December 22, 2006 --
1. Back Yard Burgers
It's hard to tell what will happen with Memphis-based Back Yard Burgers, Inc., in 2007.
In 2006, BBAC LLC continued its attempts to purchase the restaurant chain, which includes 174 stores in 21 states.
So far, Back Yard Burgers has rejected four BBAC offers to buy the company.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq stock market has threatened to de-list Back Yard Burgers.
The company isn't in compliance with Nasdaq marketplace rule 4310(c)(14) because it did not file quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a timely manner.
A Nasdaq listing qualifications panel is reviewing Back Yard Burgers' efforts to retain its common stock listing.
The company intends to file its Form 10-Q as soon as it completes its stock option review.
="margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;">2. Steve Bares
It's taken Steve Bares five years and $20 million to reach the point where he can begin building things, instead of tearing them down. As president of Memphis Bioworks Foundation, Bares is the point man on development of the UT-Baptist Research Park.
In 2007 new research facilities will begin to spring out of the ground.
Construction is to begin in January on two of those buildings, the Regional Biocontainment Lab and animal vivarium, a $22 million project with the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the Department Homeland Security. The other is a new permanent home for the UT College of Pharmacy.
Bioworks has already pre-leased its own Phase I building, with space for UT, the University of Memphis and Smith & Nephew. The new hope is that the Medical Education and Research Institute can also move on site.
3. CB Richard Ellis
CB Richard Ellis, Inc., was on track to finalize its announced purchase of Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. on Dec. 20, 2006.
Memphis offices for the two companies are still mum on the effects of the sale and the general feeling is that any shakeups will come in early 2007.
Other questions arise from the status of CBRE Memphis' minimal partnership with the national company.
Earl Blankenship and Kevin Adams sold 5% of the stock in their Interstate Realty Corp. to CB Richard Ellis in 1996, forming the Memphis affiliate.
But CB Richard Ellis, Inc., is on the path to acquire back some affiliate offices. The company just purchased its Hawaii affiliate office and stated that the buy was in line with its strategy to shore up its presence in key U.S. markets.
4. Memphis Grizzlies
In a matter of months, the Memphis Grizzlies have gone from a three-time playoff team (albeit one that hasn't won a playoff game) to a team in chaos.
It began when all star Pau Gasol broke his foot in the World Championships in August, and it steadily got worse when majority owner Michael Heisley announced former NBA players Brian Davis and Christian Laettner planned to buy his share of the team for $252 million.
The Grizzlies will end 2006 with a losing record and no buyer. Questions about whether or not Davis and Laettner could afford the team led to the demise of their ownership bid.
Fans are wondering what the future holds for a team that went from the worst in the league to a playoff team and back in a roller coaster three-year period.
The big question of 2007: Who will emerge as the next potential buyer?
5. Luminetx
A company that was founded in a basement three years ago now has over $35 million in capital, the capability to produce 1,000 units of its product and the potential of reaching more than $25 million in sales in 2007.
Luminetx, the company that created and markets the VeinViewer, a device that uses infrared light to help medical personnel locate veins, has obtained FDA approval and is currently marketing, manufacturing and distributing the device.
Luminetx CEO Jim Phillips says the company is currently improving the quality of the VeinViewer by offering storage of vein images and the capability to print as well. Luminetx is also altering the technology for security purposes with Snowflake, a version of the VeinViewer that uses vein imaging for identification purposes.
6. Pinnacle Airlines
A year of internal labor negotiations and speculations on Pinnacle Airlines' continued partnership with Northwest Airlines has ended with a bit of hope.
Calyon Securities analyst Ray Neidl said last week that NWA may be close to a new regional service agreement with its Northwest Airlink partner Pinnacle. Over the past year, Northwest has been waiting for Pinnacle to reach a new contract with its pilots before signing a new Airline Service Agreement. But a deal could close as early as January 2007 as "Northwest is anxious to tie up this loose end to enable the carrier to exit bankruptcy early next year."
In 2006, NWA started its own low-cost subsidiary, Compass. Pinnacle responded by making a concerted effort to become more efficient by lowering costs and trying "to do more with less," its officials have said.
7. ServiceMaster
ServiceMaster Co. is poised to move its corporate headquarters from Illinois to Memphis, but bigger news and even harder decisions have yet to be made.
Still to be decided is whether or not the company will opt to lease additional space at Ridgeway Center or build a 600,000-square-foot campus somewhere in Shelby County.
A decision is likely to be announced in the first quarter of 2007 and the move is expected to happen by mid-2007.
Also unknown is exactly how many of the 165 employees in Downers Grove will decide to make the move to Memphis. Company officials admit that they expect a large percentage to opt out of the move.
8. Smith & Nephew
Orthopedics continues to be one of the most profitable sectors in health care, and most orthopedic companies have been snatched up by big conglomerates. One in particular, Memphis-based Smith & Nephew, has dodged that bullet.
For odds makers, Smith & Nephew continues to be the hands-down favorite as the next company in a merger or acquisition. Rumors in early November that Smith & Nephew might merge with Biomet got so loud that the company took the extraordinary measure of publicly denying it. Smith & Nephew also issued a terse statement that it would no longer respond to any such rumors.
Then the Biomet rumors popped up again in early December. But locally the most popular speculation is that Medtronic has the hots for Smith & Nephew.
Plus, most of their scientists and engineers know each other and are corporate neighbors.
9. Mitch Steiner of GTx
In 1976, venture capitalist Bob Swanson helped Stanford biochemist Herb Boyer start the first company to commercialize recombinant DNA technology. Today that company is Genentech, and it has spawned hundreds of other biotech firms out of Stanford.
That's the strategy J.R. 'Pitt' Hyde and urologist Mitch Steiner have for GTx, Inc. GTx is moving a basket of new drugs through the process, and investors are starting to get excited as reflected in sharp rises in the stock price even though original products have yet to reach the market. Look for Acapodene to make a big splash in 2008, followed by several other drugs.
Steiner has plenty of peers at UT with good ideas, and new people are being recruited to Memphis. He will play the role Boyer did in Silicone Valley, guiding new medical technology from the lab to the market.
10. Peggy Troy, Methodist
Peggy Troy came to Memphis from Fort Worth, Texas, in 2003 to give a makeover to Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center. The goal at Le Bonheur is to have a national presence and reputation in pediatric medicine. Troy focused on the areas that can produce the greatest results, such as cardiac surgery, neurology and emergency medicine. She also established a Total Quality process.
The reason to watch Troy in 2007 is because she's now chief operating officer of Methodist-Le Bonheur Healthcare, Inc. Troy is now in a position to elevate Methodist-University Hospital in the same way.
Troy is heir apparent to become CEO someday, placing her in the perfect position to see the plan through.
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