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| Advocates for small businesses
are fighting changes in tax laws that the Bush administration says are aimed at cracking down on tax
cheating, particularly by the self-employed. Not all the changes proposed by the Treasury Department
are directed toward small-business owners but the ones that do, those representing small business
argue, will create a mountain of new paperwork that will be cumbersome and costly. |
| (Source: The New York Times (free reg. req'd),
2008-04-10) |
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| In a weak economy, the
smallest firms, often owned by families, have the least amount of capital at a time when banks are
being tight-fisted with money, said Joseph H. Astrachan, executive director of the Cox Family
Enterprise Center at Kennesaw State University. Lots more family businesses are going to go under in
the current downturn, but not because of poor leadership or planning, according to many business
experts, economists and analysts like Steve Palm, head of SmartNumbers, an Atlanta area real estate
information firm. |
| (Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (free reg. req'd), 2008-04-08) |
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| Small business executives,
though not traditionally fond of government intervention, are begging for federal help in addressing
the rising cost of fuel prices. In hearing held on Capitol Hill by a subcommittee of the House Small
Business Committee, experts and executives testified on the impact of energy costs on industries
from trucking to home health care. |
| (Source: CFO.com, 2008-04-10) |
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| Financial sponsors are looking
further afield for deals as demand for leveraged loan debt slows in Europe and the United States in
the wake of the global credit crunch. "People are taking this time to look more into new
geographies," Karen Simon, JPMorgan Chase & Co's head of financial sponsors for Europe, Middle East,
Africa and Asia, told the Reuters Hedge Funds and Private Equity Summit in London. |
| (Source: Reuters, 2008-04-08) |
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| In a powerful trend that is
reshaping the economic landscape, a rising wave of U.S. small businesses and start-ups are going
cross-border and selling hundreds of billions of dollars in goods and services to Asia, Canada,
Latin America, Europe and Africa. From 1992 through 2007, exports by U.S. small businesses have
soared nearly fourfold to $400 billion, according to a preliminary estimate by economist Harvey
Bronstein of the U.S. Small Business Administration. |
| (Source: USA Today (free reg. req'd),
2008-04-08) |
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| A lot of the economic news
these days seems depressing, but there is at least one reason to remain optimistic: It's still a
great time to sell your business. Sure, the downturn in the housing market and the resulting credit
crunch are expected to dampen the number of billion-dollar deals led by private equity firms, but
investment capital as a whole aimed at the middle market -- consisting of companies with less than
$500 million in annual revenue -- remains plentiful. |
| (Source: Fox Business, 2008-04-08) |
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| Investors aren't running from
investing in the private equity industry amid the buyout drought, but they're getting more cautious
about the funds they're selecting, the president of advisory business StepStone Group LLC said. |
| (Source: Reuters, 2008-04-09) |
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| Some venture capitalists may
be taking a more cautious approach with their investments, but their funds are certainly getting
more sizable. In the first three months of 2008, venture capital funds raised nearly $5 billion, up
29 percent from the same period a year ago, according to a new report from Dow Jones Private Equity
Analyst. |
| (Source: CNET News.com, 2008-04-07) |
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| The principal trade group for
private equity firms, formed just 15 months ago, spent more than $2.1 million last year to lobby
against congressional proposals to raise taxes on buyout firms and their executives. |
| (Source: BusinessWeek, 2008-04-11) |
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| A handful of patent lawyers
beat up on large technology companies lobbying for a U.S. patent system revamp, arguing that their
efforts could discourage start-ups, prompt foreign competitors to rip off inventions, and tear apart
the economy more generally. There weren't any Silicon Valley interests directly represented during
this panel discussion at a conference hosted by the American Bar Association's intellectual-property
law section. |
| (Source: CNET News.com, 2008-04-11) |
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| Azin Lotfi |
Student-led teams developing a program for testing software and an environmentally friendly
biodegradable shooting target took the top prizes April 8 at the $100,000 Burton D. Morgan
Entrepreneurial Competition at Purdue University.
Software developer SmartAn Inc. won the $40,000 top prize in the Gold Division. The team, led by
Sirsha Chatterjee and Murali Krishna Ramanathan, also will receive legal and consulting services
valued at $5,000 from Ice Miller LLC.
Azin Lotfi, a partner in Ice
Miller's Private Equity/Venture Services Practice group, was a judge for the event.
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