A Look Back At GLITR's Fourth Year, Sept. 2004 – August 2005 ...

September 2004: Michigan State University's Eli Broad College of Business creates a new research center on the 'digital enterprise'… the state of Michigan and SBC fire up Wi-Fi hot spots at highway rest stops and state parks… Like the Michigan IT Summit before it, the Digital Detroit conference is cancelled, ending a four-year run from 1999 to 2003… Troy's Fisher-Unitech buys Ft. Wayne, Ind.-based Corporate Software Solutions…  Grand Rapids-based ITS Communications expands into Cleveland, Ohio… Ann Arbor's HandyLab raises $5 million in capital… Lawrence Technological University breaks ground for a new $9.6 million student center… St. John Health outsources its Michigan IT functions, transferring 300 employees to a private company based in Missouri… Kalamazoo Valley Community College establishes the Michigan High Throughput Screening Center, a new high-tech laboratory for the state's life sciences industry…Dearborn-based ASG Renaissance Inc. acquires The Collective L.L.C., a Detroit-based Web systems designer …

October 2004: A dot-com survivor, RepairClinic.com, opens a retail parts counter… Ann Arbor's T/J Technologies gets a NASA contract for space power systems… BeeFreeway, a service of Michigan Virtual University that offered free online training courses to Michigan small businesses, shuts down… the University of Michigan's annual tech transfer report shows 285 new invention disclosures from UM researchers, 13 new business startups using UM technologies, and $11.7 million in license revenue… The Michigan Economic Development Corp. launches MiLife MiTimes, an e-magazine offering a look at life, work and culture in Michigan… A tiny fuel cell technology company in Ferndale has won a federal grant of nearly $2.4 million – REB Research & Consulting plans to use the money from the Department of Energy to develop improved hydrogen production technology… Velcura Therapeutics expands its study of its drug candidate to improve bone grafts… Delphi Corp. gets a deal to build satellite modems… Ann Arbor's Aastrom Biosciences raises $10 million in a stock sale… Automation Alley moves in to its new headquarters in Troy…

November 2004: Comerica's Web Banking service will now give its customers in Michigan, Texas and California online access to images of cashed checks and deposit slips… Compuware lays off employees in several areas of the organization. Employees said the layoffs came in sales, marketing, product development and project management… It's another NASA deal for high-tech batteries for Ann Arbor's T/J Technologies…  Lawrence Tech establishes the Office of Technology Partnerships to increase and manage a growing number of applied research projects…  Bloomfield Hills IT consultants NuSoft Solutions Inc. purchased a Grand Rapids custom application developer, Sagestone Consulting… Pontiac-based MichiganMall.com L.L.C. and the state of Michigan's travel promotion organization, Travel Michigan, team up in an online marketing campaign…  the Michigan Broadband Development Authority announces a $758,000 loan to Appia Communications Inc. of Traverse City and a $1.5 million loan to SpeedNet L.L.C. of Saginaw …

December 2004: Ann Arbor's Fry Inc. helps Troy's Kmart Corp. relaunch its Web site… Fort Gratiot-based AVL Global delivers five of its new GPS/GSM tracking units to the military of Botswana for testing… Okemos-based TechSmith enters a Corporate Research and Development Agreement with the United States Air Force Academy… Detroit CIOs offer a flat hiring outlook for early 2005… the German semiconductor manufacturer Infineon plans to add 45 jobs at its Livonia operations… Compuware is dropped from the Nasdaq 100 stock index… Ann Arbor-based QuatRx Pharmaceuticals raises $31 million in its third venture capital round… one of three Michigan men who hacked into the national computer system of Lowe's hardware stores and tried to steal customers' credit card information was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in federal prison. Brian Salcedo, 21, of Whitmore Lake, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy and other hacking charges… the Michigan Broadband Development Authority loans $826,000 to Macomb County-based Michigan Lightwave L.L.C. to help finance the company's fiber network in Macomb County and parts of northern Oakland County… Northville dentist Jim Payne turns his attention from supplying refurbished donated computers to charities and schools to supplying refurbished donated laptops to U.S. troops overseas… Travel Michigan announced that it had smashed its 2003 record for site visits — 5.1 million site visits as of Dec. 19, an increase of 25 percent from last year…

January 2005: GLITR begins the year by covering Michigan companies at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas — notably including Visteon and Delphi… (Personal favorite quip from that coverage, in writing up a guest who appeared during a keynote speech by Intel CEO Craig Barrett: "I don't lack the words to describe many things, but Steven Tyler's face up close — whew. so many sharp angles at impossible intersections, it's like he was designed by M.C. Escher.") … at CES, SBC rolls out 'Uverse,' its high-speed cable TV and Internet system… Oneupweb, a search engine optimization firm, moves into a new headquarters in Lake Leelanau… Ann Arbor-based Interlink Networks closed on a $2.85 million round of venture capital… Grand Haven's Ottawa Wireless switches on the nation's largest municipal Wi-Fi system in Rio Rancho, N.M…. Compuware profits nearly double on jump in revenue… Ann Arbor's Internet2 announces a new testbed for high-speed networking, the Hybrid Optical and Packet Infrastructure, or HOPI…

February 2005: Arialink Broadband announces a deal to connect the Lansing Public Schools… An Ann Arbor security startup, Indigo Security LLC, is purchased by San Mateo, Calif.-based Tablus Inc…. Novi-based Motor City Interactive Inc. acquired Fynite Web Development… Ann Arbor-based Ensure Technologies Inc., a security provider, says it doubled shipments in 2004… Grand Rapids-based US Signal lights up a data system in Wisconsin and expands in Illinois… Compuware and IBM exchange sharp barbs in opening statements of Compuware's trade secrets stealing trial against the tech giant… Energy Conversion Devices completes an $88 million stock sale… Ann Arbor-based GeneCodes reports an advance in its work in breeding chickens that create medically useful human proteins in the whites of the eggs they lay…

March 2005: Royal Oak's Red Run Golf Course gets Wi-Fi on the links from a Rochester Hills firm, Azure Solutions… Rose City-based Net4Kids.com, a division of Internet service provider M-33 Access, launches dial-up Internet access for families that donates 10 percent of its monthly charge to a Michigan school of the customer's choice… Guardian Industries Corp. of Auburn Hills and Honeywell International Inc. sue dozens of companies in the global PC and video display businesses in a U.S. federal court to try to recoup patent royalties on liquid-crystal technology… Michigan has moved up to no. 5 in this year's annual ranking of the top 10 micro- and nanotechnology states from Small Times magazine… Oakland and Washtenaw counties issue requests for proposals for countywide wireless Internet access networks that will offer basic service free… Wayne State University's TechTown tech incubator adds three tenants and its occupancy is ahead of schedule… Troy's FoneGear gets a deal for its wireless phone accessories with  Brightpoint North America… Detroit-based Strategic Staffing Solutions announced its 14th consecutive year of sales growth in 2004, with annual sales of $87 million, an increase of 30 percent over the previous year…. GM signs an $88 million federal deal to build a test fleet of 40 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles…

April 2005: Oneupweb adds a trademark infringement detection tool to its online services… A nanotech conference in Ann Arbor touts the region's future in the industry… Delphi Medical Systems to build a new incubator for newborns… Ann Arbor's Gyricon unveils a new form of its smart paper… Minneapolis-based Analysts International Corp. makes another Detroit-area acquisition — Livonia-based Redwood Solutions… RouteOne, an auto finance aggregation site, is launched by several major auto finance firms… Compuware issues a sales and profit warning… Cybernet Medical adds interactive voice response features to its MedStar disease management data collection system… Ann Arbor-based Interlink Networks offers its Home Office Edition three-user version of LucidLink wireless security software free… Grandville-based X-Rite Inc. announces a relocation to expanded quarters in Kentwood… the Great Lakes IT Report's second annual Tech Tour goes all the way up to Houghton for its kickoff, then visits Marquette, Midland, Mt. Pleasant and Kalamazoo… Lawrence Tech kicks off its "Leaders and Innovators" program in cooperation with WWJ Newsradio 950 and the great Lakes IT Report with a profile on innovator Stanford Ovshinsky…

May 2005: Okemos-based TechSmith hits the three-million-download mark… Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposes a $2 billion bond program to attract talent, leverage federal grants, sponsor research, and boost the pace of technology commercialization in life sciences, alternative energy technology, advanced automotive manufacturing, and homeland security and defense… Compuware buys Marlborough, Mass.-based Adlex, a provider of technology that enables Internet service providers and large companies to diagnose and manage the quality of service that business critical applications deliver to end users… the inaugural Detroit TechCongress draws about 100 IT leaders… Ann Arbor-based Assay Designs Inc. receives a $5 million Series A equity investment from Ampersand Ventures of Wellesley, Mass…. Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport gets Wi-Fi… the inaugural UP IT conference is scheduled for Sept. 22 in Escanaba… Cobasys L.L.C. Wednesday opens its new 84,000-square-foot headquarters in Orion Township… the University of Michigan, Washtenaw County, the city of Ann Arbor, Eastern Michigan University, Pfizer Inc. and a group of community and business leaders is creating a new umbrella economic development and marketing organization for the Ann Arbor area, called Ann Arbor Spark… Oakland County officials received 45 responses from potential vendors eager to become part of the Wireless Oakland project…

June 2005: at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference, the Detroit Regional Chamber, Automation Alley and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. announce a Sept. 8 Michigan Technology Conference with the theme "innovate, integrate and imagine"… Expansion Management magazine's third annual Knowledge Worker Quotient gives Ann Arbor and the Lansing area the highest possible ranking, putting them among the best metropolitan areas in the country when it comes to having highly educated work forces… Fry Inc. to open a San Francisco office… Detroit CIOs plan hiring binge… State Rep. Mike Nofs, R-Battle Creek, announced he would introduce a bill to ban projects like Wireless Oakland, earning a stinging rebuke from a fellow Republican, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson… United Solar announces plans for a 160,000-square-foot solar panel plant in Auburn Hills… the Michigan Broadband Development Authority makes a $520,000 loan to new York City-based Shpigler Group to bring broadband Internet service over power lines to Grand Ledge and St. Johns… Computerworld magazine names Livonia-based Quicken Loans Inc. and its Rock Financial brick-and-mortar Michigan subsidiary no. 1 on its annual list of top workplaces for IT professionals… 12 contractors submit formal bids to build Wireless Oakland…

July 2005: Arialink Broadband of Lansing receives a $2.2 million federal grant to provide wireless Internet access to five rural communities — Cedar Creek, Egelston, Holton and Moorland townships and the village of Lakewood Club… the city of Warren launches a weekly Podcast… Washtenaw County gets 18 responses to build Wireless Washtenaw… Southwest Michigan First establishes the Southwest Michigan first Life Science Fund, a venture capital fund for biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device companies in Southwest Michigan… Compuware profits rocket on a modest sales increase… Ann Arbor's HealthMedia gets $2 million in capital… the University of Michigan's solar car Momentum wins the North American Solar Challenge…

August 2005: Michigan State University adds a game development and design program… University of Michigan scientists develop a genetic lab on a chip… Compuware's Covisint and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan to work together on a single statewide Web portal for health care applications… Ferndale-based REB Research & Consulting Co. said Friday it is developing a hydrogen generator for the NextEnergy Center… Dexter-based Newman Group rolls out a turnkey e-mail system designed for small and medium-sized businesses, governmental entities and educational institutions… United Solar gets a $6.7 million Air Force grant to develop lightweight solar panels… the great Lakes Entrepreneurs Quest struggles for survival… Cybernet Medical cuts the price of its MedStar remote medical monitoring and record keeping system to as little as $42 per patient per month…

Monday: September 2005 – August 2006

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A Look Back At GLITR's Fourth Year, Sept. 2004 – August 2005 …