Quoted: Jim Seward, UW- Madison associate professor of finance and director of the Nicholas Center for Applied Corporate Finance.
Great Wolf Resorts’ IPO met by wave of traders
Wisconsin State Journal
Category: Business/Technology
Trials of vaccine trade
Wisconsin State Journal
Visitors to Gary Rattmann’s barn dress like they’re in an operating room rather than on a farm.
“We’re very careful,” Rattmann said. “People aren’t allowed in the building unless they’re completely gowned up.”
The weirder side of WARF’s patents (WisBusiness.com)
www.wisbusiness.com
Over the past eight decades, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, has helped patent and manage discoveries that have profoundly affected human health.
And, some might say, human history
It’s The Holidays, And We Are Going For Broke
Wisconsin State Journal
Kristi Slack of Stoughton can remember past years when the bills from her holiday spending in December could take until the following May to pay off.
So now, rather than pay into the summer after, the 35-year-old social work professor at UW-Madison starts saving for presents the summer before the giving season.
Ending Bitter Fight, PeopleSoft’s Board Agrees to Merger With Rival Software Maker Oracle
Chronicle of Higher Education
After resisting for 18 months, PeopleSoft Inc. agreed on Monday to merge with the Oracle Corporation. The news came as a disappointment to many college officials who are wary about Oracle’s gaining control over PeopleSoft’s software products, which are widely used in higher education and which compete with Oracle’s own offerings.
Business-school IT director points to reasons for wireless trend (WTN)
Wisconsin Technology Network
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? While the Madison chapter of the World Future Society is dedicated primarily to looking ahead for new social and technological developments, Scott Converse showed them how looking to the past can also be important if they want to see where the next big thing is coming from.
Converse, an information technology director at the UW-Madison School of Business and founder of the Web integration firm Can�t Dance Technologies, spoke to the society on Thursday at the Fluno Center about what he sees as the next big technoloy innovation.
Suit filed to stop city wage law
Capital Times
A coalition of business associations has filed a lawsuit to try to stop a minimum wage increase in the city of Madison, striving to overturn a hard-fought victory by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
State start-ups need help sooner
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
It isn�t a shortage of venture capital that�s holding back Wisconsin business start-ups, it�s a flow of deals that comes in drips, not gushers.
Wells Fargo gets OK to run EdVest
Capital Times
California-based Wells Fargo & Co. will take over Wisconsin’s college savings programs once its acquisition of Strong Financial Corp. is finalized, providing a seamless transition for investors, state officials said Thursday.
UW cancels plan for dorm at University Square
Capital Times
The University of Wisconsin-Madison has canceled its plans to put a 700-800 bed residence hall into the University Square development, said Alan Fish, associate vice chancellor for facilities, planning and management. Instead, the project will go forward with private apartments, said Susan Springman, spokeswoman for the developer, Executive Management Inc.
‘A good deal for taxpayers’ (Isthmus)
A few years ago, when Genesis Enterprise Center was looking for new office space, it tried to buy the Villager Mall.
Located in the 2200 and 2300 blocks of South Park Street, the Villager is home to a city library and public health center, as well as outreach offices for tye UW-Madison, MATC and Edgewood College, an Asian grocery store and other tenants.
New Calif. Agency Begins Stem Cell Project (AP)
Aggregate Research Industries
IRVINE, Calif. – Californians voted by a wide margin last month to pass a landmark $3 billion initiative to fund stem-cell research. That may have been the easy part.
UW open-source 3D environment tapped for commercial development
Wisconsin Technology Network
The North Carolina simulated learning company 3Dsolve is the latest partner in the development of the Croquet Project at UW-Madison, a graphical communications framework. The company announced on Monday at the I/ITSEC trade show in Orlando that it has begun developing software for the Croquet system to see how it can be applied to military and commercial avenues.
Device may be new pathway to the brain
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The tongue. It wiggles and waggles and shapes words conveying our brain’s thoughts.It also sends signals to the brain. And by manipulating those signals electronically, Wisconsin scientists say they may be able to help chronically dizzy patients walk again, help Navy divers find their way in murky waters and help the blind to see.
Merry pet gifts
Capital Times
It doesn’t really matter if they’ve been naughty or nice. American pets are increasingly being treated as members of the family, and that means participating in holiday celebrations, including getting, and sometimes giving, gifts. UW-Madison lecturer Patricia McConnell is quoted.
UW open-source 3D environment tapped for commercial development
Wisconsin Technology Network
Source: www.croquetproject.org
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? The North Carolina simulated learning company 3Dsolve is the latest partner in the development of the Croquet Project at UW-Madison, a graphical communications framework.
Milk prices boost dairy farmers
Wisconsin State Journal
After a year of unexpectedly high milk prices, more Wisconsin dairy producers are starting to invest in their operations, the head of the state’s largest farmers’ group said Monday.
At the Farm Bureau’s annual meeting at the Marriott Madison West in Middleton, UW- Madison researchers told about 500 farmers that the state’s economy could gain from strengthening an agribusiness sector that sends $51.5 billion circulating through Wisconsin each year.
Wisconsin boy with cancer becomes USC’s biggest hero (Tallahasse.com 12/4)
… Through his job at the UW-Madison Graduate School of Banking, Kirby Davidson met Jim Phillips, who sits on the Trojans’ board of directors. …
Thomson Warns California May Lure Wis. Researchers (wisbusiness.com)
www.wisbusiness.com
MADISON — California may not be able to lure famed stem cell researcher James Thomson away from UW-Madison.
But Thomson, the molecular biologist who first isolated and reproduced human embryonic stem cells, believes many talented post-doctoral researchers will be headed to the� Golden State.
Campus ‘Net Nerds’ get ‘tons’ of clients
Capital Times
Last school year Kristen Berman and her roommates spent way too much on beer to pay their neighbor for fixing their spyware-riddled computer. This school year the UW-Madison junior and marketing business major is running a thriving business fixing computers.
Students will show off biomedical devices to professors and investors (Wisconsin Technology Network)
Wisconsin Technology Network
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? Students at the University of Wisconsin’s biomedical engineering department will have a chance to bring a semesterââ?¬â?¢s worth of work into the spotlight on Friday at the Biomedical Engineering Design Expo.
Gulbrandsen: UW’s stem cell program primed for growth (wisbusiness.com)
www.wisbusiness.com
Carl E. Gulbrandsen, managing director of Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and president of WiCell Research Institute, spoke recently with WisBusiness.com’s Brian Leaf about recent developments involving stem cells and their implications for Wisconsin.
Sinking dollar mainly hits those traveling
Wisconsin State Journal
Bill Steckel and his wife were planning a spring trip to Europe, but a hitch recently developed in their plans: The dollar has fallen to historic lows, making their vacation potentially much more expensive than they had anticipated.
“The short-term effect is going to be that it makes imported goods more expensive,” said UW-Madison economics professor Charles Engel.
State start-ups may get more financial help
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The State of Wisconsin Investment Board is evaluating whether it should invest more in new Wisconsin companies, the agency’s top executive told a group of money managers in Milwaukee Tuesday.
New state network to aid startup firms
Capital Times
The state Department of Commerce will spend $5 million over the next five years to set up and run a statewide network aimed at spawning more small businesses in Wisconsin, Gov. Jim Doyle announced.
Doyle said the program, authorized by legislation he signed earlier this year, will serve more than 10,000 people and contribute more than $500 million to the state’s economy in its first year.
Mentor commissions biotech facility here
Capital Times
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Mentor Corp. announced that it has begun operating its new manufacturing facility at 535 Science Drive in University Research Park.
The plant was designed specifically for the production of products utilizing the botulinum toxin technology that Mentor licensed from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation last December.
Developer gets an earful about affordable housing
Capital Times
New apartments for more than 300 students would become available near the corner of Broom and Gorham in August 2006 if the plan of two Madison developers passes the scrutiny of Madison Plan Commission members and the City Council. Some are objecting, however.
State and university reach out to Wisc0nsin entrepreneurs (WTN)
Wisconsin Technology Network
Gov. Jim Doyle, right, is joined by Commerce Sec. Cory Nettles to talk about aiding entrepreneurs.
Madison, Wis. ââ?¬â? Wisconsinââ?¬â?¢s Department of Commerce will fund a public-sector coalition to provide entrepreneurs with business planning and other assistance at centers around the state, Governor Jim Doyle announced on Monday.
Business’ cranberries in new ice cream flavor (Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)
Urban Processing is bringing its sweetened dried cranberry flair to ice cream. Cranberry cheesecake ice cream that is.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect when staff members from the University of Wisconsin’s Babcock Hall Dairy in Madison came calling for a cranberry product to use in a new ice cream, said Cheryl Urban, president of Urban Processing.
Mentor Biologics moves into research park (WSJ)
Mentor Biologics has moved into University Research Park. Mentor will make a form of botulinum toxin designed to compete with the popular Botox.
Mentor has patents licensed from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Women’s volleyball: UW hosting NCAA tourney games
Capital Times
Despite a fourth-place finish in the Big Ten Conference, the University of Wisconsin volleyball team earned the right to host first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games by being awarded one of the tournament’s top 16 seeds.
California’s New Stem-Cell Initiative Is Already Raising Concerns
New York Times
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 26 – As California moves to begin a lushly financed program of embryonic stem cell research, medical ethicists and other skeptics are concerned that the $3 billion that state voters approved for the endeavor could become a bonanza for private profiteers. (Login required.)
Colleges Seek a Record Number of Patents
Chronicle of Higher Education
Colleges and universities in the 2003 fiscal year filed for more patents, identified a greater number of scientific discoveries with commercial potential than ever, and signed a record number of licenses with companies seeking to turn academic inventions into drugs, devices, and other products, according to a report released this week. (Subscription required.)
“We are FBC.” (Madison Magazine)
Madison Magazine
Family-owned or – controlled businesses total at least 70 percent of all businesses nationwide. Rather than the usual round of executive education classes you might find at other college campuses, UW-Madison’s Family Business Center, which runs out of the Fluno Center, offers a membership program with a slew of services that incorporate best business practices with the academic research possibilities that only a world-class university can offer.
Charles Hoslet: The Doyle Initiative
www.wisbusiness.com
If you allow your imagination to wander, you can imagine a world ten, 15 or 20 years from now that is quite different from what we know today. Imagine a world where we are not going to our doctors to find out how to treat heart disease or diabetes, but how to prevent them
Area researchers fear stem cell brain drain (Ann Arbor, Mich. News)
Michigan officials ponder the effects of California’s stem-cell initiative there.
Yes, Madison is research ‘epicenter,’ but other parts of state can play a role, too
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Gov. Jim Doyle put on a game face of major league proportions when he rolled out Wisconsin’s response to California’s approval of $3 billion in state funds for a decade of stem cell research. He did what he had to do to keep Wisconsin in the forefront of bioscience. California’s initiative will be hard for a smaller state to match, especially one with a major deficit.
Key patent legislation passed by Congress
Capital Times
Both the Senate and House have passed key patent legislation backed by the UW-Madison and several state politicians, with President Bush expected to sign the bill in the next few weeks.
A list of Thank Yous (WSJ-11/25/04)
Mike M. Knetter, Dean, UW-Madison School of business: “I’m thankful for the 34,000 loyal alumni of our business chool and the many other friends of the school (who) helped us achieve our mission.”
Carle E. Gulbrandsen, manager director, Wisconsin Alumni Reserch Foundation: “I’m thankful that our mission of taking (UW-Msn) inventions to the marketplace has generated real exicitement at the university, in the Madison community and with our partners at the state and federal government.”
Stem-Cell Industry, Research Evolving (ABC News)
ABCNEWS.com
Nov. 23, 2004 ââ?¬â?Ã? Much has been made of President Bush’s 2001 executive order limiting the use of federal funds for human embryonic stem-cell research. With Bush now slated for another four years in office, researchers and stem-cell supporters are seeking private investment to drive the science and the industry forward.
Congress Passes Bill to Foster Collaborative Research Among Universities and Companies
Chronicle of Higher Education
Legislation that would eliminate a barrier to collaborative research involving universities and companies is headed to President Bush after the U.S. House of Representatives gave it final approval on Saturday. (Subscription required.)
Tom Still: Doyle�s proposal is about more than keeping pace with California (Wisc. Technology Network)
Wisconsin Technology Network
It was inevitable that Governor Jim Doyle’s proposal to build a $375 million interdisciplinary research center on the UW-Madison campus would be characterized as a ââ?¬Å?responseââ?¬Â to California, where voters passed a $3 billion, 10-year initiative to fund human embryonic stem cell research.
UW System, industry strive to expand, keep work force in state
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Kevin Reilly, the new president of the University of Wisconsin System, cites an 80% retention rate in the state for UW graduates but acknowledges that an even better track record is needed. The university system has embarked on pilot programs to pull back students who failed to graduate and get them to a diploma. It also is working to increase the percentage of freshmen who graduate.
Be thankful, Wisconsin
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin has excellent schools, technical colleges and public and private colleges and universities. The state has two nationally ranked medical schools, now well-endowed with more than $600 million from the Blue Cross conversion. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is one of the country�s leading research universities. However, Wisconsin lags in transferring technology to the private sector, says Thomas Hefty, co-chair of the Governor�s Economic Growth Council.
TOUGH CUSTOMER
Wisconsin State Journal
The customer is always right. Cliche? You bet. But Madison business consultants and UW-Madison School of Business academics say clients and companies share equally in the delivery of customer service and consumer satisfaction.
Forward looking: Ex-Badger steps up for state biz development
Capital Times
Gov. Jim Doyle’s new point man on attracting businesses to Wisconsin has no formal background in biotechnology or stem cell research. But with sales stints at two major corporations, followed by 13 years in the front office of the Milwaukee Brewers, Eugene “Pepi” Randolph brings plenty of real world experience to his new position as president of Forward Wisconsin.
Problems and solutions for working women
Wisconsin State Journal
Low wages and a lack of benefits are problems that women face in Wisconsin’s work force, but there are solutions, attendees heard Wednesday at a forum at UW-Madison.
New UW program to aid start-up firms
Capital Times
The UW-Madison Office of Corporate Relations announced that it will start a program next year to help create, support and sustain start-up companies that are based on research and technology developed at the UW.
Gender pay gap in state ‘appalling’
Capital Times
Wisconsin women fall far short of men when it comes to pay equity, and that’s not sitting well with people who took notice of a report out this week mapping the gap. Louise Root-Robbins, UW System coordinator for the status of women and director of the Sloan Project for academic career advancement, and Joe Soss, an associate professor of political science at UW-Madison, are quoted.
Gov aims to keep stem cell edge
Capital Times
Gov. Jim Doyle is ready to take on California to defend Wisconsin’s crown as king of the stem cell states. About two weeks after California voters approved a $3 billion, 10-year referendum for stem cell research, Doyle responded by putting together a comprehensive package to showcase and build on Wisconsin’s investment in biotechnology.
Johannes named to business school post (WSJ)
UW-Madison School of Business professor James M. Johannes has been named senior associate dean of the school.
Dane County businesses upbeat about 2005
Wisconsin State Journal
Dane County businesses expect to see their profits grow twice as fast in 2005, according to a study released Wednesday.
Companies expect profits to increase 3 percent in 2005, more than double the rate they forecast a year ago, the Dane County Economic Survey found.
Area firms bullish on economy
Capital Times
Most area businesses are expecting bigger sales in 2005 but that won’t necessarily mean a fatter paycheck for workers. The annual Dane County Economic Survey released today shows that 78 percent of firms here are projecting increased revenues next year. That’s up from 65 percent in 2004. The survey was conducted by the UW-Madison A.C. Nielsen Center for Marketing Research.
State business taxes below U.S. average
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Mentions a 2000 survey of 421 executives by University of Wisconsin-Madison emeritus professor Jon Udell that found that corporate and personal income taxes were a small factor in how businesses rated the state’s competitiveness, with other factors accounting for 89% of their rating.
Companies at venture capital fair looking ‘to land the big tuna’
Wisconsin State Journal
Drugs to treat cancer and epilepsy, and sugar substitutes that can be used to fight bacteria were some of the products touted by 33 companies seeking to match up with potential investors at the Wisconsin Life Sciences and Venture Conference on Tuesday at Monona Terrace.
Tom Still: UW-Milwaukee Chancellor Santiago determined to build on research base (wisbusiness.com)
www.wisbusiness.com
MILWAUKEE ââ?¬â?? At the State University of New York in Albany, Carlos Santiago helped forge a partnership between IBM and the campus that led to the creation of a $1.5 billion “center of excellence.”
Now that he’s taken up residence in Wisconsin, Santiago sees no reason why UW-Milwaukee can’t aspire to do the same.
Big Announcement On Wisconsin Stem Cell Research Coming
WISC-TV 3
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s stem cell research is taking a big step forward. News 3 has learned Gov. Jim Doyle will announce Wednesday a plan to construct a research facility for stem cell work on the UW campus, geared toward keeping medical researchers in the Badger state.
UW plans entrepreneurship program to link campus resources (Wisc. Technology Network)
Wisconsin Technology Network
Entrepreneurs on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus will have a new resource to help them navigate the process of starting a company and the many related centers on campus.
The Office of Corporate Relations is heading the New Business Start-Up Initiative, which is to include events, publications and both one-ond-one and class-based training. This assistance will be available to UW=-Madison faculty, staff and students.
Stem-cell patent holder�s view of the California challenge (Wisc. Technology Network)
Wisconsin Technology Network
Will all human embryonic stem (hES) cell research move to California in light of the recent passage of a $3 billion bond initiative that is intended to make California the leader in a technology discovered by UW-Madison researcher Dr. James Thomson?
Promote investment to build economy
Wisconsin State Journal
Starting up a business takes money, but too often, Wisconsin entrepreneurs are starved for cash needed to build a business.