First Niles dividend


February 26, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

First Niles dividend

Niles

First Niles Financial Inc., the parent company of Home Federal Savings and Loan Association of Niles, has announced a cash dividend of 8 cents per share on common stock and 9 cents per share on preferred class A stock for the first quarter of 2013. The dividend will be payable March 22 to shareholders of record March 8.

FirstEnergy loss

akron

FirstEnergy Corp. recorded a fourth-quarter loss Monday after making major pension-related adjustments last year. FirstEnergy has been aiming to rein in costs to offset impacts from weak energy prices and demand.

The company reported a loss of $148 million, or 35 cents per share, compared with a fourth-quarter 2011 profit of $99 million, or 23 cents per share. Excluding pension-related adjustments, prior-year asset-sales gains and other items, adjusted earnings were up at 80 cents per share from 77 cents. Revenue decreased 10 percent to $3.5 billion.

The diversified energy company’s $4.4 billion acquisition of Allegheny Energy Inc. in 2011 formed one of the largest electricity producers in the U.S. The company serves customers in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and West Virginia.

B&N founder wants to buy stores, site

NEW YORK

The last remaining national bookstore chain is being taken off the shelf and dusted off for sale.

Barnes & Noble’s founder Leonard Riggio disclosed in a regulatory filing Monday that he wants to acquire the company’s stores and website but not the business that makes the Nook e-reader or the company’s college bookstores. No price was disclosed.

It’s the latest attempt by a company founder to take back control of all or part of a company he started. Best Buy’s co-founder Richard Schulze is mulling a bid for the electronics retailer, and Michael Dell earlier this month announced a $24.4 billion deal to take the namesake computer company he founded private.

The deals are a way for executives to exert more control over companies without the need to run everything by shareholders.

Vindicator staff/wire reports