GNC Holdings, Inc. Announces Secondary Offering - Franchising.com

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 7, 2012 // PRNewswire // -- GNC Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: "GNC") (the "Company"), a leading global specialty retailer of health and wellness products, today announced an underwritten offering of 11,732,479 shares of its Class A common stock to be sold by Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund II, L.P. ("Ares") and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (together with Ares, the "Sponsors"). After giving effect to the offering, the Sponsors will hold no shares of the Company's Class A common stock. The Company is neither issuing nor selling any shares in the offering. The offering is expected to close on November 13, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is the sole underwriter for the offering.

The Company has filed a registration statement (including a prospectus) with the SEC for the offering to which this communication relates. Before you invest, you should read the prospectus in that registration statement and other documents the Company has filed with the SEC for more complete information about the Company and this offering. You may get these documents for free by visiting EDGAR on the SEC Web site at: www.sec.gov. Alternatively, copies of the prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus relating to the offering, when available, may be obtained from:

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions
1155 Long Island Avenue
Edgewood, NY 11717
Telephone: 1-866-803-9204

About GNC

GNC Holdings, Inc., headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pa., is a leading global specialty retailer of health and wellness products, including vitamins, minerals, and herbal supplement products, sports nutrition products and diet products, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "GNC."
As of September 30, 2012, GNC has more than 7,900 locations, of which more than 6,000 retail locations are in the United States (including 935 franchise and 2,168 Rite Aid franchise store-within-a-store locations) and franchise operations in 55 countries (including distribution centers where retail sales are made). The Company?which is dedicated to helping consumers Live Well?has a diversified, multi-channel business model and derives revenue from product sales through company-owned retail stores, domestic and international franchise activities, third-party contract manufacturing, e-commerce and corporate partnerships. The Company's broad and deep product mix, which is focused on high-margin, premium, value-added nutritional products, is sold under GNC proprietary brands, including Mega Men?, Ultra Mega?, GNC Total Lean?, Pro Performance?, Pro Performance? AMP and Beyond Raw?, and under nationally recognized third-party brands.

This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to the Company's financial condition, results of operations and business that is not historical information. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "subject to," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "may," "will," "should," "can," the negatives thereof, variations thereon and similar expressions, or by discussions of strategy and outlook. While the Company believes there is a reasonable basis for its expectations and beliefs, they are inherently uncertain, and the Company may not realize its expectations and its beliefs may not prove correct. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Actual results could differ materially from those described or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a listing of factors that may materially affect such forward-looking statements, please refer to our most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investor Contacts:

Michael M. Nuzzo
Executive Vice President and CFO
(412) 288-2029

Dennis Magulick
Senior Director
Treasury & Investor Relations
(412) 288-4632

SOURCE GNC Holdings, Inc

###

Social Reach:

Viewer Response:

Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20121108_gnc_holdings_inc_announces_secondary_offering.html

god bless america earned income credit super bowl commercials florida primary 2012 super bowl matthew broderick tax refund calculator

Snoring Keeping You Awake At Night? | Doctors Wives Living

Photo by Rosa Pomares

?Snoring is a problem is many households, and many wives and husbands complain about the noisy problem,? says Dr. Cheung, an Otolaryngologist?who is based in British Columbia. ?I know of one lady who complains that her husband snores so much that she would rather sleep with her crying infant, so it goes to show you that snoring can be troublesome for a marriage.?

According to the Canadian Society of Otolaryngology,?45 percent of adults snore occasionally, and 25 percent are habitual snorers. Problem snoring is more frequent in males and overweight persons, and it usually grows worse with age.

Dr. Cheung says, ?Snoring is a problem much more complicated than it seems. It is often secondary to multiple factors: mainly excessive weight, excessive soft tissue in the throat, and loss of muscle tone due to aging. The inability to breathe through the nose can also lead to snoring.?

Snoring can be detrimental to your health. In the most severe form of sleep disorder it is called obstructive sleep apnea. In this case, the individual is awoken repeatedly throughout their night. This leads to poor sleep quality and excessive daytime fatigue. In the long run, this can lead to heart disease such as heart failure.

Untreated sleep apnea can contribute to many problems, including difficulty with learning and memory, poor job performance, and depression.

Research published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that people with sleep apnea are two to seven times more likely than healthy persons to have a traffic accident.

What is Snoring?

It occurs when there is an obstruction to the free flow of air through the passages at the back of the mouth and nose. This area is the collapsible part of the airway where the tongue and upper throat meet the soft palate and uvula. Snoring occurs when these strike each other and vibrate during breathing.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

When loud snoring is interrupted by frequent episodes of completely obstructed breathing, it is known as obstructive sleep apnea. Serious episodes last more than ten seconds and occur more than seven times per hour. Patients who have apnea problems may even experience 300 events per night. This can lead the individual?s heart to pump even harder because blood oxygen levels are reduced.

The immediate effect of sleep apnea is that the snorer must sleep lightly and keep his muscles tense in order to keep airflow to the lungs. Because the snorer does not get a good rest, he may be sleepy during the day, which impairs job performance. After many years with sleep apnea, elevated blood pressure and heart enlargement can occur.

How can you stop snoring?

Heavy snorers should seek medical advice to ensure that sleep apnea is not a problem. IF indicated, an ear, nose, throat surgeon will provide a thorough examination. The patient?s sleeping may be studied at home or in a laboratory to determine how serious the snoring is and what effects it has on the health of the individual.

Treatment

Treatment depends on the diagnosis. An examination will reveal if the snoring is caused by nasal allergy, infection, deformity, or tonsils and adenoids.

Self-Help for the Light Snorer

Dr.Cheung recommends that adults who suffer from mild or occasional snoring should become active to develop good muscle tone and lose weight, and avoid alcohol and consuming food for three hours before going to sleep.

He says, ?Try to maintain regular sleeping patterns, and try sleeping on your side rather than your back. You can even tilt the head of your bed upwards four inches.?

Talk to your doctor

The most common treatment for obstructive sleep apnea is CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) which is a mask that delivers air pressure into the throat. For those cases where CPAP is ineffective or not tolerated, a dental appliance may be beneficial.

Snoring or obstructive sleep apnea may also respond to various treatments now offered by many otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeons, including Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty which tightens flabby tissues in the throat and palate, and expands air passages.

Thermal Ablation Palatoplasty refers to procedures and techniques that treat snoring and some of them also are used to treat various severities of obstructive sleep apnea. Different types include bipolar cautery, laser, and radiofrequency.

Genioglossus and hyoid advancement is a surgical procedure for the treatment of sleep apnea. It prevents collapse of the lower throat and pulls the tongue muscles forward, thereby opening the obstructed airway.

?People with sleep apnea should seek treatment, as it can cause negative health implications in the long run. Other lifestyle changes can be suggested by your doctor, which can eliminate some of your sleep apnea symptoms as well as risk for other diseases,? says Dr. Cheung.

?

Source: http://www.doctorswivesliving.com/snoring-keeping-you-awake-at-night/

clooney arrested southern miss rod blagojevich rod blagojevich uconn ncaa march madness mario williams

Amazon Game Studios releases its first mobile game, Air Patriots, for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire

Amazon made its first push into in-house game development this summer with the launch of Amazon Game Studios and its first title, the Facebook-bound Living Classics, and its now made its second big move. The company announced today that its first mobile game, Air Patriots, is now available for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire devices (and free on each, albeit with in-app purchases). Not surprisingly, Amazon has paid particular attention to the Kindle Fire version, taking advantage of GameCircle to track achievements and high scores, as well as Whispersync to let you save your progress on one device and pick up where you left off on another. As for the game itself, Amazon says it's a "new kind of tower defense game," with players drawing a path for the planes to fend off the oncoming tanks. Head on past the break for a quick video.

Continue reading Amazon Game Studios releases its first mobile game, Air Patriots, for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire

Filed under: Gaming, Mobile

Amazon Game Studios releases its first mobile game, Air Patriots, for iOS, Android and Kindle Fire originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 11:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Amazon, iTunes, Google Play  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/RgjoX6tq8rs/

nfl draft grades devils dodgers rachel maddow gia la riots new jersey devils

Hurricane Sandy May Have Spared Fracking Operations, But Toxic Concerns Remain

Residents living in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania are breathing a cautious sigh of relief in the wake of superstorm Sandy, but remain concerned that increasingly frequent and severe storms expected with climate change could cause fracking-related problems in the future.

Carol French of Bradford County, Pa., said she hasn't seen any flooding at natural gas sites in her area as a result of Sandy. Other residents and state officials also said there were no apparent problems, and expressed relief that many areas did not get as much rain as was expected with the storm.

"Knock on wood. I'm happy," said French, who lives and works on a dairy farm in low-lying land that borders a creek and natural gas wells.

Still, French recalled the flooding in September 2011 caused by Tropical Storm Lee, and remains suspicious that the water flushed toxic chemicals from fracking waste into the soil and groundwater near her home. She said she thinks the toxic water triggered her daughter's subsequent severe illness as well as her own rashes, but she cannot draw a definitive link.

Natural gas production is expanding across the country, particularly along a 600-mile rock formation called the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from West Virginia to western New York. When wastewater returns to the surface during fracking -- the process of releasing gas from bedrock -- the resulting mix contains toxic chemicals used in pressurized fracking fluid, as well as contaminants picked up from deep in the earth, such as brine and radioactive materials. The wastewater is generally stored in lined open-air pits, also known as flowback impoundments, and is one of the ways people like French could get sick, according to some environmental experts and advocates.

"Any time you have an open wastewater pit, you're vulnerable," said Rob Jackson, a biologist at Duke University, recalling how Hurricane Floyd of 1999 flooded hog waste lagoons, devastating rivers with raw sewage.

He said he sees the same flood danger with fracking wastewater, but suggested that the consequences could be more severe. "There's a lot of risk with fracking ponds. You have organic chemicals, carcinogens, potential radioactivity, metals like arsenic and salts," Jackson said.

Kevin Sunday, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, also noted the potential for the contamination of soil and waterways, despite state regulations that include a required 2 feet of clearance in wastewater pits.

"Fortunately, we have not gotten reports that there have been any spills or other issues," Sunday said.

Days before Sandy's landfall, state officials sent letters to natural gas operators. "We told them it could be one of the most severe weather events ever, and asked them to essentially batten down the hatches ahead of time -- to secure any active sites, remove equipment from areas that might experience flooding and manage flowback impoundments to prevent overtopping," Sunday said.

It may still be too early to tell if all of the natural gas drilling sites were spared by the storm. Sunday said that inspectors remain in the field, evaluating damage.

Kathryn Z. Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition industry group, expressed her optimism that fracking operations weathered the storm safely. "Our operators have in place exhaustive contingency plans related to severe weather conditions," she told The Huffington Post in an email. "The safety of our workers and communities is paramount at this point in time as our attention is focused on the environmental, health and safety protections associated with our industry operations and the communities we call home."

Some advocates are not convinced.

Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council, pointed to evidence of the industry's shortcomings in terms of safety. In fiscal year 2011, agents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inspected 120 oil- and gas-well sites. All but 15 sites were not in compliance with spill prevention preparedness, according to a September study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

She also cited previous incidences of stormwater-related contamination at natural gas operations: a discharge of a substance used to lift water and drill cuttings to the surface during a 2009 drill in Lycoming Co., Pa., and several overflowing wastewater pits in Colorado in 2007.

"These pits are really close to people's houses. And flooding happens," Mall said. "They should be storing the waste in closed tanks. It's not rocket science."

French of Bradford County said that her concerns are growing as natural gas companies ramp up drilling in her area. ?It?s causing a better chance of an accident happening,? she said.

Wes Gillingham of Catskill Mountainkeeper, a grassroots advocacy group, added that it's not only the wastewater pits that could pose problems during extreme weather events.

"Tanks can move or spill," he said. "Trucks can be parked in the wrong place."

He added that the storm-related contamination risks are part of a much larger environmental issue.

?If we keep following this gas rush, and push to exploit natural gas, it's counterproductive to climate change," said Gillingham, whose group is battling to keep fracking out of New York state, where he said flood risks are rising. "It keeps us addicted to fossil fuels in the long term rather than focusing on sources of energy that aren?t affecting the environment and creating superstorms like Sandy."

*************************

The Huffington Post is eager for insights from our community, especially people with experience in power, infrastructure and engineering, on the adequacy of emergency preparation in advance of Hurricane Sandy, and the degree to which past disasters have informed adequate planning and construction. Please send a note to sandytips@huffingtonpost.com with insights and suggestions for the important questions that need to be asked of relevant private sector and government officials, and point us toward stories that need to be pursued.

"; var coords = [-5, -72]; // display fb-bubble FloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'}); });

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/01/hurricane-sandy-fracking_n_2056293.html

dst friends with kids pacific standard time northern mariana islands summer time coolio ricky rubio

NJ to use military trucks as polling places

MOONACHIE, N.J. (AP) ? New Jersey will deploy military trucks to serve as polling places on Election Day in storm-battered communities, the state secretary of the state announced Thursday during a visit to this flood-ravaged town. The state is also extending the deadline on mail-in ballots.

Department of Defense trucks will be parked at regular polling places that have lost power, as long as the sites are still accessible. Paper ballots will be used.

Republican Secretary of State and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno said voters will find "a DOD truck with a well-situated National Guardsman and a big sign saying, "Vote Here."

Guadagno said it was still unclear how many of the state's 3,000 polling places are without power, but she would know by Friday. Alternate sites are to be identified in cases where polling places are gone, she said.

More than 1.6 million electric customers in New Jersey remained without power Thursday night.

The state also extended the deadline for when county clerks may accept mail-in ballot applications to the close of business Friday. Election officials said they could be handed in as late as Election Day, by the close of the polls.

The secretary of state urged as many people as possible in storm-damaged areas to vote by mail-in ballot because, she said, "obviously in places like Seaside Heights and Sea Bright, there is no polling place, it's gone."

"There's no reason not to vote, there's no reason not to vote today, there's certainly no reason not to vote on Tuesday, five days from today," Guadagno said.

Gov. Chris Christie said that in areas without electricity, voting would again be "old school."

"You walk up, get a paper ballot, fill it out and hand it back in," he said.

With paper ballots to be counted, the governor said some races might be more suspenseful.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nj-military-trucks-polling-places-215549869.html

nike new nfl uniforms nfl uniforms andrew bailey the village dallas fort worth tornado dallas tornadoes dallas weather