GLITR May 16, 2008
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Your report for Friday, May 16, 2008
Compuware earnings beat estimates; strong growth predicted
Detroit-based Compuware Corp. Thursday announced net income of $61.2 million or 23 cents a share in its fourth fiscal quarter ended March 31, down from $67.5 million or 21 cents a share a year earlier. The discrepancy in per share figures reflects Compuware's heavy buyback activity in its shares over the past year. Analysts had expected net income of 21 cents a share. Revenue for the quarter was $338.9 million, up from $313 million a year earlier. Analysts had expected revenue of $331.5 million. Most of the reason for the decline in net income was due to a $27.1 million provision for corporate income tax in the fourth quarter, compared to a $6 million income tax refund in the prior year's quarter. Operating income jumped to $68.4 million from $34.1 million a year earlier. More.
Compuware 2.0: 'Making IT Rock'
Less than 24 hours after announcing better-than-originally-expected earnings, Compuware Corp. plans a big party at lunchtime Friday at Campus Martius Park, its downtown Detroit headquarters. The occasion is the official launch of Compuware 2.0. "This is not a marketing initiative," Compuware chief communications officer Jason Vines said. "There is a marketing component, but Compuware 2.0 is the refocusing of the entire company." More.
UM venture capital event draws bigger crowd
The Michigan Growth Capital Symposium turned 30 this week, and its proud papa said Thursday that it's getting more mature. "The buzz here has never been better," University of Michigan professor David Brophy said. "Everybody is just energized." Brophy said about 400 people attended the symposium, up "a little bit" from last year. "One of the interesting things is that the ratio of out-of-town people has gone up significantly, and the number of venture capitalists has gone up substantially," Brophy said. "The aim of the conference is to help companies from around here get connected with national, top-tier VCs, and we're succeeding at that." More.
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Integral Vision sales plunge, but CEO says better days are ahead
Wixom-based Integral Vision Inc., a supplier of automated display inspection technology, Thursday announced a loss of $846,000 in the first quarter ended March 31, worse than the $747,000 loss in the first quarter of 2007. Revenue was $9,000, down from $316,000 in the first quarter of 2007. Said Charles J. Drake, chairman and CEO: "Despite the low revenue for the first quarter, we continue to be very confident that 2008 will be a breakout year for the Company. Shipments will be stronger as the year progresses; and our bookings and quoting activity is greater than we have ever experienced in the past." More.
Cottage rental Web site offers discount, new service
A nifty Michigan travel Web site is trying to help out property owners with a new service and a discount. In recognition of Michigan's struggling economy, Rentalbug.com is offering a 10 percent discount off its usual rate to cottage owners -- which start at $75 a year for a basic site with four pictures, property information and a guest comment section. Property owners should enter the coupon code SpringSale when they sign up. More.
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Results from a survey of 430 Fortune 1000 IT professionals in global companies show that 77 percent are regularly active on social networking sites, with 42 percent visiting more than three times weekly and 35 percent visiting at least once per week.
The data further suggests the rapid rate in which professionals of all ages, and not just teenagers, are harnessing these social sites to share information, network and better communicate.
According to the new book Groundswell (Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff, Harvard Business Press), social networking sites will have a profound effect on how consumers engage with each other and how corporations will need to leverage Web 2.0 to market their products and services.
The TrendScan survey by Syntel, a Troy-based IT and business process outsourcing company, was conducted between March 3 and April 14. Syntel regularly polls Fortune 1000 companies to track the forces driving global IT trends and issues.
The survey asked, “A great deal of media attention is being paid to digital networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Spoke, and Xing. Are you active on these networking sites?”
Responses:
* 42 percent replied "I am very active on social networking sites, frequenting them more than three times weekly."
* 35 percent replied "I am fairly active on social networking sites, frequenting them at least once per week."
* Only 22 percent replied "I am not active on social networking sites, frequenting them less than once per month."
“It’s clear that technology is delivering new methods for IT professionals, and the rest of the world, to communicate, network and entertain themselves,” said Syntel chairman and CEO Bharat Desai. “It’s not surprising that technology savvy professionals would be early adopters of the latest options. The next step is to find ways to apply the social media experience among IT professionals in a meaningful way that shares technical knowledge as well as a sense of community. Forward-thinking organizations will embrace, rather than try to fight, these new social networking sites as a means to better engage their consumers.”
More at www.syntelinc.com.
Note: For information on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact Dan Keelan at (248) 455-7380 or dkeelan@cbs.com.
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Ann Arbor's 'Green Fleets' program cuts pollution, saves taxpayer money
With rising fuel costs and growing worldwide concern about global warming, Ann Arbor is right on target with its Green Fleets program. Adopted in 2004, the Green Fleets program goals are to cut vehicle emissions and reduce the city’s gasoline and diesel use. The original goal of the Green Fleets policy was to reduce the city’s gasoline and diesel use by 10 percent by 2012. This goal was met in 2006, the second year of the program. In 2007, gasoline and diesel fuel use was further reduced to 308,183 gallons, a total reduction of 14 percent from 2003 levels, primarily due to an increase in ethanol and biodiesel use. More.
DTE Energy, UM create cleantech entrepreneurship contest
To help move clean energy technologies from the laboratory to commercial production, DTE Energy has joined with the University of Michigan to conduct an annual entrepreneurship competition that will challenge teams from Michigan colleges and universities to develop the best plan for bringing new clean-energy technologies to market. The prize pool for the 2009 competition will be $100,000, which will be divided among the winning teams. For subsequent years, it is expected that the prize pool will be $200,000. More.
Arialink wins school fiber optic deal in Eaton County
Lansing-based Arialink Thursday announced a contract to bring its fiber optic network and Internet services to the Eaton Intermediate School District. The value of the deal was not immediately disclosed. Once constructed, the network will provide a significant increase in bandwidth and high speed Internet access to meet the growing needs of students and educators in the following school districts: Charlotte Public Schools, Eaton Rapids Public Schools, Grand Ledge Public Schools, Maple Valley Public Schools and Potterville Public Schools. More.
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THE WORLD IN TECH
Former Gemstar-TV Guide CEO now a fugitive
Federal authorities said Thursday that former Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. chairman Henry Yuen is a fugitive after he was indicted on a felony obstruction charge that carries a possible five-year prison term. Yuen was convicted in federal court in 2006 of securities fraud for inflating Gemstar's revenue by $248 million to boost its stock price. Gemstar and its TV Guide channel listing service were acquired this month by Macrovision Solutions Corp. for $2.3 billion in cash and stock. The indictment against Yuen, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, charges him with deleting documents and e-mails from his computer that the Securities and Exchange Commission sought in the earlier prosecution. More.
Icahn to Yahoo board: Sell to Microsoft or leave
Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang spent months fending off Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited takeover bid. Now he may only have a few weeks to persuade the software maker to revive its last offer of $47.5 billion, or risk being fired in a shareholder mutiny led by activist investor Carl Icahn. Spurred on by outraged shareholders, Icahn notified Yahoo Thursday that he will lead a revolt to oust Yang and the rest of the Internet company's board unless they renew negotiations with Microsoft that fell apart May 3 when the two sides couldn't agree on a price. To pressure Yahoo, Icahn has nominated an alternate slate of directors to replace the current board in an election scheduled July 3 at Yahoo's annual meeting. If the uprising is successful, an Icahn-led board presumably would fire Yang as CEO and try to negotiate a sale to Microsoft. More.
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Robotic suit could usher in super-soldier era
Rex Jameson bikes and swims regularly, and plays tennis and skis when time allows. But the 5-foot-11, 180-pound software engineer is lucky if he presses 200 pounds - that is, until he steps into an "exoskeleton" of aluminum and electronics that multiplies his strength and endurance as many as 20 times. With the outfit's claw-like metal hand extensions, he gripped a weight set's bar at a recent demonstration and knocked off hundreds of repetitions. Once, he did 500. Jameson -- who works for robotics firm Sarcos Inc. in Salt Lake City, which is under contract with the U.S. Army -- is helping assess the 150-pound suit's viability for the soldiers of tomorrow. The suit works by sensing every movement the wearer makes and almost instantly amplifying it. The Army believes soldiers may someday wear the suits in combat, but it's focusing for now on applications such as loading cargo or repairing heavy equipment. More.
Study: Cox Internet traffic blocked too
Comcast Corp.'s interference with Internet traffic has prompted a federal investigation and is at the center of calls for "Net Neutrality" laws, but another U.S. cable company appears to be doing the same thing without drawing scrutiny. A study released Thursday found conclusive signs that file-sharing attempts by subscribers of Cox Communications were blocked, along with customers at Comcast and Singapore's StarHub. Of the 788 Comcast subscribers who participated in the study, 62 percent had their connections blocked. At Cox, 54 percent of subscribers examined were blocked, according to Krishna Gummadi at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems in Saarbruecken, Germany. The institute examined the network connections of 8,175 Internet subscribers around the world. More.
Stocks: Yahoo shares advance on proxy fight as tech sector rises
Technology shares marched higher as the battle for Yahoo took a new turn Thursday after Carl Icahn put forth a 10-member slate of directors for the Internet giant, saying it had "completely botched" negotiations with Microsoft Corp. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) tacked on 37.03 points or 1.5 percent to 2,533.73. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rose 94.28 points or 0.7 percent to 12,992.66. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) rose 8.43 points or 2.1 percent to 419.72 and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) rose 11.86 points or 2 percent to 613.19. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index ($DRG) rose 1.79 points or 0.6 percent to 302.25. The Amex Biotech Index ($BTK) rose 5.06 points or 0.7 percent to 753.59. The S&P 500 ($SPX) rose 14.19 points or 1.1 percent, to 1,423.57.
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All contents copyright 2008 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS Radio & Eye logo trademarked and copyright 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. Written and edited by Matt Roush, Technology Editor, WWJ Newsradio 950, Detroit. GLITR contains material from the Associated Press, Reuters and MarketWatch.com, used by permission. For coverage comments or news tips, e-mail Matt Roush at mnroush@cbs.com or call (248) 455-7380. For marketing and advertising queries, contact Dan Keelan at dkeelan@cbs.com or (248) 455-7252. To subscribe, e-mail Nancy Ho at nancy.ho@cbsradio.com. For questions or concerns, please email Pete Kowalski, WWJ's Station Manager.
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