Report: SAC enters insurance business
Stamford-based SAC Capital reportedly is adding a $500 million reinsurance arm to take on risks from insurance carriers, with SAC Re to be based in Bermuda.
It would mark a major departure for SAC and founder Steve Cohen, who built the hedge fund into one of Stamford”™s largest employers with more than 800 workers at last report. A Reuters report on SAC Re”™s formation did not specify whether the reinsurance company would have operations in the U.S. or Fairfield County, which has a significant cluster of reinsurance companies including General Reinsurance Corp., Odyssey Reinsurance Corp. and XL Re.
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Gartner CEO: New hires possible
Gartner Inc. is considering accelerating hires of salespeople, as revenue has picked up in the second half of the year.
Stamford-based Gartner provides research on information technology trends and products, as well as consulting services and events.
Gartner”™s third-quarter revenue rose 17 percent from a year ago to $346 million, and net income was up by more than half to $30.5 million.
Revenue from Gartner events was up 18 percent. In October, Gartner held its largest-ever information technology symposium, in Orlando, Fla. Some 8,000 people attended the event, a quarter of them corporate chief information officers according to Gartner CEO Gene Hall.
“If we look at sales productivity of our new hires over the last period of time, that productivity has been increasing and it”™s been because of a focus on it,” Hall said, in a conference call with investment analysts in early November. “And so we feel very comfortable accelerating the amount of our new hires, because we”™ve seen this increasing productivity of the new hires that we get.”
Law firm relocates within Stamford
The law firm Blair & Potts is relocating to 4 Stamford Plaza, where it is taking nearly 9,000 square feet of space.
Blair & Potts focuses on estate planning and taxes. The company is moving from 2 Stamford Plaza, with both buildings owned by New York City-based RFR Realty. Located at 107 Elm St., 4 Stamford Plaza totals some 260,000 square feet, with tenants including ICON, Nobel Americas and Pullman & Comley.
The Stamford office of Colliers International represented Blair & Potts in the transaction.
City to install LED lights
The city of Stamford is replacing some 10,000 street lamps with light-emitting diodes from Fairfield-based General Electric Co.
Officials say the new LEDs will cut Stamford”™s annual electricity bill by $150,000. The new lights consume less than half the electricity of the city”™s existing streetlights and last 10 years.
Bobby Valentine”™s lights up
Bobby Valentine”™s Restaurant and Sports Bar replaced its light fixtures with LED lighting from Southbury-based USA LED.
The retrofit will reduce the Stamford restaurant”™s lighting bill by nearly 80 percent, and USA LED said the new fixtures should pay for themselves within 18 months.
