Briefcase – Jan. 23, 2015

CLOSINGS

Killer Rabbit, a men’s clothing and accessory store that has operated at 130 S. College Ave. in Fort Collins since 2010, will close soon. Owner Justine Reed will concentrate on her other store, White Balcony, which sells accessories, gifts and cards at 148 S. College Ave.

CONTRACTS

Udi’s Gluten Free, a division of Boulder Brands USA Inc., will supply gluten-free crusts for pizza that will be offered in 2,400 Pizza Hut restaurants nationwide. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Boulder-based Boulder Brands (Nasdaq: BDBD) said Pizza Hut will launch two varieties of gluten-free pizza, cheese-only and pepperoni, using Udi’s signature crust beginning Jan. 26.

Fort Collins-based science and technology incubator Innosphere is partnering with the PrIME Health Collaborative to enhance the development of Colorado’s Digital Health ecosystem and increase the number of digital health startups. Innosphere will promote PrIME activities and events in Northern Colorado, and Innosphere Client Companies will gain a larger network to all the players in the digital health sector through PrIME’s network of more than 700 health-care administrators, physicians, technologists, academics, entrepreneurs and investors.

Boulder-based Anark Corp., a provider of automated model-based enterprise and 3-D CAD visualization solutions, signed a strategic reseller agreement with Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based Inceptra LLC, Dassault Systèmes’ largest PLM reseller in North America.

Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) and Boulder Community Health announced a new Accountable Care arrangement and population-health partnership. The agreement supports continued efforts to provide improved health and coordinated care for individuals and families purchasing insurance in Boulder County through Connect for Health Colorado and through Humana commercial health maintenance organization health plans for employers.

Verde Brand Communications, a public-relations agency with offices in Boulder and Durango as well as Jackson, Wyo., was retained by Louisville-based Pearl Izumi, maker of athletic apparel, and Kirby, Wyo.-based Wyoming Whiskey, which makes small-batch bourbon.

DEADLINES

The Colorado State University/Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge business pitch competition extended its application deadline to Jan. 30. The second-annual competition, which features a $250,000 grand prize for its Enterprise Track, will take place May 26-30 during Fort Collins Startup Week. Also, a Collegiate Track is open to entrepreneurs enrolled – or recently graduated – at colleges and universities in Colorado. That track has a $20,000 grand prize. More information and application materials are online at www.blueoceanchallenge.com.

EARNINGS

Synergy Resources Corp. (NYSE: MKT), a Platteville-based oil and natural-gas producer, earned $21.2 million during the company’s fiscal first quarter ended Nov. 30, up from $6.1 million during the same period a year earlier. Synergy’s 247-percent increase in net income came as revenues increased 121 percent to $42.5 million from $19.3 million during the same quarter a year earlier. About $34.4 million of that first-quarter revenue came from oil production. The company reported first-quarter cash and equivalents of $47.1 million vs. $34.8 million at the end of the previous quarter.

KUDOS

Timothy R. Odil, an attorney at Greeley-based Otis, Bedingfield & Peters LLC, was named one of Colorado’s “Lawyers of the Year” by Law Week Colorado, based on his work on a variety of litigation matters and his demonstrated initiative and teamwork.

Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties all factored into the top 20 on the Milken Institute’s annual report “Best-Performing Cities 2014: Where America’s Jobs are Created and Sustained.” The Milken Institute, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based nonprofit think tank, ranked metropolitan statistical areas and metropolitan divisions based on such metrics as job growth, wage growth and technology performance. The Denver-Aurora-Broomfield MSA landed 12th on the list of the top 200 large cities, one spot ahead of the Boulder MSA (Boulder County) and two spots ahead of the Greeley MSA (Weld County). The Fort Collins-Loveland MSA (Larimer County) came in 17th. Boulder and Weld counties slid four spots each after both notching top-10 spots in the rankings last year. Larimer County climbed three spots. Weld County, bolstered by a booming energy industry, ranked second in both one-year and five-year job growth, and seventh in one-year wage growth. Boulder County, meanwhile, ranked first for concentration of high-tech industries.

Longmont-based Dot Hill Systems Corp. (Nasdaq: HILL), a supplier of enterprise-class storage systems, won the Storage, Virtualization, Cloud Industry Award in London. Dot Hill also was a finalist in the SSD/Flash Storage Product of the Year category for its Ultra48 AssuredSAN.

Boulder-based ISONAS Inc., a “Pure IP” access-control system manufacturer, was awarded the 2014 Security Innovation Award – Municipal Sector, for its work with the city of Bridgeport, Conn. The Bridgeport installation involved integrated security solutions to protect properties throughout the city, including historic Pleasure Beach, a recently reopened public park with close proximity to many high-target security risks, as well as the city’s 40 public schools.

The WavePoint platform from Boulder-based FreeWave Technologies, provider of industrial, secure Machine to Machine and Internet of Things wireless networking solutions, received the 2014 M2M Evolution IoT Excellence Award from M2M magazine.

Boulder-based Lagrange Systems’ CloudMaestro, a scalable Software-as-a-Service application delivery network, was voted the Best Business Process Management Solution at the 2014 UP-START Cloud Awards.

Boulder Housing Partners’ High Mar community won a national 2014 Senior Housing News Architecture and Design Award. The annual awards competition recognizes cutting-edge design, excellence and innovation in seven senior living communities around the nation. Opened last June, High Mar offers 59 affordable apartments for seniors, the first affordable senior housing to be built in Boulder since 1982. Located on Moorhead Avenue near Table Mesa Drive and U.S./ Highway 36, the community is fully occupied with a waiting list.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Curves Loveland, at 280 E. 29th St., added a Jenny Craig franchise to create a dual-branded fitness and weight loss business offering internationally recognized services and products. Owners JoEllen and Ken Amundson are among the first in the nation and one of three Curves organizations in Colorado to create dual-branded facilities offering combined weight loss and health solutions from both brands. Combined operations began Jan. 5, and an open house will continue through Saturday, Jan. 24.

Loveland-based accounting firm Kennedy and Coe LLC finalized its merger with Chico, Calif.-based Matsom and Isom. The two firms announced in June that they would be joining forces. They’re now operating under the name K-Coe Isom. Kennedy and Coe CEO Jeff Wald will lead the new company as CEO from the firm’s Loveland office. Former Matson and Isom managing director Jim Holt remains with the firm.

Chicago-based global real estate firm DTZ completed the acquisition of Cassidy Turley, a provider of commercial real estate services that has 60 offices nationwide including Fort Collins and Denver. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. All of Cassidy Turley’s offices have been rebranded DTZ. A division of UGL Ltd., DTZ was acquired in November by a private-equity investment consortium backed by TPG Capital, PAG Asia Capital and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. DTZ stands for Debenham, Thouard and Zadelhoff.

Zayo Group LLC, a subsidiary of Zayo Group Holdings Inc. (NYSE: ZAYO), finalized the $52 million acquisition of IdeaTek Systems Inc. in Buhler, Kan. Boulder-based Zayo, a provider of bandwidth infrastructure services, paid with cash on hand for IdeaTek’s carrier and enterprise segment. IdeaTek will retain its residential and small-business divisions, and will continue to operate under the name IdeaTek Telecom LLC.

Rupes S.p.A. acquired Longmont-based Cyclo Toolmaker, producers of the Cyclo Orbital Polisher. Rupes is an Italian manufacturer of electric and pneumatic power tools and vacuum systems and is known in North America for its BigFoot polishing system. Cyclo’s Longmont facility will become the center of Rupes’ and Cyclo’s operations in North America, where the new company will operate as Rupes USA Inc.

Boulder private-equity firm Grey Mountain Partners acquired a majority stake in Sunbelt Transformer Ltd. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sunbelt will keep its dual headquarters in Temple, Texas, and Sharon, Pa. The deal brings the number of affiliate companies for Grey Mountain to 18. Sunbelt, which employs about 100 people, manufactures electrical power and distribution equipment. Former Sunbelt chief operations officer Dan Sweeney was promoted to chief executive, replacing James Landino, former co-owner of the company.

Cannabis technology company Surna Inc. (OTCQB: SRNA) acquired a majority interest in Agrisoft Development Group, a Kansas City, Mo., company that makes seed-to-sale tracking systems for regulated cannabis growers and distributors. Surna, which employs about 35 people at its east Boulder headquarters, develops technology to assist with energy and resource efficiency in the cultivation side of the cannabis industry. The company reported $1.8 million in revenue through the first three quarters of 2014.

MOVES

Alpen High Performance Products LLC, a manufacturer of energy-efficient windows, leased 30,000 square feet of a 39,000-square-foot building in the Boulder Tech Center at 6268 Monarch Park Place, off Colorado Highway 52 in Niwot, as it returns operations to Boulder County. The company was sold to California-based Serious Energy Inc. in 2008 and continued to operate as Alpen HPP with operations in Colorado. Brad Begin, chief executive, bought the company back in 2012 but moved operations to Commerce City in December 2013. The move back to Boulder County is about 60 percent complete and is expected to be completely moved by February. The company fabricates glass systems that use suspended-film technology to enhance performance.

NAME CHANGES

Boulder-based National Eco Wholesale (NEW) changed its name to 1908 Brands, commemorating the 1908 purchase of an endangered redwood grove in Northern California by William and Elizabeth Kent, ancestors of the company’s founder and chief executive, Stephen Kent Savage. The Kents donated the land to the federal government, and it became Muir Woods National Monument.

Luxury real-estate brokerage Fuller Sotheby’s International Realty changed its name to LIV Sotheby’s International Realty.

OPENINGS

University of Colorado Health officially opened its new Clinical Education and Innovation Center on the second floor of its Marina Health Campus in Windsor. The center expands the organization’s space for clinical education, which typically has been done in area hospitals. The new center was built to bring together UCHealth’s clinical training resources in one place to create a larger offering of services.

Pediatric Urgent Care of Northern Colorado is open and accepting walk-in patients at its temporary location, 1214 Oak Park Drive in Fort Collins. PUCNC will lease space from The Youth Clinic until securing land to build a standalone Urgent Care along with other pediatric subspecialties. Walk-in hours are 3 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Cozad, Neb.-based First Bank and Trust Co. received approval from the Colorado Division of Banking to open a loan production office in Frederick. Documents posted by the division said the bank indicate an office was approved for 3763 Monarch St. The loan office will operate under a different name, yet to be determined, to avoid confusion with banks with similar names in the area. The bank operates in Colorado Springs using the name Mountain View Bank. Mountain View Bank of Commerce in Westminster is not affiliated with the Nebraska-based bank.

Cache Old town Bar & Grille will have a grand opening Feb. 13 in the space formerly occupied by The Astoria bar at 146 N. College Ave. in Fort Collins.

PRODUCT UPDATE

Boulder startup Prima-Temp Inc. at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas unveiled a temperature sensor that will enable women to track their fertility without really even thinking about it. Bloom is a cervical ring similar in shape to the NuvaRing birth control. Inside is a temperature sensor that tracks a woman’s core body temperature and wirelessly relays the information to an app on the user’s smartphone. The app isn’t unlike others on the market that help women track their fertility, including Boulder-based Kindara, except that the others require women to take their temperature themselves and many require data input as well.

SERVICES

Poudre Valley Rural Electric Association is offering Pay As You Go prepaid metering as a new payment option to its members. The option allows PVREA members to prepay on their electric account, actively monitor energy use in almost real-time and bypass any required deposit for new service. The Pay As You Go account option also eliminates any disconnecting and reconnecting fees. When an account runs low on funds, the member is notified by phone, text or email. If no payment is made, the service is disconnected remotely from PVREA’s office and reconnected once payment has been made.

Specialized substance use services previously offered by the Boulder County Public Health Addiction Recovery Centers now are provided by Mental Health Partners. MHP will provide services in the facilities currently occupied by the ARC, including the Valmont site that provides residential treatment and detoxification at 3180 Airport Road in Boulder, with the following two exceptions: The ARC facility at 3470 Broadway will house administrative services and ARC clinical services will move to MHP’s 1333 Iris Ave. location at the end of January; and ARC services currently provided at 1345 Plaza Court in Lafayette will be relocated to MHP offices at Sister Carmen, 655 Aspen Ridge Drive, Lafayette.

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