Attention wealthy sports fans: If buying part of the local hockey team is too rich for your blood, how about a stake in the soccer squad?

The owners of the Carolina RailHawks are seeking new investors "to participate in the next, exciting phase of growth" of the Cary-based professional soccer franchise. Its backers now include majority owner Selby Wellman, a former Cisco Systems executive, as well as Lulu.com CEO Bob Young, Brian Wellman and Dr. H. Paul Singh.

The owners are looking for a $1 million investment from one to three potential partners, RailHawks spokesman Marco Rosa wrote in an e-mail. And they do have some unnamed prospects.

Bob Young's effort to build an e-books empire got some major media attention this morning.

In a front-page story about digital outlets that allow authors to self-publish books, the Wall Street Journal included Young in its list of "The Stars of Self-Publishing." Young is CEO of Raleigh-based Lulu, which helps authors publish more than 20,000 new titles every month.

The newspaper's list puts Young in elite company, with other "stars" such as Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos, Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch and Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The list also includes executives from smaller Lulu rivals such as Smashwords, FastPencil, Scribd and Author Solutions.

Unfortunately for Lulu and Young, most of the article focuses on Amazon's digital self-publishing push.

Keep the IPO champagne on ice for now.

Charlotte-based American Tire Distributors, which in February filed plans to raise $230 million in an initial public offering, today announced it agreed to be bought by a private equity firm for $1.3 billion instead.

That news follows last week's decision by officials at Raleigh-based Lulu to postpone its planned IPO because of lackluster investor demand. American Tire's IPO would have been one of the largest in North Carolina in years.

IPOs are a risky step, and deals frequently get delayed or derailed for a variety of factors, including volatility on Wall Street. The stock market surge of the past year has revived IPO interest, but investors are still skittish about making bets on unproven companies.

American Tire's decision to be acquired gives its investors and executives a faster return than an IPO would. It agreed to be bought by TPG Capital, a massive equity firm known for its takeovers of companies such as J. Crew, Burger King and Petco.

American Tire, the largest distributor of replacement tires, was founded in 1935. The company employs 2,300 people and owns 83 tire distributions centers in 37 states.

The company sells tires mostly to mom-and-pop tire shops. Last fall, it launched TireBuyer.com, a Web site aimed at capturing more of the market for online tire shoppers.

Raleigh-based online book publisher Lulu has postponed plans for an initial public offering because it ran into weak demand among investors.

CEO and founder Bob Young and the company's investment bankers had wanted to go public on the Toronto Stock Exchange this week, but weren't able to get the price they wanted.

The company on Wednesday reduced the proposed price of its IPO to about $7 per share, from $8 to $9.50 each. But that still wasn't enough to lure prospective investors worried about Lulu's financial future and the shaky stock market.

"It is a minor disappointment, but only a minor one because we've only delayed it," Young said in a phone interview today. "We pulled the IPO simply because the valuations that we were being offered was just not where we believed the value of the company is."

Lulu is one of this region's small but fast-growing technology companies that continue to hire and drive the Triangle's economy. An IPO would have given Lulu more money to pay for further expansion.

Two tech companies made strong Wall Street debuts today, another positive sign for Triangle businesses hoping to pull off their own IPOs.

SS&C Technologies, a Connecticut software company, and Meru Networks, a California maker of Wi-Fi equipment, saw their shares rise today after selling stock through initial public offerings.

That bodes well for companies such as Lulu, the Raleigh-based online book publisher, which is preparing for an IPO in Canada, and Cary-based SciQuest, which filed plans for a U.S. IPO last week.

Motricity, a wireless company that moved its headquarters to the West Coast from Durham, also has filed IPO plans. That company still has offices in Durham and employs about 100 people locally.

Online publisher Lulu will have some of its book titles available on the iPad, which goes on sale Saturday.

The Raleigh-based company has reached a distribution deal with Apple.

Lulu will automatically convert books from its own format into the ePub format at no cost unless an author declines the service. The conversion does not guarantee that a book will be accepted into the iBookstore.

According to an e-mail Lulu sent to its authors, authors will receive 80 percent of the profit after deducting Apple's share. Pricing for the iBookstore is to be announced on April 2.

The distribution deal with Apple comes as Lulu is preparing to go public in Canada as early as next month.

The 112-employee company is best-known for helping authors self-publish books, but people also can self-produce calendars, CDs and DVDs.

It collects fees for the books it sells and also provides services to authors. In addition, it sells e-books, including some well-known titles from other publishers.

Lulu lost $13.8 million in 2008 and $1.9 million last year. But in the fourth quarter it turned profitable, earning $140,000 versus a loss of $4.6 million a year earlier.

Author John Edgar Wideman is choosing to bypass traditional publishing methods and is partnering instead with Raleigh-based Lulu.com for his next book, Briefs, Stories for the Palm of the Mind.

The book will be available exclusively on lulu.com beginning March 14 (more info here). It is a collection of stories, some of which have already been chosen for the O. Henry Prize Stories 2010 and Best African American Fiction 2010 awards.

Wideman chose to publish his new book this way in order to have more control over the publishing process and connect more personally with readers. In addition, he already had a connection to the company: His son works there.

"I've been thinking about alternatives for a long time," he said. "Lulu seems to represent a very live possibility as the publishing industry mutates. I like the idea of being in charge. I have more control over what happens to my book. And I have more control over whom I reach."