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Marce Edwards is the business editor. She has been at The News Tribune for seven years and has written about technology and big businesses in the South Sound including Weyerhaeuser and Russell. Before moving to Tacoma, she worked at The Idaho Statesman in Boise. She is a Northwest native who likes to garden and refuses to use an umbrella. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and two kids.
C.R. Roberts is a Tacoma native. Before joining The News Tribune, he worked as a freelance writer and part-time cowhand on a cattle ranch in Northern Idaho. He writes about small business, personal finance and other business issues.
John Gillie writes about the aerospace and airline industries, commercial development and consumer issues. During his 30-year-tenure at The News Tribune he has covered issues as diverse as the Native American fishing rights disputes, crime and the courts, the wood products industry and energy. He lived in Tacoma with his family for 25 years, but now lives in Kent because his wife heads a five-state non-profit foundation headquartered in Ballard, and it only seemed a sensible compromise to make considering their workplaces are 40 miles apart.
Kelly Kearsley has been a business reporter at The News Tribune since 2005. She covers the Port of Tacoma and international trade. Being born and raised in Spokane she’s used to living in cities with inferiority complexes and, in fact, prefers it. Prior to working at The News Tribune, she spent three years as a reporter for The Bulletin in Bend, Oregon and another year working stints for The Associated Press and Seattle Times. She graduated from Pacific Lutheran University. She lives in Tacoma with her husband and miniature schnauzer.
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A day after announcing the demise of a merger with Washington Banking Co., parent of Whidbey Island Bank, stock in Everett-based Frontier Financial Corp., parent of Frontier Bank, today fell to a 52-week low.
Frontier stock was down 29 cents to $14.25 – that’s down 23.26 percent over the year so far.
WBC stock fared worse, also hitting a 52-week low, down $2.81 – a whopping 22.48 percent – to $9.69.
Both sides are claiming the other is to blame for the merger’s failure. In a release yesterday, WBC said it decided to end the agreement because of “Frontier’s inability to obtain regulatory approval in a timely manner” causing circumstances that “constitute a breach of Frontier’s representations and warranties.”
Frontier counters by saying it “denies that it breached the agreement and believes WBC’s repudiation of the agreement is a breach of the merger agreement.”
In a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Frontier said it will charge $517,000 in related pretax expenses in the second quarter, with the total cost coming in at $1.3 million.
Frontier also informed the SEC that each company has asserted that it is entitled to a $5 million termination fee to be paid by the other side.
I did speak with John Dickson, Frontier president and CEO, late this afternoon. He said, “I’m very disappointed. My preference would have been that we mutually agree to terminate the agreement.”
He said WBC was the aggressor in the termination, and he’d prefer to simply close the book. “We don't want to make this any worse than it already is. We would just as soon shake hands and walk away.”
Dickson said the delay may have been the result of a compliance examination by regulators – and that Frontier has addressed “90 percent" of the issues raised. Given the rules, he was unable to disclose the nature of the issues, although they did not concern Frontier's capitalization or safety.
