Valassis

An alliance between Valassis and Qples Inc. combines their platforms to offer clients a comprehensive digital coupon delivery solution.

About 30 firefighters spent nearly three hours Friday morning working to extinguish a fire at commercial printing business on Prospectus Drive in Durham, NC. Crews were dispatched to Valassis at about midnight.

The 41 workers inside escaped the building unharmed. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but officials said it is believed to have been caused by the printing press equipment.

Coupon use is down, but still strong. And the growth area is non-food. According to NCH Marketing's 2013 Year-End Topline Coupon Facts report, the number of coupons issued to consumers for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) products increased by 3.3 percent last year to 315 billion coupons distributed. But the total volume redeemed decreased last year by 3.4 percent to 2.8 billion.

A report by NCH Marketing's parent, the 2013 Valassis Shopper Marketing Survey, found that about 81 percent of consumers reported using coupons regularly last year. Among those who reported using more coupons than the year before, 45.7 percent said they

A Valassis Communications investor sued the board of the Livonia, MI-based store-coupon distributor, saying it unfairly favored a $1.84 billion takeover bid from a company controlled by billionaire Ronald Perelman and could have gotten more money.

Robert Mason and Robert Recchia, Valassis’s CEO and CFO, held secret talks with officials of Perelman’s Harland Clarke Holdings before Harland made its $34.02-a-share cash bid, and the directors abandoned a strategic review of alternatives, the investor, a Louisiana pension fund, said in a lawsuit filed yesterday in Delaware Chancery Court in Wilmington.

“If the offer is completed, Valassis’s public shareholders will be frozen out in

Valassis' earnings statements paint a picture of a company facing troubling financial questions about its core products, and management's answer last year was to find a buyer for the firm the late George Valassis started in 1970 in Oak Park.

The buyer turned out to be San Antonio-based Harland Clarke Holdings Corp., one of the many pieces of New York City-based MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings that's owned by Ronald Perelman, a private equity industrialist estimated by Forbes this year to be one of the wealthiest Americans at $14 billion.

Under the deal, Valassis will become a private company

Harland Clarke Holdings is commencing its tender offer for all outstanding shares of Valassis for $34.04 per share in cash. The tender offer is being made pursuant to the previously announced merger agreement dated December 17, 2013 between the companies.

Harland Clarke Holdings, a leading provider of best-in-class integrated payment solutions and marketing services, and Valassis have entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Harland Clarke Holdings will acquire Valassis.

Printing Industries of America (PIA) has announced the recipients of the 2013 Best Workplace in the Americas Awards. Entries are judged on the following criteria: management practices, work environment, training and development, recognition and rewards, workplace health and safety, health and wellness, financial security and work-life balance.

Livonia, MI-based direct mail and coupon marketer Valassis Communications reported in its third-quarter federal Securities and Exchange Commission filing that its Neighborhood Targeted segment saw a nearly 69 percent year-over-year revenue decline.

Valassis, the nation's largest newspaper coupon and insert- and direct-mail company, said its Neighborhood Targeted segment had a $2.1 million net loss for third-quarter 2013 versus being $1.1 million in the black last year.

Why the major shift?

Valassis has received 14 national and regional awards in 2013 for its workplace culture, innovation and printing excellence. The company recently received three Gold Ink Awards from Printing Impressions magazine, marking its 18th year of being the recipient of the prestigious awards.