The appointment of the 46-year-old Lawler comes after a tough year during which Chesapeake’s board ousted its founder and the company worked to shore up its finances.

The new CEO takes over as Chesapeake continues selling assets to pare down an enormous debt burden. Chesapeake intends to sell $4 billion to $7 billion in assets this year. It has sold about $2 billion so far in deals that have either been signed or finalized.

Former CEO and Chairman Aubrey McClendon built Chesapeake into the nation’s second largest producer of natural gas by aggressively acquiring drilling rights on land throughout the country. When natural gas prices slumped to decade-lows in early 2012, the value of those rights plummeted, as did the revenue generated from the gas produced from the land. That put Chesapeake in a financial bind that it has been trying to free itself from by selling drilling rights to other oil and gas companies.

It also exposed some controversial perks that McClendon had arranged, including the right to invest personally in all of the company’s wells. Investor uproar in the spring of 2012 over the perks and the way McClendon financed his investments led the company to remove its founder from the position of board chairman.

Even though subsequent internal investigations into McClendon’s activities turned up no improper conduct, the company announced early this year that McClendon would leave the company because of “philosophical differences” between McClendon and the board.

Lawler is senior vice president for international and deep-water operations at Anadarko Petroleum. He also will join the Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake’s board. The appointments are effective June 17.

Lawler is a petroleum engineer with 25 years of experience in the exploration and production industry.

Chesapeake shares rose 1.5 percent to $20.57 in pre-market trading Monday.

We’re talking about artwork that the Akron tire maker accumulated and created over the decades, starting in the early part of the 20th century, that won’t make the move from Goodyear’s old buildings on East Market Street to the new headquarters.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is making a nearly clean break with its artsy past as employees settle into the ultramodern $160 million corporate headquarters on nearby Innovation Way in East Akron.

Since last September it’s been the responsibility of Green resident Ron Beahn, Goodyear’s former art curator, to find and catalog hundreds of pieces of art — paintings, sculptures, ceramics, antiques, old maps and more — in preparation for proper disposal.

“I’m documenting everything we do,” said Beahn. “A lot of them, we don’t know how [Goodyear] got them, but we got them. All these little odds and ends things, we’re going to dispose of them.”

Goodyear retained him to spend a couple of days each week over months searching offices, nooks, crannies, closets and storage rooms at the old headquarters and Goodyear Hall in pursuit of valuable and sometimes forgotten artwork. This is actually the second time the 65-year-old Beahn’s been pressed into this kind of duty at Goodyear.

As Beahn wraps up his work, Goodyear is nearly finished figuring out what to do with the 700-plus pieces he has found and sorted, including an antique rifle found just in the past couple of weeks. The company will say farewell to most of it, including four small glass-fronted cases of stuffed squirrels mounted to depict a boxing match that were made in the early 1900s in Great Britain.

Much of the valuable art, including well-known artists as well as a significant vintage map collection, is being billed as “The Goodyear Collection” and will be auctioned off in September by Cleveland-based Rachel Davis Fine Arts. (The boxing squirrels will be among the pieces put up for auction.)

Some of Goodyear’s legacy artwork is being retained for display at the new global and North American Tire headquarters on Innovation Way.

Goodyear employees will have a chance to buy the art not being kept or put up for auction at a company-only sale, probably in June.

Beahn is a watercolor artist who owns a custom frame shop on Portage Trail in Cuyahoga Falls. For 25 years or so he has been heavily involved in the annual Boston Mills Artfest, where he is the director.

Beahn has strong ties to Goodyear. Beahn began working at Goodyear right after high school in the early 1960s as an apprentice electrician. His father was a manager at Goodyear’s old Plant 1. Beahn also served in the Navy as an electronics technician, repairing computers and working on anti-submarine warfare P3 Orion airplanes. He also liked to draw and paint.

In addition to working as an electrician and being Goodyear’s art curator, he also oversaw the large Gault conference room in the former headquarters and more.

“I took care of the model room and models,” Beahn said. “They had me doing a lot of different things.”

Cataloguing collection

Beahn first catalogued Goodyear’s art collection 15-plus years ago before leaving the company.

He was first assigned the task of cataloguing the company’s art while he was working as an electrician; a company manager noted his artist background and shortly after he was put on special assignment.

“They didn’t know what they had,” he said. “I went and got drawings of all the buildings and I started scouring from the basement up ... and just started looking for whatever might be lying around.”

It took him upwards of a year to complete that work including having photographs taken of each piece he found, Beahn said. “I was real thorough.”

Goodyear had a large amount of advertising-related material created by people in its art department over the years.

“You had paintings for the ads,” he said. The company sometimes commissioned artists from outside Goodyear to do ad-related artwork as well, he said.

“We kept the original paintings,” Beahn said. “Some of these guys, as time went on, became well known. ... Now they’ve got a big name. Now the art is worth something. Some of the portraits of the past Goodyear people were done by famous artists. Goodyear never went out and bought artwork, per se, to have an art collection. The only thing they really went out to buy was their maps.”

Goodyear also has portraits by George Peter Alexander Healy that will be included in the upcoming auction.

“He was known as the painter of presidents,” Beahn said. “He has more presidential portraits in the White House than any other painter. Now here we are, sitting with four or five of his paintings.”

Goodyear published an annual Christmas newsletter decades ago that traditionally had a Norman Rockwell illustrated cover, Beahn said. But he never found a Rockwell painting in Goodyear all those years ago and does not know if the company ever commissioned Rockwell (who died in 1978 at the age of 84) to paint the covers, he said.

Beahn said he located Goodyear paintings by Dean Cornwell, an illustrator and muralist who was a contemporary of Rockwell. “He was doing artwork for ads,” he said. Cornwell died in 1960.

Valuable pieces

Some of Goodyear’s art “had a way” of disappearing from the company’s buildings years ago and he needed to find those pieces and get them back, Beahn said.

“[About 15 years ago] I found four of the Cornwell paintings in somebody’s basement,” Beahn said. “He bought them for $150 apiece and was going to restore them.”

Beahn said he went to the person’s home and picked up the paintings. “I went back and got them appraised — $93,000.”

He cautioned that it is difficult to put values on art. What was considered collectible years ago may not be so highly prized now, he said.

The Cornwell pieces are his favorites in the Goodyear collection, Beahn said.

Since starting on this latest project last September, Beahn said he’s been retracing many of the steps he took years ago.

Some valuable pieces he cataloged years ago at Goodyear are now at places such as Stan Hywet and the University of Akron, he said.

Goodyear refurbished, reframed and installed a number of pieces in the global headquarters portion of the new building, said Pete Buchanan, director of human resources, Akron operations.

“We’re an international company, so a lot of what is already installed came from our international collection. It’s a group of oils from all over the world,” he said. “Some pieces of this collection may find it into the North America [Tire] business unit areas of the building that tell a story.”

The company is still figuring out what else it should retain and display, Buchanan said. Old Wingfoot basketball team trophies will be among the items kept, he said.

The architect of the new headquarters has been selecting pieces to bring to the building, Buchanan said. “It’s rather fluid but we’re getting our arms around it.”

Preparing for auction

Auctioneer Rachel Davis just started looking over The Goodyear Collection.

Davis said it will take several months to do research, photograph and catalog the pieces, establish pricing and more in preparation to put them up for auction at an as-yet undetermined date in September. Davis said she needs to figure out a “game plan” for the auction and the best way to present the Goodyear items. People from around the world will be able to go online to bid on items.

“There’s so much varied stuff,” Davis said. “There’s historical, there’s lots of Cleveland School artists, a lot of Akron, there’s decorative art, there’s a nice collection of maps. … There’s 80 to 100 maps.”

Most of the maps were purchased for display in Goodyear’s former Mahogany Row executive suite offices.

There is a strong market for those kind of vintage maps, Davis said. “Hopefully we’ll get the attention of map collectors all over the country, even globally,” she said.

As for the boxing squirrels, Davis will put those up for auction, too.

“Some guy in England became noted for doing these things,” Beahn said. “These boxing squirrels are worth a couple grand or something.”

The squirrels at one point were displayed in a Goodyear lunch area “people in the past used to frequent,” Beahn said. “Sometimes it’s not so much what the art itself is valued at, it’s the history behind it, the stories it has behind it. Those sat there and watched a lot of people chew on food, I guess, at one time.”

Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.

The deal announced Monday represents Mayer’s boldest move yet since she left Google 10 months ago to lead Yahoo’s latest comeback attempt. It marks Yahoo’s most expensive acquisition since the Sunnyvale, Calif., company bought online search engine Overture a decade ago for $1.3 billion in cash and stock.

Yahoo is paying all cash for Tumblr, dipping into some of its remaining stash from a $7.6 billion windfall reaped last year from selling about half of its stake in Chinese Internet company Alibaba Holdings Group. Taking over Tumblr will devour about one-fifth of the $5.4 billion in cash that Yahoo had in its accounts at the end of March.

While hailing Tumblr as fount of creativity that attracts 300 million visitors per month, Yahoo pledged “not to screw it up.” David Karp, a high school dropout who started Tumblr six years ago, will remain in control of the service in an effort to retain the same “irreverence, wit and commitment to empower creators,” Yahoo said.

Karp, 26, who may now have a managerial mentor in Mayer, 37. Tumblr, which will remain based in New York, has about 175 employees while Yahoo has 11,300 workers.

Mayer, who worked closely with Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had high praise for Karp in a statement. She described him “as one of the most perceptive, capable entrepreneurs I’ve ever worked with.”

In his statement, Karp predicted Yahoo would help Tumblr grow even faster as he strives “to make the Internet the ultimate creative canvas. “

Tumblr now figures to play a pivotal role in Mayer’s attempt to reshape Yahoo. To take on the challenge, Mayer ended a highly successful 13-year career at Google, which she helped surpass Yahoo as the Internet’s most influential company. Since coming to Yahoo, Mayer has concentrated on improving employee morale, redesigning services and bringing in more engineering talent through a series of small acquisitions that have collectively cost less than $50 million.

Her efforts have been well-received on Wall Street so far, although most of the 69 percent surge in Yahoo’s stock price under Mayer’s leadership has been driven by the rising value of Yahoo’s remaining 24 percent in Alibaba. When Alibaba goes public within the next few years, analysts have estimated Yahoo could collect another $10 billion to $20 billion by selling the rest of its Alibaba stock.

If this deal pays off the way Mayer envisions, Tumbler could help Yahoo finally get its stock price to $33. That would be a major coup because many investors soured on Yahoo after a previous regime led by co-founder Jerry Yang squandered an opportunity five years ago to sell the entire company to Microsoft for $33 per share. The stock spent more than four years trading below $20 before the recent surge that lifted the price to $26.52 through last week.

The deal could backfire though if Yahoo’s effort to make more money alienate a Tumblr user base that so far has been subjected to hardly any advertising during the service’s six-year history.

“Yahoo has to manage this acquisition in a way that keeps Tumblr’s user base while trying to add advertising, which historically tends to turn off a lot of people,” said Forrester Research analyst Zachary Reiss-Davis.

Yahoo said it will work with Tumblr to create ads that “are seamless and enhance the user experience.”

Mayer is betting that Tumblr will provide Yahoo with a captivating hook to reel in more traffic and advertisers on smartphones and tablet computers. That rapidly growing market is expected to become even more important during the next decade as people increasingly consume digital content on mobile devices instead of laptop and desktop machines.

Besides offering one of the top mobile apps, Tumblr also runs one of the world’s busiest websites, featuring 75 million daily posts about everything from politics to pets. Advertising has been a missing ingredient so far as Tumblr, like many online services in their early stages, focused on building a loyal audience before turning its attention to making money.

The deal also has some symbolic significance for Yahoo, an 18-year-old company that had spent much of the past decade aimlessly drifting under different management teams while Google Inc. overtook it in terms of size and influence. At the same time, newcomers such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter began to command the attention of people who found themselves spending less and less time on Yahoo.

Part of Yahoo’s problems stemmed from missed chances to improve its service and technology.

Yahoo flirted with potential acquisitions of Google and Facebook in those two companies’ early days, only to have the talks unravel because Yahoo wasn’t prepared to pay asking prices that were far below the current market values of Google ($300 billion) and Facebook ($63 billion). Yahoo also considered buying YouTube in 2006, only to be outbid by Google, which snapped up the world’s leading online service for $1.76 billion — a price that now looks like a bargain.

Even when Yahoo did pull off deals, the company has been criticized for mismanaging a list of acquired services that includes photo-sharing Flickr, online help-wanted service HotJobs and content-sharing service Del.icio.us. Yahoo ended up selling HotJobs and Del.icio.us, but Mayer has been looking at ways to spruce up Flickr and blend its photos into more of Yahoo’s other services. Mayer is expected to discuss more changes for Flickr at an event in New York Monday evening.

Tumblr could help Yahoo recapture some of its cachet with teens and adults in their early 20s, a demographic that has become tougher for Yahoo to reach in recent years as it fell behind the technological curve and struggled to develop compelling services.

While Facebook has turned into a mainstream social network where even grandparents now connect family and friends, Tumblr has become one of the places where the cool kids hang out.

“Tumblr is redefining creative expression online,” Mayer said. “On many levels, Tumblr and Yahoo! couldn’t be more different, but, at the same time, they couldn’t be more complementary.”

Tumblr emerged as a trendy online hangout by providing a service that makes it easy to share blog posts, photos, video and other content in an enthralling mosaic. The service says it has amassed more than 50 billion posts from 108 million blogs. Tumblr users rely on a dashboard to pinpoint the kinds of blogs that they want to track and also have tools to pass along the posts that interest them.

That wealth of content could be interwoven into Yahoo’s other services that provide coverage of general news, sports, finance and entertainment. Tumblr also will fill Yahoo’s gaping void in the realm of social media. Yahoo so far has had to connect its services to Facebook and Twitter to give its users a social networking outlet.

Having its own social networking service will also give Yahoo more insights into the things that people like — a key to distributing ads to consumers most likely to be interested in a specific products. That data, in turn, should help Yahoo sell more ads and accelerate its revenue growth. After three successive years of declines, Yahoo’s revenue rose slightly last year, but lagged far behind the growth at Google and Facebook. Mayer has vowed to bring Yahoo’s revenue growth back to at least the level of the overall Internet ad market.

Yahoo’s acquisition will deliver a jackpot to Karp, who dropped out of high school to concentrate on computer programming. He ended up being home schooled while taking classes in Japanese and working on gambling software. Later, he became a product executive at a parenting website called UrbanBaby. After CNet bought the site in 2006, Karp set up his own a development service called “Davidville” before deciding to create an outlet for personal expression — an endeavor that hatched Tumblr.

Karp’s cut from the Yahoo deal is about $275 million. Most of the rest of the money will be paid to the venture capitalists that invested about $125 million into Tumblr. That list includes Spark Capital, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Union Square Ventures and Insight Venture Partners.

A gallon of regular gas in Ohio was listed at an average of about $3.84 in Monday’s survey from auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. That’s up 27 cents from last Monday’s average.

Analysts blame the increase partially on recent signs that the U.S. and European economies still face considerable challenges.

The Ohio price this week Monday is 19 cents higher than the national average.

The state average is about 26 cents higher than this time last month, and 16 cents higher than at the same time in 2012.

The lowest average price in the state Monday was about $3.75 in the Youngstown area.

Online: AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report at http://fuelgaugereport.aaa.com.

It was written off as the next Microsoft Corp. — a staid high-tech giant in the shadows of Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. that had lost its sense of urgency and innovative edge.

But that sentiment has shifted dramatically over the last year, and that was proved last week as Google swung open the doors to its annual conference for software developers.

Google shares rose to a record after the company unveiled a subscription music-streaming service and overhauled its online maps, part of several product updates aimed at attracting more users and advertisers.

The world’s most popular search engine also showed off enhancements to the Android mobile operating system, Glass computing spectacles, Chrome browser and other initiatives at the I/O conference in San Francisco. By getting developers to write software for such products, Google is seeking to broaden the appeal of its services.

“A year ago, everyone thought Google was just going to collect its pension checks” from search advertising, said Steven Levy, author of the book In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. “Now it’s the hot company again.”

One of the main reasons Google is the company that everyone is talking about: big ideas.

Google has long been known for making long-term bets on audacious ideas, some of which evolve into indispensable parts of our everyday lives: photographing every street on Earth to create a digital replica of the planet, or providing instant translations of websites in any language.

Under Larry Page, the Google co-founder who took the reins two years ago from longtime Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, Google is experimenting even more. Building artificial intelligence software to power driverless cars. Wiring homes with super-speedy broadband. Developing futuristic glasses that when spoken to or touched let users take photos and snippets of video or send email.

Google even has a small group of researchers coming up with a simulation of the human brain, part of its effort to bore so deeply into people’s habits and lives that it can understand what they want — sometimes before they themselves know it.

“There’s not much competition” when it comes to exploring technological frontiers, Page said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call, “because no one else is crazy enough to try.”

These attention-getting projects have reinvigorated Google’s image in Silicon Valley and beyond. The company has a starring role in a new Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson movie coming out June 7, The Internship, which showcases Google products and casts Google as “the greatest place to work in America.”

And it has again become the darling of Wall Street. Analysts still fret that searches on desktop computers, Google’s most lucrative way to sell ads, will cool off before it can come up with its next big money-maker. But they say Page has impressed investors by running this $50 billion business of nearly 54,000 workers with hardheaded discipline.

Page has sharpened the company’s focus on a handful of product areas to deliver, in his words, “one consistent, beautiful and simple Google experience.”

As rivals Apple and Facebook each experienced their own bruising falls, Google stock has shot up 65 percent since Page took charge. Google recently surpassed the market capitalization of Microsoft.

Prospects could get brighter if Page realizes his big ambitions for Google. Page wants Google to be on every screen and every device so online advertisers can always reach consumers.

Analysts aren’t sure Page can pull off that feat. And not everyone sees Google through such rose-colored glasses. Google must crack the code on making money on mobile devices and faces growing pressure to turn technology into moneymaking businesses.

So what’s up with WhatsApp? And how has a San Francisco startup that many Americans still have never heard of come to lead a fast-growing field of mobile messaging services that are shaking up the phone and Internet industries?

Easy, says Andreas Sanchez, a junior at San Francisco State University who has used a number of such services. “I can text, I can send pictures, I can call, all through Wi-Fi,” he said. “They make it fun for people my age — and, I guess, any age.”

The popularity of online messaging, especially among younger Internet users, has sparked a boom in apps — such as WhatsApp, WeChat, TicToc and Tango — that operate on a mix of advertising and subscription models. By sending messages over the Internet, often via Wi-Fi or mobile data networks, these services let users avoid paying the SMS text-messaging fees charged by telecommunications carriers like Verizon or AT&T.

And WhatsApp, by many measures, is at the head of the class.

The company was launched in 2009 by two former Yahoo executives who, unlike the founders of other recent sensations like Facebook and Pinterest, wouldn’t be carded at the local bar. Jan Koum, 36, and Brian Acton, 40, remember not only the dot-com boom but how it went bust.

People who know both men say it’s a big part of why they’ve tried to build the 40-worker company with a minimum of hype.

In a rare interview, Koum and Acton told the San Jose Mercury News via email that traditional text messaging is a 20-year-old technology. “We are in the middle of the smartphone revolution,” they wrote, “and it is just beginning.”

CEO Koum, at a New York conference in April, said the service has surpassed 200 million daily users who together send more than 20 billion messages a day.

Greg Woock, head of San Jose, Calif.-based competitor Pinger, looks on such numbers with envy, considering his own startup carries as many messages in a month as WhatsApp claims to in a day.

But, Woock said, Koum has yet to figure out how best to turn that traffic into dollars.

“His business model is, you pay me once a year, 99 cents,” Woock said of Koum, whom he considers a friend. But that’s only true of iPhone users; WhatsApp is currently free for owners of Android phones, at least in most countries. “I’d argue,” Woock said, “that the vast majority of his users will never pay.”

Sanchez, the college student, illustrates the point.

During a recent trip to Barcelona, he downloaded WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends and family. But he quickly dropped it in favor of a competing service, Viber.

The reason? “They both do the exact same thing, but Viber’s free,” said Sanchez, who at home is a heavy user of Facebook Messenger and Apple’s iChat. He says he only uses email to communicate with “my older relatives.”

Pinger also is free but earns money by showing ads to customers. Woock said if Koum would use Pinger’s advertising engine, “I could make him $1 million a day. With that kind of reach, that company’s worth $5 billion.”

Koum and Acton, though, say they’re confident in their business model.

“Nothing comes free in this world,” they wrote in their email. “Services that claim to be free collect user data and target ads or promote games.” The founders say such “gimmicks” clutter the user experience.

Macquarie Securities, in a recent survey of WhatsApp users, found deep passion for the product. While popular features include group texting and the ability to send photos and videos, the greatest appeal is in avoiding texting and roaming charges, especially outside the United States.

Woock — who said Pinger’s user traffic actually outstrips WhatsApp’s domestically — noted that overseas is where the messaging battle is being fought most fiercely. “It’s so expensive everywhere else in the world,” he said of text messaging.

Despite its popularity, WhatsApp’s record on privacy and security has come under fire. Earlier this year, Canadian and Dutch authorities accused the company of violating international privacy laws because it required users to upload their entire phone book contact lists — whether or not those contacts use the app.

WhatsApp now allows customers to opt out of that requirement. Koum and Acton, via email, said they’re “unusually protective of our user experience” and don’t share user data with outside marketers.

Woock and others predict the market for mobile messaging ultimately could outstrip that of social networking, which is built on users’ “graph” of connections.

“Let’s call it 3 billion people in the world who use mobile,” Woock said. “Mobile is the real graph — that’s who your friends really are — and that’s why Facebook and Google are so interested in this.”

That famous quote from Benjamin Franklin came to mind as I read a paper by three researchers who’ve made important contributions to the study of retirement finance: James M. Poterba at MIT, Steven F. Venti at Dartmouth and David A. Wise at Harvard.

What could possibly connect a statement from a revolutionary at the signing of the Declaration of Independence and an academic study of pre-retirees’ financial resources?

Lots. The paper shows what amounts to two separate and distinct Americas. One is the large portion of our population — at least half — that enters retirement, often unwillingly, with very limited resources and struggles every day thereafter. The other is a smaller group that we see pictured in magazines offering long cruises, well-landscaped retirement communities and other signs of affluence — the top 30 percent that is doing OK to very, very well.

If the two groups can’t figure out a way to coexist, the figures make it clear that most people are facing a future of strife and shortage, while those who are better off will feel they are targeted by a growing horde of tax hunters. Or maybe just hunted.

What makes this research different is that it tries to put a value on things such as Social Security and pensions. This isn’t done by the well-known Survey of Consumer Finances that is the basis of most wealth studies. Nor is it done by journalistic efforts such as my regularly updated Wealth Scoreboard. And it isn’t done by the financial services industry, either. Their research tends to focus on our financial assets exclusively and regularly tells us that we need to save much, much more.

The reality is that when Social Security and pensions are considered, the gap between top and bottom is reduced substantially. Substantially, however, turns out to be not nearly enough.

One measure of the chasm is how much life-annuity income pre-retirees could buy with their savings. The researchers found that nearly half of all households could convert their entire savings into no more than $5,000 a year of lifetime income. Their savings, in other words, weren’t going to do much for their retirement security. The top 11 percent of households, on the other hand, could buy at least $50,000 a year of lifetime income.

Here are some of the important messages culled from the paper:

• Social Security is really important for nearly everyone. Whether viewed as a percent of income or as a form of “virtual wealth,” Social Security varies from important to “life or death.” Even small changes in benefit formulas will have enormous future consequences. While it is essentially the only resource available to those in the bottom 50 percent, it still appears to account for one-third of financial resources for those in the top 20 percent.

• Home equity is a vital source of security for some retirees. It appears, the researchers note, to be used like a deep reserve. To some extent, middle-income households seem to regard home equity as a reasonable substitute for long-term-care insurance or a good-sized emergency fund. While more than 90 percent of married households have some home equity, the bottom 30 percent of single households have none.

• Being married is good for your finances. Being single isn’t. While married households tend to have financial assets, housing equity, defined-benefit pensions and strong Social Security income, single-person households have less of each. So single-person households have less flexibility as well as less money.

These differences are important because we are becoming a nation of singles. As recently as 1989, only 5.3 percent of women ages 40 to 44 had never been married. By 2009, the figure was up to 14.1 percent. It’s also a matter of actuarial reality that the percentage of population that is coupled peaks at ages 40 to 49. It declines after that because of death, not divorce. While 78 percent of households were married couples in 1950, only 48 percent were married in 2010.

This explains why our supermarkets are now filled with “single” servings of frozen vegetables. It also gives us a hint of the financial disadvantage our entire society will have as the boomer generation retires.

Marriage, friendship and sharing have never been so important — and so ignored.

Questions about personal finance and investments may be sent by email to scott@scottburns.com.

In the first three months of 2013, the number of sales that closed rose 56 percent from the same time in 2012, according to BizBuySell.com, an online marketplace for small businesses.

Retirement was the No. 1 contributor to business sales in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of 2013, according to a survey by Pepperdine University and two trade groups, the International Business Brokers Association and M&A Source.

“It was almost like a light switch went on in January,” says Michael Schuster, a broker with World Business Brokers in Miami. “We started getting a lot of activity with sellers who said, ‘I don’t want to go through another downturn or tough time. I want to see if I could sell my business.’ ”

Sales are so strong in Florida that Schuster’s brokerage is opening two more offices in the state. Three-quarters of the sellers or potential sellers that his company sees are baby boomers, most of whom don’t have family members willing to take over their businesses. Some of these owners want to sell just part of their firms, essentially taking on a partner, because they don’t want to keep carrying all the risk themselves.

Honey Rand fits the category. After 17 years of running her Tampa, Fla., public relations firm Environmental PR Group, she’s starting to think about selling. The 55-year-old wants to get away from the administrative work that goes into running a business, and focus on working with clients.

“Like most people who end up starting a business, I’m really good at the work I do and I’d love the opportunity to wallow around in it,” says Rand. She’s optimistic that she’d be able to sell, because she was approached twice by prospective buyers in the last 10 years. And Rand expects that she would remain with the company for a period following a sale to help with the transition to new management — something that many business owners do.

Slow pickup

In California, the pace of sales is more of a “slow pickup, not a huge spike,” says Dave Richards, owner of Keystone Business Advisors, a brokerage in Westlake Village, Calif.

“Baby boomers are where we’re really seeing the growth. It’s pent-up demand,” Richards says.

One of those boomers is Walt Pocock. In late 2011, Pocock met with a broker to discuss possibly selling his Chino, Calif., business, Palo Verde Landscape Management Co. But he and his wife Dee, who also worked with the company, weren’t quite ready to let it go. However, selling became “something we were thinking about from then on,” Pocock said.

Within a year, the 70-year-old decided he was ready to retire and Dee, 78, agreed. The difficult business climate was a factor in their decision.

They put the company on the market in January, and quickly had several bidders. Pocock got his full asking price, and the deal closed April 1.

“Trillions of dollars of business value are going to change hands in the next 10 to 20 years,” says Bob Balaban, managing director at Headwaters MB, an investment bank based in Denver. He believes so-called ‘strategic acquisitions’ — purchases by companies looking to expand — will be a key factor in that trend. In a tight economy, companies looking to grow feel that it would take years to build up their businesses.

“They have to do acquisitions to continue to grow and grow quickly,” Balaban says.

Buyers appear to be ready to step up and are looking for companies that will be good fit with their existing operations. Health-care related businesses like medical billing firms, pharmacies and even medical and dental practices are particularly in demand, says Keystone’s Richards. He’s seeing less interest in restaurants and retailers, industries where profit margins are thinner and where many companies are still struggling.

Sellers are benefiting because buyers are willing to pay more money if a deal will quickly get them into the markets they want to serve, says Mike Carter, CEO of BizEquity, a company that helps businesses calculate their sales price.

“For a growth company, we’re seeing them getting almost 15 percent more than what they were getting four years ago [during the recession],” he says.

Toy retailer expands

Creative Kidstuff, a toy retailer based in Minneapolis, just expanded by buying a 26-year-old online and catalog toy retailer, Sensational Beginnings. Roberta Bonoff, CEO of Creative Kidstuff, said the owner was tired and ready to sell. Bonoff declined to disclose the purchase price, but said “everybody walked away from the purchase with their needs met.”

Both companies serve similar markets, but 87 percent of Creative Kidstuff’s revenue comes from its six traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Buying Sensational Beginnings will allow it to expand its online operations.

BCER, an engineering firm in Arvada, Colo., bought another engineering business, Rimrock Group, which specializes in designing technological systems for new buildings and renovations. The purchase allowed BCER to immediately expand into an area of expertise it didn’t have — and that would have taken it years to develop by putting a staff together one by one.

“Growing things organically is very difficult,” says Marc Espinosa, president of BCER. “I had been discussing seriously for two years, how could we develop this specialty in our company?”

Some buyers are looking to expand into a new geographic area. Jodi Hamilton now owns both of the Dream Dinners franchises in Chicago, giving her the entire territory for the stores where customers assemble ingredients for dinners that they can pack up and take home to cook. Hamilton opened a store two years ago in the city’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood, and hoped to expand at some point. Then earlier this year, the owner of a Dream Dinners in the Roscoe Village neighborhood approached Hamilton and asked if she wanted to buy her store.

It took Hamilton only about a week to say yes. She nailed down a private loan, and closed the deal.

“It was too good an opportunity to pass up, knowing that we would have the entire Chicago market,” Hamilton says.

Burkett, who turns 65 on Monday, is stepping down this month from the Beacon Journal Charity Fund, where she has served as executive director since 1997.

Before taking over the nonprofit’s leadership role, she was a case investigator for the organization. The agency helps an average of 50 teens a year get free care from local orthodontists who accept reduced fees from the charity fund for their work.

In both positions, Burkett visited the homes of children and teens who applied for free braces to help determine which applicants qualified for the orthodontic care.

“That was and still is my first passion — the home visits and visiting the families and the one-on-one visits with the kids,” she said.

Over the years, she saw countless times the difference orthodontic care made in the lives of children in working-poor families who couldn’t afford the average $5,000 to $6,000 cost for braces.

There was the boy with an overbite who stopped her as she left a home visit to say, “Mrs. Burkett, I pray every day that the kids will stop making fun of me.”

Or the letter from a thankful mother 15 years ago recounting how her son changed from a shy, average student to one who gained amazing confidence after getting braces with the agency’s help. He ended up valedictorian of his graduating class.

“The difference that it’s made in their self-esteem and self-confidence is phenomenal,” she said.

The charity fund started at the newspaper at the urging of editor and publisher John S. Knight. The charity and the newspaper went separate ways in 1987, but Beacon Journal employees and former employees still serve on the agency’s board of trustees.

The agency’s $130,000 budget this year for orthodontic care and $16,000 to provide oral health education to third-grade classes throughout Summit County comes primarily from donations from area foundations.

Burkett is being replaced by Mark Fairhurst, who joined the organization this year to serve as the new executive director.

Burkett said she and her husband, Bill, plan to enjoy their retirement years by spending time with family and with regular trips to Florida.

But she’ll never forget the many smiles she helped shape over the years.

“I’m going to miss it a great deal,” she said. “It’s just very near and dear. It’s difficult for me to explain to someone who has not gone out to the homes and not seen some of the situations that we’ve seen and the expressions on the kids’ faces, the emotions that are involved and the gratitude that we get from the parents.”

Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or cpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow Powell on Twitter at twitter.com/abjcherylpowell.

Businesses in Delaware paid 5.1 percent in state and local taxes in 2011, while those in Alaska paid 25.2 percent, the report said. The states were ranked according to the percentage of businesses’ operating margin that states taxed. Operating margin is, broadly, profit before the business pays its interest on loans and taxes.

Ohio was ranked 33rd in the study, with businesses paying 11.1 percent of their gross operating margin in state and local taxes in 2011.

That puts it “pretty near the middle of the pack,” said Alex Rosean, one of the authors of the study.

The report also showed that U.S. businesses paid more than $623 billion in state and local taxes in 2011, the latest year for which figures were available.

The largest percentage of taxes paid by the businesses nationwide are property taxes, general sales taxes and unemployment insurance taxes which accounted for 68 percent of the total state and local taxes paid by businesses in 2011, according to the report.

Rosean said Delaware is particularly low in how much it taxes businesses because it has no corporate or individual income tax, a low property tax and a low unemployment compensation tax.

“They also don’t have a sales tax,” Rosean noted, adding that the economy in Delaware has been doing better than many other states, allowing the First State to keep taxes down.

As for Alaska, Rosean said that state also has a low individual income tax and no sales tax. But it has a relatively high corporate income tax, and, he added: “They have an absolutely gigantic severance tax, a tax on mineral extraction. As soon as a barrel of oil leaves the ground, they tax it.

“It’s smart on their part because businesses can’t say they are going to move to Colorado and drill for oil there,” he said.

But Alaska was losing out to drilling in other states like North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas, and just this year, decided to lower the taxes on oil companies in a bid to lure them back. This was labeled risky strategy by some opponents in Alaska, which depends deeply on oil revenues to fund the state budget.

Ohio, meanwhile, Rosean said, recently did away with its corporate income tax, but it ranks high in other areas of taxes. Those include business license fees and the individual income tax on business income that some owners pay on their business income.

Additionally, Rosean said, Ohio is one of only a handful of states that has a gross receipts tax. Also, he said, Ohio businesses have a high tax burden when it comes to unemployment insurance taxes — payroll taxes that businesses pay to fund unemployment insurance claims.

“Ohio had a tough economy for a while,” Rosean said, noting that high unemployment led to increased unemployment insurance taxes.

Matter of control

Rosean said business taxes “are not the only factor that affect a business climate. … But business taxes are one of the few factors that state and local government have [direct] control over. That’s why [the taxes] get so much publicity.”

A non-tax factor often valued by businesses is the availability of skilled workers, Rosen noted.

Peter Fisher, an economist and author of the report Grading Places: What Do the Business Climate Rankings Really Tell Us? said the Anderson Economic Group study is on target.

“This one actually tries to measure the amount businesses pay,” Fisher said. “They are looking at the right things, not mashing all the numbers together and trying to come up with a meaningful index.”

Fisher favorably compared the Anderson report to one done last year by the accounting firm of Ernst and Young, which also found Delaware to be the lowest business tax state.

Fisher said the trouble with such studies is that they often don’t differentiate between industries. For example, the severance tax is not paid by other kinds of manufacturers in Alaska, and if you take that tax out of the equation, business taxes would be lower overall.

“The idea that there’s a single business plan isn’t right,” he said. “But as a rough estimate, it isn’t bad.”

The study found that the average of all states, as a percentage of operating margin, is 10.2 percent.

The lowest tax states: Delaware: 5.1 percent; Oregon, 5.7; Utah, 6.2; Louisiana, 7.3; Georgia and South Dakota, 7.8.

The highest business tax states: Alaska: 25.2 percent; North Dakota, 16.8; Wyoming, 15.7; Vermont, 14.6; West Virginia, 14.2.

Beacon Journal business writer Katie Byard contributed to this report.

Dominion East Ohio

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized Dominion East Ohio with a 2013 Energy Star Partner of the Year Award for contributions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by delivering energy efficiency information and services to customers.

Myers Industries

Myers Industries was awarded an Inside Business Manny Award as a safety leader in manufacturing. The Manny Award recognizes product development, green initiatives and workplace environment behavior.

Steris Corp. and Radcom Inc.

The International Academy of the Visual Arts awarded the collaborative team of Steris and Radcom with the Communicator Award of Distinction, honoring communications professionals. Their entry, “Security Awareness,” is part of a Web-based training program meant to educate employees on Steris’ corporate security concepts and policies.

Design Molded Plastics

The Macedonia-based company was presented with the Supplier of the Year award at the annual Vitamix Supplier Summit. Vitamix said Design Molded Plastics’ manufacturing capabilities allowed Vitamix to achieve a record sales year in 2012.

Direct Energy

Direct Energy presented a $2,500 Reduce Your Use For Good Grant to Medina Creative Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing and quality services program for persons with disabilities living in Medina County. Direct Energy offers nonprofits up to $100,000 to implement energy-saving changes to their operations, and awards grants in $2,500 increments.

PEOPLE

Frank E. Quirk

The Ohio State Bar Association awarded the Akron attorney the 2013 Eugene R. Weir Award for Ethics and Professionalism.

Judith A. Mondry, CPA

The senior manager at Walthall, Drake & Wallace successfully completed the certification process with the National Association of Certified Valuators and Analysts (NACVA) to earn her designation of Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA).

Ben Myers joined the Industrial Division as project engineer. His duties include the Mahoning Creek project in Armstrong County, Pa. Kyle Donley joined the Civil Division as project engineer. His duties include the AMP Willow Island Power House project in St. Marys, W.Va. Brent Rozar joined the company as business development manager for the Industrial, Civil and Structural Divisions. Julie Bell was promoted to financial assistant.

Day Ketterer

Gregory A. Anglewicz joined the firm’s real estate practice group. He has more than 10 years of experience in commercial, residential, closings and real estate title law.

Timken Co.

Ryan D. Shaffer, of Canton, was appointed regional sales manager in the U.S. automotive aftermarket business.

Toastmasters Akron 151 — 6:30 to 8 p.m., Summa St. Thomas Hospital, 444 N. Main St., Akron. Information: 330-733-7683.

Northeast Ohio Business Alliance — 7:30 to 9 a.m., Real Estate Capital Partners, 8821 Freeway Drive, Macedonia. Information: edhopson@rcpfunding.com.

International Referral Network, Greater Akron Chapter — 7:30 a.m., Ramada Plaza restaurant, 20 W. Mill St., Akron. Information: 330-962-6844 or www.irnlink.com/chapter/2/22.

Institute of Management Accountants-Canton Chapter — 5 p.m., Skyland Pines, 3550 Columbus Road NE, Canton. $28 members and guests, $15 students. Reservation: http://canton.imanet.org.

Wednesday

A.M. Akron Toastmasters Club — 8 a.m., Fairlawn Country Club, 200 N. Wheaton Road, Akron. Breakfast, $6. Information: Jim Butler, 330-666-5630.

International Referral Network, Akron West Chapter — 11:45 a.m., Rosemont Country Club, 3177 Rosemont Blvd., Fairlawn. Reservations: Bill Kirk, 330-237-1111.

Cuyahoga Falls Toastmasters — 6:30 p.m., ComDoc offices, 220 Ascot Parkway, Cuyahoga Falls. Information: http://2878837.toastmastersclubs.org.

Rainmakers NEO — 7:30 to 9 a.m., Embassy Parkway, 4040 Embassy Parkway, Akron. Joe Laskosky will discuss the changes in federal health care. $12. Registration: www.rainmakersneo.com.

Thursday

AmSpirit Business Connections, Summit Business Network Chapter — 7:30 a.m., Bob Evans, 175 Howe Ave., Cuyahoga Falls. Free. Information: Lindsay Smith, 330-704-9939.

T.E.E.M. (Together Everyone Earns More) — 7 to 8:30 a.m., Silver Lake Country Club, 1325 Graham Road, Silver Lake. Information: Adam Yonkof, 330-388-1016.

Toastmasters in Green — Noon to 1 p.m., Akron General Lifestyles Wellness Center, 1940 Town Park Blvd., Green. Information: Marsha Friedman 330-603-1890.

Community Job Club — 7-9 p.m., Stratford Place, 4301 Darrow Road, Suite 2550, Stow. Offering free outplacement services for the unemployed and career management assistance to help the employed stay marketable. Information: http://www.communityjobclub.com.

Friday

Business Network International, Aurora Borealis Chapter — 7:30 a.m., Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, 342 S. Chillicothe Road, Aurora. Details: Keith Smith, 216-595-7900, or www.bni-ohio.com.

Akron Downtown Toastmasters — Noon, University Park YMCA, 477 E. Market St., Akron. Information: Tom Serle, 330-678-8930.

Toastmasters Beacon Journal — Noon, Beacon Journal John S. Knight Room, 44 E. Exchange St., Akron. Information: Sean Reed, 330-996-3425.

Rainmakers NEO-Barcamp — 3-5 p.m., Office Space Coworking, 39 E. Market St., Akron. This event will be centered around technology and driven by attendees. Topics will be established as attendees sign in and session leaders will volunteer to start the discussions. Computers or other products may be brought. Free for members, $35 for nonmembers. Registration: www.rainmakersneo.com.

‘Angry Birds’ to be film

Angry Birds, the video game that conquered small screens to become the top-selling mobile-phone application of all time, is coming to the big screen.

The animated 3-D film is being developed, produced and financed by the game’s publisher, Rovio Entertainment Oy of Espoo, Finland, and will be distributed by Sony Pictures Entertainment on July 1, 2016, the companies said in an emailed statement.

Sony Pictures was among several major Hollywood studios to seek distribution rights for a film version of the game in which players use a virtual slingshot to hurl birds at targets, the companies said. Versions of the game have been downloaded more than 1.7 billion times and a cartoon series, available on some video-on-demand channels, has attracted more than 150 million views.

Closely held Rovio, founded in 2003, also produces the mobile games The Croods, based on the DreamWorks Animation SKG movie, Tiny Thief and Icebreaker.

Sony Pictures is based in Culver City, Calif., and is owned by Tokyo-based Sony Corp.

MANUFACTURING

Alcoa to cut 500 jobs

Aluminum smelter and parts-maker Alcoa will close down two production lines at a plant in Canada and cut about 500 jobs there because of lower aluminum prices. A planned upgrade for the facility in Quebec is being pushed back by three years, to 2019, the company said. Alcoa has seen strong demand for aluminum, but prices have fallen. Those lower prices were a factor when Alcoa reported lower-than-expected first-quarter revenue last month. On May 1 it said it might cut capacity by 11 percent, or 460,000 tons, besides the 13 percent of its capacity it had already idled.

MEDIA

Yahoo will add services

Yahoo Inc. plans to start displaying posts from Twitter Inc.’s blogging service alongside other items in news feeds. Yahoo is adding services for mobile users. The company has shuttered some less popular online services, including a coupon site and local events calendar, to focus resources on marquee properties like mobile applications for email and weather.

— From Beacon Journal wire services

At 8 a.m., the electric utility and parent company of Ohio Edison will meet at the Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown, W.Va., home of West Virginia University.

Company officials said they wanted to make the meeting available to shareholders and employees of the various parts of FirstEnergy’s operations territory. When the meeting has been in downtown Akron, many workers from the nearby headquarters walk over to the John S. Knight Center.

This year, FirstEnergy’s top executives, the board of directors and a contingent of staffers in support roles will attend. Spokesman Todd Schneider said FE workers from Morgantown will also attend.

FirstEnergy bought Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Energy in 2011 for $4.3 billion in stock, plus assuming $3.8 billion in debt. The company has units in parts of Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. FirstEnergy has more than 500,000 customers in West Virginia, plus 1,700 employees and 1,300 retirees. FirstEnergy employs 16,315 overall, including 852 at its downtown Akron headquarters and 713 at its West Akron campus. In Summit County, the utility employs 2,433.

Last year’s meeting included protests inside and outside by union members, shareholders and others. Visitors had to pass through metal detectors to get inside, with the business portion of the meeting taking about 10 minutes. Chief Executive Officer and President Anthony Alexander did not make any remarks and did not take questions from the 200 people attending.

The decision to meet outside Akron this year is not related to last year’s protests, the company said.

Asked whether Alexander will make remarks this year or whether there will be additional security, Schneider said, “Our objective is to conduct the business portion of the meeting successfully. Certain security measures will be taken based on the experiences of other corporations’ shareowner meetings.”

There are nine items on the proxy statement for FirstEnergy shareholders to vote on, including four company and five shareholder proposals. The company is recommending shareholders approve its proposals and vote against the shareholder proposals, which are nonbinding, meaning the directors do not have to accept them.

They are:

• Election of directors: All 14 directors are up for a one-year term.

They are: Paul T. Addison, former managing director in the utilities department of Salomon Smith Barney; CEO Alexander; Michael J. Anderson, chairman and chief executive officer of The Andersons Inc.; Carol A. Cartwright, retired president of Bowling Green State University and Kent State University; William T. Cottle, retired chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of STP Nuclear Operating Co.; Robert B. Heisler Jr., retired dean of the College of Business Administration and Graduate School of Management of Kent State and retired chairman of KeyBank; Julia L. Johnson, President of NetCommunications LLC; Ted J. Kleisner, retired chairman of Hershey Entertainment & Resorts Co.; Donald T. Misheff, retired managing partner of the Northeast Ohio offices of Ernst & Young LLP; Ernest J. Novak Jr., retired managing partner of the Cleveland office of Ernst & Young LLP; Christopher D. Pappas, president and chief executive officer of Styron LLC; Catherine A. Rein, retired senior executive vice president and chief administrative officer of MetLife Inc; FirstEnergy Chairman of the Board George M. Smart, retired president of Sonoco-Phoenix Inc.; and Wes M. Taylor, retired president of TXU Generation.

The AFL-CIO and Utility Workers Union of America have recommended shareholders “withhold” their votes for the five members who are on the compensation committee — Heisler, Kleisner, Pappas, Rein and Taylor — and vote for three shareholder proposals recommending reforms in executive pay practices.

• Ratification of the appointment of the independent registered public accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

• Advisory vote to approve executive compensation: This is often called the “say-on-pay” vote and is required yearly. The AFL-CIO and Utility Workers Union of America urged shareholders to vote no.

• Approval to change certain voting requirements to allow for a majority voting power threshold. This company proposal is in response to a favorable vote on a shareholder proposal on the topic last year, said spokeswoman Tricia Ingraham. It garnered 68 percent in 2012, was not approved in 2011 (43 percent), was not on the 2010 proxy, won 80 percent in 2009, 79 percent in 2008 and 76 percent in 2007.

Rules require what’s called a “supermajority” or 80 percent of the votes for items that would change the bylaws. The company is proposing to take many items down to a simple majority, or more than 50 percent, though the board would still have discretion on some measures to raise the standard to a two-thirds majority, said Ingraham.

In order to pass, the company proposal must get an 80 percent approval, under current rules.

John Chevedden of Los Angeles, whose family trust has submitted the proposal for a simple majority vote each year, said he believes FirstEnergy put up its own proposal to thwart his shareholder proposal, which was not included.

“The FE proposal 4 is guaranteed to fail and FE knows it,” said Chevedden.

Said Ingraham: “Our management proposal was designed to be responsive to the views of shareholders who support a majority vote standard, while also providing meaningful protections against actions that may not be in their best interest — including the potentially self-interested actions of short-term investors or a small group of investors who have a large holding.”

Shareholder proposals

Shareholder proposals include:

• CEO compensation benchmarking: The utility workers union asks that the FirstEnergy board stop benchmarking the CEO’s total compensation compared to peer companies. The union said it believes “runaway executive compensation remains a significant problem” and that “peer benchmarking is at the core ...” FirstEnergy says it believes benchmarking is an important factor in determining compensation.

• Retirement benefits: The AFL-CIO requests the board seek shareholder approval of certain future retirement benefits for senior executives. The company said it believes retirement benefit programs promote shareholders’ interest and is a way to “recruit and retain key executives ...”

• Equity retention: The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ Pension Benefit Fund requests the board adopt a policy requiring that senior executives retain a significant percentage of shares acquired through equity compensation programs until reaching normal retirement age or terminating employment. The company says a correlation between executive compensation and long-term performance is beneficial, but the company believes its current methodology works.

• Director election majority voting standard: The United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America requests directors be elected by majority vote. The company’s current “plurality” standard allows for a board nominee to be elected with as little as a single affirmative vote, even if a substantial majority “withhold” votes, said the proposal. The company says the plurality voting standard is the default under Ohio law.

• Act by written consent: The Ray T. Chevedden and Veronica G. Chevedden Family Trust requests that a written consent policy be allowed in lieu of a meeting. The proposal says hundreds of major companies operate this way. The company says the written consent proposal cannot be implemented under Ohio law.

Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.

The salaries ranged from $1.9 million to $19.9 million in total compensation, using a public company executive compensation formula adopted by the Associated Press. Those numbers ranged from a 32 percent decrease to a 38 percent increase for Anthony J. Alexander, FirstEnergy’s CEO and president.

The figures were disclosed in the company’s 2012 proxy statement. The company’s 2013 shareholders meeting will be Tuesday.

Long-term incentives for the top wage earners were up, based on three-year results, but short-term incentives, based on one-year results, were down across the board since they are tied to financial and operational results, said spokeswoman Tricia Ingraham. Net income for the year was down 11.3 percent to $771 million from $869 million the previous year, due to the challenging economy, she said.

Alexander’s total compensation went up for a different reason.

In March 2012, Alexander was given 200,000 shares of stock as an incentive to stay on to head the Akron-based utility and parent company of Ohio Edison. According to the company’s proxy, the board awarded the stock over a three-year period — 25 percent at the end of 2013, 25 percent at the end of 2014 and 50 percent at the end of 2015, as an incentive for Alexander to remain.

The agreement, which is valued at $9.3 million based on the stock price at the time of the grant, was put in place by the board “because Tony has 40 years with the company, is 62 and has been in management positions for 23 years and contemplating his retirement,” said Ingraham. “The board felt it was important to maintain his leadership, especially because it’s been a challenging period with a soft economy.”

While the stock award will not be paid in full until Alexander satisfies the three-year period, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the full value of the grant must be recorded now, said Ingraham.

Alexander was the highest paid executive at FirstEnergy, earning total compensation of $19.9 million in 2012. That was a $5.6 million, or 38.5 percent, increase from his 2011 compensation of $14.4 million.

The Associated Press compensation formula is intended to show what executives actually received in a given fiscal year and differs from totals listed in a company’s proxy statement to shareholders. The AP’s total pay calculations include executives’ salary, bonus, incentives, items called perks and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The other top FirstEnergy earners in 2012 were:

• Mark T. Clark, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

His compensation in 2012 was $3.4 million. That’s down $1.6 million or 32 percent from $5 million in 2011.

• Leila L. Vespoli, executive vice president and general counsel.

Her compensation for 2012 was $2.6 million, down $1.8 million or 40.6 percent from $4.4 million in 2011.

• Charles E. Jones Jr., senior vice president, FirstEnergy Service Company and President, FirstEnergy Utilities.

His compensation for 2012 was $2.2 million, down $1.2 million or 35 percent from $3.5 million in 2011.

• James H. Lash, president, FirstEnergy Generation.

His compensation in 2012 was $1.9 million. This was Lash’s first appearance on the top five wage-earners list.

Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.

Basics on fuel injection

Q: I’m hoping you can bring an old-timer up to speed on fuel injection. I used to be pretty good at fixing things but hadn’t even considered trying to work on this one. I’d feel better driving if I had an idea what’s going on under the hood.

A: A typical fuel-injection system uses three general processes: fuel pressure, thinking/processing and fuel delivery. Fuel pressure involves the use of an electric fuel pump inside or near the fuel tank. The pump sends fuel to the fuel rail, a pipe of sorts that’s attached to the engine and the fuel injectors. There, a pressure regulator holds a specified pressure and returns unneeded fuel to the tank. Recent vehicles house the regulator in the fuel tank and send forward only the fuel that’s needed.

The thinking/processing part employs a control unit typically called an electronic control module/powertrain control module, or ECM/PCM. In addition to managing the fuel pump, this very smart box receives information from a dozen or more engine and transmission sensors. This information indicates engine and vehicle speed, load, temperature, airflow, throttle position, altitude and gear selection, just to name a few. Incoming data is crunched with programmed instructions resulting in appropriate commands being issued to fuel, ignition, transmission and emission-control actuators.

Fuel injectors manage the delivery of metered, misted fuel, which next vaporizes in the intake manifold on the way to the engine’s combustion chambers. Each brief electrical pulse sent from the ECM/PCM to these electromechanical showerheads results in a precise shot of fuel just as each intake valve opens. Very recent vehicles take this a step further and shoot highly pressurized fuel directly into each combustion chamber.

Fuel-injection systems are incredibly reliable. When service is needed, a scan tool provides access to trouble codes, sensor data, fuel trim or fine-tuning information, actuator commands, the data snapshot and additional diagnostic information. Fuel pressure may also be checked by connecting a pressure gauge. Typical problems, while very rare, include a worn-out fuel pump, with a lifespan perhaps of 100,000-150,000 miles; dirty fuel injectors; and sensor or connection faults. Most are fairly easy to diagnose and repair.

— By Brad Bergholdt

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

REAL ESTATE

Short sale worries ex-fiance

Q: My ex-fiancee bought a home, and over time I took over payments and was given half ownership. The property now is “under­water,” and she wants to do a short sale. The loan is in her name only, but the deed is in both of our names. What are the ramifications of a short sale for me?

A: Because you are not on the loan, this shouldn’t be an issue. You still have all of the obligations to your buyer as far as disclosure and fair dealing, but the short sale should have no effect on your credit score.

You may be required to submit some information and sign paperwork from the lender. Carefully review anything that you sign to ensure you are listed as a nonborrower.

For owners who were married, the rights and responsibilities are dealt with during the divorce. When the owners aren’t married, there is no such process for resolving issues in case they decide to split.

When buying property with another person, it’s very important that you have a written real estate agreement prepared in advance that addresses the operation of the property and the disposition of the property in case the relationship falls apart.

— By Gary M. Singer

Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel

Only about half of the affected people have been notified because the city did not have email addresses for all of those affected, Akron’s Chief Information Officer Rick Schmahl said.

The city announced that it had made a one-time arrangement to make reverse 9-1-1 calls Friday night to affected people based on the contact information that existed in the files.

The calls will direct people to the city’s website — www.akronohio.gov — for more information.

The number of affected residents is not known, although it could be between 25,000 and 30,000, Schmahl said. A news release the city issued at noon Friday said it was believed 8,000 names with related information were compromised. A subsequent news release said the city had notified 5,369 individuals by email and planned to use the reverse 9-1-1 to contact 5,714. The city will notify those without email or phone numbers on file by letter.

Schmahl said there are several databases, many with duplications, and the city is trying to determine how many unique accounts have been affected. Some of the files also included spouses’ names and Social Security numbers.

What is known, said Schmahl, is it appears the affected taxpayers are individuals who electronically filed city of Akron income tax returns in 2013.

Schmahl said it does not appear that individuals who used tax preparers were affected. If a tax preparer had a client e-file the taxes, that person could be on a compromised list, he said.

Around noon on Friday, the city issued a news release saying everyone on the lists had been notified by email and that people were given advice and resources. But later, Schmahl said not everyone who filed electronically was required to share an email address.

City officials said residents can call the 3-1-1 system to see if they are on the list. The 3-1-1 number is 330-375-2311 from a mobile phone.

3-1-1 hours extended

Today’s 3-1-1 hours of operation have been extended from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Individuals can also call the city’s income tax office at 330-375-2290 from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

A victim, who at first thought he was not among those whose information was compromised since the city initially said it had notified all victims by email, said he verified by calling 3-1-1.

Deputy Mayor Rick Merolla and Schmahl said Akron officials had been meeting Friday with the FBI to determine their next steps after the city’s website and internal systems were hacked by a Turkish group Thursday.

The FBI has told city officials that it is unlikely that they will be successful in shutting down the website where the hacked information is being shared, said Schmahl.

According to the city news release, “If you are on the list of individuals whose information was released, the FBI recommends that at this point, you monitor all your financial accounts very carefully until we have more information.”

Turkish group suspected

When asked whether the city will offer help or credit monitoring services to the affected residents, Merolla said the city is evaluating that possibility. “However, we don’t believe we did anything wrong. This was an unprovoked terrorist attack by a rogue group in Turkey.”

A local security expert has said an organization called Turkish Ajan is part of what is called the Anonymous’ OpUSA Campaign, which has been specifically trying to hack into various U.S. government websites.

AkronNewsNow.com reported Thursday that a message from the group in Turkish and English decrying U.S. policy in the Middle East appeared on the city’s website.

The group has claimed credit for hacking other sites recently, including the Mobile, Ala., police department, the Taiwan MTV website and McDonald’s sites in Austria, Taiwan and Korea.

The Beacon Journal will not provide information where the hacked files may be found online in order to protect possible victims.

Hacked files posted

The hacked files were posted on a website and appear to include spreadsheets. One file has more than 31,000 entries with names, Social Security numbers and addresses. Another file has account numbers and Social Security numbers.

In total, it appears there are 47,452 entries in the various files. The vast majority of the entries appear to be individuals’ names and their personal information. One file appears to be tax preparation companies.

Some of the information is partial and some appears to have full names, addresses and Social Security numbers. Another file shows credit card numbers and possibly some checking account numbers. But that file does not have names on it, making it more difficult to identify potential victims, Schmahl said.

Schmahl said the hackers appeared to use automated codes to try to get information from the city’s website.

The hackers were trying to go to areas of the city’s website where people could input data, such as tax information or the police department’s anonymous tip line, to take data instead.

“They backdoored their way to get the data back out,” he said.

Group inputs data

And in the process, the hackers also left a lot of information on the city’s systems. For instance, the police’s anonymous tip page had 600 tips “within no time at all. It was trying to put anywhere you put data,” Schmahl said.

He said city officials disconnected links between forms and the back-end databases when they found out about the attack on Thursday. Several parts of the website will remain down while the city analyzes what is going on.

The city is working with the FBI to determine if “there were some new hacker commands that they ran against this or did we just have some code on our web pages that wasn’t written,” Schmahl said.

He said it does not appear that the hackers left any type of viruses on the systems to get more information later.

“Whatever they have, they have, but they shouldn’t be able to get any more,” he said.

Stan Smith, a retired Akron detective and adjunct professor at the University of Akron who teaches digital forensic courses that include cyber crimes, said he was not surprised about the incident.

“You may not prevent someone from hacking into your network. However, if you have a good defense of monitoring what comes in and what’s leaving, you can stand a better chance of identifying someone from the outside trying to penetrate your system,” Smith said.

Intent unknown

Schmahl said it is not known what the hackers intend to do with the information that has been posted on the web.

“Did they do it to embarrass us or are they trying to profit from it? If they’re trying to profit, how can they sell it if they made it freely available?” said Schmahl.

Schmahl said there is a possibility others could take the information and use it maliciously.

The FBI has brought in a forensic expert to look at the city’s systems, Schmahl said.

In the city’s news release, Mayor Don Plusquellic said: “No matter how sound a network security is, rogue groups continually look for ways to attack networks. We are doing all we can to minimize the impact of this attack. I encourage all of our citizens to please be diligent in monitoring your accounts while we continue our investigation with the FBI.”

Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blinfisher and see all her stories at www.ohio.com/betty.

Ground will be broken this summer for a 136-room, five-story Hilton Garden Inn on a 3-acre parcel off East Market Street between Goodyear Hall and the Ganley Auto campus, the developer says.

The approximately $18 million project is expected to open in June 2014, said Peter Goffstein, senior vice president for Industrial Realty Group, the company developing the former Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. campus into what is now being called the East End.

“We’re approved. We have our financing in place,” Goffstein said. “The process with Hilton has been completed.”

Hilton Garden Inns cater to business and so-called “mid-market” travelers. Corporate parent Hilton said there are more than 500 Hilton Garden Inns worldwide. In Northeast Ohio, there is a Hilton Garden Inn in Twinsburg, one near Akron-Canton Airport, several in the Cleveland area and one in Wooster. Room rates at those hotels range from $109 to $129 nightly, according to Hilton’s website.

The 88,000-square-foot East Akron Hilton is a joint project of IRG Rubber City LLC and Pittsburgh-based Summit Development Inc.

“Big picture, it’s a great addition to our project. It’s a great addition to the city,” Goffstein said. The East End hotel will have a full restaurant and bar, pool, fitness center, meeting rooms and more, he said.

The hotel will front East Market Street on land bound by Cook Street, Mary Street and Kelly Avenue.

The new hotel is part of what Goffstein calls the “Phase II” part of the East End project, the initial renovations of the former Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. corporate headquarters and Goodyear Hall across the street. IRG will be turning the approximate 1.7 million square feet of space into a mix of offices, retail and residential. IRG calls its concept for the properties “live, work, play.”

Goffstein said he expects Goodyear corporate visitors will proportionately make up the highest number of users of the new Hilton Garden Inn. The new Goodyear corporate headquarters is less than half a mile away off Innovation Way, formerly Martha Avenue.

Akron hospitals, the University of Akron and other downtown businesses are also projected to help generate visitors and fill rooms, Goffstein said. The hotel also will be attractive to visitors of companies in the upcoming East End office space, he said.

The location off Interstate 76 also means “it’s a great location just for travelers,” he said.

IRG is working on other restaurant concepts for the former Goodyear headquarters building and in Goodyear Hall, Goffstein said.

The closeness of the Hilton Garden Inn and Goodyear Hall, which has a 1,500-seat theater, means businesses will be able to make use of both facilities for large meetings and other events, he said.

Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.

The district is also looking into whether water could be sold to natural gas drillers from six more of its reservoirs in east-central Ohio.

The district’s governing board on Friday approved a short-term water contract to sell up to 38 million gallons of water from Piedmont Reservoir in Harrison and Belmont counties to Gulfport Energy.

That’s equal to 6,959 loads for a 130-barrel tanker truck, the district said.

The water will be taken from the lake between June 15 and Aug. 15.

The company will pay $8 per 1,000 gallons.

The water is needed to complete three horizontal wells on the northwest side of the reservoir into the Utica shale formation, officials said.

The water will be moved from the lake to the site via a temporary pipeline.

In June and July, the maximum daily withdrawal will be up to 2 million gallons. In August, that limit will be 1 million gallons per day.

The agreement also specifies that withdrawals will cease if the lake’s water level drops below a designated threshold.

The governing board approved a contract with the U.S. Geological Survey to study additional water withdrawals.

The new agreement will study water withdrawals from Charles Mill, Clendening, Piedmont, Pleasant Hill, Seneca and Wills Creek reservoirs.

The study is needed because of the “continued and significant interest” in water withdrawals, Chief Engineer Boris E. Slogar said.

The cost of the study will be up to $65,000 and will be funded by proceeds from temporary water sales the district has approved.

Earlier, the USGS started a similar review of water withdrawals from Atwood, Leesville and Tappan reservoirs. That analysis, approved in March 2012, is expected to be completed soon.

The reports are expected to determine how much water could be sold and taken from the lakes without impacting recreation and other uses.

In a related action, the district also approved a new tighter policy on short-term water sales to drillers and others.

“Extreme caution” should be exercised before such sales are approved, the district said.

The policy states that public drinking water supplies remain the priority for withdrawals from its 10 lakes and that supplying the oil and gas industry must be balanced among the many other multiple benefits of the lakes, including recreation, flood-storage capacity and ensuring acceptable downstream flows.

“It has never been the intent nor the goal of the MWCD that its surface-water lakes serve as the sole or a primary source of water for the entire oil and gas industry in eastern Ohio,” said Sean D. Logan, the district’s chief of conservation. “This policy provides very straightforward guidelines for how requests for sales of water for oil and gas production will be managed by the MWCD.”

To date, the district has approved five water sales to the drilling industry from Clendening, Piedmont and Seneca lakes, a decision that has drawn ire from local grass-root groups.

Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.