Saleen to build amphibious vehicles for Gibbs
Plymouth-based Gibbs Technologies has awarded a $1-million, six-month manufacturing development contract to Saleen Inc. to support the launch of the company’s high-speed amphibious vehicles in North America. Manufacturing design and engineering work for the Gibbs program will take place at Saleen’s development center at 1225 East Maple Road in Troy, according to Gibbs president and CEO Neil Jenkins. Gibbs plans to introduce two high-speed amphibious vehicles in the United States in late 2009 and early 2010 -- a sporty car and an all-terrain vehicle. The Gibbs Aquada is a vehicle that combines the handling of a sports car with an ability to travel up to 40 mph or more on water and 110 mph on land. The company’s all-terrain vehicle achieves speeds of up to 40 mph on both land and water. More.
MSU unveils push for half-billion-dollar nuclear research project
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and Michigan State University President Lou Anna K. Simon joined Tuesday with business, labor and economic development leaders to announce a united Michigan campaign to help MSU win a national competition for the $550 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Levin has pledged his support for the massive project along with Gov. Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and U.S. Reps. John Dingell and Mike Rogers. The project would bring in $1 billion in economic activity and 400 new jobs to Michigan, generating $187 million in new tax revenues over the next 20 years if it is located at MSU, according to an economic and fiscal impact analysis by Anderson Economic Group. More than 30 officials, including Michigan Chamber of Commerce President Elect Richard K. Studley and Michigan AFL-CIO President Mark Gaffney, have agreed to join the committee to make the strongest case possible with federal officials. More.
EcoV electric car drawing investor interest
Electric car entrepreneur Richard Marks says he's finally raising money -- from individuals -- for his EcoV Electric city car. Marks credits both earlier coverage in the IT Report and a visit to last weekend's Michigan Energy Fair in Onekama with producing 43 potential $2,000 investors in his Grosse Pointe Woods-based Environmental Transportation Solutions LLC. More.
EPrize lets some employees go, but founder says it's not a layoff
The Pleasant Ridge online promotions company ePrize LLC let go some staffers Tuesday, but founder and CEO Josh Linkner said it wasn't a layoff. "We let go a handful of people, under 20, and it was performance related mainly," Linkner said. "A couple of roles were also changed around. In the midst of this economy I know everyone's talking about layoffs but that wasn't the case here." More.
Economics Dept.: Purchasing managers index stays sluggish
The June Metro Detroit Purchasing Managers Index showed little significant improvement relative to May, increasing only 0.7 points. The June Index -- a measure of production, new orders, employment, inventory, vendor deliveries and commodity prices -- was 47.3. Readings below 50 tend to indicate a contracting manufacturing economy, according to Walsh College economist David Allardice. More.
Changes in Michigan's cable TV franchising laws enacted in late 2006 have resulted in much slower than anticipated new competition, while existing cable companies have taken advantage of the law to cut back on customer service and other obligations formerly opposed on them by local governments.
That's the word from an opponent of the law, Jon Kreucher of Howard & Howard Attorneys P.C., a former division vice president of regulatory and government affairs for a large cable company
In an article in this month's Michigan Township News, a publication of the Michigan Townships Association, Kreucher reviews the 18 months that have passed since Michigan's Uniform Video Franchising Act was passed, replacing 40 years of local government regulation of cable TV. Kreucher begins by arguing that local regulation had been working.
He argues five major "emerging problems" are beginning to come out of the law.
First, he argues, the law offers no objective way to measure its success or failure on its stated primary objective, to "promote competition in providing video services in this state."
Also, he argues, competition is developing much more slowly than legislators anticipated. Indeed, before the law was enacted, 36 different companies held franchises to offer cable service in the state. One year after the law was enacted, 39 companies held franchises, but only 37 offered services -- a net increase of one company.
One major change: portions of about 100 Michigan communities had wireline cable competition, up from 42 before the law was passed. However, Kreucher wrote that still, only one in 20 Michigan households has cable competition.
Kreucher also says incumbent cable companies have taken advantage of the uncertainties created by the new law by cutting back on customer service and other obligations formerly imposed by local governments, even though Comcast and Charter, Michigan's two dominant cable companies are the lowest scoring companies in the lowest scoring industry in the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Fourth, Kreucher argues that state lawmakers have not given the Michigan Public Service Commission the authority it needs to resolve cable disagreements. Fifth, he says, bills to correct those unintended consequences are not moving in the state Legislature.
Michigan's existing cable companies and its newest competitor, AT&T, released statements that didn't directly address the study's contentions.
Mike Nowlin, a spokesman for the Michigan Cable Telecommunications Association, points out the state's incumbent cable industry was neutral on the legislation.
"But the cable industry in Michigan pays $80 million annually to local government in franchise fees, and that money is used to fund municipal services and cable access," Nowlin said. "The public has benefited from the investment that the cable industry has made in the state -- more than $5 billion in the past 10 years. The industry has doubled its work force over the past five years. And because of that investment, we have cable modem to more than 90 percent of Michigan cable households, high speed Internet to more than 90 percent of Michigan cable households, and phone service to more than 70 percent of Michigan cable households."
As for AT&T, spokesman Joe Steele said, "Just one year after launching U-verse services Michigan, AT&T is proud to be providing cutting edge Internet protocol voice, data and video services to residents in parts of over 165 communities around the state. Recently, AT&T announced that U-verse service is now available to over 625,000 living units in Michigan -- many of which are seeing video choice for the first time. Not only has video franchise reform delivered video choice to thousands of Michigan households, it has also delivered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of investment in AT&T's network along with the creation of over 1,300 new, high-paying positions for Michigan workers."
Note: For information on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact Dan Keelan at (248) 455-7380 or dkeelan@cbs.com.
New software from MessageWay
Livonia-based MessageWay Solutions Tuesday unveiled MessageWay, the company's suite for advanced file transfer that enables companies to securely exchange mission critical files between departments, domains, and partner networks. MessageWay is designed to help organizations modernize IT assets, consolidate control, and streamline business processes around business-to-business file exchange processes. MessageWay is comprised of MW Transport, MW Director, MW Translator, and MW Integrator, a tightly integrated software suite that meets the most exacting file exchange requirements for security, performance, and reliability. More.
Neogen acquires animal health technology from DuPont
Lansing-based Neogen Corp. announced Tuesday that it has acquired a product line used in animal health and hygiene applications from DuPont Animal Health Solutions. The asset purchase includes 14 different product formulations, along with manufacturing process know-how and associated registration information. The purchase price and terms were not disclosed. More.
Inside Muskegon hits 200,000 downloads
The Inside Muskegon podcast recently reached 200,000 downloads. Started in November 2005, Inside Muskegon is a weekly show featuring interviews with community leaders and comments from everyday people from Muskegon. The podcast is hosted by Muskegon marketing firm owner Jason Piasecki, CEO of Qonverge. More.
THE WORLD IN TECH
German Wagner festival will offer opera online
Germany's annual Bayreuth opera festival is going digital, streaming video and audio of its opening performance of "Die Meistersinger von Nuernberg" live via the Internet. The catch is the price -- $77. Organizers hope the online screening will draw new fans to an annual event devoted entirely to the 10 mature stage works by Richard Wagner, where fans often wait seven years or more for the opportunity to buy tickets. More.
AT&T offers new option: pricier iPhone without contract
AT&T Inc. will sell the new version of the iPhone without a service contract for $400 more than the price with a two-year plan, a break from the rules set when Apple Inc.'s touch-screen gadget debuted last year. Two new models of iPhones go on sale July 11 for $199 and $299, depending on the amount of memory, with two-year contracts. The contract-free versions will cost $599 and $699 and will be sold sometime "in the future," AT&T said. The phones sold under contract are subsidized by AT&T, which expects to make the money back through service fees over the life of the contract. Without a contract, users can cancel service without incurring an early termination fee. But it's hard to see much of an advantage, since both contract and contract-free phones will be "locked" to work only on AT&T's network, and the monthly service plans available will be the same. More.
Citibank ATM breach reveals PIN security problems
Hackers broke into Citibank's network of ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores and stole customers' PIN codes, according to recent court filings that revealed a disturbing security hole in the most sensitive part of a banking record. The scam netted the alleged identity thieves millions of dollars. But more importantly for consumers, it indicates criminals were able to access PINs -- the numeric passwords that theoretically are among the most closely guarded elements of banking transactions -- by attacking the Microsoft Windows-powered back-end computers responsible for approving the cash withdrawals. More.
Monster founder sets sights on online obituaries
Fourteen years ago, Jeff Taylor helped set off a tectonic shift in recruitment advertising by founding Monster.com, one of the first online companies to challenge a big profit source of newspapers. Now, just as papers are reeling from a massive drainage of ad dollars online, Taylor thinks he's found another one of their strongholds that's ripe for online competition: Obituaries. Funerals have historically been local affairs, which meshed well with newspapers' strong ties to their communities. But Taylor believes that may be changing as more people live far from the places they were born and grew up. Taylor hopes his new site, Tributes.com, will fill that broader need. (Taylor is also competing with a couple of local sites here in the Detroit area.) More.
Stocks: Apple leads tech sector rally
Technology stocks closed higher Tuesday after a late rally led by Apple Inc., which rose more than 4 percent on speculation of higher subsidies from AT&T. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) advanced 11.99 points or 0.5 percent to 2,304.97. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rose 32.25 points, or 0.3 percent, to 11,382.26. The Dow recovered after falling more than 100 points at the opening bell on higher oil prices and banking woes in Europe. Financial shares rebounded. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) fell 2.12 points or 0.6 percent to 366.04 and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) rose 4.06 points or 0.7 percent to 558.54. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index ($DRG) rose 2.31 points or 0.8 percent to 293.1, while the Amex Biotech Index (BTK) rose 10.73 points or 1.5 percent to 748.49. The S&P 500 ($SPX) rose 4.91 points or 0.4 percent, to 1,284.91. U.S. stocks came off lows in morning trade after the Institute for Supply Management said Tuesday its manufacturing index inched higher to 50.2 in June from 49.6 in May. The rise was unexpected. The consensus forecast of estimates collected by MarketWatch was for the index to slip to 48.5. Readings below 50 indicate contraction. The data helped give a slight boost to the dollar.
Matt's Favorites
A ton of local leftovers, especially for a holiday week, right up to my 15-story limit: Hennessey Capital completes a raft of deals, including some in tech; the translation service Iterotext gets a new HQ; Somanetics boosts its share repurchase by $15 million; Lawrence Tech signs an agreement with the University of Bahrain; ProQuest wraps up its purchase of the IT pioneer Dialog; and a new Visteon in-dash infotainment system goes on sale. Elsewhere: a Chinese investment fund bids $2.1 million for lunch with Warren Buffett (guess you can tell who's got all the U.S. dollars these days); a browser pioneer joins the board of Facebook; Dish Network and AT&T are ending their partnership; Microsoft buys the linguistic Web search firm Powerset; Google is in talks to fund a French WiMax network; game makers set a September release for 'Rock Band 2;' a service that lets drivers lock in gasoline prices; the cost of text messaging is on the rise; Adobe unveils its Reader 9 software with Flash; a blogger tracks presidential nominee wealth with Google Earth; here's what happens when you make the insane decision to answer all your spam; a green group advocates for a return to trains over trucks; and Microsoft is reportedly planning a price cut to $299 on Xbox.
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