Current News

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, based in Waterbury, Vermont, has made a second offer in as many days to buy Diedrich Coffee Inc in what has become a bidding war with Peet's Coffee & Tea Inc. Peet's from Oakland, CA, and GMCR have made, on paper, equivalent offers of $32 per share for the Irvine, CA, coffee company. But GMCR is offering a cash deal valued at $265 million, while Peet's is offering $19.80 in cash and the rest in Peet's stock, which is trading at about $33 per share. The up and down risk for Diedrich is that the value of the deal floats in part based on the value of Peet's stock. Diedrich has informed Peet's that it believes the new GMCR offer is superior to the Peet's offer. Peet's share price has also been falling the last couple of days. Peet's had agreed in early November to buy Diedrich for $26 per share. Peet's has until November 27 to amend its offer.

WSJ On Campus, the new college resource from The Wall Street Journal and Unigo.com, will present a free, interactive webcast - Inside the Admissions Office. The webcast airs live on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m. EST via http://wsj.unigo.com and select partner sites.
Inside the Admissions Office features heads of admissions from eight selective colleges and universities in an interactive discussion about the state of college admissions today. Participating heads of admissions represent Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, Williams College, Wesleyan University, Bryn Mawr College, Grinnell College, Marquette University and the University of Vermont. The event will be broadcast live from Wesleyan University. Panelists will also answer questions sent in by high school students and parents around the country.

Daniel M. Fogel, president of the University of Vermont, today assumed the board chairmanship of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities during the public research university association’s 122nd Annual Meeting.
Fogel assumes the leadership role from Lee T. Todd, Jr., president of the University of Kentucky. The nation’s oldest higher education association, APLU comprises 188 universities and 27 university systems, including 76 land-grant institutions. Its members enroll more than 4.7 million students, award nearly one-million degrees annually, and conduct nearly two-thirds of all academic research, totaling more than $34 billion annually. Fogel became the 25th President of the University of Vermont in July 2002.

While US households are expected to spend an average of $390 on Christmas gifts this holiday season, down from last year's estimate of $418, New Englanders are expected to spend over $500, which is by far the most, The Conference Board reports today. The survey of Christmas gift spending intentions covers a nationally representative sample of 5,000 US households. It was conducted for The Conference Board in November by TNS, the world's largest custom research company.
"Consumers are approaching the holiday season very cautiously," says Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center. "Job losses and uncertainty about the future are making for a very frugal shopper. Retailers will need to be quite creative to entice consumers to spend, both in stores and online this holiday season, as consumers most certainly will expect major markdowns and bargains."

City Market, Onion River Co-op, downtown Burlington’s cooperative grocery store, has issued over $268,000 in Patronage Refund checks to more than 3,500 Co-op Members. Patronage Refund checks for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009 were mailed on November 10. Membership at the Co-op is $15 annually and provides a variety of benefits including free water from the Reverse Osmosis water machine, discounts at area businesses, the opportunity to volunteer in and out of the Co-op for store discounts, in addition to the Patronage Refund. Co-op Members show their Member card and/or provide the name on the Member account at the cash registers with every purchase. Individual patronage checks are a refund on profit relative to member purchases when member equity is current. Patronage checks ranged from $1.03 to $946.45.

FairPoint Communications announced today it has selected Garrand and The VIA Group to help assist the company with its marketing and communications activities in northern New England. Both agencies are headquartered in Portland, Maine and were chosen because of their proven expertise and experience in marketing, advertising, and community relations and communications.
“We recognize that both Garrand and The VIA Group bring a great deal of experience that will directly benefit FairPoint. Given their local roots, they both bring a solid understanding of the people and marketplace in northern New England,” said Jim Weigert, vice president, marketing and product development for FairPoint. “This choice underscores our commitment to select top-tier vendors and demonstrates our commitment to do business with locally-based companies. We look forward to the beginning of a long and successful relationship with these agencies.”

Below is the text from State Auditor Tom Salmon’s speech at his press conference on Friday in the Cedar Creek Room at the Statehouse. He talks about transparency in government, his past financial issues, and his recent citation for driving under the influence of alcohol December 13, 2009.
Full Text:
Auditor Tom Salmon Speaks On Government Transparency and Personal Responsibility
Cedar Creek Room, The State House, 1 p.m., November 20, 2009
As Dickens wrote: “It was the best of times….it was the worst of times.” This press conference is dedicated to warrior within all of us.
Thank you all for coming……Vermonters…
Today is a day for facts, transparency and clarity. One of the main reasons is because after today, I will not be available for comments on certain issues until after December 3.
On Transparency:

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. (NASDAQ: GMCR) (“GMCR”), based in Waterbury, Vermont, today confirmed that it has submitted a proposal to acquire Diedrich Coffee, Inc. (NASDAQ: DDRX) (“Diedrich”) for $30.00 per share in cash pursuant to a cash tender offer, in a transaction with a total enterprise value of approximately $247 million. Separately, today Diedrich announced that the Board of Directors of Diedrich had determined that the GMCR offer constituted a superior proposal, as defined in the existing merger agreement between Diedrich and Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEET) (“Peet’s”), to the November 2, 2009 Peet’s proposal. Diedrich also announced today that is has received a revised offer from Peet’s.

Governor Jim Douglas appointed Thomas N. Pelletier of Montpelier to be chairman of the Vermont Housing Finance Agency (VHFA) Board of Commissioners. The change took effect upon the Governor's appointment Tuesday.
"Tom's been a highly-respected member of Vermont's lending community for more than a decade and has served on our Board since May 2008," says Executive Director Sarah Carpenter. "We welcome him as VHFA's new Board chairman."
Pelletier has been President and Chief Executive Officer of Northfield Savings Bank in Northfield since 1998. He serves as a Director of Public Television of Vermont and Norwich University Applied Research Institutes, Ltd.; and is a member of the Community Bankers Council of the American Bankers Association.
Pelletier replaces Lisa Mitiguy Randall who stepped down after nine years as Board chair. She will continue to serve on the Board for the remainder of her term.

As previously announced delSECUR CORPORATION, of South Burlington, had received shareholder approval to sell its Intellectual Property Assets to QTECH SYSTEMS INC., an Ontario company. The agreement was finalized on October 24th and the patent has been officially transferred to QTECH from Pierre de Lanauze on November 17th, 2009.

Robert Hofmann, Pamela Mackenzie and Scott Milne have been elected to the board of directors of Vermont Public Television, Vermont's statewide public television network.
Hofmann, of Waterbury Center, Vt., has been Vermont’s secretary of human services since 2008. Before that, he was the state’s commissioner of finance and management, then commissioner of corrections.
Active in professional organizations, Hofmann is a past director of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. He has served on government boards and task forces and was recently appointed to the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board. In his local community, he has participated in school, church and children’s sports activities.
Hofmann is a graduate of SUNY College of Cortland and received an MBA from Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
Mackenzie, of South Burlington, Vt., is the area vice president for Comcast in Vermont and western Massachusetts.

The Board of Trustees at Southern Vermont College appointed Professor Anita Hill as a new Board Member at its recent meeting. Hill is a faculty member at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. She has taught law and social policy for 25 years and lectures regularly in the U.S. and abroad and serves on a wide range of Boards.
"We are honored that Professor Hill has accepted our invitation to join the Southern Vermont College Board of Trustees,” stated Board Chair, Wallace Altes. “She is a scholar of the first rank; an eloquent advocate for those who too often do not have an advocate; and a role model for all young people.”