Brown On Business: IPOs, Takeover Targets And The Trillion Dollar Race

Talk Business & Politics Business Editor Wesley Brown and Editor-in-Chief Roby Brock discussed several interesting topics related to Arkansas’ startup scene, its biggest companies and a debate involving alternative energy.

In a segment called “4 Minutes, 4 Questions,” Brown and Brock took up the following issues:

Wind or Solar – Over the last year, Arkansas has announced several wind and solar power projects that will come online in the next decade. As the U.S. looks more to renewable fuels, which of these nature-powered energy sources will be the big winner?

Startup IPO – Name a private company in Arkansas that could go public. Home Bancshares has been the last homegrown IPO, or Initial Public Offering, in the past several years. Will Arkansas’ startup community produce a publicly traded company before 2020?

Race to a Trillion: Walmart or Apple? – There has been talk in the past few years about the first U.S. company to top the trillion dollar market value? ExxonMobil was in the conservation too, but has lost ground due to decline crude oil and natural gas prices. Which one of these American companies will hit the trillion dollar mark first, and why?

Takeover Target – Arkansas banks have been a bright spot in the banking and financial sector coming out of the Great Depression. With privately held Arvest, Bank of the Ozarks, Simmons First, and Home Bancshares all seeing double-digit growth over the last few years, will any of these fast-growing regional banks be a takeover target in the next year or so?

Watch Brown’s and Brock’s discussion of these questions in the video below.