Morning Links: 21 December 2007

LP agrees to acquire majority of Brazilian mill, activist trying to shake-up O'Charley's, Bennett to retire from Tennessee Commerce Bancorp's board, and more...

Email | Print By Walker Duncan

Louisiana-Pacific announced on Thursday that it has agreed to buy a 75 percent stake in a Brazilian wood panel mill owned by Masisa SA — according to the release the mill opened in 2003 and has an annual production capacity of a million square feet

Activist headaches for O'Charley's: Crescendo Partners, which owns 11.2 percent of the Nashville restaurant company’s stock, say the stock is undervalued and the company should immediately explore strategic alternatives — additionally, Crescendo has put up a slate of four nominees to the O’Charley’s board of directors

Tennessee Commerce Bancorp announced that director Eli Bennett will retire from the company’s board at the end of the year; the bank’s board will now include nine members, six of whom are classified as independent directors — back in July three of the company’s directors left the board following a dispute over executive pay hikes

HCA hoping to build a new 100-bed facility in central Va. — the project will have to be approved by the Central Virginia Health Planning Agency