Serologicals subsidiary buys Specialty Media

A subsidiary of Serologicals Corp. is getting deeper into the media formulations business for cultivating stem cell research.

Chemicon International Inc., a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Serologicals, announced Tuesday that it had acquired Specialty Media, a division of Cell & Molecular Technologies, a company owned by Sentigen Holding Corp.

The $6.5 million cash transaction gives Chemicon all assets of the Phillipsburg, N.J.-based developer and supplier of specialty stem cell culture media formulations and supplements, cells and research reagent tools to the life sciences industry.

Serologicals has a production plant in the East Hills Business Park in Lawrence.

Retail

Home improvement store’s profits rise

The Home Depot Inc., the nation’s largest home-improvement chain, reported a nearly 10 percent jump in fourth-quarter earnings on solid sales, particularly at stores open at least a year.

Shares of Atlanta-based Home Depot fell $1.74, or 4.1 percent, closing at $40.28 in Tuesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange, as the overall market declined broadly.

For the three months ending Jan. 30, Home Depot said it earned $1.04 billion, or 47 cents a share, compared to a profit of $951 million, or 42 cents a share, in the same period a year ago.

Home Depot has a store in Lawrence, above.

Martha Stewart

Domestic diva’s firm poised for comeback

When Martha Stewart is released from prison next week, the doyenne of domesticity will return to the multimedia company she founded — a company that faces a much brighter outlook than when she was convicted of lying about a stock sale only a year ago.

Back then, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.’s future looked gloomy. Stewart’s syndicated daily TV show was placed on hiatus. The company’s stock dropped 23 percent, hitting $10.86 on March 5, 2004, the day of her conviction.

But since then Martha Stewart Living’s shares stock has more than tripled, closing Tuesday at $34.48 on the New York Stock Exchange, near the high end of its 52-week range of $8.25 to $36.53 per share.

Consumer confidence slips in February

A widely watched indicator of consumers’ confidence in the economy slipped in February but remained well above its levels a year ago, a private research group reported Tuesday.

The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index dipped to 104 this month, down from a revised 105.1 in January, as optimism about business conditions over the next six months declined. The latest figure was slightly above what analysts were expecting.

Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board’s research division, called the reading an indicator that consumers expect moderated but continued growth in the economy.

“We’re not going to fall off a cliff and head into a recession, but we’re not likely to gather substantial momentum either and see growth rates in excess of 5 percent,” Franco said. “They’re expecting more of the same. Given that we’re continuing to expand, that’s good news.”

Bankruptcy

Interstate Bakeries still losing money

The winter holidays did nothing to slow losses at bankrupt Interstate Bakeries Corp., which reported Tuesday a loss of $12 million for the four weeks that ended Jan. 8.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Kansas City, Mo.-based maker of iconic brands Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread said it had sales of $238 million during the period. The company’s expenses included $3.5 million in costs tied to its reorganization: $2.3 million in professional fees and a non-cash charge of $1.2 million for ending a lease.

The filing is required by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and was the company’s fifth report since it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sept. 22.

Shares for Interstate Bakeries fell 5 cents, or about 1 percent, to $5.25 in over-the-counter trading Tuesday.