When Akamai Technologies gets added to the S&P 500 stock index after the close of business today there will be many people around San Diego raising a cheer. Akamai, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., provides services that accelerate and improve the delivery of content over the Internet. In February 2000 -- right at the top of the tech bubble -- Akamai paid $2.8 billion in stock to purchase InterVu, a competitor located here in San Diego. It was one of the successful operations of Dr. Harry Gruber. At the time of the deal, shares of Akamai were trading for around $225 and, like most tech stocks, went into a swan dive shortly thereafter. Today the stock trades near $50.
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A study by the Stanford Law School found that the number of securities class action lawsuits fell in the first half of 2007 to 59, down 42 percent from the historical average of 101 filings. The decline is attributed to stock market stability and an increase in government regulatory actions, which lower the incidence of fraud.
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A surprising report today from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Its weekly update on mortgage applications showed a modest increase of 1.1 percent over the previous week. Most of the new activity came from people making home purchases rather than refinancings. However, when you compare applications in the past week with the same week a year ago, they are up an impressive 25.3 percent.
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The Competitive Enterprise Institute reports that the cost of federal regulations on consumers topped $1 trillion last year, equaling about 10 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. And, lawmakers and federal workers keep on putting new regulations in place. In 2006, agencies issued 3,718 final rules, a 6 percent increase over the previous year. The costs of all these rules is quadruple the $248 billion budget deficit.
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Speaking of costs, today is Cost of Government Day. According to Americans for Tax Reform, the average taxpayer worked 192 days this year to cover the costs of federal, state and local government taxes.
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On a more cheery note, today -- July 11 -- is also the 80th anniversary of 7-Eleven. Get it? Started as the Southland Ice Company in Dallas, Texas, 7-Eleven got it's start back in 1927 when Johnny Green decided to start selling milk, bread and eggs at his ice stand. Today there are more than 32,400 of the convenience stores across the country. The best thing about the anniversary: free Slurpees!
Nov. 20, 2009, 11:45 a.m. -- San Diego's web video news: Today's breaking major business events, economic, and financial announcements from the Daily Transcript/San Diego Source newsroom.
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