Merit Medical sees
record Q3 profits
Merit Medical Systems, a Utah-based maker of disposable medical products, reported its third-quarter revenue increased 6 percent over the same quarter in 2011 and reached $95.9 million. Net income for the third quarter was a record $7.2 million, or 17 cents per share, compared with $4.6 million, or 11 cents per share, for the third quarter a year ago.
West Liberty to
add employees
West Liberty Foods, a co-packer and private label manufacturer of sliced deli meats and other products, anticipates adding some 50 new employees to its Tremonton plant over the next two years. The company announced this week it is about to launch another expansion of its Utah plant, its third since the facility opened in 2007.
Ut. business schools
among nation's best
Weber State University's John B. Goddard School of Business & Economics has joined the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business and Brigham Young University's Marriott School in the 2013 edition of the Princeton Review's "The Best 296 Business Schools."
Feds probe Sable,
Taurus sedans
Federal safety regulators are investigating some older-model Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable sedans because the throttles can stick. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has 50 complaints about sticky throttles in the cars from the 2000 through 2003 model years. No crashes or injuries have been reported and no recall has been issued yet.
Oshkosh spurns
Icahn offer
Oshkosh, the Wisconsin truck maker, has rejected a buyout offer from billionaire investor Carl Icahn. The company said Icahn's tender offer of $32.50 per share undervalued the company and was not in the best interest of shareholders. Oshkosh's board unanimously recommended stockholders reject Icahn's offer.
Toyota sees world
vehicle sales surge
Toyota sold 7.4 million vehicles around the world in the first nine months of the year, up 28 percent from a year earlier, but its growth faces headwinds from a sales plunge in China that could unseat it as the world's top automaker. Anti-Japanese sentiment flared after Japan nationalized tiny islands in the East China Sea that also are claimed by China. The move resulted in a a widespread call to boycott Japanese goods.
Money flooding
out of China
Chinese investors evaded government controls to move more than $600 billion out of the country last year and the outflow is increasing. A new study by Global Financial Integrity gives backing to anecdotal signs of huge, unreported movements of money out of the country. Experts say the outflows are driven by public frustration with a banking system that subsidizes state companies at the expense of savers and by businesses profiting from loopholes in economic controls.