Gas prices fall to 7-month low
Gasoline prices in Chattanooga dropped another 6 cents a gallon last week to their lowest average price in seven months.
The average price of a gallon of regular gas in Chattanooga is now $2.37 per gallon, or 30 cents per gallon less than the U.S. average, according to GasBuddy’s daily survey of 170 stations in Chattanooga. Chattanooga and Cleveland boast the lowest average prices in Tennessee, according to surveys by both GasBuddy.com and AAA.
“The last week has seen another notable decline at pumps in nearly every state with average prices again plummeting, in some places to $1.99 per gallon or less, following oil’s longest losing streak in nearly 34 years,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. “Every single day, Americans are spending nearly $100 million less than just 30 days ago – a significant and impressive feat as the national average gas price has shed over 20 cents per gallon over the last month.
Oil prices declined again on Monday to push the U.S. benchmark below $60 a barrel for the first time since February after President Donald Trump said he hopes OPEC doesn’t cut crude production.
Athenahealth gets buyer at $5.7 billion pricetag
Athenahealth shares soared Monday after the struggling medical billing software maker received a $5.7 billion cash buyout offer.
Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital plan to give athenahealth shareholders $135 per share in a deal that will take the company private. That represents a roughly 12 percent premium over the closing price of athenahealth shares on Friday.
But the latest deal is smaller than a $6.5 billion bid that prominent investor Elliott Management Corp. made in May.
Elliott Management made its offer for $160 per share in cash after saying it had grown frustrated with athenahealth’s struggles, which included missed guidance targets and churning through five chief financial officers in the last four years.
A month after Elliott made its offer, co-founder and CEO Jonathan Bush said he was stepping down.
Athenahealth said Monday that Elliott Management supported the latest deal offer. Evergreen Coast Capital is an Elliott affiliate that invests in technology.
Athenahealth, based in Watertown, Massachusetts, makes medical record, revenue cycle and care coordination products and delivers most of it through the cloud. On Friday, it reported third-quarter earnings that topped analyst expectations, but its revenue fell short of the average forecast on Wall Street.
The latest athenahelath bid offers “a decent valuation for what has increasingly appeared to be a struggling business,” Leerink analyst David Larsen said in a research note.
Theme park crowds grow 5 percent in 2018
An industry group says the global theme park market grew 5 percent last year, but it was the smallest growth in the past five years.
A report produced for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions says the global theme park business was a $45 billion industry in 2017.
The report says there has been slowing expansion in the Americas and Asian markets.
Most of the global gains in revenue will come from attendance gains, which the report says is expected to grow 3.8 percent a year over the next several years.