Fairfield County Business Journal 4/30/12

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FAIRFIELD COUNT Y

BUSINESS JOURNAL

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR LOCAL BUSINESS NEWS • westfaironline.com

People’s United posts record profit Bank will now put its know-how to the test in N.Y.

FCBJ TODAY

FactSet to add 200 jobs – LifeCare too … 3 Editorial: Nobody administers a physical like the FTC – unless it’s the Supreme Court … 4 In the field: things are looking up for United Rentals and co. … 8

BY ALEXANDER SOULE

casoule@westfairinc.com

W

ith a new tagline on billboards and a swath of new signs to come in New York supermarkets, People’s United Financial Inc. had its highest-ever profit at $58.6 million in the first quarter. During the quarter, People’s United unveiled

a new slogan: “What know-how can do.” It is about to find out in New York, where the Bridgeport-based bank is rapidly building up its commercial lending staff in Westchester County, N.Y., even as it takes over branches in Stop & Shop supermarkets run by RBS Citizens Bank. The company continues also to assimilate Bank of Smithtown – since acquiring the Long Island bank, People’s United has

Bob Rozycki

On Golden Hill – Bridgeport mines major new development … 2

Vol 48, No. 18 • April 30, 2012

charged off $111 million in loans. “We’ve been working the Westchester market from Connecticut for a number of years, and now we have people on the ground there,” CEO Jack Barnes said in a conference call with investment analysts. “We’ve recently hired several more people in the commercial real estate market, lined up with (metropolitan) New York People’s, page 6

Out of the loop (hole)

As corporations dodge taxes, small business gets the bill BY J ANICE KIRKEL

jkirkel@westfairinc.com

Sea changes for Sikorsky, up and down … 10 The List: hospital checklist, in fact. 12 Also … “If you analyzed sales during a hurricane in Florida, the computer would simply say that promotions didn’t work that week.” 11

Michael O’Malley with a staffer at SCORE’s Norwalk offices.

SCORE one for Generation Y

BY ALEXANDER SOULE

casoule@westfairinc.com

MEDIA PARTNER

I

f Michael O’Malley set out looking for ways to haul his venerable consulting organization into the social media era, as it turned out it was Generation Y that found him. In Norwalk, this ain’t your grandfather’s

SCORE no more. Long saddled with a bit of a dowdy reputation – that can happen with an acronym standing for Service Corps of Retired Executives – Fairfield County SCORE is on a vigorous pace to more than double its clientele this year. The Norwalk organization already had

The amount the average American small business had to pay in 2011 to cover the cost of corporate abuse of tax havens was $2,116. The amount an individual tax filer had to pay was $426. Both are the findings of a report by U.S. PIRG, the federation of state public interest research groups, which says that every year, corporations and wealthy individuals avoid paying an estimated $100 billion in taxes by shifting income to offshore tax havens. Of that $100 billion, $60 billion is avoided specifically by corporations. A study by the General Accounting Office found that at least 83 of the top 100 publicly traded corporations use offshore tax havens. “When corporations shirk their tax burden by shifting profits legitimately made in the U.S. to offshore tax havens like the Caymans, the rest of us must pick up the tab through either cuts to public spending priorities, higher taxes or more debt,” said Dan Loop, page 6

Score, page 6

Special Report: Greenwich Hospital flips the switch on a new era • 13


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