On October 25, 2011 in an article on espn.com, “Major League Baseball claimed that the Dodgers owner Frank McCourt took nearly $190 million from the team in what a court filing termed “looting.”

In filings in Delaware Court, MLB said McCourt took $189.16 from the club — $73 million in parking lot revenue through a separate company, $61.16 million to pay personal debts, and $55 million for personal distributions, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing documents.

MLB and Frank McCourt were headed toward a showdown in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware at the end of November. However, on November 1, 2011 espn.com reported that Frank McCourt and MLB reached an agreement to sell the Los Angeles Dodgers along with Dodger Stadium and the surrounding real estate. The decision not only brings to end a six-month legal battle with baseball commissioner Bud Selig, but, ends McCourt’s seven and one-half year ownership of the team.

McCourt ultimately realized that selling the Dodgers was in his best interest and that of the fans. As previously written in my first article Frank McCourt purchased the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004 for $430 million. Based on various media reports from espn.com, the team is expected to sell for somewhere between $800 million and $1.2 billion this time.

Steve Jobs was born on February 24, 1955 to Joanne Simpson and Abdulfattah “John” Jandali, two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave their unnamed son up for adoption. Steve was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and grew up in Mountain View, a town within California’s Silicon Valley. Steve first became interested and involved in electronics when he and his father Paul would work on cars in their garage.

Steve was not your average student. He was actually so smart that at one point in school he tested so well that administrators wanted to skip him ahead two years to high school, which his parents declined, although they let him skip one grade. During high school Steve spent most of his free time at Hewlett-Packard (aka HP) where he met and worked with Steve Wozniak. After high school Jobs enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Lacking a sense of direction Jobs dropped out of College after six months and spent the next eighteen months auditing a variety of creative classes.

In 1976, at the age of 21 Jobs and Wozniak started Apple Computer out of Jobs family garage, and funded their entrepreneurial venture after Jobs sold his VW bus and Wozniak sold his beloved scientific calculator. Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry by democratizing the technology and making the machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive, and accessible to everyday consumers. The two conceived a series of user-friendly personal computers that they initially marketed for $666.66 each. Their first model, the Apple I, earned them $774,000. Three years after the release of their second model, the Apple II, sales increased 700 percent to $139 million dollars. In 1980, Apple Computer became a publically traded company with a market value of $1.2 billion on the very first day of trading.

In 1984, Apple started to suffer significantly with design flaws and IBM suddenly surpassed Apple sales. Also in that year Apple released the Macintosh, despite positive sales, the Macintosh was not IBM compatible. About this time, John Scully, Apple’s President thought Steve was hurting Apple and began to plot against him.

In 1985 Jobs resigned as Apple’s Chairman to begin a new hardware and software company called NeXT, Inc. The following year Jobs purchased an animation company from George Lucas, which later became Pixar Animation Studios in which Steve invested $50 million of his own money. Pixar produced such films as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Pixar films has netted more than $4 Billion. The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Steve Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder.

NeXT, Inc floundered and was eventually bought by Apple in 1997 for $429 million the same year Jobs returned to his post as Apple’s CEO. Immediately, Jobs revitalized Apple.

From here, we all know Apple went to new levels with a new management team and new products from the iPod to the iPhone and ultimately the iPad. Job got stock options but he worked for a self imposed annual salary of $1.00. Jobs put Apple back on track and we are all aware of the recent innovations that cannot and will not be matched by any other software company in the world.

Unfortunately, Jobs life took a tragic turn in 2003 when he was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. Jobs would fight through it and altered everything in his life to make it through it but it eventually took his life on October 5, 2011, he was 55.

From all the entrepreneurs in the world I say thank you to Steve Jobs. A man so inspirational to all of us and one who will always be remembered for his resiliency and passion to succeed and make technology better and better.

R.I.P. Steve

To read the full biography of Steve Jobs click HERE.

It all started back in 1986 by the four founding fathers John Ellsworth, Trey Melson, Bill Thompson and Donald “Doc” Pepper. As said on punkinchunkin.com Ellsworth said, “We were playing around one day and somebody started talking about throwing pumpkins. There had been an article in a newspaper or on television about some people through pumpkins at Salisbury State. A physics class or something. One of us said that they could throw further than someone else and I threw my hat on the ground”

The first event happened in a small field in a woods owned by Thompson near Georgetown, DE the farthest throw that year was 126 feet. Now 25 years later the world record was set in 2008 when the team Young Glory III out of Milton, Delaware chunked a pumpkin 4,483.51 feet.

This annual event is now located on a farm in Bridgeville, DE and attracts over 100,000 people from all over the world and has 13 divisions and more than 100 teams that line up in a semi circle that is more than a mile long.

So, looking for a great time then make sure to check out this one of a kind event. For more information visit www.punkinchunkin.com or catch the event November 24^th at 8pm est. on The Discovery Channel.

If you have not already heard, to augment our main website www.delawareinc.com in the last year we also launched two more websites www.delawarellc.com (in both English and Spanish) and www.payfranchisetax.com to help give our clients with more focused and in-depth information about our services and why Harvard Business Services is Delaware’s Premier Formation Specialists for the past 30 years now.

I recently read a great article on businessweek.com called Use Your Website to Grow Your Business. Nicole McCullum writes:

“Your website is one of the most powerful marketing tools you have. By itself it may not produce the results you’re looking for, but when combined with your other marketing initiatives it can be a vital source for your lead generation campaign while helping you increase sales, reduce advertising costs, and produce a higher return on investment. The key is including your website in all your marketing pieces. Whether you engage in online, print, TV, radio, or affiliate marketing, all roads must lead back to your website in order to maximize your return on investment. To do so, the following five steps must be implemented.”

1. Make sure your website is a reflection of who you are as a company. Your design is worth a million words, so make it count by ensuring it is an expression of your company and specifically geared and tailored to your target market. A good design should capture visitors’ attention the moment they arrive on your site, and hold their attention as they pass through your site?

2. Engage visitors with a compelling marketing message that has instant impact. Once you have captured visitors’ attention with your design, your marketing message is the key to getting them to stay on and learn more about your company and what you have to offer. Keep it short and include a problem statement and your solution. Solidify your credibility with testimonials, case studies, press mentions, or sample work.

3. Ensure your website has a call to action. Whatever action you want visitors to take once they arrive on your website should be clearly stated and highlighted. Say it once and say it again, not just on your home page but throughout your website and at every opportunity you get to increase your chances of converting your website visitors into leads.

4. Use ethical bribes to boost lead generation. You will maximize your return on investment and reduce advertising cost if you are able to convert more of your Web visitors into leads, which will in turn allow you to establish credibility and build a relationship. The best way to accomplish this goal is to use ethical bribes that are irresistible in exchange for their contact information. Try things like “free trials,” “free reports,” or “free consultations.”

5. Nurture leads easily and effortlessly with website marketing automation. Integrate your website forms with a marketing automation tool that saves you time and money. You can easily schedule a series of follow up e-mails or phone calls to stay in touch with prospects and move them further along in the pipeline and into a sale.

Our website is our number one priority, along with being at the top in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If you are a small company and have a minimal budget for SEO take a look at this helpful starter guide on SEO from Google.

In a time when the stock market and the real estate market are nothing more than financial roller coasters think about investing in the growth opportunity closest to home: Your WEBSITE!

If you are a new client to Harvard, and you LIKE us on Facebook, you will receive a $50 discount off a new company formation of your choice.

Follow this link to our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Delawareinc?sk=app_191958804202940

Sign into Facebook and then click on “like” to access your discount code! It’s that simple!

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