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April 5, 2001 Inovie Software Inc. of San Diego has been acquired by Ohio-based SDRC
SDRC is accounting for the transaction as a purchase, and the financial effect is expected to be slightly dilutive to SDRC earnings in 2001.
SDRC will immediately begin to couple Inovie's project management software with its collaborative product management solutions.
SDRC will also continue to offer Inovie's products as they are packaged and sold today to a variety of non-manufacturing industries and end-user applications.
"Inovie believes there is a tremendous untapped market for collaborative product development and other integrated e-business applications in major corporations throughout the world," says Robert Pryor, president and CEO of Inovie. "We expect that the richness and customer acceptance of SDRC's products, combined with the broad range of functionality within Inovie's collaborative project management applications, will create a new class of enterprise solutions."
Wit Soundview acted as investment adviser to Inovie Software in this transaction.
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Lion bioscience has restructured its San Diego operation to accelerate the integration of its life science informatics expertise gained through the acquisition of Trega Biosciences Inc. into the existing Lion organization.
Lion will focus on creating an R&D center of excellence in San Diego with extensive knowledge in chemistry, medicinal chemistry and computational sciences.
As part of this restructuring, Lion will reduce Trega's current workforce by approximately 20 percent. About 25 scientist will lose their jobs.
This integration process will be driven by three new key executives, each with between 10 and 20 years of industry experience, who have joined Lion from MDL Information Systems Inc.
The new executives are: Dr. Rudolph Potenzone, as president and CEO of Lion's U.S. operations, Dr. Daniel Keesman, as v.p. global sales and marketing, and Dr. Mark Canales as senior v.p. cheminformatics development.
Potenzone replaces Michael G. Grey who has resigned from his position as CEO and president of Trega.
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Researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine have discovered a protein that is essential for formation of the outermost layer of the epidermis, the part of the skin that protects the body from invading microorganisms while providing a watertight barrier to prevent dehydration.
Published in the April 5, issue of the journal Nature, the research was conducted in the lab of Dr. Michael Karin, professor of pharmacology and a member of the UCSD Cancer Center. Karin is also an American Cancer Society research professor.
Using test-tube analysis and studies in mice, the researchers identified a protein called a keratinocyte differentiation-inducing factor, or kDIF, which is required for the production of the thin layer of fibrous (keratinized) epidermal cells on the skin's surface. As scientists learn more about this protein, it may provide clues to skin cancer prevention or new methods for improved wound healing.
The discovery of the new protein is based on the Karin laboratory's ongoing investigation of an important regulatory protein kinase complex called I-kappa-B kinase, which they identified in late 1996, along with IKK's three sub-units, alpha, beta and gamma.
"It is very important for basal cells to undergo a precise program of specialization, called differentiation, in order for the uppermost layer of skin to be formed," Karin says, adding that the only, but very important, function of basal cells is to regenerate skin. In fact, basal cell carcinoma — a common form of skin cancer — is due to uncontrolled proliferation of basal cells.
The UCSD researchers found kDIF through experiments with mice bred to lack the IKK-alpha enzyme.
The lead author of the Nature article is UCSD post-doctoral researcher Dr. Yinling Hu, who plans to continue study of kDIF's role in skin cell differentiation and potential role in basal cell carcinoma.
Additional UCSD authors were Dr. Veronique Baud, Dr. Takefumi Oga, Dr. Keun Ii Kim and Dr. Kazuhiko Yoshida.
The work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Association for International Cancer Research, and the CERIES Research Award to Karin.
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Also in UCSD news, the university has admitted 16,310 freshmen for the fall 2001 quarter, selected from a record 38,161 freshmen applications (second highest the UC system).
The group is one of the most academically prepared admit pools in UCSD’s history, with a mean high school grade point average of 4.04, and average composite Scholastic Assessment Test of 1,304.
The 16,310 admitted freshmen include more than 1,700 students from San Diego and Imperial Counties. The most popular majors chosen by this class continue to be biology, economics, computer science in engineering, and psychology.
Building on the 8 percent increase in applications, the admitted freshmen class for fall 2001 shows a 16.6 percent increase in the number of underrepresented students.
African-American admits are at 239, up 16.6 percent from last year; Mexican Americans are at 1,128 up 17.9 percent; Latinos are at 379, up 17 percent, and Native Americans are at 55, down 8.3 percent.
Richard Backer, assistant vice chancellor for enrollment management, says, "We are very pleased with the increase in applications, the academic quality of our admits, and our increasing diversity."
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American Technology Corp. in San Diego has entered into a agreement with Harman International Industries Inc. on certain intellectual property related to its planar magnetic transducer technology.
"We have worked closely with Harman on the broad spectrum of critical testing of our planar magnetic transducer technology and its applications,” says Terry Conrad, president of ATC. “The conclusion of this work has confirmed our confidence in the commercial viability of ATC's proprietary planar magnetic technology.
"We anticipate that these devices will find broad application in automobiles, home audio, multimedia and sound reinforcement due to their high performance-to-cost ratio, light weight, and unusual output capability," he says.
The technology, developed by American Technology Corp. in one of the company’s laboratories in Carson City, Nev., is a sound reproduction system employing a special thin film, and a single layer of ultra-thin high-energy neodymium magnets.
The most important quality of PMT loudspeakers is the ability to provide extremely wide band, low-distortion performance from a device as thin as 1/8 inch and as light as 2 ounces.
Harman intends to acquire all rights to the technology with ATC retaining rights for military applications.
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EduPoint Inc. reports it has been selected as the first industry partner of The Sloan Foundation.
Under the terms of the partnership, Solana Beach-based EduPoint will add to its Corporate Learning Marketplace 2.0 (CLM 2.0) the e-learning courses and programs from more than 80 accredited institutions of higher learning that are participating in Sloan's Asynchronous Learning Network Consortium (Sloan-C).
EduPoint's CLM 2.0 is an online marketplace for corporations that enable employees to find, compare, enroll in and evaluate learning.
The marketplace aggregates, organizes and updates course information and schedules from accredited universities, for-profit schools and training providers. Classroom-based, distance and e-learning courses are included.
"EduPoint's learning marketplace offers corporations the most comprehensive solution for effectively managing learning to ensure that it aligns with business objectives and meets corporate quality standards," says Joe Pulichino, EduPoint's president and CEO. "We are pleased to expand our listing of accredited e-learning courses through our partnership with The Sloan Foundation. EduPoint's corporate clients will be able to present their employees with e-learning available from the top-tier accredited schools participating in the Sloan consortium while the schools can extend their marketing reach to a corporate audience."
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Sorrento Networks has appointed Marc Thurman as v.p. of operations.
Thurman will oversee manufacturing and operations, supply chain management, and quality assurance functions.
He brings with him nearly 25 years of manufacturing operations, supply chain management and quality assurance experience on leading edge technologies and products for the computer and telecommunication markets.
In his most recent position, Thurman had manufacturing responsibilities including internal production, contract manufacturing (EMS) and third party manufacturing, supporting revenues of $2 billion.
"We feel very fortunate to have someone with Marc's operations management experience on leading edge technology and products," says Jim Dixon, president and COO of San Diego-based Sorrento Networks. "His experience with outsourced manufacturing services will be invaluable in helping us achieve our aggressive volume expansion plans."
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Front Porch Inc. has broadened its online media network by signing one of the UK's most significant ISPs, supanet.
Under the terms of the agreement, Front Porch will create and manage new advertising inventory for the ISP with its anonymous, cookie-free user personalization and content insertion system.
"We continue to gain significant traction for our personalized content delivery technology in Europe, especially among forward thinking ISPs that recognize themselves as media distributors," says Zachary Britton, Front Porch CEO. "ISPs need to find ways to set themselves apart in today’s questionable Internet economy. supanet is a fun, lively ISP focused on families and home users. We’ll help them attract the attention of new home users while increasing their value to existing users," he concluded.
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SpaceDev Inc. in Poway has added Gen. Howell M. Estes, III to its board.
Estes retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1998 after serving for 33 years. At that time he was the commander-in-chief of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Space Command, and the commander of the Air Force Space Command headquartered at Peterson AFB in Colorado.
“We are very honored that Gen. Estes has joined our Board," says Jim Benson, chairman and CEO of SpaceDev. "Gen. Estes is both a hero and a visionary who has spent many years advocating increased investment in space and closer ties with the commercial space sector because of the importance of space to our national security. I believe he will be able to help us match SpaceDev business goals and technical capabilities with current and future needs of our nation, and with those who will be making important space-related decisions over the next several years."
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Mitch Patridge, a partner at Meridian Capital Partners reports that the San Diego-based funding company has provided a hospital located in the Pacific Southwest with a credit facility in the amount of $1.4 million.
The hospital will use this money to retire existing bank debt, support current operating needs, and for expansion purposes.
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The city attorney's office reports that the San Diego Domestic Violence Prevention Partnership, a cooperative effort between Mayor Dick Murphy, City Attorney Casey Gwinn, the San Diego Domestic Violence Council, Verizon Wireless, Motorola and other partners, has collected more than 3,100 pre-owned wireless phones, which will be used to help fight domestic violence.
Since the launch of the partnership in February, 2,362 phones have been collected at Verizon retail stores in San Diego; approximately 150 phones were collected by the city; and more than 600 phones were collected by Soroptimist.
The phones, which will be shipped this week to a recycling center, free of charge by Federal Express, will be refurbished and distributed to potential victims of domestic abuse.
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