Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson is thinking about retirement, but definitely not his own.
Johnson announced last week that he has invested millions of dollars (he won't say exactly how much) and taken the role of chairman for RolloverSystems Inc., a four-year-old Charlotte company that automates the rolling over of 401(k) plan funds into individual retirement accounts after employees change jobs. The company collects commissions after employees choose from a menu of financial institutions for their IRAs.
Robert L. Johnson, who invested in hotels after selling Black Entertainment Television to Viacom, has become a key shareholder in RolloverSystems.
(Diane Bondafeff -- AP)
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Johnson met the company's chief executive and founder, Reginald Bowser, on one of his frequent visits to Charlotte, where the BET creator owns the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Association.
"I was impressed with Reggie's entrepreneurial passion, and also I believe he's come up with a superior transaction technology," Johnson said in a telephone interview from his BET office in the District. "I can lend my credibility and visibility and help him get in at the top level of companies to make a pitch."
Johnson, 58, made more than $1.4 billion from the sale of BET to Viacom Inc. in 2000 and remains its chairman and chief executive through this year. He has been picking and choosing among new ventures to back, especially black-owned businesses like RolloverSystems.
His RLJ Cos. already has become the biggest African-American owner of hotel properties. "Now, I'm sort of transitioning into what I consider the financial services or financial transaction sector," he said.
DISTRICT
• NCRIC Group's decision to sell itself for $69.6 million in stock to a larger Alabama-based medical malpractice insurance company has come under fire from some Oklahoma shareholders. The sale was "conducted in an unusual manner" that "did not allow sufficient opportunity for competing bids," according to a documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by shareholders Asamara Two; Nadel and Gussman Energy; and two principles at other Oklahoma-based investment firms. The shareholders want NCRIC to release other potential buyers from confidentiality agreements they signed so that the buyers can conduct more due diligence. In an SEC document, NCRIC said it does not believe the confidentiality agreements preclude these potential buyers from making additional proposals to the board.
• Pepco Holdings has named executives to head each of the three regions served by its utilities, Pepco, Delmarva Power and Atlanta City Electric. Thomas Graham was named president of the Pepco Region, which has more than 720,000 customers in the District and Montgomery and Prince George's Counties. Graham is a 19-year veteran of the company, most recently as regional vice president for Prince George's County.
VIRGINIA
• ComScore Networks of Reston, which conducts consumer research by tracking Web browsing, set up a European business unit based in London and recruited Bob Ivins, the former research director for Yahoo Europe, to head it. The company says it has a global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who give it permission to track their browsing and transactions online for marketing research.
MARYLAND
• BroadPoint Technologies of Bethesda, a software applications consulting firm, bought the application software group of Grant Thornton, the Chicago accounting firm. Terms were not disclosed.
• Accelacom of Baltimore, a provider of broadband communications over "fixed wireless" systems set up in businesses, was bought by AirBand Communications of Dallas. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
• Qovia of Frederick, which provides monitoring and management technology for Internet phone calling, said it would conduct research with Towson University into Internet phone calls carried over wireless networks. The research will be supported in part by the University of Maryland's Maryland Industrial Partnerships program.
