Knoll

When Catherine Baker Knoll picked on Barbara Hafer back in February, it was the political equivalent of tugging on Superwoman's cape. Yesterday, Hafer tugged back. Hafer, feisty Republican auditor general and candidate for treasurer, returned fire at Knoll, who charged a little more than a month ago that Hafer had wasted tax dollars on "lavish" dinners. Hafer denied the charge then and, in characteristic bombast, tagged Knoll's staff "lying scumbags. " She also said, "If we were in Western Pennsylvania [home to both]

Citing a "genuine recovery in demand," furniture maker Knoll Inc. said its net income rose 10.5 percent in the third quarter on a sales increase of 11.5 percent. The company, based in East Greenville, Montgomery County, posted a profit of $6.3 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 30. Sales for the period were $202.1 million. Knoll, which makes office and residential furniture, said new products helped boost its results above the growth rate of the industry.    - Paul Schweizer

Knoll Inc., a major office-furniture manufacturer based in Montgomery County, said yesterday that it had filed a prospectus for a public stock offering. The East Greenville company, which reported net income of $35 million on sales of $688 million for the 12 months ended June 30, said it would apply for a New York Stock Exchange listing under the symbol KNL. In calculating its fee for registering shares with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Knoll estimated that the offering would raise a maximum of $230 million.

Shares of Knoll Inc. were up almost 3 percent today after the Montgomery County-based maker of office furniture posted second-quarter earnings that beat analysts' expectations. Net sales for the quarter ended June 30 were down 4.9 percent from a year ago, to $192.3 million, but net income was up 7.4 percent, to $8.7 million. Earnings per share, predicted by analysts at 11 cents a share, came in at 19 cents, up 1 cent from the comparable period. Shares were up 38 cents, to $13.20, on the New York Stock Exchange early this afternoon.

State Treasurer Catherine Baker Knoll has won a round in her fight with a state retirement board that wants to raise some employees' salaries to the highest levels in state government. The Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement Board yesterday voted to delay action on a pay boost and incentive plan for its top managers. The plan would grant 5 percent annual increases and offer incentives to key officials, pushing some salaries to more than $200,000 by the year 2000. The biggest salaries would go to a half-dozen directors and investment managers, far exceeding Gov. Casey's annual pay of $105,000.

Federal investigators are probing whether former Pennsylvania Treasurer Catherine Baker Knoll, during her final days in office, shredded phone records that might shed light on illegal Wall Street profits on state bond deals. Aides to current Treasurer Barbara Hafer said yesterday that several employees have told federal agents they saw Knoll feeding documents into a shredder. Hafer defeated Knoll's daughter Mina in a bitter election fight last fall. Officials familiar with the investigation said that Knoll allegedly asked several aides to shred records related to the bond deals.

The U.S. office-furniture industry has been battered by a severe downturn since the glory days of the dot-com era. Last year's domestic production was valued at $8.5 billion, 36 percent below the $13.3 billion recorded in 2000, according to an industry trade group. Spurred by signs of a rebound this year, Warburg Pincus L.L.C. filed a prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week to sell some of its stake in Knoll Inc., a major commercial-furniture manufacturer based in Montgomery County.

Former State Treasurer Catherine Baker Knoll survived a tough challenge from state Sen. Jack Wagner to secure the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor, guaranteeing that a woman will hold that office for the first time in Pennsylvania history. With 96 percent of the precincts reporting, Knoll had a commanding lead over Wagner, of Allegheny County, who had the endorsement of gubernatorial candidate Bob Casey Jr. "I know I shall work very well with Gov. Rendell," Knoll, 71, who was reluctant to claim victory without a concession from Wagner, said early today.

Shares in Knoll Inc., a Montgomery County manufacturer of office furniture, gained $2.10 to close at $17.10 yesterday, its first day of trading in an initial public offering. Knoll's New York Stock Exchange offering at $15 a share marked its third debut as an IPO and a second chance for Warburg Pincus Private Ventures, its major shareholder, to cash out. The net proceeds of $154.1 million, for 24 percent of the company, went largely to Warburg Pincus investors, who held 91 percent of the company before the IPO. David Bright, a spokesman for Knoll, would not comment, citing securities rules.

A former Philadelphia lawyer and top aide to former Pennsylvania Treasurer Catherine Baker Knoll was sentenced yesterday to three months in prison and fined $20,000 for obstructing a federal probe into two 1994 state bond refundings. Patrick H. McCarthy 3d seemed stunned when U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle 3d imposed the prison sentence, rejecting a plea by McCarthy's attorney for probation. "The crime which you committed is nothing less than insidious," the judge told McCarthy.

In the recent annals of modern office-dom, first came the cube farms: nightmarish rows of high-paneled cages where office workers labored in lonely silence, noses buried in their computers. Then came the antithesis: All those bright spirits flitting about with laptops, plugging in anywhere, turbocharged on Starbucks lattes. "The mobile workforce was very in vogue," said Lynn Utter, sitting in a museum of office furniture located among cow pastures and farms in rural East Greenville, Montgomery County.

In some ways, the furniture-design exhibit at Philadelphia University's Paul J. Gutman Library couldn't be more commonplace. But that's exactly the point, says Gotz Unger, founding director of the university's industrial-design program. The exhibit features a simple-yet-functional, white, two-seater sofa, no frills. Nearby are a few chairs that look like seats that could be found in any office, along with a modern, plain, unadorned table - all very ordinary. Yet, they speak to the transformation in office design created by a young architect and her businessman husband, Florence and Hans Knoll, Unger said.

CONSPIRACY theories naturally follow major news events, so it's no surprise that a few, from far-out to fathomable, are kicking around the Penn State story. The far-out? Joe Paterno's football "family" whacked a district attorney familiar with allegations against Jerry Sandusky. I know. Sounds like the spine of a screenplay. But, like most conspiracy theories, it has some meat. In 1998, then-Centre County D.A. Ray Gricar ran a sting operation after claims surfaced that Sandusky allegedly abused boys.

TOMS RIVER, N.J. - St. Joseph's magical season came to an abrupt end Sunday against a formidable foe in the NJSIAA Group 1 state field hockey championship. Oak Knoll, which won four state titles from 2005 through 2008, improved its record to 25-0 with superior speed and stick work that declawed the Wildcats, 8-2. St. Joseph, which also entered the game undefeated, slipped to 23-1 and will stay home while the Royals advance to the Tournament of Champions semifinal on Wednesday at Hunterdon Central.

In the Region Amick named Discovery Labs CEO Discovery Laboratories Inc. , Warrington, officially named W. Thomas Amick its chief executive officer Friday. Amick has been serving as Discovery's interim CEO since August 2009 and has been chairman of the board since March 2007. Discovery is a biotechnology company that develops treatments for respiratory diseases. - Christopher K. Hepp FDA official hired at Teva Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. , the Israeli manufacturer of generic drugs, said it hired Gary Buehler, the industry's former top federal regulator.

Citing a "genuine recovery in demand," furniture maker Knoll Inc. said its net income rose 10.5 percent in the third quarter on a sales increase of 11.5 percent. The company, based in East Greenville, Montgomery County, posted a profit of $6.3 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 30. Sales for the period were $202.1 million. Knoll, which makes office and residential furniture, said new products helped boost its results above the growth rate of the industry.    - Paul Schweizer

Shares of Knoll Inc. were up almost 3 percent today after the Montgomery County-based maker of office furniture posted second-quarter earnings that beat analysts' expectations. Net sales for the quarter ended June 30 were down 4.9 percent from a year ago, to $192.3 million, but net income was up 7.4 percent, to $8.7 million. Earnings per share, predicted by analysts at 11 cents a share, came in at 19 cents, up 1 cent from the comparable period. Shares were up 38 cents, to $13.20, on the New York Stock Exchange early this afternoon.

TOMS RIVER, N.J. - The Eastern softball team went so far this season, nearly ascending the mountaintop. But the Vikings faltered Saturday, and Morris Knolls, a team that resembled Eastern in its youth and aggressiveness, won a 4-3 decision, as well as the state Group 4 softball championship at Toms River North. The last time that Morris Knolls (30-4) won the state softball title was in 1980. Eastern last won in 1986. Eastern's players are too young to have witnessed that title, but they will certainly recall the season in which they finished 18-7 and made it to the final.

Despite the steady flow of mostly positive economic news, topped off last week with the report that the nation had ended its longest slump in more than 60 years, it is hard to shed the worry that the recovery could stall before it did much good. The argument that the economic rebound is for real, that the tide has turned for more companies than not, was bolstered by an Inquirer analysis of third-quarter revenue changes at companies in the Philadelphia area. Revenue growth is crucial to replacing the 7.2 million U.S. jobs lost since December 2007.

A half hour before the scheduled game time of 4:30 p.m. yesterday at Shawnee, Renegades field hockey coach Renee Phelps hadn't decided who would be the starting goalkeeper. Senior Katie Burke, junior Marlee Silverstein, and freshman Elina Pereira had all contributed in Shawnee's first two games, both wins. But in the end, it didn't matter to visiting Oak Knoll that Silverstein played the first half and Pereira the second. It also didn't seem important that Oak Knoll's bus driver got lost on the way down from Summit and the ride took two hours, instead of 90 minutes.