Japan-based electronics firm to expand county operations

American Shizuki Corp., based in Ogallala, Neb., a subsidiary of Japan-based Shizuki Electronics Corp., will expand their operations to Boulder County and begin production of Stratavision, a “bendable” video display. American Shizuki plans to develop their North American headquarters in or around Interlocken business park. Currently the company has 10 employees at its Louisville location.

Stratavision is a large-format, fiber-optic display. The size and shape of the screen can be bent into a varie ty of permanent concave or convex shapes. The bendable nature of the screen is not currently available from other large-format video displays. The largest model, a 200-inch unit, sells for around $360,000. A 120-inch Stratavision is currently on display at the Westin-Tabor hotel in Denver.

Ecrix Corp., a Boulder-based data storage start-up, has completed a $25 million round of venture capital financing, which it plans to use to manufacture and market its new tape storage line. The round brings Ecrix’s total venture funding to $36 million. The round was led by Denver-based The Centennial Funds, which specializes in representing the electronics communication industry. Capital under management totals $724 million. Other Boulder-based companies in the Centennial portfolio include VStream and Pluto Technologies International.

Ecrix, founded by Kelly Beavers and former Storage Technology Corp. co-founder Juan Rodriguez, is the third tape storage company for the pair. The privately held company employs 60 people, but by early 2000, that number should grow to 115, said Taylor Allis, manager of marketing communications for Ecrix. The majority of the new jobs will be in sales and marketing, which reflects the companies desire to focus on marketing its tape storage products. With the additional employees, Ecrix may expand its building at 5500 Central Ave. in Boulder to accommodate the growth. “We hit all projected growth benchmarks, which is really amazing for a start-up,´ said Allis.

IBM Corp. has created a new federal service division to be headed by a Boulder-based IBM executive. The new division was created through the recent consolidation of IBM’s Government Industry and Global Services divisions, both specializing in federal contracts.

The Government Industry division, based out of Bethesda, Md., handles custom systems integration and applications development for government accounts, while the Global Services division operates desktop IT systems for government accounts. The combined division will be supervised by Dane Coyer, currently a vice president in IBM’s Global Services division in Boulder.

Bill Prater, program manager of communication and university relations at IBM in Boulder, said the creation of the new division will expand Boulder’s role in IBM’s relationship with the federal government, and it will not result in a change in the division’s mission or in the transfer of local employees.

The new division currently has 600 employees with about 125 in Boulder. The new federal organization’s areas of expertise include complex services and systems integration and strategic outsourcing across a broad range of government agencies.

ONTRACK Data International Inc., a Minneapolis, Minn.-based provider of data availability solutions, has acquired Boulder-based Mijenix Corp., a developer of software products, for $7 million in combined cash and stock.

The acquisition will enable ONTRACK to expand beyond data recovery to include all aspects of the data availability market, making the company a single source for customers seeking to protect, backup or recover data. Mijenix has developed a number of software products that enhance the use of windows-based computer systems, including ZipMagic 98 and the PowerDesk Utilities 98 file manager. With the purchase of Mijenix, ONTRACK will be able to provide these and other software tools to prevent critical data loss.

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