STATEWIDE Triangle Region
This is what you call a job creator
Little more than a year after unveiling a new master plan for Research Triangle Park, the not-for-profit foundation that runs it revealed plans for a mixed-use redevelopment it says could create 100,000 jobs. In the first phase of the plan, the Research Triangle Foundation will develop 100 acres along Interstate 40 as Park Center, where it will build housing, restaurants and retail space. The foundation owned the land and paid $17 million for the Radisson Governors Inn and more than a dozen, mostly vacant office buildings, all of which will be razed. The park is home to more than 170 companies, which employ more than 39,000 full-time employees and 10,000 contract workers.
MORRISVILLE — Lenovo Group Ltd. will buy Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM’s x86 server division for $2.3 billion. The purchase will give the Chinese computer-maker, which has its North American headquarters here, 7,500 employees worldwide, including an unspecified number at Research Triangle Park. Lenovo bought IBM’s personal-computer business in 2005. In a separate $2.9 billion deal, Lenovo will acquire the Motorola Mobility smartphone business from Mountain View, Calif.-based Google.
RALEIGH — Martin Marietta Materials will acquire Dallas-based Texas Industries in an all-stock deal that will make it the nation’s largest producer of crushed stone, sand and gravel for road, sidewalk and water-system construction. Pending regulatory and shareholder approval, the companies expect to close the transaction, valued at more than $2 billion, in the second quarter.
DURHAM — San Jose, Calif.-based TiVo will pay $135 million for Digitalsmiths, a cloud-based video-search service. TiVo, founded in 1997, developed the first commercially available digital video recorder. Digitalsmiths, started a year later, uses relationships with providers to reach nearly two-thirds of the nation’s households that have pay TV. It employs more than 60 people here and at an office in Denver. The sale will close in the first quarter of 2015.
RALEIGH — Thad Woodard, 68, will retire as president and CEO of the North Carolina Bankers Association after nearly 37 years with the trade group. His retirement is effective Jan. 1. The organization has hired a search firm and hopes to find his successor before its annual convention May 31.
DURHAM — Drug-developer Quintiles introduced a mobile application for users of its MediGuard medication-monitoring service. The free app allows users to schedule hourly, daily or weekly reminders to take pills and displays information about potential side effects, drug interactions and satisfaction ratings from other patients taking the same drugs.
RALEIGH — Lulu acquired Durham-based Replay Photos for an undisclosed amount. Replay sells licensed sports and other photographs, wall art and home décor items. Lulu helps writers self-publish books while maintaining the rights to their works. The acquisition gives Lulu’s customers access to professional photos.