BUSINESS
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2009 • PAGE A10 Editor: Norma Coile / 520-573-4663 / business@azstarnet.com
MARKET ROUNDUP Better news on retail sales and manufacturing helped send stocks higher Tuesday, as did Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comment that the recession probably is over. Surging materials and industrial companies such as Alcoa and Caterpillar pulled the Dow Jones industrial average to a gain of 57 points, its seventh climb in eight days and another high for the year.
HIGH
s DOW30 s NASDAQ s S&P 500 s Russell 2000
LOW
9,713.71 2,106.93 1,056.04 605.60
CHANGE
9,580.93 2,086.16 1,043.42 597.45
+56.61 +10.86 +3.29 +4.81
CLOSE
9,683.41 2,102.64 1,052.63 604.84
Pulte acts vs. ‘sabotage’ tied to Tucsonan’s firing By Ed White THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — Pulte Homes Inc., the largest U.S. home builder, said Tuesday that its phones and e-mail accounts had been jammed since a labor union urged people to protest the firing of a Tucson employee. Pulte, based in Bloomfield Hi l l s, Mi c h . , filed a lawsuit and asked a federal judge to order the Laborers’ International Union of North America to stop the campaign and take down a
Web site criticizing the company. Pulte said it’s a victim of “sabotage.” Union activists “h ave interrupted Pulte’s ability to conduct day-to-day business, threatened its employees and interfered with its relationships with the public, its customers, potential customers and vendors,” lawyer John Birmingham Jr. said in a court filing. The union, based in Washington, issued a prepared state-
ment that said the allegations are false. The lawsuit says a Tucson crew leader who worked for Pulte Building Systems, Roberto Baltierra, was fired Sept. 4 for misconduct, including “disregarding company safety rules” — not for wearing a union T-shirt or for taking part in union activities. The union doesn’t represent Pulte employees. Baltierra could not be reached for comment; a Tuc-
son phone number under that name has been disconnected. The union does not have a Tucson office. The union’s Web site says seven workers were fired and denied pay while wearing orange union shirts. It has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. Pulte’s lawsuit, however, said it terminated only Baltierra, not others. See PULTE, A11
COMMODITIES Close 70.93 2.83 1005.00 16.98
Crude oil (bbl) Copper (lb) Gold (oz) Silver (oz)
Previous 68.86 2.79 999.90 16.60
FOREIGN EXCHANGE Foreign currency in $US Today 6mo ago 1.6490 1.3970 .9316 .7845 1.4659 1.2898 .075157 .069054
Country Britain Pound Canada Dollar Euro Euro Mexico Peso
% change +3.01 +1.49 +0.51 +2.27
% YTD +59.0 +102.0 +13.7 +50.7
$US in foreign currency Today 6mo ago .6064 .7158 1.0734 1.2747 .6822 .7753 13.3055 14.4815
LOCAL AND WIDELY HELD STOCKS NAME
TICKER
CLOSE
CHG
%CHG
AMR AT&T Inc Alcoa BE Aero BkofAm BerkH B Citigrp Cnvrgys CorrectnCp Costco ExxonMbl FMCG GenDynam GenElec GraniteC HomeDp HonwllIntl Intel IBM Intuit JPMorgCh JohnJn Kroger Loews Lowes Microsoft NorthropG ProvidSvc QwestCm Raytheon Rural/Met Safeway SearsHldgs SwtGas Target TeleTech TexInst TimeWrn rs UniSrcEn UnionPac UPS B WalMart Walgrn WsteMInc WellsFargo YumBrnds
AMR T AA BEAV BAC BRK/B C CVG CXW COST XOM FCX GD GE GVA HD HON INTC IBM INTU JPM JNJ KR L LOW MSFT NOC PRSC Q RTN RURL SWY SHLD SWX TGT TTEC TXN TWX UNS UNP UPS WMT WAG WM WFC YUM
7.41 26.70 13.99 19.22 16.79 3,300 4.12 11.02 22.60 56.82 69.49 71.32 63.13 16.00 33.44 27.41 39.79 19.55 119.35 27.78 43.19 60.15 20.46 34.38 21.21 25.20 49.51 11.48 3.53 46.09 4.04 19.48 64.99 24.86 47.51 16.92 24.83 29.25 30.13 63.61 59.29 49.93 34.06 30.10 28.58 33.62
+.47 +.17 +1.05 -.05 -.20 +43 -.40 +.07 +.05 -.17 -.51 +.70 +.03 +.65 +.54 -.10 -.18 +.19 +.47 -.08 -.56 -.19 -1.65 +.21 -.15 +.20 +.23 -.37 -.07 -.04 +.02 -.72 +.31 +.20 +.09 -.39 +.07 +.10 +.17 +.83 +.10 -.45 -.18 -.56 +.66 +.16
+6.8 +0.6 +8.1 -0.3 -1.2 +1.3 -8.8 +0.6 +0.2 -0.3 -0.7 +1.0 ... +4.2 +1.6 -0.4 -0.5 +1.0 +0.4 -0.3 -1.3 -0.3 -7.5 +0.6 -0.7 +0.8 +0.5 -3.1 -1.9 -0.1 +0.5 -3.6 +0.5 +0.8 +0.2 -2.3 +0.3 +0.3 +0.6 +1.3 +0.2 -0.9 -0.5 -1.8 +2.4 +0.5
YTD %CHG -30.6 -6.3 +24.2 +149.9 +19.2 +2.7 -38.6 +71.9 +38.1 +8.2 -13.0 +191.8 +9.6 -1.2 -23.9 +19.1 +21.2 +33.4 +41.8 +16.8 +38.7 +0.5 -22.5 +21.7 -1.4 +29.6 +9.9 +691.7 -3.0 -9.7 +125.7 -18.0 +67.2 -1.4 +37.6 +102.6 +60.0 +31.1 +2.6 +33.1 +7.5 -10.9 +38.1 -9.2 -3.1 +6.7
YLD
VOL (Thous)
... 17328 6.1 18904 .9 48869 ... 725 .2 153123 ... 40 ... 1264474 ... 982 ... 341 1.3 3247 2.4 19041 ... 12819 2.4 1513 2.5 205939 1.6 329 3.3 9902 3.0 5197 2.9 47016 1.8 6448 ... 2494 .5 49316 3.3 8133 1.8 43212 .7 1768 1.7 17074 2.1 43274 3.5 1736 ... 110 9.1 27085 2.7 2677 ... 42 2.1 9428 ... 699 3.8 171 1.4 7053 ... 245 1.8 11905 2.6 5966 3.8 161 1.7 3670 3.0 4574 2.2 26202 1.6 5934 3.9 3076 .7 49867 2.3 6339
52-WEEK HI LO 13.33 31.18 28.33 24.70 39.50 4,700 23.50 16.99 27.30 71.00 83.64 77.34 86.38 29.20 50.00 29.70 46.99 20.65 124.00 32.00 50.63 72.69 29.59 49.32 27.39 27.66 70.60 14.17 4.87 64.00 5.01 27.25 108.75 33.29 59.55 17.77 25.35 32.33 33.42 80.05 70.00 63.85 35.65 36.16 44.75 40.25
2.40 20.90 4.97 5.37 2.53 2,241 0.97 4.02 9.50 38.17 56.51 15.70 35.28 5.73 21.20 17.05 23.06 12.05 69.50 20.18 14.96 46.25 19.39 17.40 13.00 14.87 33.81 0.68 2.05 33.20 0.50 17.19 26.80 17.08 25.00 6.20 13.38 15.41 20.91 33.28 37.99 46.25 21.28 22.10 7.80 21.50
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NEWS &
cording to court records.
NOTES
Ex-KGUN news chief now back in same job
TUCSON
Forrest Carr is back at Tucson’s
Grupo wants new bid for Asarco barred
ABC affiliate in the same capacity after a hitch in Albuquerque as news director for KRQE-TV. Carr left KGUN in March 2001 to be news director at WFLA-TV in Tampa and then WFTX-TV in Fort Myers, Fla., before going to Albuquerque. Don’t expect big changes, Carr said. KGUN was one of the early converts to the “On Your Side” viewer-advocate slogan now used by many TV stations nationwide, Carr said, noting that KGUN adopted that theme during his first run in Tucson.
Sterlite Industries Ltd. of India shouldn’t be allowed to increase its bid for Tucson-based Asarco LLC, lawyers for Grupo Mexico SAB said Tuesday in a court hearing, Bloomberg News reported. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Richard Schmidt in Corpus Christi, Texas, recommended last month that Grupo Mexico be allowed to regain control of Asarco by paying creditors in full. Sterlite raised its offer and on Tuesday asked Schmidt to allow its new bid to be considered by a district court that will make the final decision about which company wins Asarco. Both companies have until Monday to submit arguments on the issue. The final decision about who gets Asarco will be made by U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen in Brownsville, Texas. He has said that he hopes to rule by the end of November. Grupo Mexico and Sterlite would both spend more than $2.5 billion to fully repay creditors, but Grupo Mexico would avoid paying a judgment by Hanen awarding to Asarco its stake in Southern Copper Corp., worth as much as $8 billion, ac-
Former KGUN News Director
MAMTA POPAT / ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Vi c tor Meza, p ress manager at Ta ttoo Manufacturing Inte r n a t i o n a l , p o u rs a non-toxic adhes i ve on the back of a strip of te m p o rary ta tto os. The co m pa ny, sta r ted in Tu cson in 1989, m a n u fa c t u res and sells te m p o rary ta tto os, which are sold all over the wo r l d .
Temporary-tattoo firm thrives By Shelby Hill FOR THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Temporary tattoos are removable, but one Tucson business that makes them is proving it has staying power. Tattoo Manufacturing International, a multimillion-dollar business at 3761 E. Technical Drive, has been producing temporary tattoos since 1989, but in recent years the business has grown steadily, said Stephen L. Tooker, CEO and part owner. “We’ve been growing just because tattoos are so mainstream now,” Tooker, 49, said. “I mean, find a professional athlete or a movie star or a musician that doesn’t have a tattoo. It’s just so mainstream, and we’ve been riding that wave.” The company manufactures a “limitless” range of custom temporary tattoos for events ranging from 50th birthday parties to promotional items for companies such as Subway, Tooker said. It also makes temporary tattoos for sale in retail stores including Walmart, Claire’s and Sally Beauty Supply. One of its most popular lines of temporary tattoos is called Snuggle Buddies Tattoos, which feature adorable animals from penguins to puppies with wide eyes and smiles, Tooker said.
At T M I , the production of te m p o rary ta tto os is mechanized to handle the huge pro d u ction and meet the growing demand. Not all the tattoos are as sweet, however. One line, called Gross Out Tattoos, includes fake scratches, warts and scars. All the tattoos are designed, manufactured and shipped from Tucson. Although its products are made in the United States, one-third of TMI’s business is outside of the country. One package of
See TATTOOS, A11
Raytheon resumes Excalibur deliveries By Tony Capaccio BLOOMBERG NEWS
Oro Valley Marketplace gets ‘green’ recognition Vestar Development Co.’s Oro Valley Marketplace has
earned the first silver LEED certification among Arizona retail projects from the U.S. Green Building Council. The retail shopping center, at Tangerine and Oracle roads, opened in 2008. LEED, for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-efficiency buildings. Send News & Notes notices to business@azstarnet.com or by fax to 573-4144.
custom temporary tattoos awaiting shipping was bound for Australia, for example. TMI manufactures 6 million temporary tattoos daily on two unique tattoo-printing machines, Tooker said. The process for each temporary tattoo
U.S. ARMY
Artillerymen ready an Excalibur shell, d esigned to curb a cc i d e n tal deaths and civilian ca s u a l t i es.
Raytheon Mi ssile Systems resumed deliveries last month of the Army’s most accurate artillery shell, enhancing the U.S. effort to minimize civilian casualties and accidental military deaths in Afghanistan and Ira q. The satellite-guided Excalibur shells were first deployed to the war zones in 2007 and demonstrated a precision within 20 feet of their target. Two were fired in a successful July 2007 attack against an al-Qaeda leader who was killed, the Army said. Deliveries were halted in November 2008 after further testing uncovered “unacceptably high” accuracy problems stemming from a navigation unit that’s now been replaced. Deliveries resumed on Aug. 21, and Raytheon will receive a payment of $72.4 million that had been withheld. The shells cost $46,500 apiece, and
DID YOU KNOW Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems is Southern Arizona’s largest employer, with more than 11,500 full-timeequivalent employees at the end of 2008, according to the Star 200 survey of major employers. Honeywell Aerospace ranked 61st in the Star 200, with 754 employees at its facility at 11100 N. Oracle Road, on a patch of Pima County land within Oro Valley.
the Army plans to buy more than 30,000 at a cost of at least $1.395 billion. Including research and development, the program’s projected cost is $2.2 billion. Protecting Afghan civilians is essential to the success of the counterinsurgency s t rate g y in See RAYTHEON, A11
BUSINESS • A11
ARIZONA DAILY STAR / Wednesday, September 16, 2009
TATTOOS
THE SAVINGS GAME
Continued from Page A10
Pay credit-card bills in full each month, avoid interest hassle
starts with the artist. After the artist creates and perfects the tattoo, the art is scanned into a computer and placed on a large piece of paper containing around 100 spots for temporary tattoos. This paper becomes the printing plate. Multiple tattoos are then printed onto a 28-by-40-inch piece of tattoo paper. Next, the tattoos are placed on a machine that silk-screens the adhesive, and glitter when necessary, onto the tattoo, bakes it for around 10 seconds at 550 degrees Fahrenheit to seal the adhesive, and finally covers the sheet of tattoos with protective laminate paper. The ink used is vegetable-based, and the adhesive is non-toxic, Tooker said. “The adhesive, you can literally start scooping it in your mouth and it wouldn’t do anything,” he said. “ ’Cause it goes on skin, it has to be really, really chemical-free.” TMI owns the only two of these machines in the world, Tooker said. The sheets of tattoos are then taken to another room, where they are cut in stacks of 200 with two guillotine-like machines. In that room, the custom tattoos are packaged and shipped. The temporary tattoos bound for retail stores are sent to a town south of Nogales, Sonora, where they are packaged and then brought back to Tucson for shipping, Tooker said. The company calls itself the world’s largest temporary-tattoo manufacturer. Debbie Coopwood, TMI’s chief financial officer, said that because of company officials’ knowledge of the industry, they are
C MAMTA POPAT / ARIZONA DAILY STAR
M a rcy More n o, an illust ra tor at T M I, wo r ks on Disney-themed te m p o rary ta tto os. The co mpa ny is a finalist for the Wells Fa rgo Copper Cactus Awa rd due to its rapid grow t h . confident that label is correct. TMI employs 82 people and is contained in one building, but it’s still keeping up with the rest of the world. “We’re competing very effectively against China and other places just because we’ve got a really cool process,” Tooker said. The company works with more than 60,000 custom-tattoo customers as well as companies such as Disney and Mattel Inc. TMI also had a license with Ed Hardy stores for four years to produce temporary tattoos of their logos, he said. It also makes watercolor paint sheets, scratch-lottery type cards and tattoo books. Chuck E. Cheese’s ordered about 10 million watercolor paint sheets for one of its
prizes, Tooker said. TMI also manufactures tattoos for Mattel’s Tattoo Barbie, he said. “That’s how mainstream tattoos have become — (you can) put them on your Barbie.” TMI is a finalist for the Wells Fargo Copper Cactus Award for the Tucson business with the highest growth. “We’re getting a lot of publicity,” Tooker said. “I think it’s because we’re still growing in a crummy economic environment and we’re a domestic U.S. manufacturer. And our product is just cool.” Shelby Hill is a University of Arizona journalism student who is an apprentice at the Star. Contact her at 573-4181 or at starapprentice@azstarnet.com
Copper’s economic impact grew last year ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Even as the recession took hold and copper prices slumped at the end of last year, the Arizona copper industry set records for economic impact and job creation in 2008, according to a recent study prepared for the Arizona Mining Association. The state’s copper producers had a direct economic impact of about $3.9 billion last year, up 18 percent from 2007, says the report by the Western Economic Analysis Center in Marana. As those copper dollars rippled through the state’s economy, they created a combined direct and indirect economic impact of nearly $10.4 billion, the study says. Meanwhile, Arizona copperindustry employment grew to an average of 11,200 over the course of 2008, the report showed. Here’s a closer look at some of the key industry indicators:
RAYTHEON Continued from Page A10 Afghanistan, according to Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of American and NATO forces there. The Excalibur is one tool for attaining that goal, a spokesman said. An unguided 155 mm shell can miss its target by as much as 900 feet. The Excalibur has a 50-pound warhead. The Army wanted a weapon with a much smaller warhead than the 200pound charge on its only precision-guided, ground-based mobile rocket system, officials said. Tracing problem Raytheon shipped about 360 Excaliburs before deliveries were halted after continued testing in the U.S. identified an “unacceptably high” failure rate, the service said. The Army said the problem was due to design limitations in navigation units that were unique to the batch of shells tested. The unit was pro d u ced by Honeywell International Inc.’s aerospace unit. Raytheon changed subcontractors, and it’s now being produced by Cheshire, Conn.-based Atlantic Inertial Systems Inc. The company is owned by J.F. Lehman & Co., a private equity investment firm that fo c u ses on investments in aero-
BY THE NUMBERS Despite falling metal prices, the state’s copper industry saw increases in employment and production in 2008 ARIZONA’S COPPER INDUSTRY
$3.86 billion Estimated direct statewide impact in 2008
$10.39 billion
$165.7 million
Direct tax and fee pay m e n ts to state and local governments
20%
Increase in taxes and fees from 2007
JOBS AND INCOME
$1.12 billion
Direct copper industry jobs in 2008
11,200
Sales to copper indust ry by other Arizona businesses
Increase in direct jobs from 2007
28,700 16%
Increase in sales from 2007
space, defense and marine sectors. “There is no indication” that rounds deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan have this problem, Army spokesman Maj. Jimmie Cummings said in an e-mail. The Army is reviewing Raytheon Mi ssile Systems’ quality controls “as a preventive measure” in order “to make sure no future issues arise,” Cummings said. No “abnormalities” have been uncovered so far, he said. Raytheon’s review Raytheon Mi ssile Systems spokesman John Patterson, in an e-mailed statement, said, “We continue to examine our design in search of more robust components.” The new navigation unit “has proven to meet system requirements while providing an opportunity for increased overall system reliability,” he said. Honeywell spokeswoman Karen Crabtree, when asked about the test problems and replacement, said the company’s guidance technologies “have a proven record spanning more than half a century in military and space programs.” “We are leaders in guided weapon technologies for all branches of the military,” she said. “We continue to work with Raytheon and other prime contractors on many advanced programs.”
949,354 Tons of copper and other minerals
$6.9 billion 9%
$2.84 billion
$1,335
Average copper industry weekly earnings, 2008
PRODUCTION
Combined direct and indirect impact
Direct impact in Pima Co u n ty
$857 million
Total direct personal income payments
Peak copper industry employment in Arizona, in 1974
BUSINESS
BRIEFS Blockbuster may close up to 960 US stores Blockbuster Inc. may close as many as 960 stores by the end of next year, shedding more dead weight as the struggling video rental chain tries to reverse its losses and fend off rapidly growing rivals Netflix Inc. and Redbox. The cuts outlined in documents filed Tuesday would leave Blockbuster with about 20 percent fewer U.S. stores. Blockbuster hasn’t yet conclusively decided to close all the stores mentioned in the previously confidential documents, Chief Executive James Keyes said in an interview Tuesday. Keyes described the closures as something that Blockbuster is considering as it sets up more DVD-rental kiosks in the stores of other merchants. It’s a concept that has been popularized by Coinstar Inc.’s Redbox. Blockbuster has 26 stores in Pima County, said Randy Hargrove, a company spokesman. He said he could not say which, if
Value of production
13%
Increase in value from 2007
SOURCE: Western Economic Analysis Center
any, of those stores are ca n d idates for closure. “In markets like (Pima County), it’s going to be business as usual,” Hargrove said. A list of stores with a potential for closure has not been made public, he said. Blockbuster will examine each underperforming store to determine if there is any possibility to keep it open, he said. Each of the company’s stores has about seven to 10 employees, Hargrove said.
Adobe Systems to buy Omniture for $1.8B Adobe Systems Inc. said Tuesday that it will buy Omniture Inc., a Web analytic software company, for about $1.8 billion, giving the maker of content-creation software a way to let marketers measure the effectiveness of such content. Sa n Jose, Calif.-based Adobe, which makes Flash, Acrobat and Photoshop software, said it will buy Omniture for $21.50 per share in cash, a premium of 24 percent over Omniture’s closing stock price Tuesday. Omniture shares jumped nearly 26 percent in extended trading. Wire and staff reports
redit-card users with money smarts and discipline can protect themselves better than any legislation can. Initial provisions of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Ac t , passed by Congress in May, went into effect in August. These provisions give ca rdholders longer notice on interest-rate hikes and the right to opt out as long as they stop making charges and pay off the balance within five years under existing rates. Cardholders also get an extra week between the time they get their bills and the payment due date. All good, of course, but card users who pay their bills in full never have to worry about interest rates. If you arrange to pay your credit-card statement automatically from your checking account, as I do and advocate, your payments will be on time. Other aspects of the bill, including restrictions on rate increases, go into effect in February. But again, there is no impact on those who pay their bills in full. Under the changes already in effect, monthly statements have to be mailed at least 21 days before payment is due. Previously it was 14 days. “Don’t look at this as an extra week to wait and pay your bill,” Bill Hardekopf advises wisely. He is CEO of LowCards.com (www.LowCards .com), a useful Web site where consumers can compare features of more than 1,000 cards. “Keep your regular payment schedule and be appreciative for the extra cushion to make sure your issuer receives it on time.” Or, as my wife, Georgina, and I have done for years, sign up to have your monthly bill paid automatically on the due date through electronic transfer from your checking account. Automatic payments have worked particularly well for us because we travel frequently.In September 2004,while forced to evacuate our home for 17 days during two hurricanes,we did-
PULTE Continued from Page A10 In fact, Pulte contends in the suit that “it was Baltierra, not Pulte, who called the other crew members and told them they were terminated.” The union’s campaign included a flier stating “ ‘Rehire the Tuscon Seven!’ ” says the lawsuit, which misspelled the city’s name in that reference. Pulte’s national customerrelations manager, Robert Schmittou, said he has received at least 750 e-mails and more than 100 voice mails that refer to the workers. One caller said: “Don’t make me have to come down there and have to find out who you is and what your problem is,” according to Schmittou’s affidavit. Among others targeted by the union’s e-mail campaign was Pulte’s Arizona president, John Chadwick, the suit
Opinion by
HUMBERTO CRUZ n’t have to worry about our credit-card bills getting paid. All cards I’ve had offer this automatic payment option. Of course, when signing up you must make sure to always keep enough money in your bank account to pay the bill — which, in itself, is a form of discipline. If you are saddled with a balance and are paying interest, the new law at least gives you more time to do something about it. Issuers must give 45 days’ notice instead of 15 days before a rate increase. This gives cardholders a chance to pay off the balance or shop around for another card. “The extra month of notification is good for consumers,but it is still our responsibility to notice these changes,” Hardekopf said. “Pay attention to your bill inserts,e-mail notifications or the plain white envelopes in your mail,” which is how most issuers will notify you. Your best bet whenever you’re paying interest on a credit card is to cut out nonessential expenses and resolve to pay off your balance — which can be as much a matter of discipline as of financial means. “Let’s say I make $10 an hour and I buy a leather jacket for $400. Therefore, I just spent 40 hours of my life for that leather jacket,” said Michael Mihalik, author of “Debt Is Slavery and 9 Other Things I Wish My Dad Had Taught Me About Money,” a book due out in October from Mist Publishing. “If I think of the price of the leather jacket to be 40 hours of my life instead of $400, I’d definitely think twice about the purchase.” Send questions or comments to Humberto Cruz at AskHumberto@aol. com or c/o Tribune Media Services,2225 Kenmore Ave., Buffalo, NY 14207. Personal replies are not provided.
claims. The union’s written statement denying the lawsuit’s allegations says: “This is really about working people trying to join together to improve their lives and sharing a sense of unity. Pulte workers and (the union) want Pulte to be a successful and profitable company, but a responsible company also.” It was issued by union spokeswoman Dawn Page. In August, Pulte shareholders approved a $1.53 billion takeover of Centex Corp., creating the nation’s largest home builder. Pulte is now positioned to sell homes in 29 states and Washington, D.C., under brands including Del Webb, DiVosta, and Fox & Jacobs. Pulte also gained large tracts of land in Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina. The Arizona Daily Star and The Detroit News contributed to this report.