Ticker: March 8

Ticker: March 8 Alecia Kates has been named executive director of the Sixth Avenue Corridor board of directors. She will lead the organization's efforts to revitalize the area between Interstate 235 and the Des Moines River along Sixth Avenue, which was designated an Urban Neighborhood Main Street District by the Iowa Department of Economic Development in May 2009.

Larry Zimpleman, the chairman, president and CEO of Principal Financial Group Inc., will present at the Citigroup Financial Services Conference at 9 a.m. Iowa time Tuesday. The presentation will be live via webcast on Principal's investor relations Web site at www.principal.com/investor. The webcast replay will be available for one week, and presentation materials will be available there for one week.

Gov. Chet Culver plans to sign into law a government reorganization bill during a ceremony at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Capitol rotunda, IowaPolitics.com said. Senate File 2088 is estimated to save state and local governments $126 million by consolidating agencies, eliminating 14 different boards and commissions, reducing energy costs, combining state purchasing, requiring a span of control of one manager per 15 employees by 2011 and consolidating information technology.

U.S.-based companies led the world in completing merger-and-acquisition deals with emerging- or high-growth-market companies in the second half of 2009, nearly tripling the number of acquisitions made by the second-ranked country, according to KPMG International's latest Emerging Markets International Acquisition Tracker study.

The KPMG study revealed that in the second half of 2009, U.S.-based companies completed 71 emerging- and high-growth-market acquisitions; companies based in the United Kingdom acquired 25 companies during the same period. American and Australian companies were the most popular targets for businesses in emerging- and high-growth markets, with 16 acquisitions made in each country, according to the study.

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