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Around the State
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- Spacehab Inc. bought Northrup Grumman subsidiary Astrotech, which provides payload processing services for commercial satellites for Kennedy Space Center and California's Vandenberg Air Force Base.
Heathrow
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- Dixon Ticonderoga (AMEX-DXT) bought 9.9 million shares of its Mexican subsidiary, Dixon Mexico, for $2.5 million and now owns more than 80% of the company.
Melbourne
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- Harris Corp. (NYSE-HRS) won a $22 million contract to provide the military with an Internet-based system that catalogues satellite images and global maps. Harris is an international communications and electronics company with sales of more than $3.6 billion.
Orlando
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- Hewitt Associates of Lincolnshire, Ill., one of the largest human resources consulting firms in the country, will build a center in Orlando to manage employee benefits. The facility will employ 1,000 within the next five years. Hewitt employs 5,500 in 25 countries worldwide.
Sunshine Network settled its dispute with the Florida Marlins. As part of the deal, Sunshine will televise games throughout the baseball season and reschedule the broadcast of Marlin games that conflict with NBA or NHL playoffs. In return, Sunshine will use the Marlins' announcement team.
Titusville
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- Smart Choice continues its strategy of consolidating new and used car dealerships with the acquisition of Team Automobile Sales, central Florida's largest independent auto dealer. Also, the company completed its merger into Ekler Industries (Nasdaq-ECKL), renaming it Smart Choice Holdings.
Winter Park
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- First Commerce Banks of Florida merged with Colonial BancGroup of Montgomery, Ala. The $17.8 million transaction will merge subsidiary First Commerce Bank of Polk County into Colonial's Florida operation headquartered in Orlando.
Quantum Consulting Group was formed through the merger of specialty accounting firms Cuthill & Eddy and Owen E. Bailey CPA, of Casselberry. The new company will be head- quartered in Winter Park and will provide business valuation, forensic accounting and expert witness and consulting services.
