Your report for Thursday, May 7, 2008

DTE, ESD talk a greener future at energy conference
More than 750 people came to the Rock Financial Showplace Tuesday to learn how to make green by going green. The event was the 12th annual Energy Conference and Exhibition, cosponsored by DTE Energy and the Engineering Society of Detroit. The event is a hard-core, highly technical event on saving energy in business and industry. But it also featured a more generalist keynote speech from James R. Scapa, CEO of Troy-based Altair Engineering Inc. More.

ISSYS gets patent for biological warfare detection, treatment system
Ypsilanti-based Integrated Sensing Systems Inc. Tuesday announced that the United States Patent Office has granted the company U.S. Patent No. 7,354,429, titled "Device and method of detecting and treating chemical and biological agents." According to Douglas Sparks, executive vice president of ISSYS, the patent describes a new device and method of using chemical and biological sensors that employ coated micromachined resonating tubes designed and made by ISSYS. These sensors can be employed with a system that will give the user an antidote or field treatment for the pathogen or chemical agent. More.

X-Rite reports sales slump
Kentwood-based X-Rite Inc. reported a 2.9 percent decline in first quarter sales over the year-earlier period, as well as a net loss of $16.8 million. The company didn't provide a first quarter 2007 profit figure, but said the loss was an improvement from a loss of $19.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. Company officials said they didn't provide a comparable first-quarter 2007 figure because the operations of Pantone, acquired last Oct. 27, were so different from those of a publicly held company that direct comparisons were impossible. Revenue in the first quarter was $65.9 million, down from $67.6 million in the first quarter of 2007. X-Rite sells hardware, software and services for the communication and verification of color data. More.

Crescent Bank and Trust joins RouteOne network
Farmington Hills-based RouteOne LLC announced Tuesday that Louisiana-based sub prime lender Crescent Bank and Trust has joined the growing roster of finance sources on RouteOne's Web-based credit application management system. Crescent Bank and Trust is ranked within the top 150 auto finance sources nationally and operates within 20 states. More.

Michigan state government wins PCI compliance
Michigan citizens can breathe even easier when it comes to doing business with state government using a payment card. Michigan government has certified that it is compliant with the Payment Card Industry’s strict standards for ensuring that cardholder information is protected and secure. “This is a monumental accomplishment for the State of Michigan,” said Ken Theis, Director of the Michigan Department of Information Technology and CIO for the State of Michigan. “The fact that Michigan was able to gain compliance shows the commitment we have to ensuring that our citizens are safe and secure when sharing their payment card information with the state.” More.

Issue Overview

Today's Blue Box: Cool video of Tech Tour -- and the party is tonight!

ISSYS gets patent for biowar detection, treatment system

X-Rite reports sales slump, net loss

Michigan state government wins PCI compliance

UM study: Mice do just fine without some critical human genes

Sprint close to WiMax financing deal, according to sources

Yahoo may face shareholder revolt at annual meeting

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CrimeCog moves HQ to Ann Arbor
CrimeCog Technologies, Inc. said Tuesday it had moved its corporate headquarters from Milford to Ann Arbor. CrimeCog offers a fully integrated criminal justice information system to public safety agencies around the world. E-Justice Systems by CrimeCog is available to any public safety agency using CrimeCog's unique Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model for a simple monthly subscription fee. More.

Perrigo posts record sales, profits
Allegan-based Perrigo Co. Tuesday reported record sales and profits for its third fiscal quarter ended March 29. For the quarter, revenue was $503.7 million, up 39 percent from $362.3 million a year earlier. Net income was $40 million or 42 cents a share, up 144 percent from $17.1 million or 18 cents a share a year earlier. For the nine months, revenue was $1.32 billion, up from $1.07 billion in the first nine months of the prior fiscal year. Net income was $108.3 million or $1.14 a share, up from $55 million or 59 cents a share a year earlier. More.

UM study: Mice do just fine without some critical human genes
The mouse is a stalwart stand-in for humans in medical research, thanks to genomes that are 85 percent identical. But identical genes may behave differently in mouse and man, a study by University of Michigan evolutionary biologists Ben-Yang Liao and Jianzhi Zhang reveals. Their results, which have implications for the use of mouse models in studying human disease, appear in the current issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Everyone assumes that deletion of the same gene in the mouse and in humans produces the same phenotype -- an observable trait such as presence or absence of a particular disease," said Zhang, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "That's the basis of using the mouse to study human disease. Our results show that may not always be the case." More.

Matt's Favorites

Tons of local leftovers again: IPexpert offers a new path to Cisco's top rank; Online Technologies adds a president; new Stardock software expands animated desktops; a reminder from Verizon on applying for its grants to domestic violence agencies; the buildout continues in Detroit's TechTown; KVCC offers electricians code updates; and Michigan's economy held steady in March. Elsewhere: Cisco's third quarter profit meets subdued expectations; Qwest's profit falls 35 percent; the collapse of the MicroHoo talks leaves advertisers pining; Steven Colbert and will.i.am win special Webby Awards; Yahoo teams with McAfee to offer security tips along with search; and Microsoft adds TV shows to Zune Marketplace.

THE WORLD IN TECH

Neil Young to release retrospective on Blu-Ray discs
Rocker Neil Young plans to release his entire music archive on Blu-ray discs, a sign that the discs' capabilities are building appeal among musicians as well as movie studios. Blu-ray discs hold much more data than DVDs, are easily updated over the Internet and offer better picture and sound quality. Young revealed his plans Tuesday at a Sun Microsystems Inc. conference in San Francisco. Santa Clara-based Sun makes the Java technology that gives Blu-ray discs their interactive menus and ability to accept updates over an Internet connection. The first installment of Young's archive will cover the years 1963 to 1972 and will be released as a 10-disc set this fall on Reprise/Warner Bros. Records. More.

Sprint close to WiMax financing deal
Sprint Nextel Corp. is close to finalizing a deal to get financing for its new wireless broadband network from a group that includes Comcast Corp. and Google Inc., according to a person close to the talks. The group, which also includes Time Warner Cable Inc., Bright House Networks, Intel Corp., and Clearwire Corp., is expected to announce as early as Wednesday morning a $12 billion deal to create a national network that uses the WiMax technology, said the person, who asked not to be named because public release of details hasn't been authorized. More.

Yahoo may face shareholder mutiny at annual meeting
After fending off months of threats by Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc.'s directors still will have to fight for their jobs as the company's own irate shareholders plot a mutiny. Spurred by widespread criticism about how Yahoo's board responded to Microsoft's sweetened takeover offer of $47.5 billion, an activist shareholder is trying to recruit an alternate slate of directors to present at Yahoo's annual meeting on July 3. "We are hoping to turn that (meeting) into 'Independence Day' for Yahoo's shareholders," said Eric Jackson, president of Ironfire Capital. Yahoo announced in March it was postponing the annual meeting, hoping to squelch Microsoft's threatened attempt to remove the board if the software maker decided to pursue a hostile buyout of the embattled Internet pioneer. More.

Microsoft's Bill Gates talks tech, cars in South Korea
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates, traveling through Asia, met Tuesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and championed his vision of the future of high tech and the Internet. "We're approaching the second decade of (the) digital age," Gates told Lee at the start of their meeting at the presidential Blue House, according to a media pool report. South Korean automakers Hyundai Motor Inc. and affiliate Kia Motors Corp. announced with Microsoft Tuesday that they will use Microsoft's in-car software for controlling personal music players and telephones with voice commands. "We're doing some very interesting work on automobile software," Gates said after dining with Lee. "That's a really wide open area." The three companies also plan to set up an automobile innovation center. Hyundai and Kia form the world's sixth-largest automotive group. More.

Stocks: TI, Apple, Lexmark lead retreat in tech stocks
Tech stocks put in a strong performance Tuesday, with most big-name issues closing with gains in a session highlighted by Cisco Systems Inc.'s upcoming earnings report and the disappointment of some shareholders over Yahoo Inc.'s failure to reach an acquisition agreement with Microsoft Corp. With Yahoo in the lead, the Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) rose 19.19 points or 0.8 percent to 2,483.31. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rose 51.29 points or 0.4 percent to 13,020.83. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) rose 6.15 points or 1.6 percent to 403.01 and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) rose 5.94 points or 1 percent to 592.32. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index ($DRG) fell 0.76 points or 0.2 percent to 304.35, while the Amex Biotech Index (BTK) fell 3.01 points or 0.4 percent to 756.6. The S&P 500 ($SPX) gained 10.77 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,418.26.