Baltimore and International Business

[Itus]

Legg Mason CEO wants to lure more international clients
Baltimore Business Journal by Gary Haber, Staff Reporter
Date: Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 12:13pm EDT

Legg Mason Inc. will continue to seek to attract international clients and look for strategic acquisitions, CEO Mark R. Fetting said Tuesday.

Non-U.S. clients own about 37 percent of Legg Mason’s $632 billion in assets under management, Fetting told shareholders at the company’s annual meeting at its Harbor East headquarters. The money manager wants to grow that figure to 50 percent, Fetting said. He sees most of the international growth coming from clients in Asia, particularly Japan, China and Singapore, Latin America and Australia.

. . .

Full article at BBJ: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...lure-more.html

[Itus]

McCormick signs agreement to buy Chinese company
Sparks firm agrees to purchase Wuhan Asia-Pacific Condiments for $114 million, expanding its presence overseas
The Baltimore Sun
1:27 p.m. EDT, August 20, 2012

McCormick & Co. announced Monday that it had signed an agreement to buy 100 percent of the assets of Wuhan Asia-Pacific Condiments Co. Ltd., a private firm based in China.

Sparks-based McCormick has agreed to acquire Wuhan Asia-Pacific Condiments, or WAPC, for approximately $141 million, according to a statement released by the company. Completion of the agreement, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected in mid-2013, according to the statement.

. . .

Rest of Article: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bre...,6179959.story

[Itus]

Maryland opens foreign trade office in Africa
Baltimore Business Journal by Ryan Sharrow, New Media Editor
Date: Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 12:57pm EDT - Last Modified: Wednesday, August 22, 2012, 2:01pm EDT

Maryland is looking to expand its international footprint by capturing business in Africa.

The state’s Department of Business and Economic Development said Wednesday it has opened its first African foreign trade office based in Nigeria.

. . .

Rest of Article: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...ce-africa.html

[LilMoeJoeJoe]

Mobile was recently selected as the site to open a new assembly plant for Airbus in the U.S. One of the reasons the Airbus CEO cites in the interview is Mobile is a port city and that would make distribution and transportation alot easier. Why can't the political leadership in Baltimore and the state go after these kinds of deals?


http://www.cnbc.com/id/100623989?__s...t%7C&par=yahoo

[shakman]

Originally Posted by LilMoeJoeJoe

Mobile was recently selected as the site to open a new assembly plant for Airbus in the U.S. One of the reasons the Airbus CEO cites in the interview is Mobile is a port city and that would make distribution and transportation alot easier. Why can't the political leadership in Baltimore and the state go after these kinds of deals?


http://www.cnbc.com/id/100623989?__s...t%7C&par=yahoo

The topic of business attraction and retention has been discussed on numerous occassions. I still cannot grasp the issue. This issue should not exist.

[NewOrleansRush]

Salaries in Alabama especially S Alabama are one one the lowest in the nation. Cheap labour is a major factor.

[hpal3]

Originally Posted by NewOrleansRush

Salaries in Alabama especially S Alabama are one one the lowest in the nation. Cheap labour is a major factor.

The cost of living is also cheaper down there as opposed the living in MD.

[Balmurfan]

Alabama is also a right-to-work state.

[DoctorWhom]

While it sucks they got an Air Bus factory, at the end of the day I'd rather have our economic factors than theirs. A race to the bottom in order to lure manufacturing is not the route we should take.

[Itus]

Apr 23, 2013, 3:00pm EDT
Four Israeli tech firms to open Maryland offices
Ryan Sharrow
New Media Editor- Baltimore Business Journal

Four high-tech Israeli firms on Tuesday unveiled plans to open offices in Maryland.

The news comes as Gov. Martin O'Malley and state business leaders are in the midst of an economic trade mission in Israel and Jordan.

The companies, Shekel Scales, Askimo, Roboteam and Hybrid Security, range from a global provider of electronic scales and weighing systems to a startup developing web fraud detection solutions.

. . .

Rest of Article: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...s-to-open.html

[PeterSmith]

Great news! A lot of people, myself included, are surprised when they first hear what a major player Israel is in the tech world. Only Silicon Valley has more venture capital money for tech businesses than Tel Aviv. Hopefully, some of them open offices in the urban core.

[PeterSmith]

Baltimore-based DLA Piper is now the world's largest law firm by both revenue and number of attorneys.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...firm-dla-piper

[Itus]

Jun 5, 2013, 2:40pm EDT Updated: Jun 5, 2013, 3:50pm EDT
Under Armour plots major foreign expansion
Jack Lambert
Digital Producer- Baltimore Business Journal

Under Armour Inc. will expand the Baltimore company’s international presence in four countries — and it likely won’t stop there.

The Baltimore sportswear manufacturer will launch subsidiaries in Australia, Mexico, Chile and Brazil within the next two years, Karl-Heinz “Charlie” Maurath told Wall Street analysts assembled in Baltimore Wednesday. Maurath, Under Armour’s president of international, said the company wants to expand its presence internationally as a sports and fitness company.

. . .

Rest of Article: http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore...r-foreign.html

[Eerik]

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

Baltimore-based DLA Piper is now the world's largest law firm by both revenue and number of attorneys.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...firm-dla-piper

This is not true. While DLA Piper does have roots stemming from the old Piper & Marbury firm in Baltimore, with the exception of a local presence, DLA Piper is not a Baltimore based firm.

[PeterSmith]

Well, I don't know where DLA considers their official headquarters to be, but they do have a significant historical and operational presence in Baltimore. As you note, they stem from a series of mergers that involved Baltimore-based Piper & Marbury. Today, the two Baltimore offices have well over 100 attorneys, which makes it among the firm's largest U.S. offices; only NYC, Chicago, and DC have more attorneys. Baltimore is also home to two of the firm's nine American board members. I usually hear it spoken of as a Baltimore/London-based firm, but I also know that the power shift seems to be in the direction of Chicago, so the importance of its Baltimore office may be slipping.

[k25150]

Maintaining 2 offices here is significant. If it wasn't the headquarters or if power was waning, one would assume they'd maintain only one office.

[Balmurfan]

DLA Piper Corporate Office & Headquarters http://ecorporateoffices.com/DLAPiper-1903

[Eerik]

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

Well, I don't know where DLA considers their official headquarters to be, but they do have a significant historical and operational presence in Baltimore. As you note, they stem from a series of mergers that involved Baltimore-based Piper & Marbury. Today, the two Baltimore offices have well over 100 attorneys, which makes it among the firm's largest U.S. offices; only NYC, Chicago, and DC have more attorneys. Baltimore is also home to two of the firm's nine American board members. I usually hear it spoken of as a Baltimore/London-based firm, but I also know that the power shift seems to be in the direction of Chicago, so the importance of its Baltimore office may be slipping.

DLA Piper doesn't have a traditional headquarters; it's what you would call a partnership. There's the UK arm and the US component. They both share a board but their financial operations are separate, which I think in part stems from the customary habit of UK firms to pay their lawyers through a "lock-step" system based on seniority. (In the US, law firms generally follow the "eat-what-you-kill" approach where pay is based on business lawyers bring in and hours they bill.)

If anything, their focus and "power shift" isn't moving towards Chicago, but the viable and hot Asian markets.

When Piper and Rudnick first merged in the 1990s, they were two small locally focused firms with an aggressive plan of global growth. It's been amazing to watch them grow, especially in the early 2000s with Gray Cary and all the other mergers.

[Eerik]

Originally Posted by k25150

Maintaining 2 offices here is significant. If it wasn't the headquarters or if power was waning, one would assume they'd maintain only one office.

This is true, although there are numerous cities where they have more than one office. In DC they have the building they constructed a few years ago in the Penn Quarter downtown along with their Reston corporate office. And worth noting is each office has somewhat of a focus area on the kind of work they do (although today, as we know, it's becoming less important on where you are physically located).

While in my previous development life in Baltimore, surprisingly, I never had any interface with Piper & Marbury. However by the time I was in Washington DC in my next life, I was dealing with Gray Cary all the time on technology issues (they had/have a strong Silicon Valley presence). So in hindsight, I took some pleasure in knowing Piper & Marbury was a small component in the overall growth being driven by global demand as Gray Cary, Piper, et al. grew larger.

Regarding headquarters, while the Baltimore regional office is often referred to as the "acting" office for the US arm, there are two historical ironic elements worth noting:

1) The current DLA Piper offices are located in the old USF&G office park they built just a few years prior to their extinction on Smith Avenue in Mount Washington. Part of the present DLA Piper authorized address includes "The Marbury Building." (I love their refusal to give-up the Marbury name; if they couldn't keep it in the official legal name, at least they made it part of the official authorized address.)

2) DLA Piper also has a very small presence in downtown Baltimore in the former USF&G building at 100 Light Street. For years Piper & Marbury was primary counsel to USF&G. Although in the end the two companies had a strained relationship by the early 1990s as USF&G was going under, it's somewhat interesting to note how ghosts of business relationships from decades ago still linger and can be seen around us today.

[Eerik]

Originally Posted by Balmurfan

DLA Piper Corporate Office & Headquarters http://ecorporateoffices.com/DLAPiper-1903

It's a global partnership. The structure of the company is very complex and to suggest it is based out of Baltimore is very misleading. It's like saying Exelon is based in Baltimore...