of a “deterioration in terms,” including a push for mortgage loans with no down payment and the Obama administration’s push to lower other lending standards as well. Shoptalk, Banking, Economic development References^ Greg Edwards (feeds.bizjournals.com)^ Email (feeds.bizjournals.com)^ Twitter (twitter.com)^ Facebook (www.facebook.com)^ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (www.bizjournals.com)^ John Campbell (feeds.bizjournals.com)^ op-ed piece (stream.wsj.com)^ The Wall Street Journal (www.bizjournals.com)^ Mariner Kemper (feeds.bizjournals.com)...
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FDIC lawsuit seeks $46 million from executives of failed Frontier Bank

Staff Puget Sound Business Journal Attorneys for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday filed a lawsuit seeking $46 million in damages against 12 former officers and directors of Frontier Bank of Everett, which failed in 2010. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, contends the executives were negligent in approving loans that violated Frontier’s policies and were contrary to prudent lending practices. Frontier was founded in Everett in 1978. In 2003, the lawsuit said, the bank “instituted an aggressive growth strategy centered on increased commercial real estate lending.” Frontier’s total real estate loans increased 58 percent to $3.22 billion during a two-year period ending in 2007, the lawsuit said. By 2009, the bank’s concentration of acquisition, development and construction loans relative to total assets was the highest of any insured bank in Washington state. After the financial crisis of 2008, the bank struggled to survive amid crashing real estate values and a growing percentage of bad loans. But regulators wouldn’t advance Frontier’s application for bailout money and killed a prospective buyer’s $450 million acquisition plan, a Puget Sound Business Journal investigation later showed[1]. State regulators finally closed Frontier [2]in April 2010, and the bank was put into receivership under the FDIC. Regulators sold Frontier's assets to San Francisco-based Union Bank[3], National Association, which reopened Frontier branches as Union Bank. Frontier officers and directors named as defendants are Michael J. Clementz, Randy E. Deklyen, Lucille M. DeYoung, John J. Dickson, Robert J. Dickson, David A. Dorsey, William H. Lucas, James W. Ries, Robert W. Robinson, Lyle E. Ryan, Darrell J. Storkson and Mark O. Zenger, according to the lawsuit. The FDIC told the court that it is seeking damages and interest from the defendants, as determined by a jury trial. References^ a Puget Sound Business Journal investigation later…
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