CU gets mega-donation

DENVER ? The University of Colorado has received a $250 million donation, the largest gift ever given to a public university in the United States.

The donation will be used to fund advanced research and development of technologies to improve the lives of people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities.

The donation comes from Bill and Claudia Coleman. It will be used to establish the University of Colorado Coleman Institute for Cognitive Disabilities. Bill Coleman, a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate, is founder and chairman of BEA Systems of San Jose, Calif. Claudia Coleman is a former manager with Hewlett-Packard. They have a niece with special needs.

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Coleman was inspired to make the quarter-billion-dollar donation after lecturing at CU’s Center for LifeLong Learning and Design and seeing the research being done there in cognitive science. CU President Elizabeth Hoffman said parts of the gift would also be distributed to CU’s other campuses in the state.

The Colemans have a home in Aspen and plan to play an active role in the institute their money is funding.Gold Systems forms alliancesBOULDER ? Gold Systems Inc., a provider of voice and wireless solutions, has aligned with Avaya Inc. (NYSE: AV) and Nuance (Nasdaq: NUAN) to help companies improve customer service levels.

Gold Systems integrated its Vonetix technology with Nuance’s SpeechObjects product. Both products were then integrated with version eight of Avaya’s Conversant System for Interactive Voice Response. The product is scheduled to ship in March. Navy to use Ball satelliteBOULDER ? The GEOSAT Follow-on (GFO) satellite built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. (NYSE: BLL) has been commissioned by the U.S. Navy’s Space & Naval Warfare Command (SPAWAR).

The GFO satellite was built specifically for SPAWAR use. It will allow the command unit to transmit precise oceanographic information to ships at sea and to Navy facilities on shore. Data will be collected from the satellite over a period of five years. Its purpose is to enhance the effectiveness of Navy weapon and sensor systems.Maxoptix buys Breece HillBOULDER ? Maxoptix Corp., a secondary storage provider based in Fremont, Calif., has entered the area’s competitive storage market, purchasing the business and assets of Breece Hill Technologies, a supplier of automated tape loaders and libraries based in Boulder.

Financial terms of deal were not disclosed. Breece Hill supplies both entry-level and enterprise-class tape loaders and libraries. The company has installed more than 14,000 libraries. Jim Watson, president and chief executive officer of Breece Hill, will assume a senior executive position with Maxoptix upon completion of the acquisition. Solant purchased by AvolentLONGMONT ? Avolent Inc., a San Francisco-based electronic billing and invoicing service, has acquired Longmont-based Solant, also an electronic billing service.

The price of the acquisition was not disclosed. Solant will drop its name and be consolidated into Avolent. Fifteen positions were cut in Longmont at the time of the acquisition. Avolent will move its Solant operation from Longmont to Broomfield’s Interlocken business park in February.

Avolent provides software solutions for electronic bill presentment and payment, electronic invoice presentment and payment, and interactive customer care. Its Bizcast software automates the entire invoice to pay process by helping businesses present, route, reconcile, dispute, analyze and pay invoices online. Its clients include Mastercard, AT&T and Intuit.Veripost expands partner networkSUPERIOR ? Veripost, a provider of solutions for e-mail address changes based in Superior, has signed up five companies to the Veripost Network, which is comprised of a group of companies working with Veripost to provide this service.

Digital marketing service providers Acxiom Corp., Bigfoot Interactive and CheetahMail will promote the Veripost system and Proflowers.com and DirectStuff.com will use the change of e-mail address service at their e-commerce sites.Gaiam’s yoga videos in hotelsBROOMFIELD ? Gaiam Inc., a maker of personal health and environmental products, has signed with Denver-based On Command Corp. to deliver pay-per-view yoga videos to about 3,400 hotels worldwide, including Adam’s Mark, Hyatt, Four Seasons, Marriott, Sheraton and Westin.

Gaiam, founded in Boulder and now based in Broomfield, markets products through mail-order catalogs, e-commerce and 17,000 retail stores nationwide, including Wal-Mart and Target.