Firms

The 15-member Pennsylvania Convention Center Authority board voted Wednesday to hire a private company to manage certain functions of the troubled facility. The board voted 12-3 to privatize and then chose SMG, of West Conshocken, to be the company that will assume a range of managerial functions. That vote was 13-2. SMG was awarded the contract over Global Spectrum, an element of Comcast Spectacor, despite Global's political connections and clout with labor unions. With the Authority's Customer Satisfaction Agreement with the city's unions set to expire June 30, the vote to privatize is considered pivotal.

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Invisalign, a San Jose company, uses 3-D printing to make each mouthful of customized transparent braces. Mackenzies Chocolates, a confectioner in Santa Cruz, uses a 3-D printer to pump out chocolate molds. And this year, Cornell University researchers used a 3-D printer, along with injections of a special collagen gel, to create a human-shaped ear. Once a science-fiction fantasy, three-dimensional printers are popping up everywhere from the desks of home hobbyists to Air Force drone research centers.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday rejected claims that he is a "dictator," dismissing protesters as an extremist fringe, even as thousands returned to the Istanbul square that has become the site of the fiercest antigovernment outburst in years. Over the last three days, protesters around the country have unleashed pent-up resentment against Erdogan, who after 10 years in office many Turks see as an uncompromising figure with undue influence in every part of life.

R ICHARD COTTOM, 51, of Newtown, is president of Sovereign Security, a minority-owned Center City provider of security personnel and services. He's a former vice president of public safety at Drexel University. Sovereign ranked No. 11 on the 2013 Inner City 100 list of fastest-growing businesses in U.S. cities, compiled by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City. Q: How'd you start the biz? A: My position at Drexel was eliminated and I took a couple of months off and started the business in October 2004.

Sylvan Tobin, 83, of Haverford, a businessman and philanthropist, died Wednesday, May 29, of natural causes at his home. During a quarter-century as its president, Mr. Tobin transformed Fishman & Tobin Inc. from a small Philadelphia-based maker of boys' suits into a global player in the manufacture of children's products. The firm was cofounded by Mr. Tobin's father, Louis, in 1914. It is now a clothing conglomerate on Chemical Road in Plymouth Meeting. With his partner, Bernard Fishman, Mr. Tobin expanded the business to meet demand for youth-related goods at both ends of the spectrum, from Walmart to Nordstrom, said Mark Fishman, a copresident of the firm.

Investigators from the Army Criminal Investigation Command on Thursday raided the headquarters of NP Precision in Folcroft, a defense contractor that manufactures rotors and landing gear for Boeing's CH-47 heavy-lift helicopter. Army investigators and other federal agents swooped down on the company about 9 a.m., said Christopher Grey, a spokesman for the Army agency. Grey declined to say why the company was being investigated. NP Precision specializes in manufacturing high-tolerance components and assembling transmissions, rotors, and landing gear for the aerospace, defense, and weapons systems industries, according to its website.

HAROLD HAMBROSE, 46, of West Mount Airy, is chief executive of Electronic Ink, a business-consulting firm he founded in 1990 that's based on South Broad Street across from City Hall . Hambrose - who summed up his philosophy in a 2009 book, Wrench in the System - says the company makes it easier for people to use computer systems and helps clients better understand how their employees work. Q: How'd you come up with the idea for Electronic Ink? A: It started because software developers were just creating tools to make computers more functional, and I felt designers should be involved.

I was not surprised that Azavea and Seer Interactive once again landed on the 2013 Inner City 100 list of the fastest-growing businesses in cities that lag their wider metro areas economically. The two Philadelphia information-technology companies have appeared on this national ranking by the nonprofit Initiative for a Competitive Inner City previously. But I was happy to see that four other small Philadelphia firms produced enough revenue growth between 2007 and 2011 to make the City of Brotherly Love the second-most popular address behind Chicago for this measure of metropolitan entrepreneurial activity.

Albert C. Toll, 93, formerly of Overbrook Park, a retired grain and feed company executive, died Wednesday, May 22, of complications from Parkinson's disease at Ann's Choice, a retirement facility in Warminster. Mr. Toll was all about family. He didn't hesitate to clown around with his daughter, Carol Bress, when she was a toddler, or to pack up her belongings for a car trip to college. Over the years, he kept the mailboxes full for Bress and her sister, Terry, "no matter where they lived," there was always a note from their father, Bress said.

One of pay-TV's top trend analysts, Bruce Leichtman, says the biggest pay-TV companies lost 80,000 TV subscribers over four quarters, a first in his research of more than a decade. He attributed the decline to the weak housing industry, a saturated pay-TV market, and some cord-cutting. The loss was about 0.1 percent of the 95 million subscriber-TV market. He calculated the subscriber numbers for the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013, a period that captured seasonal swings in subscriber gains and losses.