|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Business Intelligence for Virginia's Entrepreneurial Economy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
 |
In This Issue... Expansions, Relocations & Launches, Who's Hot, Who's Winning Business, Deals & Partnerships, Innovations, People, Trends, Other News, Commentary, Events, Click here to forward to a friend or colleague who might like this newsletter. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | Expansions, Relocations & Launches  |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sponsors:  Legal Services  Investment banking |
|
Aurora to Invest $5 Million in Manassas MANASSAS--Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation will invest $5 million to expand its current facility at the Manassas Regional Airport and create approximately100 new jobs. The engineering and research and development facility will support the development of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle designed to fly in the Martian atmosphere. If successful, the program would represent the first aircraft to fly in the atmosphere of another planet. More. In Brief... VIENNA-Cloakware, Inc., a developer of anti-software piracy solutions, will expand operations to the Asia-Pacific region to address growing demand from the region's leading manufacturers. More. HAMPTON-A 295-room Embassy Suites Hotels has opened next to the new Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton. More. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | Who's Hot... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Email Marketing Experts Partners: 
B2B Marketing Research 
Virginia Technology Conference |
|
CIT Leads Investment in SquareLoop HERNDON--The Center for Innovative Technology, through its Growth Acceleration Program Fund, is leading a round of investment in SquareLoop, Inc., a McLean-based company commercializing a Location-Based Services technology initially developed by MITRE Corporation for military application. At CIT's initiation, SquareLoop licensed the patents and undertook additional development of the technology for application in commercial markets. Said SquareLoop CEO Tom Stroup: "SquareLoop's customers will be able to receive messages such as emergency alerts, traffic updates or mobile advertising without compromising their location privacy." More. Schneider to Hire 100 Truckers in Gordonsville Area GORDONSVILLE-Green Bay, Wis.-based Schneider National Inc., a full-truckload provider, is expanding operations to support customers in the Gordonsville area, including a distribution center for a FORTUNE 500 retailer and a building products manufacturer. The company expects to hire 100 drivers for local, regional and long-haul positions over the next 30 days. Hires will receive sign-up bonuses of $1,000 to $2,000. More. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | Who's Winning Business... |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Boomer Project 
National Association of Women Business Owners 
Virginia FREE 
Searchable Business Database 
Virginia Technology Alliance
|
|
Raytheon to Help Round up WMD in Old Soviet Union RESTON-A Raytheon Company subsidiary has won a task order with a potential value of $82 million by the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency to provide mission support in the former Soviet Union. The program assists successor states of the Old Soviet Union to reduce their stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and the infrastructure supporting them. More. General Dynamics Wins $79 Million Joint Forces Contract SUFFOLK--General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems has been awarded delivery orders totaling $79.3 million to provide engineering and technical services in support of the U.S. Joint Forces Command's Joint Experimentation Program and Joint Futures Lab. The Lab explores joint warfighting concepts, organizational structures and emerging technologies with the goal of driving transformational changes in the military. More. These TROJANs Don't Leak Either ARLINGTON--CACI International Inc. has won a $31 million contract to help integrate, test and deploy the U.S. Army's TROJAN satellite communications systems. TROJAN is a family of secure systems that enable the Army to manage and disseminate critical intelligence information. The rapidly deployable mobile communication systems can be mounted on Humvees or aboard aircraft like the C-130. More. Drag Racing Returns to Virginia PETERSBURG-After a six-year hiatus from the Commonwealth, the National Hot Rod Association's POWERad Drag Racing series will return to the Virginia Motorsports Park in October. Built in 1994, Virginia Motorsports Park is a multi-million dollar facility that includes a Drag Strip, Motocross facility, and Mud Bog arena on 500 plus acres. With 80,000 members and 35,000 licensed competitors, the NHRA is the world's largest auto racing organization. More. Army Selects BearingPoint for Passive RFID Services MCLEAN--BearingPoint, Inc., an IT and management consulting company, will compete with 11 other companies to provide passive RFID services for tracking assets across the Department of Defense supply chain. The initiative also addresses the need to improve manufacturing/re-manufacturing processes in the DoD's industrial base to include "kitting" (delivering multiple parts into a single "kit" for end use), asset tracking, and reliability/performance assessments. More. In Brief... HERNDON-EDS has been awarded a contract, potentially worth $99 million over four years, from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to support the computer application system used to process Medicare Part B claims. More. SPRINGFIELD--VERSAR, Inc., has been awarded a five-year contract valued at $6.9 million to support the deployment and use of nuclear, biological and chemical defense protective clothing and equipment by the US Department of Defense. More. RICHMOND--Owens & Minor has been awarded a multi-year, prime vendor contract to offer global medical and surgical supply distribution services to the U.S. military. More. ALEXANDRIA--The Burgess Group, a Medicare-based decision support solutions firm, has signed a three-year license agreement with CalOptima for the Burgess Reimbursement System. More. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | Deals & Partnerships |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Goodstein to Build 25-Story Mixed Use Tower in Downtown Richmond
RICHMOND-New York City-based Goodstein Development Corporation has announced plans to build a 25-story, state-of-the-art skyscraper in downtown Richmond with upscale retail space, Class-A office space, a 100-room boutique hotel and 250 ultra-luxury residential units in the two building towers. The project, estimated to cost $175 million to $200 million, will include several levels of underground parking. Groundbreaking is scheduled for early 2007, with a move-in date in mid-2009. Said Mark Lindsey, partner in charge of architectural firm Baskervill: "At almost 25 stories tall, this extraordinary mix-use project will provide spectacular views in all directions and become Richmond's newest icon in a city that is in the midst of a renaissance. This project combines our broad experience and expertise in office, retail and hospitality design into a single Class A mix-use facility." More. Apogen Sold for $300 Million MCLEAN-Apogen Technologies, an provider of IT services to the Homeland Securities market, has been sold by Arlington Capital Partners, a Washington, D.C., private-equity firm, for approximately $300 million to QinetiQ, a United Kingdom-based defense firm. The purchase price reflects Apogen's strategic positioning within the federal IT market, its valuable long-term customer relationships and its strong growth prospects. More. Chesapeake to Acquire Arlington Press RICHMOND--Chesapeake Corporation, a supplier of specialty paperboard and plastic packaging, has agreed to purchase Impaxx Pharmaceutical packaging Group, Inc., which does business as Arlington Press, for $65 million. Arlington Press serves primarily the North American pharmaceutical market with printed leaflets, pressure-sensitive labels and folding cartons. Said CEO Thomas H. Johnson: "This transaction provides a platform to expand our global pharmaceutical packaging business." More. National Diabetic Sold for $55 Million SALEM-National Diabetic Pharmacies, Inc., a mail-order provider of diabetes supplies, prescription medications and related services, has been sold to PolyMedica Corporation, of Woburn, Mass., for $55 million. Said PolyMedica CEO Patrick Ryan: "David Dixon and his team at National Diabetic Pharmacies will play an important role in our future growth plans. The company has established it as the premier provider of diabetes products and disease management services to the commercial market, and more than half of their over 100,000 active patients have come from programs they have established with managed care organizations and employers." More. AOL Picks up Xdrive DULLES--America Online, Inc., has acquired Xdrive, Inc., a leading provider of online storage and backup services. The Santa Monica, Calif., company will operate as a stand-alone subsidiary of AOL. Xdrive manages an online, centralized storage platform that gives subscribers access to, and protection of, all their digital assets - regardless of location used to access the Internet. Xdrive provides its subscribers with: storage safety, security, and automatic backup of a wide variety of digital assets such as music, pictures, and video. Said Gio Hunt with AOL Digital Services: "The digitization of consumer home media is skyrocketing, with consumers and AOL members increasingly looking for easier ways to protect and manage a wide variety of important data files and digital media assets. More. Dan River to Sell Apparel Fabrics Division DANVILLE--Dan River Inc. has retained an investment banking firm to sell its Apparel Fabrics Division, allowing it to focus on its core Home Fashions business. Said CEO Barry F. Shea: "Dan River has a strong heritage in apparel fabrics but our future is in the Home Fashions arena. This move will allow us to dedicate all of our resources to our Home Fashions business in which we see better growth opportunities for the future." The company sold its Engineered Products Division earlier this year. More. AOL Sows up Wildseed DULLES--America Online, Inc., has boosted its presence in the wireless services sector by acquiring Wildseed, Ltd., a leading provider of advanced wireless technologies, and by forming an expanded AOL Wireless group. Wildseed, based in Kirkland, Wash., provides a mobile Linux-based Operating System solution, which includes support for Game Boy Advanced style games, MP3 and Video playback, remote device management, and a fully 'skinnable' User Interface. Said John McKinley with AOL: "Data-related mobile technologies are on the cusp of mainstream adoption." More. Colfax Acquires Indian Pump Firm RICHMOND--Colfax Corporation has completed its acquisition of Tushaco Pumps Private Limited in Mumbai, India. Tushaco, an Indian market leader in rotary pump and related technologies, generated $5 million in fiscal 2005. Said Colfax CEO John A. Young: "The acquisition enhances our manufacturing capabilities in the fast growing Asian market, complementing our recently opened plant in Wuxi, China." More. Assett Capital Buys Hampton's Executive Tower HAMPTON--Asset Capital Corporation, Inc., of Washington, has purchased the Executive Tower office building in Hampton for $15.4 million. Constructed in 1974 and renovated in 1991, the eight-story building is more than 90 percent leased to high-quality tenants, many of which work with the nearby Langley Air Force Base. More. In Brief... MCLEAN-MicroStrategy Incorporated has formed a strategic alliance with Computer Sciences Corporation, a leading IT services company, to integrate MicroStrategy's Business Intelligence Platform into CSC's Clinical Knowledge Exchange healthcare offering. More. HERNDON--GigaBeam Corporation has entered into an agreement with WiFi Project, Ltd. to distribute GigaBeam's WiFiber products in Ireland. More. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | Innovations |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
For the Guy Who Has Absolutely Everything: Download Pollen Counts to Your Wireless Phone VIENNA--The Mobile Media Company, the Personal Broadcaster has partnered with The Weather Channel Interactive to launch a mobile alert service that provides users with weather, travel, and other information via text messages directly to their mobile phones. In addition to the current three-day forecast, customers can be alerted to airport delays, game-day forecasts for major league baseball, current weather conditions and (drum roll) pollen count anywhere in the country for $.075 per message. More. LandAmerica Offers Tax Shelter to Tobacco Quota Holders RICHMOND--LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc., a provider of real estate transaction services, is targeting tobacco quota holders with a service to help them save taxes resulting from the federal government's Tobacco Transition Payment Program. To transition quota owners to a free market, a 2004 law provides them 10 equal annual buyout payments each year through 2014. The IRS has ruled that these payments can be exchanged for "like kind" property under a tax-deferred 1031 Exchange. LandAmerica, which has performed similar transactions for peanut growers, says that tobacco quota holders could shield as much as 25 percent of their buyout payments from taxation by reinvesting the money in real estate. More. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | People |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sunrise Consolidates Financial Positions MCLEAN--Sunrise Senior Living, Inc., has consolidated the roles of chief financial officer and chief investment officer in an effort to streamline the coordination among the company's accounting, treasury, tax and information technology groups. Bradley B. Rush has been appointed to the CFO position. More. Anderson Tapped to Run VEDP RICHMOND-After a five-month search, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership has selected M. Anderson as VEDP executive director. Anderson, who lives in Charlottesville, serves as Executive Vice President for Global Integration at McLean-based BearingPoint. More. In Brief... VIRGINIA BEACH--AMSEC LLC, an IT services provider to the federal government, has promoted its CFO, Robert J. Golden, to COO. More. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | Trends |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chmura Economics & Analytics |
|
Virginia employment. Employment in Virginia increased 1.4 percent for the twelve months ending with June 2005 compared with a 1.6% gain in U.S. employment. Over the last year, Northern Virginia (+3.2 percent), Richmond (+2.2 percent), and Harrisonburg (+2.0 percent) showed the strongest employment growth among the state's metropolitan areas. Danville (-2.1 percent) and Blacksburg (-0.3 percent) were the only metro areas that registered negative growth since last June. The monthly periodicity of employment data makes it the most timely and encompassing measure of regional economic growth. For details and forecasts of economic conditions across Virginia, as well as a list of Chmura Economics & Analytics (CEA) products and services, click here, or call (804) 649-1107. Housing Bubble Watch: Fed Economist Says It May Not Be a Bubble IRVINGTON--Soaring housing prices the Washington metro area may not be a "housing bubble", says Raymond E. Owens, an economist with the 5th district Federal Reserve Bank. Rising household incomes in the Washington area, strong demand and restricted supply helps explain high housing prices in the Washington metro area, he told the Greater Washington Initiative earlier this week. "Demand has been high in the Washington area partly because housing creation has not kept pace with job creation in recent years," Owens said. "A 'bubble' is created when prices go up without any underlying economic reasons. But that's not entirely the case in the Washington area. Residential building lots apparently aren't being created fast enough to meet the demand. Land developers say that the need to comply with environmental requirements, zoning laws, and delays in putting the necessary infrastructure in place - roads, water, electricity and sewer lines - limits residential lot development and thus the number of area houses being built. They tell us that it can take upwards of three years or more to take a housing project from start to finish." More. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | Other News |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Network Solutions Relaunches Brand to Appeal to Small Business HERNDON--Network Solutions, best known as a pioneer of domain name registrations, has re-launched its brand and website as a one-stop shop to help small businesses get online easily and inexpensively. At the Network Solutions website, small business owners can pick a Web address, create their own website, market their business and sell online - with the assistance, if needed by 24/7 customer-service consultants. The company plans to continue to expand its small business portfolio with competitive products such as communications, security and business solutions. More. Velocity Micro Opens First Retail Outlet RICHMOND--Velocity Micro a manufacturer of high-performance PCs, has opened its first factory store -- at its headquarters. The move into a traditional retail space is part of Velocity Micro's new growth strategy. By the end of this month, select Velocity Micro pre-configured systems also will be available in Best Buy stores across the country. Until now, the company's PCs have been available exclusively from the company's website. Said CEO Randy Copeland: "Our factory store will give the public the chance to look at and feel the systems and take our PCs on a test drive to learn more about them before they purchase." More. Genomatic Changes Name to Intrexon ROANOKE--Genomatix Corporation has changed its corporate name to Intrexon Corporation to better align with its tool-making system which enables dynamic assembly and exchange of genetic modules. The company did so for strategic purposes. The new name is derived from the terms "intron" and "exon", which together encompass the key components of a primary gene transcript. More. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | Commentary |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
"Collapse," an Appreciation Jared Diamond's master work surveys the collapse of unsustainable societies from the ancient Mayans to the Greenland Norse. There are lessons there for 21st century Virginians. More. |
|
Reading the Mason-Dixon Poll Mark Warner is the most popular governor in the history of the Mason Dixon poll, and voters aren't buying the GOP flat-earth agenda. Things are looking up for Tim Kaine. Violets are blue... I'm schizophrenic... And so am I So goes Republican politics in Virginia these days. Or, if poetry isn't your gig, perhaps this line from a Ricky Skaggs tune will help you understand what's going on in at the moment, if the latest Mason-Dixon poll is to be believed, and it is: "Life is too long to go on living this way!" Translation? Virginia voters are rejecting the Republican message. More. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back To Top | Events |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hosting an event? Post the details in our weekly events listing. Click here for our listing guidelines. |
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
VA Newswire is a free, email-based weekly newsletter that covers news and events from around the state. If you have any news, events, job openings, or office space availability that you would like to include in next week's newswire, email jim@vanewswire.com. Click here for a free subscription. Click here to unsubscribe. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
