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Beige Book Reports Optimistic New England Forecast

As the final month of 2010 rushes by, questions about how the economy will perform moving into 2011 are surfacing rapidly. This week, the Fed’s latest “Beige Book” report revealed that the economy of the New England area grew at a “slight to modest pace” between early October and mid-November, and that “the outlook for 2011 is slightly more optimistic” than in past months.

“It’s consistent with what we’ve been seeing,” explained Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University economist. “The economy seems to be slowly recovering.” (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/iaqk2y)

Information for the New England area is derived from interviews conducted at businesses across Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and parts of Connecticut. From these interviews, the report concluded that professionals working in manufacturing, software, information technology, and commercial real estate “seem more upbeat” in regards to economic conditions than six to twelve weeks ago and that the region’s travel and tourism industries are very strong. Retailers, however, gave “mixed reports” and are uncertain about holiday sales. Additionally, residential real estate in the region is still “soft.”

“Respondents are generally more optimistic than they were three months ago,” said the report. “With strong order pipelines, most are expecting a continuation or slight acceleration of their current rate of growth.”

Software and information technology businesses reported “year-over-year revenue increases from the mid-single digits to over 20 percent” last quarter. Furthermore, most businesses in the software and information technology industries reported plans to expand their workforces heading into 2011. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/iaeHd6)

Lately, reports regarding the condition of the economy seem to paint the same picture: slow recovery. While not quite the news people are hoping for, a general trend of improvement is far from discouraging. Let's hope Massachusetts can finish out 2010 with a strong December and continue its upward trend into the new year.

[Sources: http://abcn.ws/eEm1cQ, http://bit.ly/hJaXw7, http://bit.ly/eZA01j, http://bit.ly/fpHK7L]

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Wilmington's Lilliputian Gains Intel's Backing

To grow a product-based business, it is crucial that manufacturers, distributors, and financial backers are all in place. Recently, Wilmington’s Lilliputian Systems, a portable power supply developer, satisfied two of these needs via a single partnership. Lilliputian announced that Intel Corp. has not only invested an undisclosed sum in the company, but has also agreed to manufacture chips for its products at its Hudson, Massachusetts facility.

“We’re elated that Intel has signed up to be our wafer manufacturing supplier,” said Mouli Ramani, vice president of business development at Lilliputian. “But it also means something a bit different for a company the size of Intel to agree with us to the point of investing its own dollars in us.” (Image courtesy: lilliputiansystemsinc.com)

Founded in 2001, Lilliputian Systems is pioneering a portable charging system that will allow superior “on-the-go power.” Intel’s chips will go into Lilliputian’s silicon power cell, which is designed for recharging portable electronic devices. Lilliputian’s next goal is to form partnerships with distributors, such as battery companies, retailers, and portable electronics producers. (Image courtesy: lilliputiansystemsinc.com)

As a result of its latest partnership, Lilliputian anticipates Intel will hire new staff at is Hudson location, although no exact numbers have been released. Lilliputian itself, plans to grow its Wilmington-based staff in the early months of 2011 as well in anticipated of increased demand for its products.

This opportunity sounds as if it is exactly what Lilliputian was looking for. Moreover, it is great to hear that this partnership will generate jobs at both Intel and Lilliputian. Now, if Lilliputian can only secure distributors to partner with, the company will be on track for success going into 2011 and on track for creating even more jobs in the Bay State.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/aSEh08, http://bit.ly/eJcbJP]

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Attachmate Corp. to Buy Waltham's Novell, Inc. for $2.2 Billion

Lately, it seems as if companies are lining up to purchase successful Boston-area businesses. Just this March, Waltham’s Novell, Inc., a leader in workload management, turned down an unsolicited bid from Elliot Associates LP. Now, just months later, Novel has decided to accept an acquisition deal from Washington State’s Attachmate Corp. valued at approximately $2.2 billion. At the same time as the aforementioned deal goes through, Novel will sell key intellectually property rights to CPTN Holdings LLC, “a consortium of technology companies organized by Microsoft,” for $450 million in cash. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/gQNg3Y)

“After a thorough review of a broad range of alternatives to enhance stockholder value, our Board of Directors concluded that the best available alternative was the combination of a merger with Attachmate Corporation and a sale of certain intellectual property assets to the consortium,” explained Ron Hovsepian, Novell’s president and CEO. “We are pleased that these transactions appropriately recognize the value of Novell's relationships, technology and solutions, while providing our stockholders with an attractive cash premium for their investment.” (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/dQyTCY)

Attachmate’s offer of $6.10 per share equates to about a 28% premium on Novell’s recent stock price. Elliot Associate’s bid, which Novell turned down in March, offered only $5.75 per share, or an approximately 9% per share premium at the time of the offer.

“We are very excited about this transaction as it greatly complements our existing portfolio,” said Jeff Hawn, Attachmate Corporation’s chairman and CEO. “Novell has an established record of innovation, impressive technology and brand assets, and a leading ecosystem of partnerships and talented employees. The addition of Novell to our Attachmate and NetIQ businesses will enhance the spectrum of solutions we can offer to customers. We fully support Novell's commitment to its customers and we look forward to continuing to invest for the benefit of Novell's customers and partners.” (Image courtesy: http://www.attachmate.com/)

After the acquisition, Attachmate plans to split Novell into two separate businesses: one focusing on SuSE Linux and the other on Novell networking solutions. The deal is anticipated to be finalized during the first quarter 2011, but if the acquisition should fall through for any reason, Novell has agreed to pay a $60 million termination fee.

Novell seems confident that an acquisition by Attachmate will not only satisfy stock holders, but will allow Novell to reach new levels of success, even if as two separate entities. It will be interesting to see if Attachmate will begin hiring to expand its two new businesses in the early months of 2011. Hopefully, current Novell employees will find it easy to embrace Attachmate’s vision of their business’s future and will make the transition comfortably.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/frvFgx, http://bit.ly/bjgxcX, http://bit.ly/99bWke]

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Unemployment Hits 18-Month Low in Massachusetts

Unemployment has for a long time been used as an indicator of a state’s health. In recent months, Massachusetts’ unemployment has been on the decline, but naturally the state has been working to drive the rate even lower. This week, Massachusetts’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported that the state’s jobless rate dropped to 8.1% in October. Not only is this the lowest unemployment rate for the state in 18 months, but it is also 1.5% lower than the national average. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/9iT5Vh)

Last month, Massachusetts added over 10,000 jobs. Nationally, over 150,000 new jobs were created in October, meaning Massachusetts accounted for about 6.7% of new job creation last month.

“Job creation has been priority number one since day one,” Massachusetts’ Governor Deval Patrick said. “Putting people to work will remain at the top of my agenda because, despite these positive developments, we have more to do.”

Education and health services gained the most jobs in October in Massachusetts at plus 5,100. Leisure and hospitality ranked second in jobs created at plus 2,800 for the month, followed next by government with plus 1,500 jobs and manufacturing at plus 1,200 jobs. Finally, financial services gained 600 new jobs and the technology sector gained 400 jobs during October. (Image courtesy: http://bit.ly/9B1SJN)

Of course not all industries showed employment gains in October. Construction lost 1,500 jobs last month, followed by professional and business services at minus 900 jobs and utilities at minus 500 jobs.

While it is apparent that some sectors are faring better than others in the state, the fact that Massachusetts’ unemployment has consistently remained below the national average is encouraging. With the effects of economic problems in Europe beginning to trickle back to the state, hopefully Massachusetts will continue to show a downward trend in unemployment moving forward.

[Sources: http://bit.ly/cbezDG, http://bit.ly/aDJwk6]

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