Abacode, a Tampa cybersecurity and regulatory compliance firm, is partnering with Girl Scouts of West Central Florida to offer a program for cybersecurity basics badge training. Designed for Cadettes in grades 6 through grades 8, or ages 11 to 14, Abacode will teach about virtualization, Kali Linux, password cracking, two-factor authentication, and several other topics, said Jeremy Rasmussen, Abacode's chief technology officer. The program, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Dec. 7 at the Hillsborough County Entrepreneur Collaborative Center, is hands-on, and each girl will have her own laptop to use. Lunch is provided. The class is limited to 40 girls. Registration is here.
Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Steve Berlin to the Pinellas County Court. Pinellas County is located within the Sixth Judicial Circuit. Berlin, of St. Petersburg, has been a litigator for Rumberger Kirk and Caldwell since 2017. Previously, he was an Army Judge Advocate while he served as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army. He received his bachelor’s degree from the United States Military Academy and his law degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Berlin fills the vacancy created by the resignation of Judge Donald Horrox.
US Laboratories will lay off 71 employees at its site at 5501 49th St. N. in St. Petersburg, when it permanently closes the location on or before Dec. 31. The diagnostic testing firm also is closing an office in Dania Beach, and will lay off 31 workers there, according to Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifications sent to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. The WARN notices did not give a reason for the closings. U.S. Laboratories is part of TridentUSA Health Services, which won approval to reorganize its finances after a bankruptcy approval earlier this year.
Tech Data Corp. (Nasdaq: TECD) reported net sales of $9.1 billion for the third quarter of 2019, a drop of 2 percent compared to the prior-year quarter. Net income was $90.1 million, or $2.52 a share, for the three months ended Oct. 31, compared to net income of $114.2 million, or $2.96 a share in the year-ago period. The quarter ended Oct. 31, 2018 included a $25 million benefit from the collection of an accounts receivable balance previously considered uncollectible, the Clearwater-based IT distributor said in a news release. Tech Data, the largest company headquartered in the Tampa-St. Pete area based on revenue, agreed earlier this month to be acquired by Apollo Global Management, in a deal valued at $5.4 billion that would take Tech Data private.
Premiums at TypTap Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Tampa-based HCI Group Inc. (NYSE: HCI), have surpassed $50 million. The company achieved that benchmark ahead of projections, a news release said. "Gross written premiums at TypTap have grown more than fourfold since the third quarter of 2018,” said Paresh Patel, HCI chairman and CEO. “This rapid growth is organic and, most important, profitable. We’re not sacrificing margins for the sake of growth.” TypTap’s operations are made possible by insurance-related information technology developed by HCI’s software subsidiary, Exzeo USA Inc.
The city of St. Petersburg has bought the Science Center of Pinellas for $3.15 million. The deal, approved earlier this year by the St. Petersburg City Council, clears the way for the city to use about half of the 6.78 acre property to build new water storage tanks. The sale was recorded as the second highest commercial sale in the 33710 zip code in the last five years, according to a news release from Smith & Associates Commercial Real Estate Division, which sold the Science Center. The Science Center previously was owned by CareerSource Pinellas and used for job training, STEM field trips, and helping people find jobs in the trade industry. CareerSource continues to offer skills training and seminars at their other locations throughout Pinellas County.
Harry Mosely, chief information officer of Zoom, will be one of the speakers at the poweredUP Tampa Bay Tech Festival on May 21 at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg. Mosely formerly served as the CIO of KPMG, Blackstone, Credit Suisse and UBS; and has been inducted into CIO Magazine’s Hall of Fame. He was recognized as one of the world’s top 100 CIOs by Computerworld and honored by Irish Magazine as one of its Annual Wall Street 50. Zoom Video Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: ZM) has been ranked one of the best-performing initial public offerings in 2019.
Minor League Baseball has selected Octagon, an international sports marketing and media agency, to develop a long-term content, media and distribution strategy. As part of a three-phase partnership, St. Petersburg-based Minor League Baseball is working with Octagon to identify, secure and enhance new media distribution systems, a news release said. Minor League Baseball has a large network of teams, athletes and fans that offer immense storytelling potential, said Katie Davison, the organization's senior vice president of digital strategy and business development, adding that Octagon can help bring those stories to life for fans and new audiences.
Publix Super Markets is pledging $2 billion in food donations over the next 10 years. The company has donated more than $2 billion in dairy, deli, meat, produce and fresh-baked goods to people in need since 2009. Each day, Publix associates gather foods that are no longer salable and donate them to more than 100 Feeding America member food banks and other nonprofit organizations, a news release said. One in 8 people in the United States, including 9 million people in the Southeast U.S., deal with food insecurity, said Todd Jones, Publix CEO.
Commercial Florida Realty Partners has sold WeWork Place in downtown Tampa and several Westshore office buildings to an affiliate of Parkway Properties in partnership with global investment firm Partners Group. The properties involved in the transaction total 756,138 rentable square feet, with a total sales price of over $155 million, a news release said. WeWork Place at 501 E. Kennedy Blvd., named for the co-working company that took three floors earlier this year, has undergone a $5.3 million renovation and is 89 percent occupied, the news release said. Commercial Florida also spent $7.5 million to update its Westshore office portfolio, which includes Westshore Corporate Center, a 12-story Class A office tower at Westshore Boulevard and I-275, as well as Cypress Center I, Cypress Center II and Cypress Center III, and a 6.1-acre developable parcel of land with entitlements for a future six-story, 200,000-square-foot office building, to be called Cypress Center IV.
Two men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to make false statements to financial institutions in a case involving a real estate project in Tampa. Federal prosecutors say Mordechai Boaziz of Fort Lauderdale and Jonathan Marmol of Odessa conspired in a scheme to influence the credit decisions of financial institutions in connection with the sale of condominium units at The Preserve at Temple Terrace. The scheme cost the financial institutions about $5 million, a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida said. Boaziz and Marmol each faces up to five years in federal prison.
A.M. Best has affirmed the ratings for Vault Reciprocal Exchange. Vault, a St. Petersburg insurance company that caters to the affluent, has a strong balance sheet to support growth plans over the near term, partially offset by a capital structure that leverages surplus notes significantly, according to a report from A.M. Best, a credit rating agency for the insurance industry. Vault has a financial strength rating of A- , which Best said indicates an excellent ability to meet ongoing insurance obligations, and a long-term issuer credit rating of “a-", indicating an excellent ability to meet ongoing senior financial obligations. The credit outlook is stable.
