Briefcase – June 12, 2015

CLOSINGS

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is closing its vaccine unit in Fort Collins as part of a consolidation of its vaccine business units to Massachusetts and Switzerland. The vaccine unit in Fort Collins at 1613 Prospect Park Way has 18 employees. The transition will occur in phases over the next two years, with the completion of U.S. consolidation by mid-2017.

CONTRACTS

Information and Real Estate Services LLC in Loveland signed a deal with Seattle-based Zillow Group, which maintains real estate listings online, to allow IRES’ 6,000 brokers the ability to send their listings to websites Zillow and Trulia. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Curating the Cool in Lafayette and Assorted Goods & Candy in Louisville will partner to open a store at 3719 W. 32nd Ave. in Denver’s Highland neighborhood.

DigitalGlobe Inc. and Saab AB have partnered to form a company that will produce detailed 3-D images of Earth, showing buildings, infrastructure and terrain. Each company will own 50 percent of Vricon, Inc., which will be based in Reston, Va. Longmont-based DigitalGlobe will provide its archives of Earth images taken by high-resolution cameras from its constellation of satellites. Saab, a defense and security company based in Sweden, will provide the 3-D technology.

Evans-based One-Stop Construction and Landscapes won the contract to build a maze based on the movie “The Shining” at the Stanley Hotel, which inspired the scary novel by Stephen King. The Stanley in Estes Park celebrates the 1980 movie with ghost tours, paranormal investigations and by playing the film constantly.

Fort Collins-based Numerica Corp. will expand the company’s flagship Lumen platform to agencies across Colorado through the Colorado Information Sharing Consortium. Lumen enhances data-driven policing by enabling law-enforcement personnel to search, analyze, and share tactical and strategic law-enforcement data in real time.

A pair of nonprofit organizations will partner to offer classes, workshops, programs and networking to female entrepreneurs and coders in Northern Colorado. Allied Women Entrepreneurs, which was incorporated in January and launched in April in Fort Collins, and Girl Develop It, the local chapter of a national organization, have different focuses – basic business and technology, respectively. But leaders of the two groups felt that combining that diversity would serve aspiring businesswomen well.

Boulder-based Eco-Products Inc. partnered with the Minnesota Twins baseball team to supply Target Field with hundreds of thousands of compostable cups, plates, trays, utensils and straws. The move is part of the Twins’ effort to make all packaging used at the stadium either compostable or recyclable. Eco-Products was acquired by Waddington North America in 2012.

EARNINGS

Avago Technologies, which announced the $37 billion acquisition of rival chipmaker Broadcom, reported quarterly net income of $344 million in the company’s second fiscal quarter ending May 3. Avago (Nasdaq: AVGO), which employs about 1,300 people in Fort Collins and has a Longmont office as well, also reported $1.6 billion in revenue, down slightly from the previous quarter but up 130 percent over a year earlier thanks in large part to the acquisitions of LSI Corp. and PLX Technology. The net income came out to $1.21 per diluted share, down 5 cents from a quarter earlier but up from 61 cents a year earlier. The company finished its second quarter with $2.5 billion cash on hand.

Medical-device company Encision Inc. (OTCQB: ECIA) reported a loss of $1.4 million, or 13 cents per share, on revenue of $9.7 million for its fiscal year 2015, which ended March 31. A year ago, the Boulder-based company reported revenue of $10.5 million with a net loss of $1.8 million, or 20 cents per share. Encision reported fourth-quarter revenue of $2.3 million and a loss of $349,000, or 3 cents per share.

Boulder-based Rally Software Development Corp. (NYSE: RALY) reported a 26 percent bump in revenue in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2016 versus a year earlier. The numbers reflect the period ending April 30. The company reported first-quarter revenue of $24.5 million, up from $19.4 million a year earlier. Net loss narrowed from $8.5 million, or 34 cents per share last year, to $6.9 million, or 27 cents per share, this year.

Electric-motor manufacturer UQM Technologies Inc. (NYSE: UQM) reported a loss of $6 million, or 15 cents per share, for its fiscal year 2015 that ended March 31. The Longmont-based company reported $4 million in revenue for the year, compared with $7 million in revenue and a loss of $2.8 million, or 7 cents per share, in the previous year. For its fourth quarter, UQM posted revenue of $1 million and a net loss of $1.3 million, or 3 cents per share, compared with $1 million in revenue, and a loss of $1.4 million, or 4 cents per share, for the same quarter a year ago. As of March 31, 2015, cash was $6.6 million and working capital was $15.6 million compared with $10.2 million and $20.1 million last year, respectively.

KUDOS

Steven W. Lindsey, senior director of space exploration systems at Sierra Nevada Corp.’s Louisville-based Space Systems Division, was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame during a May 30 ceremony at Kennedy Space Center’s Visitor Complex in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Lindsey completed five space shuttle flights, two as pilot and three as mission commander.

VerbalizeIt, a startup based in Boulder and New York, won the second annual CSU Blue Ocean Enterprises Challenge business pitch competition in Fort Collins, taking home $250,000 cash and a suite of mentoring, professional services and other prizes. VerbalizeIt uses human translators and automation to allow businesses to communicate with global customers in their own language. Loveland-based Extrude to Fill LLC, founded by Rick Fitzpatrick and Ron Leach, took home the second place prize of $25,000 cash and professional services. The company has developed a new, patented approach to injection molding. Boulder-based Native, a travel app backed by human assistants, won the collegiate division and advanced to the quarterfinals of the enterprise division. Chem with Ray, a tutoring app developed by CSU master’s student Ray Chard, won the $2,000 top prize in the Trolley Pitch competition where teams had until the next bus stop to pitch their ideas. The Space Research Co., a team based at the University of Colorado geared toward reducing the cost of conducting bioscience experiments in space, took second place and $1,000 in the Trolley Pitch competition. Wise Art Foods won the “Invest-in-Me” game for raising the most “Blue Bucks” from attendees at the weekend’s events. The team, a group from CSU that makes InfusiBoost food products, won $2,000.

Keystone Financial Services in Loveland won the 2015 Practice of the Year award from Peak Advisor Alliance, which provides practice management solutions and coaching programs for independent financial advisers.

Boulder and the surrounding area is the third-best place in the country for college graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, according to a new report from personal-finance website NerdWallet.com. The Fort Collins-Loveland area ranked 18th on NerdWallet’s list, one spot ahead of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield area. Huntsville, Ala., meanwhile, took the top spot, topping San Jose, Calif.; Boulder; Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C.; and Seattle.

Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewery and Boulder-based Orbotix Inc., doing business as Sphero and maker of robotic toys, were listed among the nation’s best places to work for people in the “millennial” generation, according to a study conducted by the Austin, Texas-based Cengter for Generational Kinetics, an organization whose mission is to help businesses relate to millennials.

Ann Livingston, program manager for state and local engagement at the Boulder-based Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, was selected from a national pool of candidates to participate in the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s 2015 Executive Energy Leadership program. She joins 21 other business, community and government leaders in a five-month educational program of technical briefings, lab and site tours of renewable-energy and energy-efficiency technologies.  By program’s conclusion, she and other participants will present a viable clean-energy project. Livingston was Boulder County’s first sustainability coordinator.

Tai Montgomery, an assistant professor of biology at Colorado State University, was one of six people named to the 2015 class of Boettcher Investigators in the Webb-Waring Biomedical Research Awards program. Each will receive a grant of $225,000 to cover up to three years of biomedical research activity.

Lori Kashman, head concierge at St Julien Hotel and Spa in Boulder, was accepted into Les Clefs d’Or USA, a prestigious organization of very select and dedicated hotel lobby concierges from around the world. She is one of two current members in the Denver metropolitan area and 10 in Colorado.

Tom Dingeman, plant manager of Greeley Wastewater, accepted an Excellence in Energy Efficiency award for the plant from Jeff Ackermann, executive director of the Colorado Energy Office.

James Orr of Fort Collins received the Investment Community of the Rockies’ 2014 Rising Tide Award Winner for Individual Member of the Year  for his contributions to other members of ICOR. Orr publishes real-time market statistics on his website and makes them available to other Investors.

Emergency Family Assistance Association was named one of the nation’s best-performing charities by Charity Navigator. The Boulder-based nonprofit has earned it a 4-star rating six years in a row, a distinction given to 3 percent of charities nationally.

The city of Greeley’s wastewater treatment plant and the MillerCoors Golden brewery won awards from the state of Colorado for their achievements in energy efficiency.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

New York-based software firm CA Technologies (Nasdaq: CA) inked a deal to acquire Boulder-based Rally Software Development Corp. (NYSE: RALY) for $480 million. Both companies’ boards of directors have approved the deal, which is expected to close in the second quarter of CA’s 2016 fiscal year, which is the third quarter of calendar year 2015. Rally, headquartered at 3333 Walnut St. in Boulder, also has an office in Denver, with about 280 employees total in Colorado. CA Technologies, which has 11,500 employees worldwide, already has a presence in Colorado, with just more than 300 employees in the state at offices at 2950 E. Harmony Road, Suite 100, in Fort Collins as well as in Englewood and Colorado Springs.

Sun Valley Farms Inc. in Loveland was acquired by Houweling’s Nurseries Ltd., a produce grower based in Delta, British Columbia, for an undisclosed amount. Sun Valley Farms, a marketer and distributor of conventional and organic greenhouse produce, will continue to operate independently under the leadership of president and chief executive Dave Fahrenbruch.

Array BioPharma Inc. (Nasdaq: ARRY), a Boulder-based company that develops cancer drugs,  sold its chemistry, manufacturing and controls operations in Longmont to Minnesota-based Accuratus Lab Services for an undisclosed sum. The Array division will be known as Avista Pharma Solutions, and continue to operate in a 50,000-square-foot space at 2620 Trade Centre Ave. Thirty-three Array employees will be retained by Avista.

Summit Pathology, a Loveland-based operator of pathology and clinical laboratories for hospitals in Northern Colorado and Wyoming, is in the process of acquiring AnaPath Diagnostics Inc., a full-service medical laboratory based in Cheyenne, Wyo.

MOVES

Colorado Heirloom Inc. paid $1.5 million to Cadeka Properties LLC for 16,200 square feet of space at 1215 S. Grant Ave. in Loveland, where it will move in July from leased space at 333 E. Fourth St. in Loveland that it has occupied since 1987.

Green Ride, a shuttle service that connects Northern Colorado with Denver International Airport, on June 1 began operations at its new park-and-ride hub at Fort Collins-Loveland Airport. It moved from a location near Foothills Mall in Fort Collins.

OPENINGS

New American Funding held a grand opening June 10 for its Boulder branch at 1881 Eighth St. in the Canyon Center Plaza.

Gallery Nine-Seventy held its grand opening June 5 in the former Hershman farmhouse at 1015 S. Lincoln Ave. in Loveland.

Skeye Brewing will open June 19 in 3,600 square feet at 900 S. Hover St., Suite D, in Longmont. The space formerly housed Front Range Indoor Golf and Tap, which already had a bar in place.

Boulder-based Carley Barley, an online company selling baby clothing that is free from harmful chemicals, was launched May 1 by Heather Ponce. Carley Barley will donate $1 of every sale to the Longmont Humane Society, and possibly other animal shelters in the future.

Los Angeles-based Glasshous, a graduate of cannabis-industry startup accelerator CanopyBoulder, launched June 1 to sell marijuana-related accessories over the Internet, billing itself as an “online head shop.”

PRODUCT UPDATE

Boulder Power Technologies, a provider of portable renewable power products, announced the national availability of the PowerTap 2000, a mobile, lithium ion-based power source for operating everything from construction tools and outdoor sound and lighting systems to home appliances. The company launched the PowerTap 2000 in the Colorado market in March to gain early customer user-experience and feedback for the alternative-energy market. Among area firms using it is Boulder-based Melton Design Build, a remodeling company for architecture, design and construction.

SERVICES

Limited commercial airline service could return to Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport as soon as Aug. 1. Elite Airways, based in Melbourne, Fla., plans three flights a week to and from Chicago-Rockford International Airport – on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays.

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