Ryan Seacrest’s Company to Sell a Stake to Clear Channel

Ryan Seacrest, who already is a host, producer and spokesman for Clear Channel, will soon be an investment partner as well.

On Tuesday, the radio conglomerate is expected to announce its acquisition of a minority stake in Mr. Seacrest’s television and film production company, financing future growth and allowing for new collaborations between the two.

The investment in Mr. Seacrest — who will remain the main owner of Ryan Seacrest Productions — comes weeks after Clear Channel Radio renamed itself Clear Channel Media and Entertainment to promote its move into other media, including television.

Separately, the parties involved said, Mr. Seacrest also will work with the two private equity firms that own Clear Channel, Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, to identify new investments and acquisitions. The firms have committed as much as $300 million to the initiative, which could focus on music publishers, technology makers or other companies. Mr. Seacrest will help the firms find opportunities and close deals.

The investments attest to the backstage business ambitions of Mr. Seacrest, who became famous a decade ago for hosting “American Idol” on Fox. While remaining a television and radio host, he is simultaneously building a diversified media company by linking up with companies like Clear Channel, the talent agency CAA and the events promoter AEG.

Mr. Seacrest said by telephone Monday night that the Clear Channel investment was an “efficient route for future growth” and said he would tap into the company’s marketing assets, including its many radio stations and Web sites.

Separately, in a deal with CAA and AEG that was announced this month, Mr. Seacrest will have a stake in AXS TV, a cable channel that will replace HDNet this summer.

The parties involved in Tuesday’s announcement would not disclose the size of Clear Channel’s investment in Mr. Seacrest’s production company, but it is expected to produce scripted and unscripted TV shows and other types of content for Clear Channel. Ryan Seacrest Productions currently makes “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” and related shows for E! and is preparing new reality shows for CMT and Bravo.

Robert Pittman, the chief executive of Clear Channel, praised Mr. Seacrest as a businessman and said the collaboration was a chance “to share in some of the success we think he’s going to have, and to enable some of it.”

Mr. Seacrest remains in talks with Comcast about an expanded relationship with its E! channel and other parts of NBCUniversal. Such an expansion could include a role on NBC’s “Today” show, prime-time specials and a presence on the company’s coverage of the Olympics.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Seacrest said that the Clear Channel investment would not preclude his productions for NBCUniversal or any other network or studio.

Once the negotiations with NBC conclude, Mr. Seacrest will still have at least one other bit of unfinished business: whether to renew his contract with “American Idol.” His current contract is set to expire this spring, and both he and Fox have signaled that he will probably remain on the show.

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Canadians see 2012 as a year of low jobs growth, business investment

OTTAWA – After two months of declines in employment data, Canada’s jobs picture is looking anything but bright heading into the new year.
A new survey for the Bank of Montreal suggests Canadians are significantly more pessimistic than at this time last year about employment prospects and their firms’ investment plans.
The BMO poll conducted in early December found that only 17 per cent of Canadians surveyed believed hiring would improve this year, a drop from the 29 per cent who responded positively to the same question a year earlier.
Similar declines were also found on questions about whether they expected their firms to offer employee training and development, or to invest in new machinery and equipment.
“A general sense of economic uncertainty may be reflected in employees’ expectations for 2012,” said Cathy Pin, vice-president of commercial banking at BMO.
“Canadians likely expect that the current economic conditions will have a measurable impact this year on the investments companies are prepared to make in their workforce.”
The online survey of 1,542 Canadians is considered accurate, plus or minus 2.5 percentage points,19 times out of 20.
Pin said the pessimism was not shared in an earlier survey of businesses the bank conducted in September. In that sampling, about four of five business owners indicated they would invest at the same level or more this year as in 2011, and 39 per cent said they planned to hire.
The survey of Canadians, however, likely reflects generally worse conditions in the past few months, particularly on the jobs front.
After a strong start to 2011, Canada’s labour market stalled during the summer and began retreating in the fall, shedding 73,000 jobs in October and November.
Scotiabank economist Derek Holt said the fear is that employers may have front-loaded the jobs recovery, and now will focus more on addressing productivity issues to ensure their firms are competitive in the global market.
Canada has created close to 600,000 new jobs since the recession, in contrast to the United States, which is still several million jobs shy of pre-slump levels.
While hard economic data has not been as weak as confidence surveys, Holt said it is rational for businesses to adopt a cautious wait and see posture given the uncertainty over Europe’s debt crisis and the U.S. economy.
Two upcoming releases — the employment data for December due out Friday, and Monday’s release of the business outlook survey from the Bank of Canada — will give a clearer picture of where labour markets are headed this year, at least in the short term.
Most experts say 2012 will likely see the unemployment rate remain near the current 7.4 per cent rate, meaning employment must rise about 15,000 a month to keep up with growth in the labour market.
The early consensus for Friday’s data is that the economy added about 20,000 jobs in December, although there is a wide range in the opinion, from a low of minus 10,000 to a high of plus 43,000.
Holt, who is near the low end of the consensus, said the fact that salaries have not kept up with inflation in the past year is telling of the weak state of the jobs market.
“We can’t continue to experience such extremely weak productivity growth and loss of competitiveness on exports, so eventually we’re likely to see that loss of jobs growth,” he said.
“And so many different elements of (the) key domestic household sector are at or near structure peaks (such as housing and spending), that’s it’s tough to see much jobs gain out of that sector in the next one to two years.”

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Web-sharing company draws $1.7M investment

A Halifax-based company that promises to take sharing the web in a whole new direction is attracting interest from some of the hottest investors in the industry.
Prince Edward Islander Jevon MacDonald, co-founder and CEO of the company, is one of the creative minds behind the software, which allows two or more people in different locations to surf the web together, as if they’re sitting side-by-side, each with their own mouse clicking on the same page. MacDonald’s software allows users to do this within seconds, without downloads or plugins.
“The basic premise is the future of the web is shared,” said MacDonald.
So far, he is finding the software is of particular interest to companies that sell online.
“We had the biggest websites in the world calling,” he said.
“We were really surprised that they had been looking for something like this and hadn’t been able to find it.”
The company also received calls from investors. A consortium including Freestyle Capital and Yuri Milner, known for his investments in Facebook and Groupon, put $1.7 million in seed capital into the company earlier this year.
While only 29, MacDonald is far from a neophyte. He launched his first software company in the summer before he started high school.
Rob Paterson, a P.E.I. IT industry consultant, has been following MacDonald’s work, and is excited about this latest venture.
“This is going to be customer service on steroids,” said Paterson.
“I think this could be massive. To be able to work with somebody directly in a hands-on kind of way is, I think, tremendously exciting.”
While the idea is exciting, GoInstant is just getting started. MacDonald said his current focus is to shore up big-name clients, and ensure that his software is ready for launching.

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Carlyle launches new financial firms buyout fund

(Reuters) – The Carlyle Group has started fundraising for a new global financial services buyout fund that is seeking to top its previous $1.1 billion fund, which is now almost fully invested, a person familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
With about 90 percent of its first financials buyout fund spent, the private equity group is looking for more firepower as Europe’s financial crisis and higher capital requirements for banks offer new investment opportunities, the source said.
The new fund, Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners II, has a minimum commitment threshold for investors of $10 million and intends to fundraise for more than a year, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Carlyle, which is preparing for an initial public offering in 2012, is one of the private equity industry’s most prolific fund managers, with more than $148 billion of assets under management in 89 active funds and 52 fund of fund vehicles.
Carlyle’s financial services group is headed by former UBS investment banker Olivier Sarkozy, half-brother of France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy and a flamboyant New York socialite with a masters in medieval history from St. Andrews University in Scotland.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a major investor in Carlyle, had made 1.2 times its $94.1 million contribution to Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners I as of June 30, according to a performance report by the pension fund. The first fund launched in 2008.
The financial crisis which began in the summer of 2007 has weighed on private equity returns in the sector. The $7 billion financial firms fund raised in 2006 by the private equity firm founded by former Goldman Sachs banker J. Christopher Flowers is down about 60 percent, a source told Reuters in November.
However, J.C. Flowers’ latest fund, which raised $2.3 billion in 2009 and has invested about half the money, is doing much better and is currently up about 30 percent, according to the source.
Investments of Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners I include Bermuda-based Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son, Florida bank BankUnited and Boston-based asset manager Boston Private Financial. BankUnited shares rose as much as 9.3 percent on the day of their debut when the bank floated in January.
Earlier this year, Carlyle participated in the $1.5 billion auction of Regions Financial Corp’s Morgan Keegan brokerage and investment banking unit, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters in October.
(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Paritosh Bansal in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

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Loan gives Zidian boost

Zidian Manufacturing Inc. will create 58 full-time jobs in Boardman after receiving a $600,000 state research and development and investment loan Monday from the Ohio Development Financing Advisory Council for an $11.05 million project.
The investment, which also will retain 58 full-time jobs, will include $6.5 million for building, $3.8 million for machinery and equipment and $740,000 for other investments, according to the Regional Chamber.
The average hourly wage for new positions will be $12.75.
Zidian’s Summer Garden Food Manufacturing produces its flagship brand, Gia Russa, as well as celebrity chef brands, private label and store brands.
The company’s 10-acre campus on McClurg Road includes a “Green LEED Certified” food manufacturing facility, as well as a building housing onsite research and development center, quality assurance laboratories and a Culinary Arts Center.
In 2010, an adjacent building and property were purchased to expand warehousing and distribution.

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Business

Zidian Manufacturing Inc. will create 58 full-time jobs in Boardman after receiving a $600,000 state research and development and investment loan Monday from the Ohio Development Financing Advisory Council for an $11.05 million project.
The investment, which also will retain 58 full-time jobs, will include $6.5 million for building, $3.8 million for machinery and equipment and $740,000 for other investments, according to the Regional Chamber.
The average hourly wage for new positions will be $12.75.
Zidian’s Summer Garden Food Manufacturing produces its flagship brand, Gia Russa, as well as celebrity chef brands, private label and store brands.
The company’s 10-acre campus on McClurg Road includes a “Green LEED Certified” food manufacturing facility, as well as a building housing onsite research and development center, quality assurance laboratories and a Culinary Arts Center.
In 2010, an adjacent building and property were purchased to expand warehousing and distribution.
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Olympics, Titanic, Cuba shape travel in 2012

NEW YORK — The Olympics, the centennial of the Titanic sinking, new rules on travel to Cuba, a once-a-decade horticultural festival in the Netherlands and a continued reliance on technology and personalization will all help shape travel in 2012.
Here are some details on these and other destinations and trends.
EVENTS: The Summer Olympic Games take place in London, July 27-Aug. 12. For those without tickets, Hyde Park and other places will host live broadcasts of the games on giant outdoor screens. A three-month arts festival beginning June 21 will add a cultural component, from Shakespeare to music to street performers.
Great Britain will also celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee June 2-5. She is only the second British monarch after Queen Victoria to mark 60 years on the throne.
The Netherlands is planning Floriade, a horticultural expo that takes place once a decade. A 160-acre park with five different floral and nature themes opens April 5-Oct. 7, in Venlo, about 85 miles or two hours by train from Amsterdam; http://www.floriade.com.
The European Capitals of Culture for 2012 are Maribor, Slovenia, known for wines, a historic town center and nearby forests, waterfalls and moors; and Guimaraes, Portugal, known for crafts like goldsmithing, pottery and embroidery, and for its roots as the birthplace of Portugal’s first king, who established the country as an independent kingdom from Spain. Arabella Bowen, executive director of editorial and content strategy at the travel guidebook publisher Fodor’s, says both destinations are great values for food and hotels, with interesting attractions away from the crowds.
In the U.S., the bicentennial of the War of 1812 will be marked with tall ships, educational events and fireworks in several destinations, including June 6-12 in Norfolk, Va., and June 13-19 in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor and the Chesapeake Bay.
TITANIC 100TH: The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank April 15, 1912, on its maiden voyage from England to New York. A variety of events in 2012 — including some cruises — will mark 100 years since the tragedy in which more than 1,500 died. Halifax, Nova Scotia’s Maritime Museum of the Atlantic offers an extensive permanent Titanic exhibit but will also be hosting special exhibits and events for the April anniversary and into the summer. Visitors can also tour Halifax’s Fairview Lawn Cemetery, where 121 Titanic victims are buried.
The Titanic was built in Belfast, Ireland, and an enormous waterfront development called Titanic Quarter is taking shape on the site of the former shipyard, with hotels, eateries, parks, theaters and galleries. Titanic Belfast, an ultra-modern building whose shape and silvery color evokes ship hulls on the water, is set to open in April with Titanic-themed galleries and interactive exhibits. Southampton, England, which lost 549 locals when the ship went down, mostly crew members, is also opening a new interactive museum, Sea City, focusing on various aspects of the Titanic story.
Far from those ports, the Titanic Pigeon Forge attraction in Tennessee is a half-scale, three-deck reproduction of the ship. A centennial tribute “Night to Remember” is planned for April 14.
DESTINATIONS: For “up and coming” destinations for 2012, Croatia, Vietnam and Panama were named in an annual survey of 640 travel agents and owners from Travel Leaders. For top 10 international destinations based on 2012 booking data, the Travel Leaders survey listed Caribbean cruises; Cancún, Mexico; Playa del Carmen, Mexico; Mediterranean cruises; Rome; London; Punta Cana, Dominican Republic; Paris; Montego Bay and Negril, Jamaica.
Fodor’s Bowen put Cuba on her list of top destinations for 2012. U.S. citizens can now travel to Cuba legally even if they don’t have relatives there under new U.S. State Department regulations permitting certain types of trips. “Everyone wants to get in to see the country before everything changes,” said Bowen.
Interest in Myanmar is also increasing. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton recently visited, and an organization founded by activist Aung San Suu Kyi said it welcomes responsible tourism. Abercrombie & Kent has filled several tours and just added another departure for fall 2012.
NORTHERN LIGHTS: The aurora borealis or northern lights, those mysterious curtains of color seen in Northern Hemisphere skies, are caused by a cycle of magnetic activity on the sun. The cycle lasts about 11 years, and experts say a period of low activity is ending.
Some folks are predicting this will be a banner year for northern lights. The University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute, which publishes auroral forecasts at http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast, doesn’t necessarily foresee peak viewing in 2012, but agrees that we are entering a period of “increasing solar activity” with “more active, colorful aurora during the normal viewing season,” late August to late April (when there’s less daylight than during summer).
TECHNOLOGY: The smartphone has become the must-have tool for travel, offering GPS navigation, online bookings, scannable check-ins, and QR codes and locaters with information geared to wherever you are.
Ad agency JWT’s travel trend list for 2012 mentions apps like Uber, a cab-dispatching service; Postagram, which turns snapshots into postcards; and Vocre, an app that translates spoken words into other languages.
But never mind crowd-sourcing from websites where phony reviews and picky consumers make it hard to figure out the real deal. Instead, travelers are friend-sourcing, with sites like Trippy.com showing recommendations from your social networks. Another new app, Wenzani, takes content from guidebook publishers Lonely Planet, Frommer’s and DK and integrates it with advice from your friends and social networks.
ELECTION AND ECONOMY: Do presidential elections affect travel? A recent survey found 75 percent of U.S. Tour Operators Association members believe travel decreases in election years. Respondents said uncertainty and negative rhetoric keeps people home.
Still, 75 percent of USTOA members anticipate a growth in sales in 2012 as the economy improves. Eighty percent of agents and owners at Travel Leaders also said bookings for 2012 are so far equal to or higher than 2011.

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