September 2005: WWJ and its sister radio stations help the Hurricane Katrina relief effort, raising more than half a million dollars… Lansing-based Arialink begins offering a bundle of phone, cable TV and high-speed Internet… Detroit CIOs forecast increase in fourth quarter hiring… The Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America join Internet2 as corporate members… Energy Conversion Devices swings to a profit on a big boost in revenue… Delphi announces a groundbreaking adaptive cruise control… Michigan Technological University, the Michigan Tech Enterprise SmartZone, the Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance and Technisource’s Michigan office establish a pilot program to employ MTU students in Houghton in engineering design… ECD is in a deal for a solar panel plant in China… Farmington Hills-based Wireless Toyz opens its 100th store… the Michigan Broadband Development Authority lends $5.79 million to Lansing-based Arialink Broadband to expand high-speed Internet in Muskegon County… More than 500 attend the MichBio Expo at Cobo Center….
October 2005: Troy-based CrimeCog raises $1 million in capital… Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos Jr. admits in a speech to the Economic Club of Detroit that past layoffs were a mistake… Ann Arbor Spark names Michael A. Finney its first CEO… Ann Arbor’s Small Times Media is bought by trade publisher PennWell Corp. of Tulsa, Okla. … Three huge tech events on Oct. 6 — 1,000 at Compuware’s OJ.X developer event, 100 at the IT Security Summit, several hundred more at Glima’s State of the Web… McKenzie Bay schedules a groundbreaking on a wind power project in the Upper Peninsula… Microsoft founder Bill Gates speaks at the University of Michigan… Washtenaw and Oakland counties are named to a list of the nation’s most ‘tech savvy’ counties… Kalamazoo-based ProNai Therapeutics raises $4.25 million in capital… Monster.com says the Detroit IT job market is heading up…. Holland-based Azulstar Networks completes a municipal Wi-Fi network covering 40 square miles in Rio Rancho, N.M. and builds another in Michigan covering Ferrysburg and Spring Lake… Compuware earnings triple despire lower revenue…
November 2005: Plexus Systems Inc., a developer of ERP software, launches a channel partner program… TechTeam says it’s looking for a successor to William Coyro… Lake Leelanau-based Oneupweb says it’s adding 12,000 square feet of space and searching for new staff in Web services… Ann Arbor’s T/J Technologies gets a $5 million Army contract for lithium ion battery research… The University of Michigan’s Wolverine Venture Fund, the nation’s first student run venture capital fund, makes two more investments… the University of Michigan’s annual economic forecast is bleak for Michigan, predicting job losses in the state again in 2006… Birmingham-based Core3 Solutions offers free tech gift advice, online or on the phone…
December 2005: Gov. Granholm visits NextEnergy in Detroit and touts the $2 billion job creation package she recently signed… Los Angeles-based IVI Communications Inc. buys the Internet Service Provider business of TotalCom L.L.C., of Cass City in Michigan’s Thumb…Michigan Virtual High School earns accreditation… United Solar gets a deal to provide solar power to nearly 8,000 military homes in Hawaii… An Ann Arbor Internet pioneer and two former marketing staffers at Domino’s Pizza Inc. claim to have sent the first Internet Christmas card — 10 years earlier, in 1995… Ann Arbor’s Enlighten rolls out the online Holiday Party Excuse Generator… Manpower predicts a flat Michigan job market in 2006… Ann Arbor Wireless Inc. said it had purchased longtime Ann Arbor Internet service provider IC.Net; the merged companies will now be called 20/20 Communications…Ford Motor Co. informed about 70,000 active and former white-collar employees that a computer with company data, including social security numbers, was stolen from a Ford facility…
January 2006: GLITR once again kicks off the year by covering the Michigan companies at the International Consumer Electronics Show… Delphi rolls out a new multimedia car radio… Visteon shows off a dockable auto DVD player with a Nintendo Game Boy Advance entertainment system attached… Three Rivers-based Rural Communications plans an expansion outside St. Joseph County… Troy-based Fisher-Unitech Inc. completes its acquisition of Concurrent Technologies Inc. of St. Louis, Mo….Compuware stock sinks 13 percent after an earnings warning… Emagine Theaters pilots cell phone movie ticket buying… Camarillo, Calif.-based Advanced Photonix Inc. moving its headquarters to Ann Arbor… Lawrence Technological University received two federal earmarks totaling $2.175 million for its Center for Innovative Materials Research… Delphi Corp. gets a NASA grant to develop advanced welding technology… Due to what they described as a “strong demand from local and national companies,” the Mount Clemens Downtown Development Authority and Macomb County said they would extend the deadline to submit proposals for phase one of the Wireless Macomb project … Compuware names company veteran Hank Jallos to the new title of President and COO for Compuware Products, and Tommi White to the position of President and COO role of Compuware Services. Jallos has been with Compuware nearly 20 years in a variety of sales leadership roles, most recently as a Compuware executive vice president. White joined Compuware in 2001 and had been COO of the entire company. ..Kinderstreet, an Ann Arbor company offering management software for early childhood education, moves to Colorado… EPrize LLC gets $32 million in financing…
February 2006: Grand Rapids’ X-Rite buys Switzerland’s Amazys… Grand Valley State University and the Van Andel Institute are teaming up on a biotech manufacturing pilot plant in Grand Rapids… Tech Team in Southfield taps former IBM executive William C. “Chris” Brown as CEO… NextEnergy opens the National Biofuel Energy Lab… OnStar to introduce turn-by-turn navigation later this year… ProQuest discovers ‘material irregularities’ in its accounting and says it will have to restate earnings going back to 1999. … 20/20 Communications LLC of Ann Arbor buys Professional Communications Services Broadband to become the largest wireless Internet service provider in southeast Michigan… Tommi White leaves Compuware… President Bush tours Uni-Solar in Auburn Hills… Proxy fight looms at TechTeam…
March 2006: US Signal announces expansions in Detroit, Madison, Wis., and Indiana… Compuware buys a medical records technology provider, ProviderLink of Cary, N.C. … the Troy medical devicde firm Somanetics raises $51 million in a stock sale… The Absolute Michigan Web site adds its 5,000th link…Perich Advertising and Design launches virtualbreakroom.com, a complete waste of time… Hudson-based Sominet says it will build a 600-square-mile wireless network… TechTeam proposes a new board with two designees from an investor group challenging its management decisions… UM launches Center for Computational Medicine and Biology… Romulus-based RKA Petroleum offers custom blended biodiesel…
April 2006: X Prize officials hint at a $10 million prize for a 100 mpg car… Wayne County and Michigan State working on a biotech park… Strategic Staffing Solutions buys a staffing firm in St. Louis, Mo…. GLITR covers the BIO biotechnology convention in Chicago, including Michigan’s major exhibit in it… Gentex, the Zeeland high-tech rear-view mirror maker, shuffles management… New test from Asterand predicts severe reactions in drug trials… ISG IT Solutions in Farmington Hills is hiring developers nad project managers… Lansing Community College students are building hydrogen engines… Job demand in Detroit is flat, according to Monster.com….Ann Arbor Angels tote up $82 million in investments…
May 2006: Eleanor Josaitis of Focus:HOPE is named the Grant Thornton – Lawrence Technological University Leader and Innovator of the Year… Cybernet Medical rolls out a Web version of its MedStar home medical monitoring system… TechTeam reaches board accord with investor group… The GLITR Spring Tech Tour visits Hillman, Marquette, Houghton, Traverse City, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Flint. Whew!… Ann Arbor-based HandyLab raises another $5.6 million… Compuware profit more than doubles, CEO sucession plan under way..
June 2006: Energy Conversion Devices and Stanford Ovshinsky announce a new design in electronics… Michigan’s entrepreneurship grade improves to a D from an F a year ago… CIOs forecast increase in third quarter hiring… The Eye and the Chip conference in Detroit talks bionic eyes… Wireless Washtenaw picks 20/20 Communications as its local provider… Rock Financial and Quicken Loans are again named the nation’s No. 1 IT workplace…
July 2006: X-Rite completes its Amazys acquisition… United Solar announces a long-term deal in Italy for 46 megawatts of solar panels… Ann Arbor’s QuatRx withdraws plans for an IPO… Google announces plans for a 1,000-employee center in Ann Arbor… New CEO at Aastrom Biosciences… Benton Harbor-based Whirlpool testing high-tech smart washers and dryers… Compuware profit rises despite revenue decline…
August 2006: Internet2 gets a new medical information management collaboration…Ann Arbor-based NanoBio raises $20 million in capital… Charter cable TV begins offering telephone service in Kalamazoo… Dow Corning moves into holographic data storage… Comcast adds Canada to its unlimited telephone package… Energy Conversion Devices licenses its solar panel technology to a Chinese firm… State officials Monday announce the opening of the Michigan Venture Fund I. The fund has reached its goal of raising $200 million…. Ann Arbor-based Internet2 and the Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network plan an event Thursday to announce a new partnership. The joint effort means to deploy a brand new nationwide energy science network …
Tuesday: September 2006-August 2007
