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April 3, 2001 Science Applications International Corporation's Defense Technology Group has acquired three business units of Maxwell Technologies' wholly-owned subsidiary Maxwell Technologies Systems Division Inc.
The units are the Contract Research and Development unit, with offices in San Diego and Reston, Va., and the Electronics Technology, High Power Microwave and Pulsed Power units, which are located in Albuquerque, N.M. The price was not disclosed.
"The Maxwell units are complementary to SAIC's research and development capabilities, and will enable us to provide even greater levels of service to our government customers," says Tom Bache, SAIC group senior v.p. "We look forward to utilizing the outstanding talents that the Maxwell team brings to the Defense Technology Group."
A total of 103 Maxwell employees are expected to move to SAIC.
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Callaway Golf is planning a May 1, synchronized launch of its new CB1 Red and CB1 Blue golf balls at thousands of golf shops across the country.
By partnering with UPS, Callaway is ensuring that its accounts in the United States will have the balls on the same day.
The launch will be supported by a multimedia advertising and marketing effort to build demand for the new balls, including new print advertisements — built around the tagline "The fun's built in. You get to let it out" — and an online sweepstakes.
"We believe this is the first one-day launch of any substantial quantity in the history of golf products," says Mick McCormick, executive v.p. of global sales for Callaway. "We’ve seen other retail manufacturers — entertainment and software companies, for example — use similar strategies to build demand for new products. The CB1 balls are great new products, and we intend to help retailers sell them by creating a buzz in the golfing public."
The CB1 Red golf ball will be available in boldly designed three-ball sleeves and by the dozen. The distinctive yellow packaging features eye-grabbing color-coded lettering: red for CB1 Red and blue for CB1 Blue.
A three-ball sleeve carries a suggested retail price of $7.85, and a dozen-ball pack has a suggested retail price of $31.25.
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Exten Industries Inc. of San Diego, has entered negotiations to acquire its research and development partner, privately held MultiCell Associates Inc. of Warwick, R.I., in a cash plus stock transaction.
Specific details were not disclosed. This acquisition will solidify the working relationship between the two firms in their joint liver assist device program.
MultiCell is a research company with unique expertise in developing functional cells and cell lines with a special focus on liver derived cells. It has several patents issued on the immortalized hepatocytes or engineered liver cells.
"We could not be more pleased about the MultiCell acquisition,” says Exten Executive V.P. Gregory F. Szabo. “MultiCell brings the corporation extraordinary scientists and innovative technologies. MultiCell will become the research center for the development of the patent-pending Sybiol Synthetic Bio-Liver system.
“Numerous other commercial opportunities exist at the company. Research into growing cells for pharmaceutical research is a prime opportunity; the demand for such cells is tremendous. We also believe we can explore new markets for toxicology testing using MultiCell's cell line in our Xenogenics subsidiary's newly re-engineered liver assist device."
Dr. Ronald Faris will be the president and CSO of the MultiCell subsidiary. Faris is known for his research in hepatic stem cells.
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Novatel Wireless Inc. says its Minstrel 540 Wireless Modem will work with HP's new Jornada 520 Series Color Pocket PCs.
The modem works with the HP Jornada's bundled Pocket Inbox and Pocket Explorer applications, delivering wireless access to e-mail, the Internet, and corporate LANs to users on the go and on the road.
"The HP Jornada 520 Series Color Pocket PCs are designed to meet the personal and professional needs of mobile consumers at a more affordable price than many other pocket PCs," says Boris Elisman, worldwide marketing manager for HP's embedded and personal systems group. "With its wireless Internet connectivity, the Minstrel 540 complements the on-the-go HP Jornada Pocket PC user experience as it offers the ability to stay in touch and accomplish personal and business tasks when away from the home and office."
"Our close relationship with HP allows us to be first to market and seamlessly combine the Jornada 520 series of Pocket PC with our existing Minstrel 540 Wireless Modem," says John Major, CEO of San Diego-based Novatel Wireless. "We are committed to offering our Pocket PC customers a complete wireless solution with the latest in wireless access, performance, and flexibility."
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Isis Pharmaceuticals in Carlsbad presented data at the 221st American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Diego showing that ISIS 113715, an antisense inhibitor of the PTP-1B gene, has produced significant therapeutic benefit in multiple animal models of diabetes by normalizing blood glucose and insulin levels.
Isis is developing ISIS 113715 as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes and plans to initiate Phase I clinical trials this year.
PTP-1B is a phosphatase that negatively regulates insulin receptor signaling and is an exciting gene target for diabetes that is actively being pursued by the industry.
In studies in multiple rodent models of type 2 diabetes and obesity, ISIS 113715 produced a dose-dependent reduction in blood glucose levels that resulted in normalization of glucose in the diseased animals. These well-accepted models of diabetes are considered good predictors of efficacy in humans.
The dramatic decrease in blood glucose levels occurred with a once a week dosing regimen and was accompanied by reduced circulating insulin levels, indicating that the antisense inhibitor was acting as an insulin sensitizer.
"The results of studies in multiple animal models supporting the activity of ISIS 113715 as a potential diabetes therapy are compelling," says Dr. Brett P. Monia, Isis' v.p. of Antisense Drug Discovery, who presented the data at ACS. "We are particularly excited to have demonstrated antisense-dependent reduction of PTP-1B protein levels in primates. Gene knock-down in primates is a key step on the way to human clinical trials, which we are planning to begin later this year."
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Keylime has named Ray Ghanbari as senior v.p. of engineering and operations.
Ghanbari will lead Keylime's engineering and applications service provider infrastructure operations efforts in its continuing growth and expansion.
"Keylime is focused on delivering in-depth, flexible, enterprise class Web traffic analysis solutions," says Rick Maiero, Keylime president and COO. "Ray's strong expertise in the ASP space and deep technology leadership experience is a significant addition to Keylime and will allow us to continue to bring our LimeLight Service Suite new levels of capabilities."
Ghanbari brings more than 15 years of enterprise-scale software design and Internet-centric technology development and business solutions to his new position.
Prior to joining Keylime, Ghanbari was v.p. of engineering for Kinzan Inc.
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RosArt Multimedia Inc. has signed an agreement with Inside Business, a local radio talk show, to be one of the show’s top-level sponsors and, as stipulated in the agreement, will redesign the show’s Web site, www.businessonair.com.
The new look will include audio clips of current and past radio shows, and links to guests Web sites.
Inside Business broadcasts at 9 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on KCEO, AM 1000.
Various current and future clients will be offered, as a means of promoting their businesses and products, spots on RosArt’s sponsored shows. Inside Business is produced by Resource Associates, and profiles businesses in San Diego. Robert Ryan and Ken Heebner, who have been hosting radio talk shows in San Diego since 1993, are the hosts of the show.
“I believe we will make good partners, and the relationship will be beneficial to all involved, especially our clients,” says José Rosa, president of RosArt.
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Cabrillo Credit Union received a First Place Diamond Award from the Credit Union National Association Marketing Council at its 2001 Marketing Conference held in San Diego.
Cabrillo and their advertising agency, ThinkTank Advertising, Broadcast, and Design was selected from more than 1,000 entries to receive the honor for its brochure series (assets between $50 and $149 million).
This brochure series includes individual brochures on a variety of the credit union's products and services. The marketing council is an internationally recognized marketing organization in the credit union industry. ***
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