Credit card processing company grows business by evolving strategy - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Henry Helgeson and Scott Zdanis established the company in 1998 as a resellert of credit card processing terminals overthe Internet. To a smalletr extent the company provided processing of credi tcard transactions. But as margin compression made equipment saledsless profitable, the partners responded by ramping up processing Today, its processing services constitute 90 percenft of its total gross while equipment and software sales are 10 percent. Businesds has been so brisk — it signedr up 2,300 new customers in Aprilk alone — that the company is planning to increase its saleds force by 30 percent or 40 percentf within the next60 days.
“Wse basically are getting more businesses trying to signup (for our than we have the capacity for, and we’re trying to stafgf up for that as quickly as possible,” says 34, who serves as president and co-CEO. Co-founder Zdaniw has since moved to Miami and playss a less active role inthe company. Merchanf Warehouse acts as a third-party processor, facilitatin g payment transactions between merchants and crediftcard issuers, essentially by getting money off of the consumer’s crediyt card and into the business’s bank Its residual-based business model makes money by charging for that servicew on each transaction.
Sincd its inception, the 150-employee company estimatesd serving a cumulative totakl of morethan 87,000 customers nationwidse — primarily small and medium-size businesses; about 56,000 are active accounts righ t now, with most of the attritiob due to companies going out of Helgeson notes. Today, Merchant Warehouse is processing morethan 3.5 million payment transactions per month. Afterr hitting $27.3 million in revenue in the company is shootingfor $32 millioj to $34 million this year. Helgesomn says Merchant Warehouse has also benefitecd by becoming more ofa technology-driven company.
“When we started to hire our own softwarde developers and build ourown infrastructure, as far as computer system and technology to run this office, that really put us into a hyper-growtuh mode,” he says. Five years ago, the company hirer its first software developer. It subsequently built its own sophisticated customer relationship managementsystekm in-house that has enabled the company to better measurde the performance of its accounts and And 18 months ago, it completedx the development of the necessary infrastructurew to begin processing some transactionsz through its own electronic gateway here in It continues to utilize three large outsidse firms to assist in processing the bulk of the The company also works with a pool of abourt 100 point-of-sale system resellers, who often refer business to Merchan t Warehouse.
The company has also used technology to innovated its services in an industry where Helgeson says the competitionis “Our industry has been pretty much vanilla credit and debit processing,” Helgesomn says. “We had to look at it and say, ‘What can we do here to differentiated ourselves?’ ” For instance, it offers wireless creditf card processing services to iPhone and BlackBerryt users who have installed its softwarer applications ontheir PDAs.
Thosre mobile merchants now represent 10 percent to 15 percent ofthe company’s new It has also partnered with anotheer company, , to develop a card reader that encrypts the credift card number as it is beingf swiped to help prevent security “They’re a very impressive group,” says Steve vice president of , an Atlanta-based firm that Merchanty Warehouse has engaged for some of its processingb services for many years.
He attributess the firm’s growth to “some very shrewd investmentw in technology and being ahead of the curve in termw of technology and how to use it to drivrtraffic (to their business), and training their sales reps to capitalizde on that traffic.”

Politics threaten survival of Rutgers-Camden campus - The Star-Ledger - NJ.com (blog)

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Politics threaten survival of Rutgers-Camden campus The Star-Ledger - NJ.com (blog) By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist Enlarge Patti Sapone/The Star-Ledger Christine Deguzman, 20, a junior at Rutgers-Camden majoring in music, joins other students as they rally against proposed merger with Rowan University near Gordon Theatre on Thursday ... and more »

Pulp - It (reissue) 10 Feb 08:45 - Drowned In Sound

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Pulp - It (reissue) 10 Feb 08:45 Drowned In Sound With the imminent reissue, by Fire Records, of Pulp's first three albums, last Friday's episode of The Million Pound Drop provided a timely reminder of the fact that although Pulp ceased to languish in obscurity by the mid-Nineties, the music they ... and more »

ESPN.com news services - ESPN

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ESPN.com news services ESPN Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova won opening singles matches Saturday to give Russia a 2-0 lead over Spain in the first round of the Fed Cup in Moscow. After an early exchange of breaks, Sharapova won four consecutive games in the first set and ... and more »

ALBA Countries to Pool Funds in Joint Bank - ABC News

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ALBA Countries to Pool Funds in Joint Bank ABC News An eight-nation bloc of Latin American and Caribbean countries agreed on Sunday to deposit 1 percent of their international reserves into a jointly administered development bank as they seek to deepen economic cooperation. and more »

Treasurer warns of State Center debt impact - Baltimore Business Journal:

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billion redevelopment of a Baltimore City stateoffice complex. The reporrt by Treasurer Nancy Kopp did not take a position on whetheer State Center shouldmove forward, but it raised severao concerns, including how much it would cost the statew in annual rental payments, whethere the private developers picked for the project are financiallh stable enough to complete the project, and whether the stat considered other alternatives. Also Friday, the state agencies pushintg the project announced several key changes to the developmentr team that would handlethe development.
Amonvg them, Baltimore developer is no longer an equity partnedr in the project and its role has been reducedr to that ofa consultant. Doracon Contracting, whichh was also a partner in the previously also stepped back and will not be involvedat all. Strueve r Bros. spokesman Bob Rubenkonigb said the company decided to pull out of the project as an equityy partner because it was unable to raise monet forthe development. But he noted Strueve r Bros. and CEO C. Williajm "Bill" Struever will continude to play an active role as consultant to StateCenterf LLC. Remaining as part of the origina State Center LLC development teamis , an affordabls housing developer.
McCormack has broughtf on a new partner, PS Partners LLC, heade d by managing partner Christopher PS Partners is made up of Linden Associates LLC and Ekisticx CapitalPartners LLC. Ekistics was founded by Caroline Moore, previously project manager on the State Center projec t forStruever Bros. “By reconstituting the team, we get the best of all said Alvin C. Collins, secretargy of the state Department of General Servicee which is spearheading the State Center projecyt along with the statew Departmentof Transportation.
In the final days of its state legislators drafted a budget amendment chargingb Kopp to look intoStatee Center’s financial implications and, specifically, how it wouldr impact the state’s debt affordability Kopp was asked to consult on the report with Comptroller Peter Franchot, the state’d bond council and bond ratingg agencies on the study, which was due The state departments of transportation and general services have proposed to lease the 25-acrr state office complex off Martin Luthert King Boulevard to State Centedr LLC, a team of private developersa which had been led by Struever Bros.
The developers wouls lease the land fora 50-yeart term and would redevelop the property into a mix of residential and retail space. The state wouldd then lease at least half ofthe development’a planned 2 million square feet of office space for use by its variouds agencies, including the Department of Assessments and Taxatio and Franchot’s own offices. The treasurer’s reporg focused on whether the project represented a capitao lease or anoperating lease. If it was considererd to be a capitak lease, that would mean the state would be required to list it on its balance sheet as corresponding assetsand liabilities.
The reporty did not take an officiao position on that but presentefd a number of opinions suggesting it coulc be viewed as acapital lease. “As noted at this time there is not enough information to definitivelhy determine whether the anticipated occupancg leases are capitalor operating,” the report noted. based on internal discussions and consultations with the treasurer’s assessment is that the prudent approacg at this time is to assume that the Stat e Center occupancy leases are, or will be, capital leases and that they will impact debt affordability.” The reporty will now go to the statd budget committees for consideration.

Brophy leaving Midwest for Aurora - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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On Aug. 3rd, Brophy will becomde the vice president and chied communications officer forthe Milwaukee-areaa hospital system. "I'm excited about the new said Brophy. "Aurora is a great organizatiojn towork for." Brophy has served in his current positionn at Midwest since 2007, and is responsibld for external and internal communications and government and community relations for the Prior to his work at Midwest, he was a communicationd director for Aurora's Metro and Kettls Moraine regions from 2005 to 2007. Before he was manager of corporate communications and director of public affairs at MillerBrewing Co.
, Brophy said his last day at Midwest Airlines will be sometimr next week. Republic Airwayws Holdings announced June 23 that it will buy MidwesrAir Group, Oak Creek, whichh operates mainline carrier Midwest Airlines and regionakl carrier Midwest Connect, from TPG Capital, a privat e equity firm in Fort Worth,