Stocks

Star 40

Cerner tops Star 40; others in economic ‘sweet spots’ also doing well

It was a safe bet that Cerner Corp. would once again lead the The Star’s rankings as the region’s top-performing public company. Cerner, the nation’s second-largest company that helps hospitals and doctors’ offices convert paper files into computerized medical records, is in a sweet spot. Other top-ranked companies here do business in areas that have an edge: energy, rail transit and online government services.

Star 40: Wealth soared in 2012 for KC companies' executives

The already-hefty pay packages of many public-company executives bulged last year, thanks to higher values of their company stocks. Million-dollar base salaries – as paid to Cerner Corp. CEO Neal Patterson (pictured) and Waddell & Reed Financial CEO Hank Herrmann – are only the beginning. For most of the bigger-company CEOs, stock awards, options and “non-equity incentive” compensation dwarf their base pay.

Cityscape

Dollars & Sense

Technology

Sprint’s wireless network fares poorly in test

The website TechHive ranked Sprint last among the four largest carriers based on tests in 20 markets, including Kansas City. A Sprint spokeswoman attributed the results to the company’s as yet unfinished network upgrade.

Schumer urges look at security in Sprint deal

Sen. Charles Schumer urged regulators to "use extreme caution" when reviewing the proposed acquisition of No. 3 cell carrier Sprint Nextel by Japan's Softbank, saying the Japanese company's use of Chinese networking equipment could open up U.S. networks to snooping and hacking.

Workplace

Development

Economic Development Corp. names two senior executives

The organization, which provides services for business expansion and retention, announced the appointment of Bernardo Ramirez as executive vice president and chief operating officer and T’Risa McCord as senior vice president-chief administrative officer.

Talking Business

Debate over KCI flies fast and hard

Reaction to my last column allowing that the advocates of a new single terminal at Kansas City International Airport might have a decent case was certainly bracing. Most of the more than 100 callers, emailers and kansascity.com commenters batted me roundly about. But many others allied themselves with the single-terminal advocates.

With KCI, breaking up is hard to do

After fully hashing out pros and cons, Kansas Citians may want to stick with the old flame. To carry the day, new-airport advocates will have to heavily restack the deck of arguments in their favor. That’s what’s going to be required to toss over a 40-year love affair.

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