Briefcase – May 15, 2015

CLOSINGS
Fort Collins-based Omni Bio Pharmaceutical Inc. (OTCBB: OMBP), a spinoff of University of Colorado technology, disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that the company will cease operations. The filing stated that Omni Bio had been unsuccessful in raising funds and in its partnering and licensing efforts, making it unlikely that the firm could raise enough capital to continue operations.

Bunz Burger Co. closed after three months at 4235 S. College Ave. in Fort Collins, a space that previously had housed Greek restaurants Taverna and Akropolis.

CONTRACTS
Fort Collins-based tech-startup incubator Innosphere is forming a partnership with Turkey’s first private science and technology park. The Bilkent Cyberpark, started in 2002 by Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey’s capital, has about 240 high-tech companies, eight research centers and more than 3,300 research-and-development personnel. Among the goals of its accelerator program is to connect its companies to partners and customers in the United States.

More than $4.3 million worth of contracts have been awarded to eight area companies for construction of the Village at the Peaks shopping center in Longmont. NewMark Merrill Mountain States, developer of the $90 million, open-air retail project that replaces Twin Peaks Mall at 1250 S. Hover St., awarded contracts to Longmont-based companies SJ Ward Landscapes; Lamas Plumbing, Heating and Cooling; Delmc Builders; Specialties Contracting; and Hillcrest Glass. Boulder-based companies include Slade Glass Co.; Equity Painting and Design; and engineering firm Flatirons Inc. These companies join previously announced architect The Mulhern Group LTD, McCarty Excavation and Construction, and general contractor Colorado Structures Inc.

Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, selected the BiOptix 404pi for its  drug-discovery research. Boulder-based BiOptix is a life-science tools company that provides a solution for drug-discovery scientists that require label-free, real-time detection of biomolecular interactions. The BiOptix 404pi is used for early-stage drug development, allowing scientists to measure kinetics, affinity constants and concentration. The instrument will be used in the Solvanix labs at the Garvan Institute for stability engineering of human antibody reagents for therapeutic purposes.

Running-shoe designer and manufacturer Newton Running in Boulder signed a deal to have several of its shoe models sold in Dick’s Sporting Goods stores and on the retailer’s website. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Five of Newton’s shoe models — the Gravity IV, Motion IV, Fate, Kismet and Aha — will be available at Dick’s Sporting Goods stores in the East, South Central and Midwest United States, as well as in select stores in Colorado, including Flatiron Crossing in Broomfield.

Fort Collins-based Remote GeoSystems Inc. and Calgary, Alberta-based Linewise Aerial Solutions Inc. successfully integrated and tested the geoDVR Gen2 with FLIR Corona 350 Gimbal Video Camera System on a Bell helicopter for airborne utility inspections.

EARNINGS
WhiteWave Foods Co. (NYSE: WWAV), headquartered in Denver with significant operations in Boulder County, saw sales rise 10 percent in the first quarter, reaching $911 million, up from $830 million during the same period last year. At the same time, net income rose 3 percent to $33 million, up from $32 million during the same period last year.

Broomfield-based Ball Corp. (NYSE: BLL) reported a decline in sales and net income for its first quarter of 2015, which ended March 31. The can manufacturer reported sales of $1.9 billion for the quarter, compared with $2 billion for the same period a year ago. Net earnings for the quarter declined to $20.7 million compared with $93.5 million in first quarter 2014. Ball’s subsidiary, Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, reported earnings of $20 million on sales of $214.8 million for the first quarter, compared with earnings of $24.1 million on sales of $220.7 million during first quarter 2014.

DEADLINES
Applications for parade and corn-shucking entries must be received by Aug. 7 for the Loveland Chamber of Commerce’s Old Fashioned Corn Roast Festival, scheduled for Aug. 21-22 in downtown Loveland. Both events are opportunities for businesses to gain visibility and contribute to the community. Applications and details can be found at loveland.org/TheCornRoastFestival/.

KUDOS

Bruce Hemmings, an executive vice president, wealth management and financial adviser in the Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) Wealth Management office in Loveland, was named to the firm’s President’s Club, an appointment that recognizes his consistent creativity and excellence in providing a wide range of investment products and services to his clients. Hemmings also was named as a sports and entertainment director in the new Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment division.

Attorney Brett Payton, a founding member of Coan, Payton & Payne LLC, received a Martindale-Hubbell AV Pre-Eminent Peer Review Rating, an objective indicator of a lawyer’s high ethical standards and professional ability, generated from evaluations of lawyers by other members of the bar and the judiciary in the United States.

Former Boulder mayor Will Toor, transportation program director for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, received the John V. Christensen Memorial Award for regional civic leadership at the 60th anniversary celebration and awards event of the Denver Regional Council of Governments, held April 22 in Denver.

SCL Health’s Good Samaritan Medical Center in Lafayette, and Banner Health’s McKee Medical Center in Loveland and North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley received a grade of “A” for patient safety, according to the Spring 2015 Hospital Safety Score report recently released by The Leapfrog Group, a national independent nonprofit organization that grades hospitals on how they protect patients from errors, injuries and infections. Centura Health’s Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville and UCHealth’s Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, received “B’s.” Boulder Community Foothills Hospital in Boulder, Longmont United Hospital in Longmont and UCHealth’s Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland received “C’s.” None of the hospitals in the region received grades of “D” or “F.” According to Washington, D.C.-based Leapfrog, the score uses 28 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to produce a single score representing a hospital’s overall capacity to keep patients safe from preventable harm.

Dave Humenik, president of Vapor Technologies, and Andy Bade, president of F24Pharma LLC, were recognized with a Volunteer of the Year award at the Economic Development Council of Colorado’s spring conference in Steamboat Springs. Humenik is chairman of the board of the Longmont Area Economic Council and Andy Bade is past chairman of the organization.

The Boulder Chamber announced the honorees for its Women Who Light the Community gala, to be held from 4 to 7:30 p.m. June 10 at the Lionsgate Event Center in Lafayette. This year’s honorees are: Jane Miller, chief executive and founder of JaneKnows.com; Hana Dansky, founder and executive director of Boulder Food Rescue; Lori Canova, CEO of the “I Have a Dream” Foundation of Boulder County; Elena Aranda, director of the Companeras Program, El Centro AMISTAD; and Zoe Stith, a first-grader at Boulder Community School of Integrated Studies.

Personal finance website NerdWallet.com ranked Boulder the best place in the country to start a business, with the Fort Collins-Loveland area not far behind at No. 12. NerdWallet ranked 183 metropolitan areas based on metrics including average revenue of businesses, percent of businesses with paid employees, number of businesses per 100 people, median annual income, median annual housing cost and unemployment rate.

Aims Community College, with campuses in Greeley and Fort Lupton, for the 10th year has been ranked in the top 10 among small schools (up to 5,000 students) by e.Republic’s Center for Digital Education. The survey analyzes how community colleges use digital technologies to improve services to students, faculty, staff and the community at large.

Louisville-based NexGen Storage was named a top 20 Most Promising Citrix Solution Provider by CIOReview. The selection recognizes NexGen’s N5 hybrid flash array offering.

Aspen House, Hillcrest of Loveland, Memory Care at Seven Lakes and Sterling House of Loveland received Best of Senior Living Awards from SeniorAdvisor.com.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
A yet-to-be-determined number of Boulder-based OPX Biotechnologies’ 35 employees will lose their jobs in coming months following Cargill’s acquisition of the local company’s technology and assets.  Cargill will move the technology and operations to its Minneapolis headquarters, and OPX will shut down. Terms of the deal with Cargill were not disclosed.

Colorado Physical Therapy Specialists and Harmony Hand and Physical Therapy of Fort Collins have merged ownership to streamline resources. The four clinics will keep their existing locations.

Mountain Molding LLC near Longmont was acquired by Tenere Inc., a provider of metal and plastic components and assemblies based in Dresser, Wis. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. It’s the second time in two years that Mountain Molding has been acquired. In 2013, the company was acquired by Arcady Capital Co., a Wichita, Kan.-based private-equity firm.

IBMC College will expand into Colorado Springs with the purchase of IntelliTec Medical Institute. The institute will be rebranded as IBMC College once regulatory and accreditations are obtained. The acquisition brings to the school’s campus count to five and its enrollment to 1,300. It has operations now in Fort Collins, Longmont, Greeley and Cheyenne.

First-Care Physicians LLP, a family medicine practice with clinics in Loveland and Fort Collins, was acquired by Banner Medical Group, Phoenix-based Banner Health’s physicians group. Financial terms of the deal finalized April 27 were not disclosed. The name of the practice in Loveland has changed to Banner Health Clinic.

The Quality Inn & Suites hotel of Fort Collins received a 2015 Platinum Hospitality Award from one of the world’s largest hotel companies, Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH), franchisor of the Quality Inn brand.

Burns Marketing, with offices in Northern Colorado, Denver and London, took home four awards – two gold and two silver – from the Colorado Business Marketing Association Gold Key Gala at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on May 1.

NAME CHANGES
Fort Collins-based Aller Lingle Massey Architects PC changed its name to alm2s.

OPENINGS
Former accountant and commodities trader turned real estate investor Jay Buster purchased the former medical office building at 80 Garden Center in Broomfield out of foreclosure in 2013 for $750,000. Over time, he’s converted the 30,500-square-foot building into about 60 private offices that he’s leased out on a per-month basis as they’ve been built. But the new coworking space has been his biggest wish for the site, which sits at the northeast corner of U.S. Highway 287 and Midway Boulevard, since he bought it. The facility as a whole is dubbed Innovate 36, with the new space called Coworking at 36.

Fort Collins native Kimberly Mary opened Caring Transitions of Fort Collins/Loveland, a franchise of a company that manages relocations for seniors and busy families as well as downsizing and estate liquidations.

Newburyport, Mass.-based public-relations and social-media firm Matter Communications launched a dedicated office in Boulder.

Longmont-based Ziggi’s Coffee opened its eighth location along the Front Range, a double-drive-through shop at Colorado Boulevard and Cimarron Street in Firestone.

Aloha Coffee and Grill opened at 822 S. College Ave. in Fort Collins, serving Hawaiian fare.

Broomfield-based Foreign Exchange Translations Inc. announced the expansion of its presence in Asia with the opening of a new office in Singapore.

PRODUCT UPDATE
Anthony Full, owner of Rock Barbers in Louisville, launched a Kickstarter campaign to introduce his new line of men’s hair care products called Rock Tools for Men. The line has six multi-purpose products in three categories: shower, shave and style.

Boulder-based Radish Systems, a mobile/enterprise software company, announced the latest addition to its patented ChoiceView multichannel platform, which allows callers to launch “voice with visuals” sessions from a link in desktop websites, mobile websites or third-party mobile apps.

Boulder-based AmideBio LLC, a privately held biopharmaceutical company, received United States Patent 9,006,176 titled “Chemically and thermodynamically stable insulin analogues and improved methods for their production.” The patent expands the use of the company’s patented core platform technology to high-value biopharmaceutical markets such as diabetes.

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