Yao Ming at center of new Garmin ads

Consumer electronics maker Garmin International Inc. has signed on NBA star Yao Ming to help sell the company’s global positioning satellite system.

The 7-foot-6 center for the Houston Rockets not only is a fan favorite — a record 2.5 million fans voted him to the NBA’s All-Star game — but he is one of the most popular personalities in his native China, an exploding economy Garmin wants to get into.

Garmin, incorporated in the Cayman Islands but headquartered in Olathe, says it wants to use Yao to push the Garmin brand and expand awareness of GPS technology in general.

Yao will begin appearing in print and television ads for Garmin next month. Terms of the deal, which runs until 2007, were not disclosed.

Advice

Bureau warns of telephone scam

Another phone scam is making the rounds in northeast Kansas.

The Better Business Bureau reports that people have been receiving calls offering $200 gift cards from Home Depot in exchange for paying $3.95, either by credit card or providing bank account information.

Don’t do it, said Joyce Woodard, president of the bureau serving northeast Kansas. Home Depot is not behind the offer.

Woodard said that one consumer almost let her guard down as she mentally subtracted $200 from the price of a new fence.

“She hung up on the caller, as we all should,” Woodard said. “It’s the season for gardening and sprucing up our homes. The scam artist is just pulling out the scam that matches the spring season.”

For more information about scams, click on www.topeka.bbb.org.

Earnings

Quarterly profits down at Commerce Bank

Commerce Bancshares Inc. said Wednesday that first-quarter earnings fell year-over-year as the bank reduced portions of its securities portfolio.

Quarterly income was $49.8 million, or 73 cents per share, compared to $51.3 million, or 71 cents per share, last year. Per share earnings were higher in the latest quarter due to fewer shares outstanding.

Net interest income fell to $121.5 million from $124.2 million.

“Favorable credit experience reduced our provision for loan losses while investment securities gains were significantly lower than last year,” Chairman and CEO David W. Kemper said in a statement.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based company said that average loans grew at an annualized rate of 7 percent during the past two quarters, but that net interest income was lower at the bank due to a planned reduction in its securities portfolio.

Commerce Bank has several locations in Lawrence.