Company Stories F-J

Stories that earlier appeared in Nelson's News

Farodox Energy Storage

The Texas Emerging Technology Fund is pumping more money into Central Texas technology startups. Six more Austin companies have won grants totaling $5.3 million. Among the six new grant winners is year-old NanoMedical Systems (no SBIR) which will use its $3.5 million to develop a tiny implantable capsule that delivers drugs a few molecules at a time, with the dosage controlled precisely for each patient. The company is completing a prototype using $4 million from a private investor, said co-founder and chief executive Randy Goodall. The grant will help fund it through the complex and time-consuming process of seeking Food and Drug Administration approval, Goodall said. ...... Farodox Energy Storage (no SBIR), which has developed a new fabrication process for high-performance electrical capacitors, $250,000; ... Ironbridge Technologies (no SBIR), which is developing self-heating food packaging technology, $250,000; ... Merkatum (no SBIR), which is developing fingerprint and facial recognition identity technologies, $250,000; ..... Stellarray (no SBIR), which is commercializing flat-panel radiation source technology, $750,000; ... Sunrise Ridge Algae (no SBIR), which is commercializing technology to turn algae into a renewable energy source. [Lori Hawkins, Austin American-Statesman, Nov 17, 08]

FarSounder (Warwick, RI)

FarSounder (Warwick, RI; one SBIR) also got a $2M NIST grant to develop a navigation sonar system.

FastCAP Systems (Cambridge, MA)

several Massachusetts projects will receive a total of $33.2 million in federal funding for energy research. 1366 Technologies (Lexington) $4 million; , Agrivida (Medford; $300K SBIR) $4.6 million for efforts to cut the costs of cellulosic biofuels and chemicals; MIT $7 million on all-liquid metal grid-scale batteries; FastCAP Systems (Cambridge) $5.3 million to reduce the cost of hybrid and electric vehicles and of grid-scale storage; FloDesign Wind Turbine (Wilbraham) on new high efficiency shrouded wind turbines that could reduce noise and safety concerns $8.3 million ; Sun Catalytix (Cambridge) $4 million for a novel catalyst to enhance the efficiency of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. [Boston Globe, Oct 27, 09]

Fate Therapeutics

Fate Therapeutics (San Diego, CA; no SBIR) on a quest to develop techniques that make stem cell research practical for the pharmaceutical industry, has raised $30 million in a Series B round of venture financing. [Xconomy.com, Nov 16, 09]

A group of venture capitalists is investing $12M to launch Fate Therapeutics, a biotech company aiming to develop drugs that spur dormant adult stem cells to regenerate damaged tissue. The budding biotech expects to have a product in early-stage clinical trials by next year [Angel Gonzalez, Seattle Timers, Nov 30]

FEI

FEI said that its fourth-quarter bookings beat its forecast by more than 13 percent. [The Oregonian, Jan 6, 09]

The vanguard of Oregon's nanotechnology industry was the state's best-performing stock in the first quarter. Shares of FEI Co. leapt 37% as it shocked investors with unexpectedly strong sales and a profit surge. [Oregonian, Apr 1, 07]

FEI lost 14% after reporting a fourth-quarter loss and saying it ended merger talks with Germany's Carl Zeiss. FEI had one Navy SBIR Phase 2 in 1993 five years after the Phase 1. Note: the SBIR law imposes no time limit on Phase 2.

Feuz Manufacturing (Rotterdam NY)

GE is suing a former supplier from for allegedly stealing trade secrets ... Feuz Manufacturing (Rotterdam NY; no SBIR), made parts that GE Energy used in the manufacturing of gas turbines, including pins, rotors and other turbine parts. GE claims that Feuz used GE's engineering designs to make parts that it sold to GE competitors. [Albany Times-Union, Sep 29]

Fiber & Sensor Technologies (Blacksburg, VA)

Though Murphy had flunked out of Virginia Western Community College three times when he first started working with glass and light, he was smart. He had a knack for making things work better and was notorious for juicing up motorcycles he raced with friends. A would-be electrical engineer who skipped his own studies, Murphy was known as a slacker who would shout out answers to complicated math problems as he wandered the halls of his high school, from which he graduated third from the bottom in class of 430. [Nicholas Johnston, Washington Post, Dec 16,02] Not an auspicious start for an entrepreneur, or is it notice that the education system lacks something? This Murphy founded Luna Innovations (Blacksburg, VA) to mine technology from Va Tech. It started in 1990 as Fiber & Sensor Technologies which submitted lots of SBIR proposals to embed optical fibers in almost anything, winning at least 22 Phase 2s and another 15 or so recent Phase 1s which are candidates for Phase 2. .Why not? Feeding 100 employees is no small task. He also has five commercial companies funded privately with another 50 employees. Murphy paid hsi dues to the academics by eventually getting an MEE from Virginia Tech. Whether his tech transfer entrepreneuring returns much to Tech remains to be seen, but it at least makes a good human interest story. Like most TT stories, the emotional outweigs the economic.

Fiber Materials (Biddeford, ME)

former president of Fiber Materials (Biddeford, ME; $13M SBIR) agreed to plead guilty to federal charges arising from a bribery scheme .... accused of orchestrating a conspiracy that involved two officials at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command. He faces up to 20 years in prison. ... Prosecutors say [he] and the officials agreed to split and personally use money earmarked for missile defense contracts. [They] have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. .... Most of the material delivered by [sub-contractor] was worthless, a fact that [the Army officials] covered up while continuing to funnel earmarked money to [his] sham companies in return for a share of the gains [AP, Jan 24] Fiber had a very nice business in ICBM nose cones until the Cold War stopped.

Earmarks Too Tempting. Two former missile-command officials pleaded guilty early this year in federal court to public-corruption and conspiracy charges. Their plea agreements detail a conspiracy in which politically connected defense contractors that lobbied for congressional funding, called earmarks, bribed the officials to steer the funds to sham subcontractors.... The Army Space and Missile Defense Command (the Army's Star Wars component) awards some $500 million a year in research work. In some years as much as one-third of the funds is directed by members of Congress through earmarks or other means to contractors in this military boomtown. Two SBIR firms have been named in news reports of the ongoing probe: Vicus Technologies (Kennebunk, ME; $2M SBIR), and Fiber Materials (Biddeford, ME; $13M SBIR) [John Wilke, Wall Street Journal, Apr 14]

Intermat (Biddeford, ME; $400K SBIR) landed a $12M contract for materials science R&D for the U.S. Navy. [Mass High Tech, Jan 23, 08] The company is a subsidiary of nosecone materials expert Fiber Materials (17 Phase 2 SBIRs and counting) whose prospects were substantially dimmed by the standown of US ICBMs after the Cold War.

Fibersense (Canton, MA)

Fibersense had three SBIR Phase 1s to engineer GPS navigation units for missiles, was bought by Northrop Grumman for $44M. (Jan 03)

FibroGen (South San Francisco, CA)

San Francisco hopes to develop the commercial zone around UCSF's Mission Bay campus with help from biotech firm FibroGen (South San Francisco, CA; $1.3M SBIR), which is participating in an incubator to help medical startups become companies..... moved to San Francisco last year and now has 250 employees, has devoted some unused space at its Mission Bay headquarters to the incubator, which has signed up five startups and has room for more, company officials said [Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle, Jul 15, 09]

Finisar (Sunnyvale, CA)

Finisar (Sunnyvale, CA; one SBIR) said it plans to offer $75 million of convertible senior notes. [Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, Oct 7, 09]

Firefly Energy

Big Yellow Batteries. Firefly Energy[Barbara Rose, Chicago Tribune, Oct 14]

First Solar

In the nearby city of Frankfurt/Oder, the factory that made the solar cells used at Lieberose, owned by First Solar, an American firm, cannot keep up with demand as one sheet of glass after another rolls down its production line. In Germany this is seen as vindication of an industrial policy that has nurtured solar power for almost a decade with incentives known as feed-in tariffs. [The Economist, Jan 9, 10]

only one American company (First Solar) among the top 10 worldwide in photovoltaic-cell production in 2008. But the European Commission does not even classify First Solar as being an "American" company, instead labeling it "international" because it does most of its production in Asia. The U.S. federal government has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in photovoltaics research and development, yet the United States accounted for only 5.6 percent of global production of photovoltaics in 2008, down from 30 percent in 1999. Chinese production, by contrast, represented only 1 percent of global output of photovoltaics in 1999. By 2008, its output had risen to 32 percent of global production. [Richard McCormack, The American Prospect, Dec 21]

First Solar down 17% [Oct 29, 09] third-quarter profit jumped 54% as the maker of thin-film solar-power modules posted higher revenue, but margins slumped on pricing pressures. As revenue missed Wall expectations, [Wall Street Journal, Oct 30]

First Solar will enter the Standard & Poor's 500 index. [Oct 1, 09]

First Solar up 11% [Sep 8, 09]

First Solar down 11% [Jul 31, 09]

FBR Capital Markets analyst Mehdi Hosseini said [First Solar's] stock will be pressured by the decline in polysilicon prices amid weak demand in Europe. [Wall Street Journal, May 27]

First Solar up 23% [Apr 30, 09] first-quarter net income more than tripled on surging revenue and margins [Wall Street Journal, May 1]

First Solar up 11% [Mar 26, 09]

First Solar up 11% [Mar 10, 09]

An Earnings Eclipse at First Solar Shares of First Solar , the Tempe (Ariz.)-based maker of photovoltaic cells, had been holding up somewhat better than the rest of the solar industry�at least until Feb. 24. That's when the company reported fourth-quarter earnings, along with a startlingly glum outlook for 2009. First Solar said it would have to help some of its customers finance upcoming projects, cutting into 2009 revenue. CEO Michael Ahearn also noted that 10% to 15% of current orders could vanish if clients default. Shares plummeted 20% over the next week and dragged down the sector. "First Solar is not immune from absolute demand destruction that is materializing in the wake of the global economic malaise," wrote Jonathan Hoopes, an analyst at research firm ThinkEquity. He recommends investors sell the stock. [Aaron Pressman, Business Week, Mar 16]

The financial crisis has wreaked havoc on the big-swinging solar stocks. Since September, solar energy stocks have lost 79% of their value, according to the Claymore/MAC Global Solar Energy Index exchange-traded fund. .... First Solar is another hot company due to its unique manufacturing process. Unlike SunPower's conventional crystalline silicon-based solar products, First Solar uses thin-film technology, which is cheaper. As a result, the Tempe, Ariz.-based company saw earnings and revenue double in 2008. For the year, First Solar reported net income of $348 million on revenues of $1.25 billion. .... Energy Conversion Devices also uses thin-film technology, but its product is different in interesting ways. Most solar panels are hard, flat planes, but ECD's product can be rolled onto roofs in strips, are lightweight, and can become part of the physical roof. .... But the nascent market likely will benefit from a number of trends, including the reduction of carbon sources, resistance to nuclear energy and the potential for renewable mandates and carbon dioxide regulations. Industry observers say those trends will lead to higher costs for conventional energy sources, while solar energy prices decrease. Says O'Rourke: "When that happens, it will be potentially explosive." [Carl Gutierrez, Forbes, Mar 6, 09]

First Solar, the darling of the photovoltaic industry, confronts new competition and a bum economy.... In an industry marked by broken promises, First Solar has been a success story. It delivered growth and big, uninterrupted profits. .... More than 100 startups are trying to bring to fruition a thin-film technology called CIGS ... Meanwhile, the cost of making traditional crystalline cells is dropping, making it easier for companies like Q-Cells and Suntech to compete with First Solar on price. Those companies saw the price of polysilicon triple to $450 per kilogram in 2008. The price is now near $100, and some expect it to fall as low as $30. ... It doesn't help build confidence that First Solar insiders are getting out. Ahearn sold half his shares over the past two years, for $380 million. [Jonathan Fahey, Forbes, Mar 16, 09]

First Solar down 22% [Feb 25, 09] fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled, but management's cautious tone during an earnings conference call dragged down shares [Wall Street Journal, Feb 26]

First Solar up 10% [Feb 24, 09]

First Solar up 10% [Jan 2, 09]

First Solar up 12% [Dec 17, 08]

First Solar up 14% [Dec 16, 08]

Green Goes Dark. One of the best-performing stocks of 2007 was none other than First Solar, up an incredible 795%. ... But wait! First, there's significant government involvement in the sector that distorts market forces. That is an immediate red flag for prospective investors. Whenever the government is involved in something, there can be no certainty. Second, green tech development cycles are becoming increasingly rapid. What seems like a great idea today could be obsolete tomorrow. For an investor in an early-stage company, your product may never get to market -- so you're staring down a significant risk of total capital loss. Finally, though we can expect more "green" spending in an Obama administration, our country still hasn't decided what the goal of green tech is [Tim Hanson, Motley Fool, Dec 9]

First Solar down 13% [Dec 9, 08]

Solar Stocks. a few standouts may shine in the long run.... the Solar Power International 2008 convention drew attendees from 70 countries and generated lines stretching out the door for parking, food, and just about everything else. ... With subsidies, First Solar's products can compete in many parts of the world with a natural gas or coal-fired power plant. ... SunPower claims the most efficient. ... Suntech Power offers scale ... But for now, The shares of even the best solar companies have fallen on hard times. [Michael Copeland, Fortune, Nov 10]

First Solar up 15% [Dec 3, 08]

First Solar down 12% [Dec 1, 08] On a stock bloodbath day

First Solar up 21% [Nov 24, 08]

First Solar up 12% [Nov 13, 08]

First Solar down 16% [Nov 12, 08]

First Solar down 14% [Nov 5, 08]

First Solar up 10% [Nov 4, 08]

First Solar up 13% [Nov 3, 08]

First Solar capitalized on the growing sustainability trend and increased production at its plants to more than double its net income and revenue in the third quarter. ... investing $25 million in installer SolarCity Corp. and signing a deal to supply the company with more than 100 megawatts of panel generation capacity. [Phoenix Business Journal, Oct 29, 08]

First Solar up 24% [Oct 30, 08]

First Solar down 10% [Oct 27, 08]

First Solar up 15% [Oct 16, 08]

First Solar down 14% [Oct 15, 08]

First Solar down 20% [Oct 7, 08]

First Solar down 10% [Oct 2, 08]

First Solar down 13% [Sep 29, 08]

First Solar down 11% [Sep 9, 08]

Thin Is In. from the Southwest to Silicon Valley to Germany. Everywhere you look, thin-film solar companies are opening new, more efficient factories. .... As First Solar scaled production up, it was able to bring its costs down. Solar producers measure their costs in terms of dollars per watt of energy produced, a formula that's a combination of the cost of producing a module and its power efficiency. Right now the best crystalline-silicon makers can sell modules at $3 to $4 a watt; First Solar can sell at around $2.40 a watt, a price the company expects to reduce steadily. ... Nanosolar announced it would begin profitably selling thin-film panels at $1 a watt. ... says he can achieve radical cost savings by directly applying photoactive chemicals with an ink composed of nanoparticles. ... [dubious] competitors pointing out that the cost of raw materials alone should make it impossible to produce $1-a-watt panels profitably. [Bryan Walsh, Time, Jun 23, 08]

First Solar stock has risen dramatically since its initial public offering in November 2006, but the threat of stiffer competition could take some of the shine off of its shares. ... trading at a price/earnings ratio of about 97.50 ... the company is vulnerable to new thin-film entrants and a potentially large drop in manufacturing costs for traditional solar makers," wrote Kaufman Bros. analyst Theodore O'Neill ... module manufacturing costs were $1.14 per watt in the first quarter, while conventional solar cells cost about $3 per watt to produce, according to Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov. The company said it aims to get its costs down to 65 cents to 70 cents per watt by 2012 at the latest [Riva Richmond, Wall Street Journal, Jun 11]

First Solar down 10% [May 1, 08]

While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America�s premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany � 540 high-paying engineering jobs � because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not. [Tom Friedman, New York Times, Apr 30]

I Saw it on TV. First Solar up 10% [Apr 4, 08] after Street wag Jim Cramer told viewers of his "Mad Money" TV show, "When it comes to solar stocks, there's only going to be one winner," Thursday. And that winner is First Solar " [theStreet.com, Apr 4]

First Solar up 12% [Mar 11, 08]

First Solar down 10% [Mar 10, 08]

First Solar up 30% [Feb 13, 08] as fourth-quarter net income surged amid falling manufacturing costs and soaring demand [Wall Street Journal, Feb 14]

First Solar up 10% [Feb 11, 08]

First Solar down 10% [Jan 23, 08]

First Solar down 11% [Jan 16, 08]

First Solar up 10% [Nov 29, 07] to 173 times earnings.

First Solar up 11% [Nov 16, 07]

First Solar down 15% [Nov 12, 07].

First Solar up 34% as blasted past its earning estimates and drew cheers from analysts. [MarketWatch, Nov 8, 07]

First Solar up 14% as investors sang "Good Day Sunshine" upon learning that the solar energy company's new deals will bring more sales. ... First Solar's thin film solar panels use Cadmium Telluride. Others use mixtures of other materials, such as copper, indium and gallium. [Carl Gutierrez, Forbes, Nov 6, 07]

refined silicon, the most costly and crucial element in solar panels, has been in short supply for the past four years. There are only about a half-dozen companies world-wide that purify silicon .. and they haven't built new refineries fast enough to keep up with rising demand. ... First Solar recently came to market with the first "thin-film" solar panels that use only 1% of the silicon found in conventional solar panels. The firm's revenues are booming ... Despite decades of hype and hope, solar still accounts for less than 1% of the world's energy needs and is significantly more expensive than coal-generated power. It costs 35 to 45 cents to produce a kilowatt-hour of electricity from solar panels, compared with about three to five cents burning coal [Leila Abboud, Wall Street Journal, Sep 21]

Overpriced and dependent on subsidy said Barron's about First Solar stock prospects. [its] technology is more cost-effective than competitors, it still falls short of the huge potential for Solar 2.0, a thin-solar energy technology based on chemicals and vapor deposition. First Solar is also highly dependent on European government subsidies, especially in Germany, which said two weeks ago it wants to cut subsidies further for solar ... Barron's also identified five 'green' stocks to watch that it believes may either be acquisition targets or become household names in their own right. SunPower, Environmental Power, Fuel Tech, Pico Holdings, and Composite Technology [Reuters, Jul 15] At 500 times earnings, it's easy to see overpricing.

First Solar rocketed 24% after announcing $1.6B in new business. [Jul 9, 07]

Motley Fool is flogging First Solar as an Unloved Growth Stock with a low short interest and a 65% expected annual profit growth rate. And SunPower for a 40% growth rate. Thatsalotta growth. [Jun 07]

Investors took a shine to First Solar, lifting its shares a day after the solar-cell maker said it swung to a quarterly profit that trumped Wall Street's expectations. [AP, May 4, 07]

First Solar up 11%. [Mar 12, 07] after being included in NASDAQ Clean Edge Index.

First Solar jumped 28% on surprise high profits and plans to supply products for a solar-power plant in Germany. It started life in Toledo with a 1999 DOE Phase 2 SBIR (just one, thank you, we're a serious business) for its CdTe technology and now has a $3B market cap in Phoenix (where the sun shines more). The stock price is now up 75% from its first trading three months ago.

First Solar rose 23% after its IPO [Nov 17, 06]. The new technology is photovoltaics from CdTe, a favored material for IR sensors. Good news for American jobs from the one Phase 2 SBIR? Not quite. Earlier this year FSLR got 45M euros worth of breaks to build a 400-worker plant in Germany.

Fisker Automotive

Uncle VC. DOE had a bolder idea ... Fisker Automotive, a two-year-old business that has yet to sell a car, won loans from the federal government totaling $528 million. Fisker had joined a flock of other businesses seeking cash from the biggest venture capitalist of all, the U.S. government. The DOE hopes to lend or give out more than $40 billion to businesses working on "clean technology," ... In the first nine months of 2009, the DOE doled out $13 billion in loans and grants to such firms. By contrast, venture-capital firms .. poured just $2.68 billion into the sector in that time, according to data tracker Cleantech Group. ... The result is an intertwining of public and private-sector interests in an arena where politics is never far from the surface. [Neil King, Wall Street Journal, Dec 15] Government's track record as a VC doesn't suggest much hope for success in picking economic "winners". Its two-plus decades of SBIR deliberately shuns any economic evaluation, and the $500+ million to the start-up auto company is to re-open a big Delaware (home of the VPOTUS) auto assembly factory amid a world over-capacity for auto production.

Flex Biomedical (Madison, WI)

Aldevon (Fargo, ND; no SBIR), maker of DNA and protein products is putting a research and sales operation in [Wisconsin] .... founded by two ND State U graduates, has more than 70 employees, and provides products and services to pharmaceutical companies and diagnostic test-makers. ... also welcomed to Wisconsin: RJA Dispersions (no SBIR), VitalMedix (no SBIR) and Rapid Diagnostek (no SBIR), from Minnesota; Flex Biomedical (one SBIR) and Exact Sciences (no SBIR), from Massachusetts; NanoMedex ($1M SBIR), from Florida; and Inviragen ($2M SBIR) from Colorado. Biotechnology is the fastest-growing segment of the Wisconsin economy, with an annualized growth rate of nearly 7%, [Gov] Doyle said in a statement. The sector has 400 companies in the state with 34,000 employees.

Six start-ups will be recognized for making strides to commercialization at a biotech industry summit in October. ... part of a one-day Biotechnology Vision Summit 2009 that is being run by BioForward, an organization that represents Wisconsin's biotech industry. AquaMost LLC (Madison, WI; one SBIR) , Echometrix (Madison, WI; no SBIR), Flex Biomedical Inc(Madison, WI; one SBIR), Semba Biosciences (Madison, WI; no SBIR), Invivosciences LLC (Wauwatosa, WI; no SBIR), and Rapid Diagnostek Inc (Hudson, WI; no SBIR). [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Sep 22, 09]

Flex Biomedical (Madison, WI; one SBIR) developing treatments and diagnostics for orthopedic diseases, said that it has raised $985,000, including a $150,000 loan from the state's Technology Venture Fund, and that it is moving its operations from Boston to Madison. [Guy Boulton, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Aug 12, 09]

Flexion Therapeutics (Woburn, MA)

Flexion Therapeutics (Woburn, MA; no SBIR) said it has completed a Series A financing round totaling $33 million. "The funds will be used to advance a number of promising drug candidates through clinically meaningful proof of concept and beyond," Flexion said in a press release. [Boston Globe, Oct 16, 09]

FLIR Systems

Flir Systems said it has acquired Directed Perception (Burlingame, CA; no SBIR) for $20 million in an all-stock deal. ... Directed Perception makes pan-tilt motion control systems for commercial and military markets. [Portland Business Journal, Dec 27, 09]

A federal judge in Texas on Monday threw out most of a trade secret theft case brought by defense giant Raytheon Co. against a subsidiary of Wilsonville-based Flir Systems, Inc. Raytheon sued Indigo Systems Corp. in March 2007 claiming it had hired dozens of Raytheon employees over time to learn trade secrets of its infrared cameras. Flir bought Goleta, Calif.-based Indigo in 2004. [Brent Hunsberger, The Oregonian, Sep 1, 09]

Flir Systems has been chosen for inclusion in the Standard & Poor�s 500 index. [Portland Business Journal, Dec 31, 08]

FLIR Systems will replace National City in the Nasdaq bellwether index.

InsiderInsights.com is keeping 30% of his model portfolio in cash and adding a short position in Flir Systems, maker of thermal imaging systems for military, law-enforcement and commercial uses. Starting in late October, Flir insiders, including Chairman and Chief Executive Earl Lewis, sold 430,000 shares through option exercises as Flir's stock price declined -- "a very bearish signal" that Mr. Moreland calls "selling on weakness." [David Reynolds, Wall Street Journal, Dec 3]

FLIR Systems received an $96.6 million U.S. Army contract for its stabilized multi-sensor systems. [Boston Globe, Sep 11]

War Brings Profit. Flir Systems which makes infrared night-vision cameras and heat-detection products, said first-quarter profit rose 42% on higher government-sector sales. The results, announced before markets opened Thursday, sent its shares soaring 10%. [The Oregonian, Apr 25, 08]

A federal appeals court threw out a lower court ruling that the U.S. attorney's office in Portland used tricks and deception in the prosecution of three former executives of Flir Systems ($1.6M SBIR) [The Oregonian, Apr 5, 08]

Flir Systems reported a 43% leap in sales, and announced plans to acquire Extech Instruments (Waltham MA; no SBIR) [ for $40M cash] and split Flir's stock. ... Flir is among many companies benefiting from the U.S. military's increased demand for battlefield tools and weapons [Joe Rojas-Burke, The Oregonian, Oct 26]

FLIR Systems up 14% [Oct 25, 07]

FLIR Systems landed a $25M Navy deal for handheld, thermal imaging binoculars. [Mass High Tech, Jun 18, 08]

Spending on products suited for deployed troops in harm�s way remained the most dominant spending driver for the group. Companies such as FLIR (FLIR) and AeroVironment (AVAV) continued to see strong order flow, deliver strong results, and have exceptionally optimistic outlooks for 2008. [Jeff Saut, minyanville.com, Oct 22]

Forbes's annual list of the best 200 small companies had several SBIR awardees: Ceradyne #12, Flir Systems 37, II-IV 58, ATMI 69, ViaSat 90, Surmodics 105, Micrel 149, OPNET Tech 167.

Flir Systems was rated number 3 among mid-cap public companies by Forbes magazine. Cymer was #44. [Sep 07]

Flir Systems (Wilsonville OR; $1.6M SBIR in the 1990s) won a $47.6M Navy contract to develop up to 700 handheld imagers for U.S. Special Operations forces. ... From its 24 employees when it won its first SBIR, it has grown to 1900 employees with a $3.6B market cap. [Mass High Tech, Sep 25]

Flir Systems [$1.5M SBIR in the 1990s] said it believes company stock options that vested between 1996 and 2001 were improperly recorded [The Oregonian, Nov 10]

FloDesign Wind Turbine (Wilbraham, MA)

Using features from jet engines, FloDesign Wind Turbine (Wilbraham, MA; one SBIR on gun muzzle flash suppression) created a compact prototype three times more efficient at turning wind into electricity than today's three-bladed windmills. ... also received funding from the U.S. Energy Dept., hopes to raise an additional $25 million later this year. [Business Week, Oct 29]

FlowCardia

FlowCardia, a medical-device maker building catheter systems that bore holes in blood clots, raised $30 million in a third funding round; [Matt Marshall, Venture Beat, Sep 5, 07]

FlowMedica (Fremont,CA)

AngioDynamics (Queensbury, NY; no SBIR) a medical device manufacturer paid $1.75 million for the assets of a similar, smaller company in California. ... the assets of FlowMedica (Fremont,CA; no SBIR), backed by venture capitalists. FlowMedica, founded in 2002, is developing ways to deliver drugs to kidneys to keep the organs functioning after certain medical procedures. [The Business review (Albany), Jan 13, 09]

FlowMetrix (Maynard, MA)

Flow Metrix (Maynard MA) is being bought by Itron for its advanced leak detection systems for underground pipelines of which the US has 900,000 miles of buried water pipe that lose about 10% of their treated water through pipeline leaks. [Itron Press release, Aug 16, 06] Flow had two Phase 2 SBIRs from NSF. Sale price a secret.

Fluidic Energy (Scottsdale, AZ)

Zinc-air batteries, which use zinc metal as the anode and an alkaline paste as the electrolyte, are simple, inexpensive, nontoxic, and long-�lasting. But engineers haven't been able to figure out how to recharge them. Cody Friesen, an associate professor of materials science at Arizona State University, solved the problem by using a porous electrode and a liquid solution of zinc ions and additives as the electrolyte. He cofounded Fluidic Energy (Scottsdale, AZ; no SBIR) in 2007 to commercialize the design, and outside testing of its commercial prototype is planned for late fall. [Neil Savage, MIT Tech Review, Sep/Oct09]

Fluidigm (South San Francisco, CA)

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency, has awarded $1B so far in research money. SBIR companies got $10M of it. Bio Time (Berkeley, CA; $300K SBIR) $4.7M; Vistagen Therapeutics (Burlingame, CA; $600K SBIR) $970K; Gamma Medica Ideas (Northridge, CA; $2.8M SBIR) $950K; Vala Sciences (San Diego, CA; $3M SBIR) $900K; Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA; $4M SBIR) $870K SBIR; Fluidigm (South San Francisco, CA: $1.2M SBIR) [CIRM press release, Oct 28]

Fluid Innovation Group

Austin startup Fluid Innovation (no SBIR) is making a game out of the arduous task of software commercialization. VirtualVentures.com combines aspects of fantasy football and social networking, letting players become venture capitalists who make virtual investments. ... has five employees and an offshore development team in Brazil, is backed by $1M from private investors. [Lori Hawkins, Austin American Statesman, Sep 24]

Austin-based Fluid Innovation Group has completed a software commercialization deal with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. Founded in 2005, Fluid Innovation works with businesses and institutions to transform their software into commercial products. [Austin American-Statesman, Jan 29, 07]

FluoroPharma (Boston, MA)

FluoroPharma (Boston, MA; no SBIR) , developing molecular imaging agents for the Positron Emission Tomography market, said it has been issued a patent covering methods of imaging cardiovascular plaque formation. [Chris Reidy, Boston Globe, Jan 27, 09]

Follica (Boston, MA)

Follica (Boston, MA; no SBIR) announced a $5.5M financing to develop a novel therapy for androgenetic alopecia - male and female pattern hair loss caused by androgens in genetically susceptible men and women - and other hair follicle disorders [Boston Globe, Jan 5, 08] Not to be confused with internet hair products retailer Folica.

Footnote (Linden UT)

A tiny company is out to digitize the world, one historical document and photograph after another. And in so doing, Footnote Inc (Linden UT; no SBIR) hopes to accomplish a couple of things - bring easy Internet access to millions of documents and tap a bunch of niche populations willing to pay for that access. In January, Footnote Inc. signed a deal with the National Archives and Records Administration, the small agency that cares for billions of documents generated by the federal government since its inception. Footnote agreed to produce digital copies for the National Archives for free in exchange for allowing it to make the images available for a charge on www.footnote.com. ... Footnote is but the latest incarnation of the company that began as Automated Solutions Inc., cofounded in 1994 by David Norton but which was foundering by the end of the 1990s. Norton also was one of the founders of Iomega, a computer storage company. [Tom Harvey, Salt Lake Tribune, Sep 11]

F-Origin (Morrisville, NC)

A developer of touch-screen technology plans to use $5 million in recently raised venture capital to release its first products next year. F-Origin (Morrisville, NC; no SBIR), currently at 10 employees, expects to expand to 70 full-time workers over four years if its products take off. The company designs touch screens called "AnyTouch" that are activated by contact from an any object, such as finger, pen or piece of clothing. The screens are being designed for GPS systems, electronic books and cell phones. [Raleigh News & Observer, Jun 24]

Forma Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA)

FORMA Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) said that it has signed a collaboration agreement with Cubist Pharmaceuticals to leverage [whatever that means] FORMA's chemistry platform to discover novel antibacterial compounds for development by Cubist. [Chris Reidy, Boston Globe, Jan 27, 09]

oncology treatment startup company Forma Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) has announced that it raised $25 million to fund its expansion. Forma also announced this week its formal debut as a global drug discovery company. Forma, founded in May 2007 by researchers from the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, seeks to integrate transformative biology and chemistry to create new oncology treatments. [Marc Songini, Mass High Tech, Jan 6, 09]

Forma Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR)., a stealth biotech start-up trying to develop cancer drugs, is lifting its corporate veil. The one-year-old company, which has previously been secretive about its mission and finances, plans to disclose today it has raised $25 million in venture capital, grants, loans, and other funding over the past year - a feat that has become increasingly rare [Boston Globe, Jan 6, 09]

Chelmsford-based Mercury Computer Systems Inc. has announced its sale of the assets and intellectual property of its biotech venture, SolMap Pharmaceuticals (one SBIR), to Cambridge startup Forma Therapeutics (no SBIR) ... SolMap is a spinout from the structural bioinformatics laboratory of Sandor Vajda, a professor at Boston University. It focuses on computational and experimental fragment-based drug design to develop small-molecule, therapeutic drugs. [Mass High Tech, Oct 2, 08]

Foster-Miller (Waltham, MA)

Protonex Technology (Southborough, MA; $2M SBIR) said its fuel-cell power system has been successfully tested in a Talon military robot from Foster-Miller. [Boston Globe, Apr 21]

Foster-Miller has been awarded $58.5 million in funding for additional Talon military robots and replacement parts, its parent company, QinetiQ North America, said today. The total represents awards from the US Army and Navy made during the six-month period from May 1 to Nov. 1, [Boston Globe, Dec 2, 08]

Foster-Miller (Waltham, MA; 8 tons of SBIR) landed a $400 M deal from the Army for Talon robots, parts and services. [Mass High Tech, May 29,08]

Foster-Miller sold the Navy another $51M worth of robots. [Aug 10, 07]

Foster-Miller got another $18M robot order from the Navy. [Mass High-Tech, Jun 11, 07]

Foster-Miller acquired robotics companies Automatika Inc. and Applied Perception Inc. -- both based in Pittsburgh for an undisclosed price. [Mass High Tech, Apr 24]

Foster Miller got another robot contract: Navy, $26M in an installment on the $257M 2005 defense contract.

The Talon by Foster-Miller has emerged as one of stars of this new class of robots. ... Marine Colonel Edward Ward is division chief in the Robotic Systems Joint Project Office...said that his group has put 400 Talons into service, while the company said that other military purchases of the systems, which cost more than $100,000 apiece, put the number of its robots sent to Iraq and Afghanistan above 800 ... Talon's biggest competitor is the better-known iRobot [Jeffrey Krasner, Boston Globe, Mar 12] Did SBIR help Talon substantially? Hard to tell since Foster-Miller had so-o many SBIRs.

Foster-Miller, formerly of SBIR notoriety, got a $10M UKMOD subcontract for armor. Foster-Miller was founded in 1956 by three MIT graduates, and is now a subsidiary of U.K.-based QinetiQ Holdings Ltd.

Foster-Miller, the former SBIR consumption champ, got a $64 M and a $28 M Navy contract, the larger to build robots and robotic parts for U.S. Navy repair teams deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. [Mass High Tech, May 23]

Foster-Miller got a $133M order for spare parts and service for its Talon robot. That's on top of a recent deal of $96M for up to 1,200 robots over seven years, with a total award of $124 million, then the largest order in the company�s history. Foster-Miller is a leading supplier of explosive ordnance robots for missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, completing more than 50,000 missions. [Mass High Tech, Sep 20] FMI was the undisputed champion of collecting SBIR money before it was bought out by a large firm.

Foster-Miller plans to buy PSI (Reston, VA) $42M in a move to be a bigger DOD contractor, pushing 700 folks. Foster-Miller was the champion SBIR harvester until being bought by a British firm which is apparently looking for a bigger footprint in DOD business. Three MIT graduates founded Foster-Miller nearly 50 years ago. [story in Mass High Tech, Aug 2, 05]$152,596,023 is how much Foster-Miller got in DOD SBIRs by Sep 8 postings in the DOD database according to a spreadsheet painstakingly assembled for 678 line-by-lines by an interesting observer. SBA records show 679 projects (lumping Phase 1 and Phase 2 as one project) of which about 80% are DOD. That's about another $35M for a grand total approaching $200M. Maybe the best economic story to emerge from all that money was when Parvis Tayebati left FMI to start his own company, got a couple of SBIRs, and five years later sold his company for $1.6B in overvalued stock of an info-tech biggie. Would such economic success have ever happened if he had stayed at FMI with those same SBIR awards? As Fox News would say, "We Report, You Decide".

Heavyweight Champ to Retire. Foster-Miller, the biggest user of SBIR, will sell itself to a British organization for $163M by Britain's QinetiQ Group PLC, a public-private partnership with the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense. If the SBA would publish what the Brits call league tables, we would see that FMI has had about three gazillion dollars in mostly defense SBIR money since SBIR began in 1983. SBA doesn't publish such stats because it would reveal how concentrated the SBIR money is in companies who live on SBIR, although FMI relied on regular SBIR for only a part of its revenue and accepted the relatively low net profit margin to get another foot in the DOD door. Tons of startup companies can rejoice that the champ has liberated a lot of SBIR money for them. The buyer QinetiQ is now one-third owned by Carlyle Group, the Washington investment firm whose executives include many retired US officials. Carlyle's role is to help QinetiQ prepare for an initial public offering of stock by 2007. [Ross Kerber, Boston Globe, Sep 8]

Foster-Miller (the SBIR champ) got a $9M contract from the Federal Railroad Administration for more work in locomotive crashworthiness and fuel tank safety. Foster-Miller has been creating computerized simulations of collisions involving rail equipment since 1995. These simulations are used to analyze different types of railroad accidents so that designers are able to minimize injury and improve crash worthiness through design modifications. In 2000, Foster-Miller opened a 5,000-square-foot, full-scale Locomotive Test Facility in Fitchburg, with a 1-million-pound loading test fixture capable of handling 40,000-pound test locomotives. Following modeling and testing in Fitchburg, Foster-Miller conducts full-scale railroad crash tests at a government facility in Pueblo, Colo. [Mass High-Tech, Dec 23] Foster Miller is a regular winner of the few DOT SBIRs awarded.

When rescue conditions are too unsafe for dogs or humans, send in a robot. In the WTC clean-up one robot was supplied by SBIR champ Foster-Miller (Waltham, MA), says Ryan Malkin in Smart Money (Dec 01). I suppose SBIR could take some credit, at least for keeping FMI alive and well for two decades of SBIR totalling well over $100M.

Coming soon to a pub near you: beer in a plastic-screw top bottle. Rick Lusignea, president of Superex Polymer Inc.. a subsiudiary of SBIR champ Foster-Miller., said the Waltham company is working with a consortium of beer bottlers and brewing companies to apply its specialized polymer film in creating the world�s first plastic beer bottles. The whole idea of packaging beer in plastic bottles has been on the shelf for 10 years, Lusignea said. Superex�s innovative way to make a polymer known as liquid crystal polymers (LCPs). In the past, plastic bottles have been shunned by brewers because oxygen seeping through the plastic changes the flavor of the beer long before its carbonation is surrendered. LCPs, however, have a much stronger barrier to keep out oxygen than previous plastics; ... LCPs were developed by Air Force engineers 20 years ago. Their stiffness, strength and resistance to water and vapor infiltration made LCPs an attractive candidate for a diverse set of products. The early process for making the polymers, however, was troublesome. Under a federal grant, many SBIR's that is, Foster-Miller began exploring ways to solve the problem in 1983. Foster-Miller created Superex in 1993 and assigned Lusignea to begin exploring the market opportunities of the technology. The first real-world application of Superex�s LCP technology is in the medical device field, where a New York company called Precision Extrusions is making and selling LCP tubular products for endoscopic instruments. The product has attracted interest from device makers because it is five times stronger than conventional tubing and has electrical insulating qualities. The big market opportunity, however, is plastic beer bottles. The U.S. produces some 54 million units of beer per year; the worldwide market is three times larger. Lusignea does not expect LCP-lined plastic bottles to compete head-on with glass bottles and cans that are cheap, but he said it does offer advantages that have brewers and packagers interested. [Mass High-Tech, Jan 17] With enough SBIR and enough time, many things are possible. Especially if the supplier of the R&D funds has no economic goals and no need for an ROI.The gripe from the SBIR rejectees is that they could have gotten a much larger ROI with a lot less money. But the funding source, your USAF, ignores such arguments.

Not Just the Army Loves Foster-Miller. A quick look at the Navy's SBIR Data Base shows that 1991-1997 Foster-Miller has won 67 Phase 1s and 15 Phase 2s. And across all DOD 1983-1996, 101 Phase 2s and 180 Phase 1s, for a total something like $70M of innovation. A start-up needing government succor? As an FMI manager said at a recent SPIE Conference Foster-Miller is a 40-year old engineering services firm. Could your start-up stand that much prosperity and do you think you might be getting crowded out by FMI, however competent. Has the Law of Diminishing Returns been repealed in Massachusetts and the results accepted by the DOD?

Foster-Miller Suit
(Oct 27) Foster-Miller (Waltham, MA) has a product. Actually FMI has quite a few products after $70M of SBIR handout. The latest product is an air-conditioned firefighter's suit pictured in The Futurist November 1997. What FMI doesn't have is any visible and compelling evidence that all that money was a smart investment by the government in a competitive investment program. Nor does the government seem anxious to raise the issue. Instead, it poured another $10M last year into the firm. But that's not FMI's problem; the public holds the government accountable for how the money was invested. For now, both FMI and the government hope the public is asleep or will accept a warm fuzzy story of good R&D by a highly competent firm.

Foster-Miller Nets a Product
(May23) Shoot-a-net got a Business Week (May26) story for the national champ ($60M) SBIR consumer. A DARPA project for a shell that fires a Nonlethal Entanglement Technology (such bureaucratic words must fit into a pistol shell) from a fat police pistol. Is that high-tech as envisioned by SBIR's inventors? Close enough; at least it's a product with some sales potential which was the real goal (other than just pushing contract business to a constituency).

Fractal Antenna Systems (Bedford, MA)

Fractal Antenna Systems (Bedford , MA; one Phase 2 SBIR) says it got its 13th patent, [Mass High Tech, Sep 13]

Free Flow Power

Free Flow Power, a New England startup company, wants to harness the mighty river for a secondary purpose � generating electricity. ... pursuing a $3 billion plan to install thousands of small electric turbines in the river bed, reaching from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico that would collectively generate 1,600 megawatts of electricity � enough to power 1.5 million homes. [Jeffrey Tomich, St Louis Post Dispatch, Apr 1, 08] But capitalistic innovations of technology are not free to enter the marketplace without considering any public downside that would have been ignored under Cal Coolidge's "The business of America is business." In this case, taking energy from the river will slow the flow with consequences not immediately apparent. But if the idea gathers enough energy at an acceptable cost, more such installations would follow until the river nearly stopped. The Western gold and silver rushes provide an example of unrestrained extraction.

FTL Solar

Alternative energy startup FTL Solar said that it is finalizing $15 million of a planned $40 million funding goal, and it is expanding its line of solar-powered shelters. ... formed two years ago after spinning out of FTL Design Engineering Studio, a New York-based pioneer in building integrated fabric structures. [Austin American Statesman, Nov 6, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy

Fuel Cell Energy up 11% [Dec 31, 09]

FuelCell Energy up 16% [Dec 29, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy said it has expanded an existing deal with a South Korean power provider that will use the Connecticut company's hardware to manufacture fuel cell stacks. .. the additional demand would justify expansion of its Danbury operations. ... includes an upfront license fee of $10 million and an ongoing royalty, initially set at 4.1 percent of revenues generated by POSCO's sales of the fuel cell stack modules. [Eric Gershon, Hartford Courant, Oct 31, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy up 11% [Sep 14, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy up 12% [Aug 19, 09]

Fuel Cell down 10% [Jun 10, 09]

Fuel Cell up 19% [Jun 9, 09]

FuelCell Energy said that it is partnering with a South Korean power producer to sell the main components of its fuel cell generators in the country. As part of the agreement, POSCO Power, an independent power producer based in Seoul, has ordered $58 million worth of fuel cell manufacturing equipment -- enough to build 30.8 megawatts of fuel cell power generation in the country. ... also agreed to buy $25 million worth of FuelCell Energy common stock at $3.59 a share once the licensing agreement is finalized. [Lynn Doan, Hartford Courant, Jun 9, 09]

Fuel Cell up 13% [Apr 9, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy down 17% [Mar 27, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy up 11% [Mar 23, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy up 15% [Mar 11, 09]

Fuel Cell down 20% [Mar 5, 09]

Fuel Cell down 14% [Mar 2, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy up 14% [Feb 24, 09]

Fuel Cell down 12% [Feb 23, 09]

FuelCell Energy said that it has sold a 300-kilowatt power plant to the Marine Corps to be installed at its largest training center.
No price was disclosed. The plant, running off hydrogen fuel and oxygen from the air, will generate electricity to power the combat center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., and feed heat into the base's steam line to provide hot water and space heating. [Hartford Courent, Feb 24, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy down 10% [Jan 14, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy up 15% [Jan 13, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy down 10% [Jan 12, 09]

Fuel Cell Energy up 10% [Dec 16, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy down 24% [Dec 4, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy up 12% [Dec 3, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy up 21% [Nov 26, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy up 37% [Nov 24, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy up 11% [Nov 21, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy up 12% [Nov 13, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy down 15% [Nov 6, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy up 11% [Oct 28, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy down 12% [Oct 22, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy up 14% [Oct 17, 08]

Fuel Cell up 26% [Oct 16, 08]

Fuel Cell down 15% [Oct 15, 08]

Fuel Cell down 14% [Oct 14, 08]

Fuel Cell up 23% [Oct 13, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy up 23% [Oct 10, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy down 15% [Oct 9, 08]

Fuel Cell down 22% [Oct 8, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy up 16% [Sep 30, 08]

Fuel Cell Energy down 17% [Sep 29, 08]

FuelCell Energy down 10% [Aug 29, 08]

FuelCell Energy ($3M SBIR) down 13% after the company reported a fiscal third-quarter loss wider than analysts expected. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 29]

Fuel Tech (Batavia IL)

Fuel Tech (Batavia IL; no SBIR; 137 employees) up 17% after winning a $7.2 million contract from a Midwest utility for its "clean-burning" coal technology. [Wall Street Journal, Oct 18]

Galleon Pharmaceuticals (Philadelphia, PA)

Galleon Pharmaceuticals (Philadelphia, PA; no SBIR) raised $15 million in a private financing. [Philadelphia Business Journal, Dec 31, 08]

Gamma Medica Ideas (Northridge, CA)

Gelesis

Gelesis Inc. reports it has raised $16 M in its first round of venture financing to advance its treatment for obesity. Yet founders of the firm aren't releasing details about the company's technology. Gelesis was formed in 2006 with technology developed, and still manufactured, in Israel, [Mass High Tech, Jan 3, 08]

Geltech (Orlando, FL)

Geltech Bought
(Aug 28) LightPath (Albuquerque, NM) says it will buy Geltech (Orlando, FL) for $27.5M plus $1.7M debt. Geltech manufactures precision-molded aspherical optics, which couple laser diode sources to fibers or waveguides for telecom applications. The company also makes sol-gel waveguides and recently launched a range of diffractive gratings and lens arrays for DWDM multiplexing - a market estimated to be worth USD 3.3 billion by 2003. Geltech got its start in sol-gel processing from Star Wars before it got any SBIR. Since 1987 Geltech has had only three Phase 2 SBIRs (two from BMDO).

GelTech 5-Yr Deal GelTech 5-Yr Deal Geltech (Orlando, FL) announced a five year $manyM deal (biggest ever) to supply "micro lenses" to Seagate Technology, the world's largest maker of computer disk drives. Geltech has 95 employees, up from 40 a year ago. The technology uses lasers, fiber optics and tiny precision lenses to create high-density electronic storage in disk drives. Seagate said that Geltech has been instrumental in making the new technology possible. Geltech develops lenses -- no larger than the head of a pin -- that focus laser light with extraordinary precision. [Orlando Bus Journal, Mar 9] Geltech has had about $2.5M of DOD SBIR and had early money while still a university effort from StarWars research for its solgel lens technology and 1987 Phase 2 from AFOSR which was SDI's agent at the time for that technology under Don Ulrich (deceased). In those days, SDI was intensely interested in new technology since it didn't take SDI long to figure out that an anti-missile defense could not be built from the normal incremental technology improvements in military R&D. Its second Phase 2 was from BMDO in 1993. (SBA doesn't provide a government-wide search.)

GEMFIRE (Palo Alto, CA)

Gemfire gets big backers. Integrated-optical-component maker Gemfire (Palo Alto, CA) has raised more than $63M in its Series C round of funding from a variety of blue chip and venture investors, including Cisco Systems, Corning, Finisar, Intel Capital, and TriQuint Semiconductor. This brings the total investment in the new company to date to more than $85M. Gemfire's new products integrate passive and active functions on one optical chip. [Laser Focus World, March 16]

Gemfire for Bright Displays
(Palo Alto, CA) will exploit Deacon Research's polymeric thin panel display for low-cost direct-view, 100-inch displays for a $100B market. To get its high brightness, flexibility, efficiency, ruggedness, and viewing angle, laser light is guided to the display pixels in a thin film on a plastic substrate, using an array of optical waveguide switches. The use of polymer based materials allows the display to be extremely rugged and shock resistant, flexible, paper-thin and featherweight, and for applications requiring the viewer to "see through" the display to be transparent. GEMFIRE will manufacture display systems for special low volume applications and then license the technology to a few strong partner companies. Deacon had several BMDO SBIR's with a growing match ratio after graduating from the Free-Electron laser business.

Gemmus Pharma (San Francisco, CA)

Gemmus Pharma (San Francisco, CA; no SBIR), a five-person startup that is developing drugs to treat the flu, is one of the companies subleasing space from FibroGen [Tom Abate, San Francisco Chronicle, Jul 15, 09]

Genaera (NYC, NY)

MacroChem (Wellesley Hills, MA; three SBIRs) has purchased the license to a treatment for diabetic foot infection. MacroChem executives report the company has exercised an option to acquire exclusive worldwide license rights for pexiganan, a novel, small peptide anti-infective, from New York City-based Genaera Corp (three SBIRs). [Mass High Tech, Oct 4, 07]

Genelabs Technologies (Redwood City, CA)

GlaxoSmithKlineentered into a definitive agreement to buy Genelabs Technologies (Redwood City, CA; $3.5M SBIR) for $57 million. [Pittsburgh Business Times, Oct 30, 08] The stock traded as high as 15 in 2004 and under a buck recently.

Gene Logic (Gaithersburg MD)

Gene Logic (Gaithersburg MD; no SBIR) is selling its genomics business for $10M to Ocimum Biosolutions (Hyderabad, India with US HQ in Indianapolis) [Indianapolis Star, Oct 17, 07] founded 1994; $24M IPO 1997; $248M public stock offering 2000 [company website]; current market cap $33M; total loss for last three years $130M.

Generex Biotechnology (Worcester, MA)

Biotech drugmaker Generex Biotechnology (Worcester, MA; no SBIR) reported positive results for a mid-stage study of its experimental cancer vaccine. [AP, Dec 15, 09]

Genesis Laboratories (Wellington, CO)

Genesis Laboratories (Wellington, CO; $500K SBIR) says it has received a $5.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop new methods to control a parasite-caused disease in India. [Denver Business Journal, Apr 24, 09]

Genex

thanks to Genex Technologies Inc., a company now owned by Markland Technologies Inc. of Providence, RI .. a provider of facial recognition and 3-D imaging technology and intelligent surveillance based in Maryland, will provide Naval center with its OmniEye Cerberus system, a multi-sensor, reconfigurable system designed for long distance infrared and visible detection. [Mass High Tech, Sep 15] Genex got its early start in 3-D technology with SBIR from, you guessed it, BMDO back in BMDO's venture capital days when founder Jason Geng was one of two employees. In all it has had about $8M in SBIR. Its website claims nearly 30 employees and impressive annual revenues. Jason no longer appears on either the management team nor the board of advisors did up until 2004 His name does now show up as a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Before he founded Genex, he was Director of Research and Development at Intelligent Automation, a huge consumer of SBIR, where he won about $800K of DOD SBIR in the early 90s including a neural network Phase 2 from BMDO. Markland is a homeland security company with a cross-country history: incorporated in 1995 as A.P. Sales, Inc. in Colorado, redomiciled to Florida in 1998 under the name of Quest Net Corporation and further changed its name to Markland Technologies, Inc. in 2001 in Ridgefield, CT. The stock trades for a nickel a share.

Genomic Health

Genomic Health down 18% [May 6, 09]

Genomic Health down 12% [Apr 15, 09]

Genomic Health down 10% [Oct 15, 08]

Genomic Health up 10% [Oct 13, 08]

Genomic Health up 15% [Feb 6, 08] on better than expected financial results.

Genomic Health up 10% [Jan 14, 08]

GenomeQuest (Westborough, MA)

GenomeQuest (Westborough, MA; no SBIR), a developer of sequence data management software for genome-based research, has received $3.1 million in an offering of equity and warrants ... �There�s been a 10,000-fold increase in the last three years in the volume of data generated per instrument,� said GenomeQuest CEO Ron Ranauro in a June interview with Mass High Tech. �Now we can interrogate every DNA molecule against all known knowledge bases, when before only a fraction could be sequenced.� [Mass High Tech, Dec 16, 09]

Genoptix Medical Laboratory (Carlsbad, CA)

Genoptix, (Carlsbad, CA; $1M SBIR) laboratory that helps doctors diagnose certain types of cancer.... has grown rapidly. In a little more than a decade since its founding, it has grown to more than 400 employees with $135.3 million in revenue during the first nine months of last year.... [founder Tina] Nova co-founded San Diego-based life science companies Ligand Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA; one SBIR) and Nanogen (San Diego, CA; $1M SBIR) [Thomas Kupper, San Diego Union Tribune, Jan 11, 10]

Genoptix (Carlsbad, CA; $1M SBIR) up 15% [Jul 31, 09] a lab-service provider, reported second-quarter earnings and revenue above Wall Street estimates and boosted its earnings and revenue guidance for 2009. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 1]

Genoptix (Carlsbad, CA; $1M SBIR), that helps oncologists determine the proper treatment for people with blood cancers, topped a list of the region's fastest-growing companies compiled by the Deloitte & Touche accounting firm. [Terri Somers, San Diego Union-Tribune Oct 11, 08]

Shares of laboratory-services company Genoptix (Carlsbad, CA; $1M SBIR) became the latest in a series of health-care-related companies to post large first-day trading gains, increasing 49% from its IPO price. [Wall Street Journal, Oct 31]

Genoptix Medical Laboratory, (Carlsbad, CA; $1M SBIR) registered for an $86M IPO. [Aug 3, 07]

Genor

Genor up 14% [May 14, 07] looks born to run ... the stock market's largest player in embryonic stem cell research -- could feel good long before the company discovers any miracle cures [Melissa Davis, Thestreet.com, May 14]

GenTel BioSciences (Madison, WI)

Gentel Biosciences (Madison, WI; no SBIR) maker of chips that help researchers test for proteins said Tuesday it has been invited to join a research consortium using novel technologies to gain insight into major diseases of pregnancy. ... will participate in the development of a protein test with the SCOPE (Screening for Pregnancy Endpoints) Study centers that operate in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the United States, Gentel said. [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jun 16, 09]

GenTel BioSciences (Madison, WI; no SBIR) maker of chips that help researchers test for proteins now has a revenue-producing chip on the market. ... after "The product we thought we had, failed in final testing - and a major source of investment dollars ran into some liquidity issues," Vodenlich said. A strategic change was needed [Kathleen Gallagher, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Oct 17] Company website says it has been awarded more than $2M in NIH funding for the development of novel protein arrays.

GenVec

GenVec (Gaithersburg, MD; $4M SBIR) down 13% agreed to sell $17 million worth of stock and warrants to new and current investors to raise money for operating costs and upcoming clinical trials. [ Baltimore Business Journal, Jun 6, 08]

GenVec dropped 29% after preliminary results from a trial of its TNFerade drug candidate for advanced pancreatic cancer. [Jun 4, 07]

Genzyme

Life science firms pitch optimism [CEO] of Alkermes stood before scores of potential investors yesterday and talked about two drugs - for diabetes and opiate dependency - that his Cambridge company expects to get approved in 2010. �This year is going to be a big year,�� Pops said. ... Henri Termeer defending his leadership at Genzyme as it scrambles to fix production problems, Biogen Idec�s James C. Mullen avoiding any mention of his recent decision to step down from the company�s top post - the mood was generally upbeat. ... companies have been raising more money in follow-on offerings than any time in the past decade, about $6 billion in 2009 ... Another huge market opportunity lies in a drug being developed by Vertex Pharmaceuticals to treat hepatitis C, a largely untreated virus estimated to affect about 3 million Americans and 100 million people globally. �We�re doing a lot to raise awareness of this disease,�� said new Vertex chief Matthew Emmens. [Robert Weisman, Boston Globe, Jan 14, 10] from the 28th annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco

Embattled Genzyme [CEO] told investors today that about 80 percent of patients who use Cerezyme, the company's drug for a rare genetic disorder, have resumed treatments after a supply interruption caused by a virus at its Allston Landing plant last year. [Boston Globe, Jan 12, 10]

Genzyme will move all its filling, packaging, and distribution operations out of its Allston drug manufacturing facility because of the latest problems involving contamination at the plant. [Boston Globe, Jan 5, 09]

Genzyme said it is encouraged by early test results of its drug Mozobil as part of a potential strategy to attack blood cancers. [Boston Globe, Dec 9, 09]

Drug giant Pfizer, mounting a direct challenge to Cambridge biotech Genzyme, yesterday said it will spend up to $110 million to license the global rights to a treatment being developed for the rare genetic disorder Gaucher disease. [Boston Globe, Dec 2, 09]

Isis Pharma down 17% [Nov 17, 09] An experimental drug from Isis and Genzyme cut levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol by 25% in patients with a rare genetic disorder that causes extremely high and dangerous levels of cholesterol, according to data presented today at a medical meeting. [theStreet,com, Nov 17]

Genzyme said it has been included for the first time on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. The index tracks companies that practice corporate sustainability, which is defined as a business approach that "creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental, and social developments," according to the index's website. Genzyme said it is one of only three US biotechnology companies to be selected for the index this year. [Boston Globe, Oct 3, 09]

Just days before a key meeting to consider Genzyme�s application for a new leukemia drug to treat older patients, the Food and Drug Administration released a briefing document criticizing the Cambridge biotechnology company�s clinical study of the drug, called Clolar. [Boston Globe, Aug 29, 09]

Genzyme spent five hundred million dollars developing the drug Myozyme, which is intended for a condition, Pompe disease, that afflicts fewer than ten thousand people worldwide. That�s the quintessential modern drug: a high-tech, targeted remedy that took a very long and costly path to market. Myozyme is priced at three hundred thousand dollars a year. Genzyme isn�t a mining company: its real assets are intellectual property�information, not stuff. But, in this case, information does not want to be free. It wants to be really, really expensive. [Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker, Jul 6, 09]

Genzyme said today that it has decided to scrap about 80 percent of material used to make the drug Cerezyme that it had been working on at the time a virus was discovered at its Boston manufacturing plant in June. [Boston Globe, Aug 10, 09]

Genzyme continued its descent... to close at its lowest level in more than five years. Goldman Sachs on Friday added the stock to its "conviction sell" list amid uncertainty surrounding the biotech firm's recent manufacturing problems at a large production facility. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 8, 09]/p>

Genzyme said that regulators have granted one of its drugs marketing authorization for many European countries. [Boston Globe, Aug 6, 09]

The virus hunters have arrived at Genzyme. Dozens of decontamination specialists are busy stripping insulation from pipes at the company�s biotech drug plant overlooking the Charles River in Allston. Their prep work involves dismantling equipment, peeling gaskets from the lids of 2,000-liter vats called bioreactors, and scrubbing down every surface in sight with spore-killing bleach. [Robert Weisman, Boston Globe, Jun 25, 09]

Genzyme is shutting down production at its main U.S. plant for several weeks, marking the latest manufacturing misstep for the company, which faces potential shortages of some of its best-selling drugs. The company said it acted after discovering a virus in one of six bioreactor vats used to develop drugs at the plant, which is the only facility that makes two of Genzyme's top sellers. .... Over the past year, Genzyme has been hit by other manufacturing-related concerns and the company's stock has declined 28% over the past four months. [David Armstrong, Wall Street Journal, Jun 17, 09] SBIR firms often way underestimate the intense demands of manufacturing their sweet technology for competitive markets. And the government R&D agencies typically aren't much help on the subject.

Genzyme said that the European Commission has approved Renvela in the treatment of some patients with chronic kidney disease. [Boston Globe, Jun 12, 09]

Genzyme, best known for targeting rare genetic disorders like Pompe disease and Fabry disease, is increasing its investment in drugs to treat broader diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis. .... agreed to acquire the worldwide rights to a potential multiple sclerosis treatment from Bayer HealthCare. The treatment is called Campath [Boston Globe, Apr 1, 09] will acquire a Snohomish County pharmaceutical factory for $75 million to $100 million as part of a multidrug deal with Bayer, the companies said today. [Seattle Times, Mar 31]

Genzyme said it received regulatory approval to manufacture one drug on a larger scale in Europe and to market a therapy in the United States. [Boston Globe, Feb 26, 09]

Genzyme said its experimental oral treatment for Gaucher disease, a rare genetic disorder, met the main goal of a mid-stage clinical trial. [Boston Globe, Feb 21, 09]

Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer, who marked his 25th anniversary with the Cambridge biotechnology giant this year, says he has no plans to retire. [Boston Globe, Dec 24]

Investing in People. Genzyme spent $770,000 lobbying the federal government in the third quarter, according to a recent disclosure form. [Boston Globe, Dec 9, 08]

Genzyme down 10% [Dec 1, 08] On a stock bloodbath day

Genzyme said it has asked the FDA to approve its leukemia drug Clolar for adults. The drug is already approved for a form of the disease called acute lymphoblastic leukemia in patients between 1 and 21 years old who have had at least two prior treatments. [Boston Globe, Nov 24, 08]

a first-ever deal to bring treatments to market based on adult stem cells, Genzyme has entered into a deal with Osiris Therapeutics, which will see Genzyme investing at least $130 million in Osiris � in a deal worth a potential $1.25 billion. [Mass High Tech, Nov 4, 08]

Genzyme up 13% [Oct 13, 08]

Genzyme announced the opening of its new LEED-certified science center in Framingham, today. The $125 million, 180,000-square-foot facility can house 350 employees in a building intended for the early-stage research of cancer, heart disease, genetic diseases, and endocrinology and neurological disorders. [Mass High Tech, Sep 22, 08]

Genzyme and Isis said FDA requirements will result in some delays for Mipomersen, the cholesterol-lowering antisense drug at the heart of their joint venture deal announced in January. The news sent Isis shares down 29% [thestreet.com, Apr 25, 08]

Genzyme plans to construct a 200,000-square-foot facility for research and development in Beijing [Mass High Tech, Apr 22, 08] Maybe it could get an unadulterated source of its supplies from corner-cutting Chinese factories.

In a decision that shows how difficult it is to copy complex, biologic drugs, federal regulators rejected Genzyme Corp.'s request for permission to sell in the United States a version of its Pompe disease drug, called Myozyme, that is made at its Allston manufacturing plant, the company disclosed yesterday afternoon. [Boston Globe, Apr 22]

Genzyme announced plans today to expand its manufacturing and research facilities in Ireland. The Irish government said it was offering confidential assistance to subsidize the $200M expansion [Boston Globe, Apr 1, 08]

Genzyme launched its kidney disease treatment Renvela. FDA approved the drug in October. It�s a new version of the kidney disease drug Renagel, in use since 1998. [Boston Globe, Mar 7, 08]

Genzyme announced a license agreement for exclusive rights to a lung-cancer diagnostic. [Boston Globe, Jan 16]

Genzyme said its fourth-quarter revenue rose 21%[Jan 8, 08]

Genzyme and the town of Framingham have asked state officials for a commitment of $12.5 M in state funds toward Genzyme's proposed $260 M expansion of its biologics facility in Framingham [Mass High Tech, Dec 31,07]

Genzyme reports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved another use for its thyroid cancer medication. [Dec 07]

Genzyme (Cambridge MA; $1M SBIR long ago) has agreed to pay $57M for privately held Canadian Diagnostic Chemicals Ltd.'s diagnostics unit. [Boston Globe, Nov 10]

An experimental antidiarrhea drug made by Genzyme (Boston, MA: $1M SBIR a decade ago) failed its first large test in humans, the company said yesterday, the second disappointment for the Cambridge biotechnology giant in two days. [Boston Globe, Jul 7]

GeoMed Analytical

By the time the University of Massachusetts at Boston officially opens its Venture Development Center this morning, professor Robyn Hannigan hopes to have her laser system unpacked and her lab's mercury analyzer working. Hannigan is excited by the prospect of developing her new company, GeoMed Analytical. It will be the first faculty-run firm to be launched in the new $8 million incubator, designed to nurture start-up companies that will turn UMass-Boston research into profitable products. [Boston Globe, May 1, 09]

Geomagic (RTP, NC)

Ping Fu, the CEO of Geomagic (RTP, NC; one SBIR), recognizes that most entrepreneurs are too busy running their companies to get involved in politics. But when the White House called, she jumped at the chance to provide a voice for small- and medium-size businesses. Fu was one of 50 CEOs who attended a forum Thursday in Washington about using technology to modernize government. .... she got her main point across: that any stimulus or job-creation money should be aimed largely at smaller companies, which do the bulk of the hiring. .... she co-founded in 1996 makes 3D software that allows customers such as NASA and Harley Davidson to build realistic digital models of products. ... continues to prosper during the downturn and plans to add to its 100-employee workforce again this year. [Alan Wolf, Raleigh News & Observer, Jan 15, 10] Does everybody think that what they are doing would be an ideal stimulus target? Where money is on offer,

Geospiza (Seattle, WA)

Geospiza, a Seattle company that makes software for crunching vast amounts of genetic data, has raised $3 million from private investors to tap the growing market for personalized medicine. [Seattle Times, Dec 1] At least $1.4M of SBIR.

GeoVax Labs (Atlanta, GA)

GeoVax Labs (Atlanta, GA; one SBIR) phase 2a human HIV vaccine trials are set for sites across North and South America, the company said . [Atlanta Business Chronicle, Dec 1, 08] entered into a $10 million common stock purchase agreement with Fusion Capital Fund II [press release May 08] ... raised $7.5M Aug 07 [press release]

Geron

Geron up 12% [Jan 4, 10]

Geron up 13% [Dec 2, 09] Scientists can start using taxpayer dollars to do research with 13 batches of embryonic stem cells and the government says dozens more cell lines should be available soon, opening a new era for the potentially life-saving field. [AP, Dec 2]

Geron down 10% [Nov 2, 09]

Geron down 10% [Aug 18, 09] said U.S. regulators placed its application for a cell therapy to treat spinal-cord injuries on hold. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 19]

Geron up 15% [Jul 27, 09]

Geron up 15% [Jun 30, 09] agreed to provide stem cells to GE Healthcare for use in tools that will test for the toxic effects of medicines. [Wall Street Journal, Jul 1]

Geron up 18% [May 5, 09]

Geron up 10% [Apr 16, 09]

Geron down 10% [Mar 30, 09]

Geron up 17% [Mar 9, 09]

Geron down 10% [Feb 27, 09]

Geron down 11% [Feb 18, 09]

Geron down 18% [Feb 13, 09]

Geron up 15% [Jan 26, 09]

Geron up 36% [Jan 23, 09]

first embryonic stem cells in humans ... Just two days after the inauguration of President Barack Obama, who opposed his predecessor�s ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research, the [FDA] authorised Geron, a US biotech company, to begin clinical trials for patients with severe spinal cord injuries. [Financial Times, Jan 23, 09]

Geron up 10% [Jan 21, 09]

Geron up 11% [Dec 8, 08]

Geron down 14% [Dec 1, 08] On a stock bloodbath day

Geron up 11% [Nov 10, 08] StemCells reached its highest value in more than a year in U.S. trading on reports that President-elect Barack Obama may reverse the Bush administration's order restricting federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research. Other companies involved in stem-cell development such as Advanced Cell Technology, Geron and Aastrom Biosciences also gained. [San Jose Mercury News, Nov 10]

Geron down 17% [Nov 12, 08]

Geron down 13% [Nov 5, 08]

Geron up 14% [Nov 3, 08]

Geron up 16% [Oct 28, 08]

Geron up 15% [Oct 20, 08]

Geron up 11% [Sep 16, 08]

Geron up 11% [Jan 29, 08]

Geron up 10%. [Aug 8, 07]

The patients tolerated Geron's cancer drug, but sadly, so did the leukemia cells. Down 10% [Jun 12, 07]

Geron up 15% [May 17, 07] on news that its research partners at the University of Alberta were able to differentiate embryonic stem cells into clusters that secrete insulin in response to elevated glucose levels .. which implies the feasibility of producing therapeutic cells from stem cells to treat diabetes.

GI Dynamics (Lexington, MA)

GI Dynamics (Lexington, MA; no SBIR) reports it has taken in a strategic investment from Minnesota-based medical device giant Medtronic Inc. that will be used to move GI Dynamics� EndoBarrier Gastrointestinal Liner for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes and obesity toward market approval. ... has secured more than $75 million in venture capital financing since it was founded in 2003 [Rodney Brown, Mass High Tech, Jan 7, 10]

GigOptix

Lumera which is merging with GigOptix of California, reported that it trimmed its third-quarter loss to $1.5 million, [Puget Sound Business Journal, Oct 21, 08]

Giner

Giner (Newton, MA; 164 SBIR projects) research and development company, has won a $2.3 million SBIR from NIH ... development of a measurement tool to assess human exposure to certain heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium and lead. The sensor, referred to as a Field-Deployable Monitor to Assess Personal Exposure to Multiple Heavy Metals, is intended as an inexpensive, energy-saving, portable alternative to current heavy-metal analyses conducted in laboratories. [Mass High Tech, Oct 13, 09] Giner's exact total SBIR isn't available since SBA's database has been partly broken for weeks. But 164 Phase 1s and 80 Phase 2s might total something like $70M since 1983. Although both the NIH and the company would no doubt claim high innovation, this latest project sounds an awful lot like a low technical risk engineering service job for data collection by a perfectly competent company. No doubt also that the Massachusetts Congressional delegation finds great merit in an SBIR program that continues to pour zillions into their state. Before the re-authorization struggle ends, Congress will have to decide whether agencies need to be forced into such social programs just to do ordinary R&D that might well have been done even if SBIR never existed.

Giner Electrochemical Systems ( Newton MA) will be bought by Ener1 (Fort Lauderdale FL). Thius Giner is joint venture of Giner (the SBIR company) and General Motors. Giner, both forms, researches proton exchange membrane (PEM) high-pressure electrolyzers for gas production, regenerative fuel cells, and direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stacks and systems. (Jan 05)

Giner formed a joint enterprise, Giner Electrochemical Systems LLC, with General Motors for development of fuel-cell vehicles. Giner has what the SBIR advocates call a strong strong SBIR presence, having been active in the SBIR program from the very earliest days (1983-present). Oh, yeah. Giner is proof that if the government pours enough kerosene, a blaze may start. Giner has had about $26M of SBIR in the last decade with a typical staffing of 25 people. That's about $1M per person (or $100K per year) which is enough to explain what Giner has been doing - contract government research . Whether SBIR should be such a long term research program is a political question of course. Any economic return has yet to show up; this GM deal shows technical confidence but GM has not sold any economic quantity of vehicels and even GM's research is partly supported by the government.

Gliknik (Baltimore, MD)

Gliknik (Baltimore, MD; no SBIR) has raised $1.1 million of a $3.61 million Series A funding round that it will use to pay for research and developing new drugs to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer. [Baltimore Business Journal, Sep 2, 09]

Global Positions (Billings, MT)

The Independent, Leave-Us-Alone West
Jere Folgert's business, Global Positions, LLC, won an NSFSBIR Phase 1, a first for Billings, MT. Jere wanted to build a full-service company providing geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) services. He has a software tool to facilitate the visualization of air pollution, though GIS, modeling and data automation which he wanted to make internet-based, and make it available to schools and universities studying the dynamic nature of airborne pollution. Phase 1 will determine the feasibility of an Internet-based pollution simulator, by creating a proof-of-principal prototype comprised of a well-known air pollution dispersion model and GIS. The resulting internet based IGPPS system will include a carefully designed Internet-based interface, a powerful air pollution model and GIS. This workbench of tools will be an effective teaching tool allowing "what-if" scenarios to be easily modeled and visualized. ... Says Jere also The award of the SBIR Phase I was important to our business. It gave us the leverage and funds to pursue a task that had been put on the "back-burner. "Its great to be paid to do what we enjoy doing!!! Our dream is to get heavily involved in GIS/modeling applications along with educational/teaching applications that use the Internet as the interface Jere Folgert, 406-652-6820 Email:jfolgert@GlobalPositions.com, Web:http://www.GlobalPositions.com Another inspirational story from the Mountain West [courtesy of Chris Busch's newsletter] - land of independent Republicans and dry-land ranchers. Ask them about the federal government and see them spit disdain. Ask them about subsidies for ranchers and miners and watch them change the subject. Ask them whether this SBIR is the kind of federal subsidy they want their federal money spent on, and see whether they can think like a free-marketer. Better still, ask them without telling them it is a local company. Ask them why the government has to support a private business developing a product to sell on the open market for which there is little technical risk although a lot of business risk. Ask them why any Internet-related business needs federal support in 1999 America. Ask them what they think a reasonable federal role is in high-tech small business and ask them how much more tax they would be willing to pay for it. Ask them why the government should favor high-tech companies in thinly populated states just because they are in such a place.

Note that if you don't like this situation because you think the federal government ought to do more than shovel money for political reasons, don't blame Wyoming nor the small business. They didn't "invest" the federal money; the federal government did. One might argue, though, that once federal money is on the table, everyone grabs for a share with little regard to national benefit or federalism questions.

Gloucester Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA)

Gloucester Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) has just raised $1.7 million in a financing round, according to official documents. ... acquires clinical-stage oncology drug candidates with an eye to getting them through regulatory approval and commercialization. ... has raised substantial investment dollars in the past. Back in 2004, Gloucester Pharmaceuticals raised $29 million in a Series B financing round . [Mass High Tech, May 8, 09]

GlyGenix (Woodbridge, CT)

Apparently spun out of a biotechnology company, startup UCAN (formerly GlyGenix Woodbridge, CT; no SBIR) landed $624,000 of a planned $2.5 million funding round ... focused on marketing a nutritional sports product it calls SuperStarch ... GlyGenix, however is focused on treating and curing Glycogen Storage Disease Type 1a ... GlyGenix took a $1.645 million Series A round of funding in January [Mass High Tech, Dec 28, 09]

Gore Photonics

More Raincoats, Less Photonics. Gore Photonics, the fiber optics business unit of W. L. Gore dumped its parallel optical business by selling to Optical Communication Products which makes fiber optic subsystems and modules for metropolitan area, local area and storage area networks. That Gore division started life as Optical Concepts with substantial help from BMDO's SBIR. Gore is the innovative maker of Goretex rainwear. Buying, selling, and trading photonics entities has been going on for a decade during both the boom and bust of the photonics industry.

GPC-Rx (Seattle, WA)

things are looking better: the research-oriented startups seem poised to survive the downturn, and long-awaited clinical results could propel larger companies like Dendreon to stardom. ... despite the financial crisis, the Accelerator, a local incubator based in Seattle's Eastlake neighborhood, created three firms last year - Recodagen, GPC-Rx and Mirina (none had SBIR) ... "Seattle is really a town of development-stage biotechs," Miller said. ... Light Sciences Oncology (no SBIR), a firm that canceled its initial public offering last February, managed to raise $10 million from venture capitalists in July. Private investors provided Redmond-based Healionics (no SBIR) � which manufactures material for implants � with a $2.6 million boost in December. In a deal that could yield big results, Bothell-based Acucela (no SBIR), which is developing therapies to treat blindness, signed a partnership deal in September with Japanese firm Otsuka Pharmaceutical that could potentially bring it $258 million. [Angel Gonzalez, Seattle Times, Jan 25]

gRadiant Research (Concord, MA)

gRadiant Research (Concord, MA; no SBIR) is trying to make tonsil treatments easier for the patient to swallow, with a new handheld device. ... received $250,000 in angel funding to pay for preclinical feasibility research, slated for completion by year�s end. Currently, McMillan needs about $3.2 million to develop the first clinical prototype and to do the necessary clinical studies in children and adults. She anticipates being on the market by 2012; the device could potentially garner some $75 million annually in the United States alone. [Marc Songini, Mass High Tech, May 8, 09]

Graphene Energy (Austin, TX)

Graphene Energy (Austin, TX; founded 2008) has raised a $500,000 round of seed financing from two investment firms. ... in the process of qualifying graphene-based ultracapacitor electrodes, graphene production processes, and performance for a variety of related components. [Austin Business Journal, Jan 16, 09]

Graphic Surgery (Creve Coeur, MO)

Graphic Surgery (Creve Coeur , MO; no SBIR) helps companies contain surgery costs through benefit plan design and patient education. Research by Graphic Surgery shows one out of three health care dollars was spent on surgeries in 2005, ... considers 75 percent of surgeries "discretionary, ...Founder Dr. Patricia Gelnar, a former neurologist, said Graphic Surgery wants to improve communication between patients and physicians, not interfere with it. She started the company to help physicians manage malpractice claims through better communication to patients about surgery's risks. Then, the St. Louis Business Health Coalition learned about the company and thought it could help employers. [Mary Jo Feldstein, St Louis Post Dispatch, Nov 14]

GreatPoint Energy

Great Point Energy (Brookline MA; one SBIR) raised $100M to commercialize its technology, which converts coal into natural gas. Dow Chemical Co. and Citi Sustainable Development Investments led the Series C financing round. [Wall Street Journal, Oct 29]

the company that has been operating the experimental reactor for 18 months now, GreatPoint Energy (no SBIR), has raised $137M from some of the biggest names in industry and venture capital, ... raised its first round of venture finance in 2005 from previous (co-founder) Perlman backers ... applying a (undisclosed) catalyst directly to the coal and recovering the catalyst from the char ... another lucky break when they found that the Gas Technology Institute had built a $60 M test plant and was looking for revenue after losing government funding from a tax on pipelines. [Daniel Fisher, Forbes, Oct 29]

GreenFuel Technologies

A Cambridge firm developing algae farms to recycle carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and provide feedstock for biofuels and other products said it raised nearly $14 million in venture capital. GreenFuel Technologies , founded in 2001, said it is using the money to further develop its farming technology and move toward commercial scale operations. [Boston Globe, May 16, 08]

GreenTech America

Purdue University says it helped launch 10 startup companies from July 2007 to June 2008, including GreenTech America, Intelliphage and Nutrabiotix. All use Purdue-licensed technologies. Purdue Research Foundation's Office of Technology Commercialization also reported more than $4.1 million in royalties for that time frame. [Indianapolis Star, Jul 29]

GSI Technology

GSI Technology (Santa Clara, CA) filed for an IPO It provides static random access memory, or SRAM, chips that are used mainly in networking and telecommunications equipment. [San Jose Mercury News, Jan 11] No SBIRs, and it makes a profit.

GTC Biotherapeutics

GTC Biotherapeutics (Framingham, MA; $5M SBIR) and Ovation Pharmaceuticals (no SBIR) said that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to develop and market a drug treatment called ATryn in the United States. [Chris Reidy, Boston Globe, Jun 24]

GTC Biotherapeutics said it gained orphan status for its treatment ATryn for a rare blood disorder called hereditary antithrombin deficiency. [Mass High Tech, Dec 10, 07]

GTC Biotherapeutics (Framingham MA; $3M SBIR) won FDA fast-track designation for ATryn, a protein produced in the milk of goats that has anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory properties. [Boston Globe, Sep 5, 07]

GTC Biotherapeutics has entered into a strategic collaboration with French firm LFB Biotechnologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of LFB S.A., to develop recombinant plasma proteins and monoclonal antibodies using GTC's transgenic production platform. LFB Biotechnologies will purchase $25 million of GTC common and convertible preferred shares, and convertible debt. [Mass High Tech, Oct 2, 06]

GTC Biotherapeutics got a $1.4 M NIH SBIR for its CD137 monoclonal antibody program. The company in-licensed the antibody from the Mayo Clinic in 2004, when it received an initial SBIR grant of $780,000. ... It expects to use the new SBIR grant to continue preclinical evaluation of the antibody. [Sep 06]

GTC Biotherapeutics raised another $17M. Founded in 1993 as a spinout of Genzyme Corp. and originally named Genzyme Transgenics Corp., GTC Biotherapeutics develops and markets therapeutic proteins through transgenic animal technology. In 2005, the company, which employs 130, reported revenue of about $5 million. [Mass High Tech, Jul 18] At least $3M came from HHS SBIR awards 2003-2005.

GT Equipment (Merrimack, NH)

GT Equipment (Merrimack, NH) claims three new SBIR/STTR awards as a sweetener to being named Environmental Exporter of the Year by the US Export-Import Bank. GT has formerly been called Ferrofluidics and FerroTec, or maybe GT Solar and GT Crystal. Perhaps its international reputation for delivering high quality, cost effective products that consistently exceed customer expectations will keep it from going down the same photovoltaic tubes as Astropower.

Guided Therapeutics (Norcross, GA)

Guided Therapeutics (Norcross, GA; no SBIR) reported it landed a $2.5 million matching grant form the National Cancer Institute for its �LightTouch� non-invasive cervical cancer detection technology. ... Including this latest grant, the company has taken in $6 million in six consecutive grants from the NCI to develop the new, pain-free test for detecting cervical disease. [Atlanta Business Chronicle, Oct 5, 09]

H2Pump (Colonie, NY)

New York Tech Investment. H2Pump, a start-up in Colonie NY, will get $395K to develop a 3-in-1 hydrogen pump to separate, pump and compress hydrogen through an electrochemical process. According to NYSERDA, this would avoid high energy-consumptive methods of gas separation, and mechanical pumping and compression. Plug Power Inc., a Latham fuel-cell developer, will get a $400,000 research grant for membrane technology. [Albany Times Union, Feb 7]

HNC Software (San Diego, CA)

HNC Bought HNC Software which had some help from SBIR in its younger days will be bought up by consumer credit scoring firm Fair, Isaac for $726M in stock. Fair Isaac says its to give them a better way to find and keep customers.

HNC Software , whose backers include the DARPA, reckons that its new approach to neural networks based on a cluster of 30 Pentium processors is the most powerful and promising approach to artificial intelligence ever discovered. HNC claims that its system could be used to spot camouflaged vehicles on a battlefield or extract a voice signal from a noisy background�tasks humans can do well, but computers cannot. Whether or not its technology lives up to the claims made for it, that HNC is emphasising the use of AI is itself an interesting development. [The Economist, Mar 16]

HNC Software reported earnings. Pro Forma (which means whatever we say it means) profit was seven cents a share. Actual Consolidated Results (which means what the accounting standards require) was a loss of 23 cents a share. The company blamed a continued slowdown in IT spending both in the US and overseas and gave thanks for a flexible business model that allows businesses to opt for payment on either a 'pay-as-you-go' or a one-time 'up-front' model.

A Wall Street Journal piece on passenger profiling says HNC Software is racing to develop an algorithm-based program for the airlines that factors such data as ethnicity, age and travel history into an equation aimed at calculating the probability of a passenger being a terrorist. HNC currently sells risk-assessment tools to insurers and lenders. SBIR gave HNC a little help while it funded lots of neural network companies who never made it public. Since neural nets are a nice clean business, there is no shortage of talent wanting government money to pursue the hobby. SBA reports 857 NN SBIR awards for neural network, of which about half won Phase 2. At an average of only $500K per Phase 2 for 400 awards, that's $200M into an industry out of which only one company went public.HNC had about $5M (2%) of that total. But neural nets is a competitive business and like most competitive industries, you gotta have something better than being good at government R&D to make a business success.

HNC Software , best known for products that help catch credit-card and insurance fraud, said it was developing a program for airlines that would sweep through reservation records for suspicious patterns and help flag potential hijackers. ... developing the software with privately-held PROS Revenue Management which manages revenue systems for major airlines,John Mutch, chief executive of HNC, said he expected the new security software would be delivered within six months. ... ``We will be able to detect patterns -- for instance, if five people of the same origin are traveling together and may use a certain kind of payment, fall between the ages of 25 and 40, and had previously limited credit history,'' Mutch said. The program would deliver a real-time scorecard to airlines, with a range of one to 1,000, which would alert airline personnel of the potential need to increase security. ... Previous suggestions to use data-mining software to sift through corporate records have drawn opposition from civil rights advocates. ...HNC has seen business slow and said it expects third quarter earnings and sales of $58-59M and operating earnings per share 13-15 cents. [Sue Zeidler, Arizona Republic, Oct. 04]

HNC Software took a 9% hit despite a favorable mention by NICK WINGFIELD, Wall Street Journal (Sep 26) of being best known for providing sophisticated software that helps the credit-card and insurance industries detect fraud by monitoring for activity that matches profiles of suspicious behavior. Following the terrorist attacks, the company has been discussing ways of using the technology to identify "high-risk passengers" with a company that installs information systems for airlines, said Joseph Sirosh, an executive director at HNC. Mr. Sirosh said executives at the company had authorized him to look at the company's entire portfolio of products to adapt them for counterterrorism measures. And just a month before the events of Sept. 11, HNC signed a three-year contract with the Defense Department to develop software that could help health-care workers more quickly identify outbreaks resulting from biological terrorism by detecting patterns within bacterial DNA.

In the latest news from HNC Software, the CFO sold 10000 shares. That makes all sales and no buying by insiders for the last year. Lots of options have been exercised at prices above today's prices.

No HNC Didn't Collapse. The apparent cratering of HNC Software, a 75% decline Monday, didn't end the world. Although one brokerage firm reduced its recommendation, the main thrust of the decvline was a distribution of HNC's shares of Retek.How much the distribution actually lowered HNC's share price needs some careful calcualtion.

HNC Acquires Another
(Sep 21) HNC Software (San Diego, CA) announced plans yesterday to acquire Open Solutions, a Connecticut company that makes software to process loans, deposits and other transactions for small banks. Open Solutions' shareholders will receive 3 million shares of HNC stock and options, which values the deal at about $124 million, based on yesterday's closing price. It is the fifth acquisition in less than a year for San Diego-based HNC, which is branching out beyond its original business of predictive software to detect financial fraud. [San Diego Tribune, Sep 17]

SBIR Firm Becomes the Standard
(Aug 17) HNC Software (San Diego, CA)says it is now in the S&P SmallCap 600. HNC was Hecht-Nielsen (Bob Hecht-Nielsen is still chairman and chief scientist) and a winner of neural net contracts from Star Wars in the 80s. Its tiny titbit of SBIR gives SBIR awarders some basis to boast about a tiny something.

Got a Saturday midnight call from your credit card company about an suspicious pattern of your card use? Especially suspicious: consumer electronics purchases in California by an East Coaster who had just bought an airline ticket adjustment, paid a hotel bill, and returned a rental car. Neural nets are watching, including a $150K version from HNC Software (San Diego, CA), says Forbes Jun 2.

HNC to OUTPERFORM
(Mar31) Morgan Stanly's hot-shot HNCS analyst upgraded HNC Software (San Diego, CA) to OUTPERFORM since the "shares traded at a discount to the company's estimated 50% long-term growth rate". The analyst was rated number 1 (of 7) in ability to predict HNCS price and number 5 to forecast earnings with an average historical error of one penny in forecasting earnings and generated "an average excess return of 7.00% when making recommendations for this company". Such a set of statistics in the dog-eat-dog competition on Wall Street. Three significant figures is pretty rich for a company public only two years. Ah well, Wall Street has to have something to talk about since it doesn't create the wealth, only redistributes it. Like politicians. Maybe SBIR program managers could also use statistics more sophisticated than 1-2-3 addition.

Big Profit at HNC
(Jan 24) HNC Software (San Diego, CA) reported a $5.3M quarterly profit on sales of $16.8M. Net profit for the year $6.4M on sales of $54M. Maybe the biggest SBIR success, although the $3M of DOD SBIR must have been no more than a modest contributor to HNC's growth. Return to Index

Spread the Merchandise Management
(Jan 14) Retek Information Systems, a subsidiary of HNC Software (a $600M market cap SBIR user) announced a new addition of software to unite large retail merchandisers' internal operations by Internet. Now Centralized Stores Inc can control all its software centrally. Wait, isn't that bringing management back to the days of the Info Systems priesthood so those pesky individuals can't innovate outside Info's control? One analyst estimates that a PC costs $10-12K per year and a network computer (semi-dumb terminal) only $2-3K per year. George Gilder would probably say, if asked, that such a move violates his theory of the microcosm (essentially infinite decentralization). Management doesn't surrender easily though.

Hold HNCS A financial house brought HNC Software (San Diego, CA) into its watch portfolio and recommended its listeners hold HNC Software stock even at 81 times next years earnings. HNC had a little SBIR help.

Thinking Against Fraud Where a new life form arises, there will a new life form also arise to feed on it. Feeding fraudsters applying for credit cards may be discovered by Falcon Sentry's new smart software (ever heard anybody advertise dumb software?) from HNC Software(San Diego, CA). Thus HNC's parade of new neural network product announcements marches on. Its stock price had a nice 15% boost last week also to 38, a stock that's ranged from 10 to 50 in the past year.

Claim Paternity. HNC's commercial victory offers a ripe chance for a federal agency to claim great success for its SBIR program. Such a victory should attract fathers, at least among California politicians. Divide HNC sales by SBIR input, get a large number, and smile. In cold truth HNC would have won without any SBIR, but without any real SBIR program evaluation who would ever throw such cold water on the claim? Everyone has an incentive to accept the claim except the federal career managers who would like SBIR to dry up.

Cardholder Bankruptcy Prediction HNC Software (San Diego, CA) introduced a neural net prediction system that tells your bank when you're going broke. The scheme, ProftMax Bankruptcy, uses HNC' patented cardholder profiling technology. Such new products are how high-tech innovators keep up their momentum after the first product finds market success. Yogi may say it's not over till it's over, but for high-tech companies, it's never over. HNC got some nourishment from BMDO, both mainline missile defense research (years before it went public) and a small SBIR.

Neural Nets for Japan Bank A Japanese bank will get neural net software from HNC Software (San Diego, CA) to fight bank card fraud. HNC got a little BMDO money for development in the late 80s and one Phase 2 SBIR for data compression. Its stock has traded many multiples above the 1994 IPO price.

Hansen Medical (Mountain View, CA)

Hansen Energy and Environmental (Garland, UT; one SBIR) received $198,500 as part of more than $18 million in Conservation Innovation Grants awarded for 55 projects nationally to develop cutting-edge technologies to help farmers and ranchers conserve natural resources. ... to demonstrate an economical method to convert methane produced from farm waste products into a liquid fuel. [Salt Lake Tribune, Jul 16, 09]

Hansen Medical (founded 2002; Mountain View, CA; no SBIR) up 28% as it signed a new partnership with conglomerate General Electric to promote Hansen's catheter-implanting medical robots, though financial details weren't disclosed. [Wall Street Journal, May 8, 09] PO 2006, 208 employees, formerly named AutoCath

Dr. Frederic H. Moll, 56, is a soft-spoken man who can look uncomfortable on stage. Yet his role in founding Intuitive Surgical ($2.5M SBIR), the company that now dominates the field, and his current involvement with three other robotics companies, has kept him in the sights of investors, health care providers and fellow entrepreneurs. ... He took the idea to his employer, Guidant, a medical device company. Guidant decided that robotic surgery was too futuristic and too risky, so Dr. Moll rounded up backers, resigned, and in 1995, founded Intuitive Surgical. [which] earned $144M last year on sales of $600M .... He�s now best known as chief executive of Hansen Medical (no SBIR), a publicly traded robotics company focused on minimally invasive cardiac care. But he�s also an investor in and a board member of Mako Surgical (no SBIR), an orthopedics robotics company that recently went public, and he is a co-founder and chairman of Restoration Robotics (no SBIR), a start-up company focused on cosmetic surgery. [Barnaby Feder, New York Times, May 4]

Harbor Technologies (Brunswick ME)

Harbor Technologies (Brunswick, ME), a provider of innovative and cost-effective composite solutions to the marine infrastructure market, announces that it has received a $418,500 development grant from the Maine Technology Institute to purchase and further develop a machine to produce composite marine pilings in a continuous manner. [Mainetoday.com, Aug 26]

Hardcore Computer (Rochester, MN)

Hardcore Computer (Rochester, MN; no SBIR) start-up's "liquid immersion cooling technology" significantly boosts the performance of high-end computers by reducing the excess heat that these power-sucking machines typically generate. .... Since 2007, the company has raised more than $3 million [Thomas Lee, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Dec 18]

Harvard Bioscience (Holliston, MA)

Harvard Bioscience (Holliston, MA; one SBIR), that develops, manufactures, and markets a broad range of tools to advance life science research, said it has acquired Denville Scientific (no SBIR) for a purchase price projected to be about $24 million. [Boston Globe, Sep 3, 09]

Harvard Bioscience (Holliston MA; one SBIR), a maker of scientific research tools, reports it plans to repurchase $10M in company stock [Mass High Tech, Dec 7] Should a company that pays dividends or re-purchases stock be barred from SBIR on grounds that it no longer needs government subsidy because it refuses to use its own $10M (in this case) capital for R&D investment? SBIR was meant as a complement to private capital, not a substitute.

Harvard Bioscience (Holliston, MA; one SBIR) completed the $5M cash purchase of Panlab SL of Barcelona, Spain. [Mass High Tech, Oct 12]

Harvest Automation (Groton, MA)

Harvest Automation (Groton, MA; no SBIR) raised a $4 million tranche of a Series A round of funding, according to a company official. ... founded by ex-iRobot Corp. employees .. developing robots for materials handling, though it�s still stealthy about specific uses markets [Mass High Tech, Jan 8, 10]

HealthTronics

HealthTronics said it made $31.2 million in the third quarter, down about 7%. [Austin American-Statesman, Nov 8] One 2004 lithotripsy SBIR probably made little difference in a public company with a $236M market cap. Started life in Georgia and then merged in 2004 with Prime Medical Services .

Healionics (Redmond, WA)

Healionics (Redmond, WA; no SBIR) said it raised $2.6 million in a second round of financing from private investors. The medical device company manufactures a material for medical implants that's compatible with the body. It recently scored a multimillion-dollar deal to supply TR BioSurgical with material for a veterinary glaucoma implant scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2009. The company, which spun off from the Ratner Biomedical Group incubator in 2007, raised $1.7 million in its first round earlier this year. [Angel Gonzalez, Seattle Times, Dec 12, 08]

Heartland Robotics

Heartland Robotics, the manufacturing-focused robotics company founded by iRobot co-founder Rodney Brooks, has taken in $12 million from three investors, and is aggressively hiring engineers, the startup announced [Mass High Tech, Sep 9, 09]

HeartWare International (Framingham, MA)

Medical devices company HeartWare International (no SBIR) reports it is raising approximately $55 million in a private placement of stock with a group of unnamed institutional investors in the United States, and it is considering a similar placement to Australian investors that would raise another $5 million. ... In February, HeartWare announced plans to be acquired by California medical devices company Thoratec for $282 million. That deal was called off at the end of July, however, after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said that Thoratec had a monopoly in the left ventricular assist device market and would allow a suit seeking a preliminary injunction to stop the deal, while the FTC looked at the sale more closely. [Mass High Tech, Aug 11, 09]

heart pump maker HeartWare International (Framingham, MA; no SBIR) is being acquired by Thoratec (CA; two tiny SBIRs two decades ago) for $282 million half in cash and half in shares of Thoratec common. [Mass High Tech, Feb 13]

Helicos BioSciences (Cambridge, MA)

Helicos BioSciences has taken itself off the auction block, the genetic analysis instrument company said [AP, Nov 11, 09]

Helicos BioSciences said it received a $2.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Human Genome Research Institute. ... part of the company's genome sequencing technology program. [Boston Globe, Oct 9, 09]

Helicos BioSciences said that it has entered into an agreement with certain investors to raise about $18.6 million in a private placement through the sale of shares of its common stock and warrants. ... focused on innovative genetic analysis technologies for the research, drug discovery, and diagnostic markets. [Chris Reidy, Boston Globe, Dec 20]

Helicos up 19% [Jan 10, 08]

Helicos BioSciences (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) a developer of genetic analysis systems, has formed a collaboration with a University of Massachusetts Medical School researcher to advance technology for studying RNA... a 2006 net loss of $20.6M on revenue of $160,000. The firm employs 79 workers. [Mass High Tech, Jan 9, 08] Raised $40M VC Mar 06 and $45M by IPO May 07.

Heliovolt (Austin TX)

HelioVolt, a producer of highly-efficient thin film solar products, received a Printed Electronics USA 2007 Award from IDTechEx, a leading independent international consulting firm specializing in printed electronics, RFID and smart packaging. [company press release, Nov 15]

HelioVolt (Austin, TX; one Phase 1 SBIR) has attracted $24M in private investment as it gets ready to build a factory to make advanced solar power panels using thin films of advanced materials. The new money comes in addition to the $77M the company said it raised in August ... has raised a total of $109 M in outside capital. [Austin American-Statesman, Oct 22]

Powered by $77 M in new investment, startup Heliovolt (Austin, TX: one SBIR), will build a factory next year for mass-producing a new type of solar cell [micrometers-thick layer of a copper-indium-gallium selenide (CIGS) semiconductor] that could, in much of the United States, make solar electricity as cheap as electricity from the grid. [Kevin Bullis, MIT Tech Review, Sep 12, 07]

The 2006 WSJ Silver Medal for Technology Innovation went to HelioVolt (Austin TX) for the fastest and most effective way to manufacture CIS (Copper Indium Selenide), the most reliable and best-performing thin film [photovoltaic] material. One SBIR (Phase I so far from MDA) perhaps created by Ron Gale. VP for Business Development and formerly Chief Technical Officer for Kopin.

HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals (Newton, MA)

HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals, a year-old Boston company focused on developing new treatments for blood diseases, said today that its HQK-1001 drug candidate has won orphan drug status from the FDA. [Boston Globe, Nov 5, 08]

Lilly Ventures of Indianapolis, the venture capital arm of Eli Lilly and Co., is giving $20M financing to HemaQuest Pharmaceuticals, [newly launched by two Boston University researchers] in Newton, Mass., that's developing small molecule therapeutics to treat blood disorders such as sickle cell anemia. [Indianapolis Star, Nov 3, 07] Mass High Tech reports that part of the money came from De Novo Ventures, a California investment group, and Forward Ventures, of San Diego.

Hepregen (Winchester, MA)

Hepregen (Medford, MA; one SBIR) won a $500,000 Phase 2 SBIR [NSF] grant contributing to the company�s total $2 million in federal funding. ... developing a platform to reduce the liver toxicity caused by approved drugs.... co-founded in 2007 [Mass High Tech, Jan 14, 10] spun out Hepregen Corporation from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with a commitment of a $5-million Series A investment [company website, Feb 09] The new technology�that Bhatia and HST postdoctoral associate Salman Khetani describe in the Nov. 18 online issue of Nature Biotechnology�arranges human liver cells into tiny colonies only 500 micrometers in diameter that act much like a real liver and reportedly survive as long as six weeks. To predict how close their model tissue comes to real liver tissue, the researchers evaluated gene expression profiles and found that these profiles are very similar to those of fresh liver cells, �giving us confidence that other [liver] functions are preserved,� Khetani says. For drug testing purposes, this allows each colony to provide a view into human liver response to a drug without requiring human exposure to the drug in a clinical trial, explains Bhatia. [Jeffrey Bouley, Drug Discovery News, Jan 08]

Hepregen (Winchester, MA; no SBIR) raised a $3 million tranche of a Series A financing of $5 million, according to online reports. The -based firm is a spinout of MIT and is developing a platform to reduce the liver toxicity caused by approved drugs. The platform is based on technology developed by Sangeeta Bhatia, an associate professor in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST) and MIT�s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. The technology is based on engineered �miniature micro liver cells.� [Mass High Tech, Sep 2, 08]

Herley Industries

Herley Industries dropped 13% [Jun 27, 07] after DOD suspended two of its plants from new government contracts.

Herley Industries rose 20% on news of DOD's lifting its ban on new contract awards at some of its manufacturing sites. [Oct 13, 06]

Herley led the market slide with a 34% one-day loss Tues Jun 13 after the DOD suspended procurement from Herley's factories amid the mess that includes indictment of the former Chairman.

Too Much Profit. Shares of Herley Industries were halted for trading this afternoon after the U.S. Attorney's office for eastern Pennsylvania indicted the company and Chairman Lee Blatt for alleged excessive profits on three defense contracts. .. designs and manufactures microwave devices for use in high-technology defense electronics [Dow Jones Newswire, Jun 6] No SBA recorded SBIRs.

Hermes Biosciences (Cambridge, MA)

Merrimack Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA; $1M SBIR), which is developing treatments for cancer and autoimmune disease, said it bought Hermes Biosciences (South San Francisco, CA; $600K SBIR) for an undisclosed sum. [Robert Wesiman, Boston Globe, Dec 8, 09]

Histogenics (Waltham, MA)

Cartilage regeneration company Histogenics (Waltham, MA; no SBIR) announced its closing of a $9 million Series B round of funding. ... will support development of the company�s NeoCart neocartilage implant, currently in Phase 2 clinical trials, and VeriCart auto-regenerative cartilage matrix, scheduled for Phase 2 clinical trials in 2008. [Mass High Tech, Sep 3, 08]

Hittite Microwave

Forbes's 2009 list of best 200 small companies includes Aerovironment, American Science and Engineering (paying a dividend and with nearly $600M market cap), Argon ST, Hittite Microwave, II-IV, Meridian Bioscience, Neogen, NVE, and Synaptics.

Hittite Microwave is down 16%, half as much as the broad market, since I recommended the stock in August 2006. The �fabless� chip maker � one that designs chips but doesn�t fabricate them � has maintained high profitability, and while its recent sales growth might be difficult to sustain, the company looks likely to take share from struggling, capital-intensive peers. [Jack HOugh, Smart Money, Mar 24, 09]

Hittite Microwave up 11% [Oct 24, 08]

Hittite Microwave down 10% [Oct 14, 08]

Forbes 200 Best Small Companies list for 2008 had several "SBIR involved" companies: Hittite Microwave 12, II-IV 23, Synaptics 33, NVE 39, ATMI 114, Cymer 166.

A Hittite Microwave founder has led a Series B round of financing for Cambridge drug developer Syndexa Pharmaceuticals (no SBIR), Syndexa reports. Yalcin Ayasli, a founder and former executive and board member at Chelmsford-based Hittite, was the lead investor in the $15 million round of private capital. ... Syndexa was founded by scientists from Harvard University and the University of California San Diego. The firm said it has raised a total of $19 million in private equity. [Mass High Tech, May 30]

Hittite Microwave up 10% [Mar 20, 08]

Hittite Microwave down 12% [Feb 15, 08]

Hittite Microwave up 12% [Oct 26, 07]

Hittite Microwave has an agreement to license a line of integrated circuit technology from aerospace and defense contractor Northrop Grumman. [Mass High Tech, Oct 19]

Smart Money picked Hittite Microwave as a company doing well in the shade where Wall Street analysts don't follow.

Hittite Microwave jumped 15% after it said it expects earnings to grow 27 -34 % in the first quarter on higher sales.

Good Profit, Bad Forecast for Hittite Microwave whacked the stock 15% [Oct 27, 06] as the price dropped off its heretofore steady rise to double its starting price a year ago. Hittite had at least 24 Phase 2 SBIRs before being publicly traded.

Hoku Scientific (Kapolei HI)

Hoku Scientific(Kapolei HI, 17 employees; no SBIR), a materials science company focused on clean energy technologies, up 18%after broker Piper Jaffray raised its rating, saying support from solar company Suntech Power Holdings may assist its search for financing. [Wall Street Journal, Sep 5]

Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA)

Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals (San Diego, CA: no SBIR; 66 employees) surged 41% after the drug developer reported promising data from animal tests of a breast-cancer drug. [Wall Street Journal, Sep 8]

Hontek (South Windsor, CT)

Hong had been laid off from his job as a chemist at a Rockville printing plate maker, joining the more than 50,000 Connecticut workers who lost jobs that year ... wrote a proposal to create a plastic-based coating to protect the blades from erosion. "It was a long shot. I was just one person working in my basement," Hong said. "These programs are extremely competitive. I sent it in and forgot about it." Today, Sikorsky Aircraft and the Army are using Hontek's polymer coatings to protect helicopter blades from sand, ice and gravel. He got a 1992 SBIR. Hontek (South Windsor, CT; $3M SBIR) grew from two to 10 employees, and in 1997 moved to its present location, a 13,000-square-foot facility. In 2005, the military needed a new type of coating that would de-ice the blades of helicopters deployed in Afghanistan. Hontek responded, using private funding to develop a new coating. ... Last year, the Army decided to use Hontek's coating on its new Black Hawk helicopters. [Janice Podsada, Hartford Courant, Feb 4, 09] He has also had Phase 1 SBIRs in 2006 and 2007. The story doesn't explain why he chose private funding in 2005 after he had established friendly acceptance in DOD's SBIR.

Hoppe Tool (Chicopee, MA)

Mason Box (North Attleboro, MA) is among several local companies that have been selected to participate in the "Next Generation Manufacturing Initiative, or NGMI, an effort to foster best-in-class manufacturing processes. Other participants in the initiative include Hoppe Tool (Chicopee, MA), Matouk Textiles (Fall River, MA), Munksjo Paper (Fitchburg, MA), and Spectro Coating (Leominster, MA). The initiative is a partnership of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, a nonprofit group representing Bay State employers; MassDevelopment, the commonwealth's finance and development authority; and the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a group dedicated to helping local manufacturers remain competitive in a global marketplace. [Chris Reidy, Boston Globe, Jun 19] No SBIR.

Humacyte (Research Triangle Park, NC)

three years after forming Humacyte (Research Triangle Park, NC; no SBIR) to pursue their research, the three women are a year or two away from testing their blood vessels in patients. [Sabine Vollmer, Raleigh News& Observer, Nov 30]

HHuman Genome Sciences

Human Genome Sciences (Rockville, MD; no SBIR) fell 44%, after it moved high-dose Albuferon patients in two continuing late-stage hepatitis C trials to the low-dose group, citing higher rates of serious lung-related problems in those using the higher dosage. [Wall Street Journal, Jan 24, 08]

HTSS (Madsion, WI)

The Wisconsin Department of Commerce has qualified two biotech companies to receive investor tax credits, the agency said Thursday. Perscitus Biosciences LLC,

HHuman Genome Sciences

, is developing a molecule that has shown an ability to protect healthy human cells against the harmful effects of chemotherapy and radiation. HTSS LLC, Milwaukee, is developing a technology that analyzes muscle activity to help reduce injuries during exercise regimens. Certain investors in both companies are now eligible to claim tax credits under legislation known as Act 255. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Jun 27] No SBIR.

Hydra Biosciences (Cambridge, MA)

the increasingly prominent role big pharmaceutical companies are taking during the recession � both to help get new biotech firms off the ground and to prop up those companies with promising technologies, but few financing options. .... MedImmune Ventures, an arm of MedImmune Inc., which is a subsidiary of AstraZeneca plc. The venture arm has $300 million under management and has invested $200 million, including investments in Hydra Biosciences (Cambridge, MA; $250K SBIR) and Inotek Pharmaceuticals (Lexington, MA; $20+M SBIR) [Mass High Tech, Aug 14, 09]

Hydra Biosciences (Cambridge, MA; two SBIRs) brought in $22.2 million in a fourth venture funding round to advance a number of Hydra�s ion channel drug programs to fight pain, inflammation, and pulmonary disease [Mass High Tech, Jan 16, 09]

Hydra Biosciences (Cambridge, MA; 2 SBIRs) confirmed reports it raised $34M in its third round of venture capital. ... 36 employees, is in the early stages of developing potential treatments for pain management and hopes to begin clinical testing on at least one of them next year. [Boston Globe, Mar 15]

Hydra Biosciences (Cambridge, MA; two SBIRs) raised $34M in a Series C round of funding. [Mass High Tech, Mar 13, 08]

Hydra Biosciences (Cambridge, MA; two SBIRs) inked a deal potentially worth more than $195M with Pfizer to develop treatments for pain [Mass High Tech, Jul 26, 07]

Hydrogen Safety (East Hartford,CT)
Six start-up technology firms have received grants as part of the state's small-business incubator program, ... administered by the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology ... $32,000 to $50,000 went to: AllerQuest LLC of West Hartford, Catelectric Corp. of Storrs, Hydrogen Safety of East Hartford, Quadra-Aerrow International of Glastonbury, Revegen Inc. of Farmington and the Center for Network Centric Product Support Research of East Hartford. [Hartford Courant, Dec 12, 08] no SBIR for any

HyperBranch Medical Technologies (Durham, NC) (Cambridge, MA)

Private investment continues to boost young Triangle companies. Biologics (Raleigh NC; no SBIR) oncology pharmacy, $20M; . Aldagen (Durham NC; no SBIR) biotech company, $9 M; HyperBranch Medical Technologies (Durham NC; one SBIR) medical device startup, $1.5M. [Sabine Vollmer, Raleigh News & Observer, Sep 15] Those who can, do; those who can't or won't depend on government handouts.

Hyperion Therapeutics (South San Francisco, CA)

Hyperion Therapeutics (South San Francisco, CA; no SBIR) raised $60 million in its third round of venture funding. ... late-stage clinical testing of its drug for urea cycle disorders [San Francisco Business Times, Jul 2, 09]

HyperMed (Waltham, MA)

HyperMed (Burlington, MA; $2.7M SBIR) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection ... owns over 40 patents related to different medical devices, ... ceased operations and the phone number has been disabled. Online business directories say the private company was established in 1997 and had 21 employees. [Julie Donnelly, Mass High Tech, Dec 23, 09]

HyperMed (Waltham, MA; $2.7M SBIR) says it has closed on $4M in a new wave of Series A financing to market its hyperspectral medical imaging product, OxyVu,

Hypres (Elmsford, NY)

All digital RF superconductor technology from Hypres (Elmsford, NY; over $40M SBIR), says MDA's Tech Applications Fall 2008 quarterly. MDA's piece talks the usual talk about marketing, tech benefits, and hopes for the future, but says nothing about whether the company produced any economic effect after $40M SBIR over two decades. Of course, it's not Tech App's role to evaluate SBIR, only to tell MDA's best stories. We might conclude, though, that if such a project ranks as one of MDA's best stories this year from many tens of millions of SBIR dollars, MDA's SBIR must be paying no heed to SBIR's objective to nurture infant technology with an economic future. Perhaps the SBTC will put some bold lipstick on SBIR by citing MDA's story as another compelling sign of SBIR's success.

Hypres (Elmsford, NY) got some publicity by publishing a self-congratulatory article in IEEE Spectrum Dec 2000. If you like electronics at temperatures below a North Pole Christmas, you'll like the low temperature superconductivity for which Hypres has had something like $20M of SBIR since 1986. The piece concludes with a vision that such electronics may replace conventional microelectronics as they reach "their physical and economic limits. The drivers will be the market's demand for higher bandwidth and for seamless RF and digital integration." Ok, when will the government get a competitive return in its investment? The old SBIR question arises, "how much and how long should a seed program nurse a technology that won't sell?".

Hy-SyEnce (Fall River, MA)

No fewer than four groups in Massachusetts are racing to bring so-called microbial fuel cells to market through a variety of applications. None has been commercialized yet, but industry insiders say microbial fuel cells hold the potential to become a major part of the renewable energy equation. ... Hy-SyEnce (Fall River, MA; no SBIR) is working to generate large-scale power from the wastewater of food-processing plants, while IntAct Labs LLC (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) is applying its technology to similar industrial applications, as well as the possibility of generating power and recycling waste products during space missions. A research group out of Harvard University, on the other hand, is hoping to provide power for lighting and other systems in developing nations, while Derek Lovley�s Geobactor Project at UMass Amherst is looking to create organic batteries that could one day power computers or even vehicles. [Mass High Tech, Aug 22]

IAP Research (Dayton, OH)

Just a Report. Toward the end of the 1980�s, the Soviet Union went away. As a result, the defense budget began a free fall. We concluded that we would have to do two things with our company. The first was to find some other technology to motivate us like electromagnetic guns had. Electromagnetic guns really have only weapons applications and weapons are only of interest to the Department of Defense. The second thing we had to do was move our company to more of a product development orientation. Perhaps, even production. We had existed entirely as sort of a research institution; solving problems and writing reports for our customers. The Department of Defense was willing and able to provide lots of funds to do that, but industry is not. Industry needs something more tangible than a report. Says IAP Research (Dayton OH). With 20-some employees for 15 years, it has had 15 Phase 2 SBIRs (all DOD by 2004) which is only enough to support a minor fraction of the workforce. Somehow it has attracted other business, although not necessarily as a direct exploitation of the SBIR-funded work. But because it is a private firm, neither it nor the government need publish any economic results - a political convenience for the protection of SBIR as a political program. Founder John Barber observes that government will usually settle for a tech report. Sure, since it acquires all the IP rights it needs to use any technology that results. Which is part of SBIR's problem with low (although mostly unmeasured) economic results. If the government funds mostly companies that are happy to produce nothing but government reports, then nothing much good will continue to happen.

IBC Advanced Technologies (American Fork, UT)

IBC Advanced Technologies (American Fork, UT; $0.5M SBIR) a company that develops and sells molecular-recognition technology, received an honorable mention in the chemicals-materials science category at the sixth annual Utah Innovation Awards Program. IBC was lauded for a process that removes bismuth impurity from copper. [Salt Lake Tribune, Jun 28, 08]

Ibis Technology (Danvers, MA)

After stockholders voted earlier this month to shut the company down, Ibis Technology reports that it is officially no longer an operating company in the eyes of the state as of today. [Mass High Tech, Feb 17]

Ibis Technology said that its stockholders have approved a proposal to complete the liquidation and dissolution of the company. [Boston Globe, Feb 2, 09]

Too Cheap, says NASDAQ about Ibis Technology whose common stock has fallen below the minimum pricing requirements, and risks delisting.

Ibis Technology down another 11% [Nov 6, 07] (already under a buck) on news of the sudden death of its CEO.

Ibis up 12% [May 17, 07]

Ibis jumped 18%.[Nov 17, 06]

Ibis up 11% [Nov 14, 06]

Ibis fell 19% [Oct 26. 06] even though it made $2M profit in the quarter. When you sell an occasional big machine, the profits are lumpy.

Ibis had a big stock day last Friday (Jun 30,06) up 22%.

Ibis rose 12% [Jun 28, 06].

In a whack-em day on Wall Street, the biggest percentage loser was Ibis -20%. [jun06]

Ibis had a cold day [Mar 22] with 11% drop, second sharpest on NASDAQ. When your business sells a huge item infrequently, it's hard for anyone to project earnings and value the company.

Ibis Technology got another juicy $7M order for an Ibis i2000 oxygen implanter from a Japanese manufacturer of silicon wafers. [Mass High Tech, Oct 27]

Ibis got a 17% boost after it reported a $6M order for its i2000 oxygen implanter in silicon-wafer production.

Someone Knows Something Good. Ibis rocketed 51% yesterday way up to 3% of its Y2K high in the gold old crazy days. No news published - yet.

Ibis plummeted 45% after reporting soggy financials including a big charge for dropping wafer making. And II-VI lost 12%. High PEs demand high profit growth rates.

Ibis took an 18% dive Thursday when it reported that it would throw in the towel on making wafers to focus on SIMOX implanters. CEO Reid made the requisite happy noises about the bad news.

Ibis reported a $15M loss for the quarter of which $11 was an "impairment charge" on its 200 mm and smaller SIMOX wafer production line. In a world of 300mm wafers, a 200mm line has value only a as scrap (which might actually salvage some real dollars on present booming world scrap markets). Even so, prospects don't seem bleak to stock traders as the price is nearly triple what it was a year ago although down nearly 90% from its info-tech bubble high.

Selling an occasional implanter and otherwise making big losses is not the formula for stock market price growth, discovers Ibis as it reports another multi-million dollar loss. Cash to cover the loss and to keep the operations running came from a $13M secondary offering in October. But even with yesterday's 18% hit, the stock is still more than double its price in spring 2003. [Oct 03]

Ibis Up 3/4. Ibis rose 75 cents a share (15% of a depressed price) on news of a deal with IBM wherein Ibis will takes both will develop a better, cheaper wafer-making process. IBM already takes 10% of Ibis's products.

IBIS Takes a Hit. The stock price of Ibis got whacked 20% Friday (Dec 13) and 30% for th week when a broker advised "hold" the Wall Street equivalent of "sell". The same broker by contrast has a "strong Buy" on Varian Semi - same industry, different prospects. Ibis stock is at about a third of its 12-mointh high.

Nearly Breathless Press Release. Ibis Technology shouted a loud headline on its press release: Total revenue up 316% from preceding quarter, includes system sale to Chinese customer; wafer sales up 25% over preceding quarter, marking fifth consecutive quarter of revenue growth. Thereafter followed the ugly facts that losses are still mounting as costs rise faster than revenue. Net quarterly loss $2.2M, and $10M for nine months. Fortunately, cash still exceeds current liabilities although not by enough to withstand many more multi-million losing quarters.

Ibis got an $8M order for its Ibis i2000 oxygen implanter from a "major" semiconductor maker. Which is more than last year's total revenue. CEO Martin Reid claimed it was because of the i2000's ability to produce high quality, 300mm, thin SOI wafers, reliably and cost-effectively. Ibis's stock price jumped 25% which is only 1% of its Y2K high. What claim can you make about the cost-effectiveness of your innovative product?

Ibis to the Birds. Alexander Soule [Mass High Tech, Apr 26] relates Ibis to the bird of that name. He notes that artist and naturalist Roger Tory Peterson once wrote that birds are an ecological litmus paper. And semiconductor equipment manufacturers are the canaries in the coal mines of the technology industry. Last month, Ibis raised nearly $12M for a second generation of SIMOX implanters The North Shore is now home to several companies researching various SOI technologies, including Ibis, and a breeding site for the glossy ibis, a large long curved bill wading bird. Unfortunately, Ibis has not been breeding profits as fast as the birds breed. Its most recent quarter took a net loss of $3.4M following a loss of $2.4M million the year before. This month, the Audubon Society reported spotting about 20 ibises in Ipswich. - just about the number of Ibis machines that exist today. The market last week voted Ibis down 25% in a roller coaster week for semiconductor stocks like ATMI which has been up and down 20% in April.

Ibis sold a $11.7M secondary of 900,000 shares at $13 per share.

Ibis Tech has steadily climbed to more than ten times its mid-September low. On Jan 3 it said that it did the first implants using its next-generation oxygen implanter, the Ibis 2000 for big wafers, both 200- and 300mm.

Ibis Tech jumped 16% as it announced it had shipped an Ibis 1000 oxygen implanter to the Shanghai Institute of Metallurgy (SIM), Chinese Academy of Sciences. Now if all that shipping could actually turn a profit having had only one profitable year in the last five.

Ibis Starts Shipping. Ibis Technology, the leading provider of SIMOX-SOI implantation equipment and SIMOX-SOI wafers to the worldwide semiconductor industry, today announced initial shipments of Advantox MLD-UT wafers, which feature an ultra-thin silicon layer as thin as 300-angstroms and all the advantages of the IBM-developed, production proven MLD process. Ultra-thin SOI wafers have been demonstrated to provide superior results especially in terms of increased power efficiency and heat reduction in the manufacture of fully depleted substrate transistors for next generation semiconductor devices. [company press release] The news shot Ibis up another 17% which makes it doubling in three months although stilll down 90% from its winter 2000 high before the info-tech bubble burst.

Intel Loves Ibis?. Intel calls [it] the TeraHertz transistor because it cycles 1 trillion times per second, could ultimately lead to new applications, such as real-time voice and face recognition, computing without keyboards and ever-smaller electronic gizmos with higher performance and improved battery life. ... "... they've basically invented a new transistor technology that's fundamentally different and manufacturable," said analyst Dan Hutchinson of VLSI Research. "They've completely re-engineering the transistor as we know it." [Reuters, Nov 26] Although Intel has not said anything specific about the substrate, some speculation centers on silicon-on-insulator which could explain a one-day 45% jump in Ibis stock. Notice that Intel wants different and manufacturable, not just better. Government, on the other hand, in SBIR wants only a little different and cares little about manufacturability,mainly because military uses are not cost-sensitive.

Also blown by the swoosh was Ibis Technology which says Total revenues for the quarter were $1,256,000 compared to $5,920,000 reported in the second quarter of 2000. SIMOX-SOI wafer sales decreased to $771,000 from $1,442,000 in the same quarter last year. Equipment revenue, generated from implanter, parts and service sales, was $340,000 for the second quarter of 2001 as compared to $4,224,000 in the second quarter of 2000, which included an implanter sale.

NASADAQ traders dumped (-20%) Ibis Technology when it announced that due to a substantial decrease in wafer forecasts from one of its largest customers, the Company has revised its outlook for the second quarter and full year 2001, lowering its revenue projections. Ibis' customer, one which manufactures optical components utilizing Ibis' wafers, has informed Ibis that it expects to order a very small quantity of wafers in the second quarter and substantially reduced quantities for the remainder of 2001. While the impact on the first quarter is expected to be minimal, the Company is now projecting second quarter total revenue to be reduced by approximately 50 to 60 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2000. Full year total revenue is still anticipated to be up, although only slightly, compared to fiscal 2000. [company press release, Apr 12]

Ibis shot up a third on news that it has licensed from IBM the right to manufacture and sell SIMOX-SOI (Separation by IMplantation of OXygen / Silicon-On-Insulator) wafers, using IBM's proprietary SIMOX process, to IBM and to all Ibis customers.

Ibis Technology suffered the usual penalty for reporting a loss - a big dip in price. Down 72% from its high of a few months ago when it was making at least a little profit. Ibis blamed lower equipment revenues offsetting a nice business in wafers.

Hedge fund Jeffrey Puglisi is hot - a 451% gain in 1999. This year, the fund is up 80%. Puglisi's forte is technology. His top bet for 2000: Ibis Technology , which makes what Puglisi and others say is a ''revolutionary'' semiconductor chip that runs at higher speed, lower voltage, and with less power. Ibis is the leading supplier of Ibis 1000 equipment that makes silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers. Early Ibis customers include IBM, Motorola, and Mitsubishi. IBM is ''on a very aggressive plan to convert its microprocessor products to Ibis' SOI wafer,'' says analyst Michael O'Brien of SoundView Technology Group. He sees Ibis selling 10 machines in 2001. IBM has bought five Ibis machines, while Motorola and Mitsubishi have each purchased one. ''They are also buyers of Ibis' SOI wafers,'' adds Puglisi. Other chipmakers that are buyers of Ibis wafers include Advanced Micro Devices, National Semiconductor, and Fujitsu. Giant chipmaker Intel is said to be testing the Ibis product. No wonder Ibis' stock was also a huge winner in 1999, zooming 402%. Ibis is up more than 60% so far this year, and closed at 108 3/4 a share on Mar. 22. Puglisi sees Ibis doubling in a year. Soundview's O'Brien figures Ibis will earn 13 cents a share in 2000, on revenues of $26.5 million, and 81 cents in 2001, on sales of $58.2 million. [GENE G. MARCIAL, Business Week, Apr 1,00]
Ibis had some SBIR help along the way, and is what Inknowvation calls "involved" in SBIR. In 1989 when it had just five employees through 1998 when it had 60 employees, it got about $5M mostly from the nuclear hardness people at DNA (now DTRA) and BMDO (awards managed by DNA). The awards were relatively modest improvements in Ibis's established SOI process. By contrast, DOD put SBIR into the SOI of Spire whose market cap has gone nowhere in 15 years despite tons of SBIR money in many different technologies. A parallel to Ibis might be Emcore which got some SBIR to advance its deposition processes and later zoomed up in market cap. Since its 1994 IPO it has lost $11M and shot from $100M market cap in Jan 1999 to $1B. If the DOD had taken a proportional equity for its early SBIR investment, it might today have a few percent of that $1B, say $30M in equity value at a high-flying PE ratio over 1000 waiting for the prick of the high tech bubble.

IBIS TECHNOLOGY got to a five-fold rise for the year at 50 on the strenght of its SIMOX-SOI technology is emerging as a key enabling material to drive the technology roadmaps of several leading integrated circuit manufacturers, particularly for high performance computers and low power communications devices,'' said CEO Martin Reid

Ibis Makes a Hit Ibis Technology (Danvers, MA) was up big (34%) to $11+ in a sloppy stock market on news that its technology would be part of IBM's new SOI-based 35% faster chips. In the last four years IBIS has lost a total of about $50M. Someone had confidence. The stock price actually rose from $2 in 1995 to $14 when the Asian contagion hit semiconductor stocks. Inevitably, some voices sing negative notes, Despite the obvious advantages of SOI, industry analysts aren't sure how readily the technology will become mainstream because of the costs involved, since each chip company will have to work out manufacturing kinks or license the technology from companies such as IBM. "In theory you could begin production of SOI devices in a standard production line," said William O'Mara of O'Mara & Associates. "In practice, it is going to be quite difficult. The next two years will tell the tale whether SOI can ever get beyond a niche and into high-volume." Indeed, Intel, which dominates the PC market for chips, has only a "low-level" SOI research effort under way and doesn't plan on implementing SOI "in the forseeable" future, said a company spokesman, adding that the chip maker has yet to see significant advantages in using the process. [Dow Jones, Aug 3] Did SBIR make it possible in a way that the private market would not have done? Ibis has had only five Phase 2 SBIR from DOD (four from Defense Nuclear Agency) for improvements in its SIMOX business. A titbit also came from NASA and NSF. DNA loved the radiation-hard electronics and if you think like Professor Higgins about Eliza's twenty pound offer, you realize that DNA has invested a noticeable percentage of its tiny SBIR in Ibis. The company has grown from 7 to 60 employees since its two 1990 SDIO Phase 1s (note: BMDO has never advanced an Ibis Phase 1 to Phase 2 - too incremental and performance-based for BMDO's taste). The Wall Street Journal's description says, Ibis is the only US manufacturer of SIMOX wafers for the semiconductor industry. After planting its roots in military applications, the company has blossomed into the commercial market, where big US customers such as Honeywell, IBM, Motorola, and Texas Instruments account for about 70% of sales. Ibis also has strategic alliances with Motorola and Mitsubishi Materials. DNA (now DSWA) should take as much SBIR credit as it can for whatever Ibis claims even if commercial payoff was only a required pretense at the time. Nobody's unlucky all the time.

IBT Laboratories (Lenexa, KS)

ViraCor Laboratories (Lee�s Summit, MO; $1.5M SBIR) and IBT Laboratories (Lenexa, KS; no SBIR) officially merged Tuesday and have a combined work force of more than 200 employees. [Kansas City Business Journal, Jul 1, 09]

Icagen

Icagen down ?/% on news that the company plans to stop development of senicapoc due to the asthma drug�s failure in a clinical trial. [Triangle Business Journal, Oct 27, 09]

Drug development company Icagen (Durham, NC; $700K SBIR a decade ago) posted a $3.6 million loss in the third quarter as revenue from its research partners plummeted. [Raleigh News & Observer, Nov 7, 08]

Icagen down 14% [Oct 6, 08]

Icagen ($700K SBIR) is developing three compounds for the treatment of pain disorders, and now Pfizer has obtained exclusive worldwide product rights. Pfizer has already paid Icagen $38 million, including $15 million in equity investments, with a potential $359 million in total periodic payments. [Gene Marcial, Business Week, Mar 10]

Icagen (one Phase 2 SBIR) said it hopes to begin testing an experimental treatment for epilepsy on healthy male volunteers by the end of September. ... no products on the market and lost about $25M last year ... IPO Feb 05. [Raleigh News & Observer, Jul 25]

Icagen down 10% [Feb 26, 07]

Icagen rose 21% [Feb 21, 07]

Idaho Technology (Salt Lake UT)

Idaho Technology (now in Salt Lake UT) has gone from 37 to 160 employees in response to anthrax threats since 2001. Idaho Technology's story began in the 1980s when company co-founder Carl Wittwer, then a graduate student at Utah State University, hired student Kirk Ririe as an undergraduate research technician. Wittwer eventually accepted a research position at the University of Utah while Ririe took over the management of Agparts, his father's potato equipment company in Idaho Falls, Idaho. It was in the corner of the factory that the first rapid detection prototypes were built. [Dawn House, Salt Lake Tribune, Oct 6] Idaho has had at least six Phase 2 SBIRs.

IdeaPaint (Boston, MA)

Startup IdeaPaint (Boston, MA) has taken in $5 million in its first venture funding ... has created a patented paint that makes any flat surface into a dry-erase writing surface once applied. ... Coming out of Babson College�s entrepreneur program [Mass High Tech, Nov 12, 08]

II-VI (Saxonburg, PA)

II-VI made an unsolicited proposal to buy Middlefield, Conn.-based Zygo (Middlefield, CT; one SBIR) according to a release from Zygo. ... Earlier this week, II-VI, which makes specialty optics, closed a deal to acquire the Chinese optics firm Photop Technologies and issued updated guidance for its year-end figures that could see the company break $300 million in profits. [Pittsburgh Business Times, Jan 7, 10] II-IV had just under $3M SBIR starting in 1984 with 112 employees and ending in 1992 with 220 employees. It now has 1900 employees, revenue of $270M, and a market cap of $930M.

II-VI up 10% [Apr 9, 09]

II-VI up 20% [Jan 21, 09]

II-IV down 20% [Dec 3, 08]

II-VI up 15% [Oct 13, 08]

Forbes 200 Best Small Companies list for 2008 had several "SBIR involved" companies: Hittite Microwave 12, II-IV 23, Synaptics 33, NVE 39, ATMI 114, Cymer 166.

Business Week's Hot Growth Class of 2006 has fared relatively well. Weighted by market value, the companies have returned 4.7% over the past two years. That tops the small-cap Russell 2000 index, which dipped 3.9% during the same period. Ninth highest two-year return was II-VI at 71%. [Business Week, Jun 9, 08]

Market pundit Jack Hough likes II-IV as having impressive return on equity and promising growth prospects [Wall Street Journal, May 8, 08]

II-VI down 11% [Apr 22, 08] despite growing profits. Revenue from infrared optics rose 21 percent, while that from military and materials was up 69 percent. [Reuters, Apr 22]

II-IV named as bargain growth stock on prospects of 20% profit growth in 2008. [Jack Hough, WSJ, Mar 27]

II-VI up 21% after posting a quarter's profit and a gain in yearly profit. [Aug 7, 07]

Among Business Week's 100 hot growth companies were Ceradyne and II-VI. [Jun06]

Minor stumble. big overreaction says Motley Fool about II-VI's 17% plunge even though sales were up 25% and profit up 70% and a rough book-to-bill ratio of 1.14 as both numbers fell just short of their targets. ... Looking ahead, the future for lasers is still glowing brightly. Lasers are increasingly replacing machine tools in manufacturing, and new applications in medicine and consumer goods are continually coming online. Not only are more lasers being used but also they are getting more powerful. These new stronger lasers require more valuable optics, and they consume them faster, a good thing indeed for II-VI. [Motley Fool, Jan 20]

"if only" not convincing. Profits up, sales up, so what? II-VI said, However, orders for near-infrared optics used in semiconductor manufacturing have not yet recovered. If demand from that industry were to improve .. blah, blah. The market was not listening and the stock took a 15% nose dive when the earnings didn't measure up to expectations. Stock prices. after all, are not about present earning, but about future earnings. When a company lets Wall Street raise its expectations, the stock price sinks when the company cannot produce the expected result. So, private companies that don't care about their shareholders getting rich can stay private and work for the 6% profit on government R&D contracts in sheltered political programs like SBIR.

II-VI avoids telecom battering ram. Eighteen months ago, shares of II-VI were white hot, irrationally buoyed in part by a limited foray into the telecommunications market. They've cooled since then, as telecommunications stocks tanked and the economy headed south. Shares hit a high of $37 in March 2000 and closed Friday at $15.74, ... The company last week posted record fourth-quarter earnings and set new highs for revenue and earnings for its fiscal year ended June 30.... "Our telecom exposure for the next two to four quarters is not good," Chairman Carl Johnson told analysts last week. For the year, II-VI earned $9.5M on revenue of $123M. ... Since late April, II-VI has reduced its work force by about 10% to 1,100 [Len Boselovic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug 12]

II-VI makes components for lasers. One is zinc selenide crystals, which are used to make optics that redirect laser beams in carbon dioxide laser systems, a workhorse light source capable of cutting everything from flesh to metal. These lasers are used for industrial applications like cutting fabric or welding metal. II-VI recently bought rival Laser Power, which gave the company a good business supplying the military with parts for missile guidance and infrared imaging devices. At $15, II-VI's shares go for a high 22 times trailing earnings. But we expect earnings per share to grow 29% this year. [Forbes, Jun 11]

II-IV Rockets. II-IV (Saxonburg, PA) jumped 67% to 44 Friday with the only news being a new strong buy recommendation form another broker. II-VI designs, manufactures and markets optical and electro-optical components, devices and materials for infrared, near-infrared, visible light, x-ray and gamma-ray instrumentation and has recently announced new products to serve the telecommunication industry. It has traded between 11 and 74 in the past 12 months.

II-VI made $7M profit for the year, down from $9.5M the previous year. Although revenues were down less than 10%, making a decent profit at all is an accomplishment for a chipster in the info-tech downwash. The stock price is down only a third from its 12-month high. [date??]

II-VI apparently surprised Wall Street with 35% higher earnings, of $2M for the quarter.on record revenues of $19.8M. The trading price jumped 30% in a record NASDAQ up-day. II-VI (Saxonburg, PA), an SBIR minor beneficiary, makes and and sells optical and electro-optical components, devices and materials for infrared, near-infrared, visible light, x-ray and gamma-ray instrumentation and has recently announced new products to serve the telecommunication industry. [company press release, Apr 18, ??]

II-VI ups offer for competitor. , II-VI Inc. turned up the gas this week in its bid to acquire a San Diego competitor. II-VI, (Saxonburg, PA) optical sensor manufacturer formally made a stock-and-cash offer of $4-$5 a share for Laser Power Corp. This offer followed the announcement three days earlier that Laser Power had agreed to merge into Union Miniere S.A., a Brussels-based nonferrous metal producer that already owns almost 10 percent of the Laser Power. One of Laser Power's most attractive features is its military contracts, since military work accounts for less than 10 percent of II-VI's business. II-VI's advantage in the market is that it manufactures its own raw materials, principally zinc selenide, used to make the optics. According to II-VI, acquiring these materials accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of Laser Power's costs. Imagine that: an SBIR-funded company in a bidding war to acquire a company that adds military business of which it has too little.

II-VI Zooms Yesterday's zoomer was II-VI (Saxonburg, PA) which gapped up 71%.on news of a strong buy rating by a brokerage. Such new recommendations in the info-tech industry seem to work at least temporary miracles. II-VI had about $3M in military SBIR through the 80s starting when it was already a firm over 100 employees. The five Phase 2 projects were relatively modest improvements, or even defensive research, on existing processes. DOD likes to trumpet II-VI as an SBIR success story even though its contribution was clearly minor. OK, victory has a thousand fathers. The company electro-optics products make a nice annual profit for a decade of about 10% net margin on sales that have been steadily rising. Profits per share have declined year-to-year though in 98 and 99.

Ikonisys (New Haven, CT)

Diagnostics device firm Ikonisys (New Haven, CT; one SBIR) received [FDA] clearance for its oncoFISH (Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization) HER2 test, intended for the detection of the more aggressive HER2 form of breast cancer. ... Founded in 1999, closed a $30 million Series E round of financing in October 2007, bringing the total amount raised by the company to $67.5 million. [Mass High Tech, Oct 29, 08]

Diagnostics device maker Ikonisys (New Haven, CT; one SBIR) got a $30M VC finance deal. Since its start in 1999, it has raised $67M. [Mass High Tech, Oct 17, 07]

Illinois Superconductor (Evanston, IL)

Illinois Superconductor (Mt Prospect, IL) completed installation of 15 RangeMaster Systems for Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems, one of the largest cellular providers in the US, which operates in 10 regions and has 5.5 million subscribers. ISCO claims to be a leading supplier of very high performance filters for the wireless telephony industry. The stock market, though, takes a dim view of ISCO's prospects as it trades down near 20% of its 1993 IPO price. Not that any SBIR superconductor company that went public is doing well either. ISCO had a BMDO SBIR, after its VC backing, for a gadget not related to the cellular phone equipment.

Darkness on ISCO
(May 1) With little in the way of solid fundamentals, we are suspending coverage of Illinois Superconductor , said the one Wall Street firm, Grunthal, watching ISCO. Grunthal has recommended selling since last November. The stock has been from 1 to 15 in the twelve months and now rests below 3. ISCO got a start with a BMDO SBIR after it already had VC backing; it has had an imbroglio lately between management and an actively disappointed shareholder.

Diluted or Dead. Shareholders in Illinois Superconductor (Mt Prospect, IL) will have to choose whether to accept the money from new shares sold at way below the IPO price or running out of money. Charges and lawsuits are flying as the firm reports another quarterly loss over $2M.

Illinois Rockets
(Mar 16) Illinois Superconductor stock rose 60% Friday on 2.8M shares (daily average 231K) on top of Thursday's a 119% rise after S&P Equity Group upgraded its prospects. The Dow Jones story, though, said, One industry observer, however, warned of the superconductive electronic device maker's controversial financing agreements and high cash burn rate, or spending on overhead before generating positive cash flow from operations. Nobody's perfect, and 3.5 is still a long haul from the $11 of the 1993 IPO. Back in 1993, superconductors were cool.

Another loss also for Superconductor Technologies. $3.5M in both '96 and '97. The 1988 promise of superconductors has yet to show much economic benefit. The SBIR investments 1988-1992 made sense to give a new technology a chance. But now superconducting has reverted to the long pull of research for which SBIR is not suited.

Never Satisfied
(Nov 24) Illinois Superconductor's largest shareholder filed [another] lawsuit Friday against the company and its directors over a series of recent financing agreements. News of the suit drove down Illinois Superconductor shares nearly 32 percent on the Nasdaq. [Chicago Tribune, Nov 22]

Illinois Superconductor (Mount Prospect, IL) in a dive, down 80% from its high over the last 12 months after a loss of $3M for the quarter. ATMI (Danbury, CT), trading again as ATMI, a lot better off, now 2.5 times its low for the 12 months, even though it is down 20% from the high.

Illinois Super Gets $5M
(Nov 3) Illinois Superconductor (Mt Prospect, IL) got $5M in equity financing for working capital and general corporate purposes. The company said it will use the funds primarily to support sales of its wireless telecommunications filter products. [Chicago Tribune, Nov 1]

New Illini Super Product
(Sep 11) Illinois Superconductor (Mt Prospect, IL) unveiled its low-loss personal communications services transmit filter/duplexer as part of its SpectrumMaster line of filters for wireless communications. IS said the PCS transmit filter/duplexer handles over 20 watts of radio frequency power with acceptable intermodulation distortion levels. The company said it plans to begin shipping product in early 1998. [J Fitzgerald , Chicago Tribune, Sep 10] IS got its first SBIR (and one of very few) from SDIO soon after the venture backed company started.

Illinois Superconductor Hires Salomon
(Aug 6) Illinois Superconductor (Mt Prospect, IL) under pressure from its biggest shareholder to lift its share price, hired investment banker Salomon Brothers to evaluate alternative strategies, including selling the firm and strategic alliances. ISC started in 1990 with financial help from the State of Illinois and BMDO SBIR to exploit high temp superconductivity. Lots of firms got such help in the HTSC optimism of 1988-1992. The firm's HTSC radio-frequency filters have been used by several cellular phone firms to reduce interference problems in difficult locations such as O'Hare Airport. But 7.7% shareholder Sheldon Drobny, says, "There is a strong perception right now that they're having trouble selling product. I believe that's untrue, but they are losing the propaganda war." Drobny has been energized by the drop in stock price from $24 to $9. Two other BMDO SBIR HTSC companies, Conductus and STI, have suffered similar shrinkage. [Story by Jon Van, Chicago Tribune, Aug 5]

ISCO's 7.7% Solution A holder of 7.7% of Illinois Superconductor common arranged a kicking upstairs of the CEO. The vocal investor wants management with "extensive operational experience and a Wall Street orientation" now that ISCO has advanced beyond the tech start-up stage. [Wall Street Journal, Jul 9] Out of that nursery.

Raising Another $17M Illinois Superconductor (Evanston, IL) will sell 1M shares in a secondary offering plus another possible 15% if the underwriters exercise their over-allotments. The going price of is around $17. ISCO went public at $11 after getting its first (and almost only) SBIR from BMDO. .

An Illinois Filter, Too While STI shows its HTSC (high temperatures are still cold by human standards) at the big Wireless 97 (where not having something is featured) show in San Francisco, Illinois Superconductor (Evanston, IL) will be showing its filter, too. (You show me yours, I'll show you mine) Indeed two filters that allow20% more coverage by a base station (which at the present rate of expansion will be on every roof) and 25% cell site range extension in networks. ISC got its first SBIR from BMDO for an unrelated HTSC item, a current control switch.

Year's Top Product SpectrumMaster^TM was named one of 12 top products by Microwaves & RF, a telco industry journal. The Illinois Superconductor (ISCO, Evanston, IL) product competed with 5000 new products for the honor. Announced criteria (like SBIR judging) were design practicality, innovative use of technology, and greatest good for the greatest number (the classic utilitarian goal) of industry participants. The product allows (but does not mandate) fewer ugly towers in neighborhoods (NIMBY) because it lets through 35% more voice signal and reduces interference 10,000 times. Product is shipping. Whether neighborhoods see fewer towers is problematical when competition and not technology rules. Illinois had a BMDO Phase 2 SBIR for a current limiting switch (which doesn't seem to generate such press). [Source: Business Wire]

Superconductor Loss Superconductor Loss
Losses of $2M for the quarter and $4.5M for the half were in line with the Company's business plan. How comforting. "In July we achieved the most significant milestone in the Company's history when Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems placed the first commercial order for SpectrumMaster filters". It's at least good to know that someone is benefiting from superconductivity that was the technological rage in 1988. Illinois Superconductor (Evanston, IL) got its first (and one of few) SBIRs from BMDO.

Illumigen Biosciences (Seattle, WA)

Kineta (Seattle, WA; no SBIR) is trying a new approach. ... plans to fund its research step by step, relying on revenue-generating deals to undertake the next step in research. ... started the company last December but unveiled it publicly only this month. Their new venture quickly came after the $9 million sale of their previous company, Illumigen Biosciences ($2M SBIR)... If Illumigen's research and commercial potential fully pans out, its shareholders could get up to $330 million in additional payments from Cubist. ... Kineta has so far partnered with Cubist for early-stage work on a hepatitis C drug, and has received funding from the National Institutes of Health. But it is also pitching itself to investors. [Angel Gonzalez, Seattle Times, Dec 23, 08]

Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Lexington, MA; $5M+ SBIR) lowered its previously reported fourth-quarter earnings to reflect a hefty acquisition charge [relating to buying] Illumigen Biosciences (Seattle, WA; $2M SBIR). [Boston Globe, Feb 13, 08]

Cubist Pharmaceuticals (Lexington, MA; $5+M SBIR) bought Illumigen Biosciences (Seattle,, WA; $2M SBIR) for $9M cash and planned milestone payments. Cubist, of , will make up to $75M in development payments for Illumigen�s lead product, IB657, now aimed at treating hepatitis C. Development of the compound for other uses could trigger payments of up to $117M. [Boston Globe, Dec 27]

Illumina

Affymetrix down 14% [Jan 13, 10] The technology that Affymetrix develops is quickly becoming obsolete, or so analysts believe. ... increased pricing pressures from competitors as its technology becomes quickly outdated by new genetic analysis technology such as Illumina�s sequencing technology. [Lisa LaMotta, Minyanville.com, Jan 13, 10]

Illumina unveiled new technology yesterday that it says will bring the cost of sequencing a human genome below $10,000. It was the latest milestone in the advancement of genetic analysis, from the $3 billion Human Genome Project a decade ago to current systems that can run a person�s genome for around $50,000. [Thomas Kupper, San Diego Union Tribune, Jan 13, 10]

Illumina up 16% [Jan 12, 10]

Illumina said its board has approved a plan to buy back up to $100 million of the San Diego company�s stock. The buyback program follows a $75 million stock repurchase plan the company announced in August and has recently completed. [signonsandiego.com, Nov 26]

Illumina down 20% [Oct 28, 09] It swung to a profit, but warned its fourth quarter and year will disappoint. [Wall Street Journal, Oct 29]

Illumina down 12% [Jul 2, 09] said revenue for its second quarter would fall below Wall Street estimates after falling short in the first quarter as well. [Wall Street Journal, Jul 3]

Illumina is launching a futuristic service that will give consumers the chance to get their DNA sequenced. But it's not cheap: $48,000. The company, which specializes in DNA research tools for scientists, thinks consumer gene sequencing could become widespread within a few years. That could give patients quick access to personalized information as the role of specific genes in disease becomes better understood. [Thomas Kupper, San Diego Union Tribune, Jun 11, 09]

Illumina up 10% [Mar 23, 09]

Illumina up 21% [Feb 4, 09]

Illumina up 11% [Oct 30, 08]

Illumina down 22% [Oct 22, 08]

Illumina up 10% [Oct 13, 08]

Illumina down 11% [Oct 6, 08]

Illumina (San Diego, CA; $9M SBIR) sold more 4 million shares to the public to raise $343M. [San Diego Union Tribune, Aug 13, 08]

an up kind of day for genetics analysis company Illumina (San Diego, CA; $9M SBIR). report of a 66% jump in revenue and a $6.1 million increase in quarterly profits. ... would acquire genetics sequencing company Avantome for $25 million upfront and contingent payments of up to $35 million. ... a 2-for-1 stock split. [Terri Somers, San Diego Union Tribune, Jul 23, 08] If the Congress wants to know where and why SBIR seems to succeed, it should explore why most of the economic success stories come from the life sciences and little from the mission agencies - NASA and DOD which have the lion's share of the SBIR money.

Illumina was up 26% last week and up 79% for 52 weeks. [Jan 14, 08]

Illumina jumped 16% to a record high [Jan 10, 08] after the company settled a patent lawsuit with Affymetrix Inc.

Steady growth and the departure of top executives have driven Illumina (San Diego,CA; $9M SBIR) that does genetic analysis, to reorganize into two operating units. ... As the science at biotechnology companies has progressed over the past few years, there have been increasing demands for the genetic analysis and products developed by Illumina. Meanwhile, technology advances have made the tests performed by Illumina much more affordable. ... Revenue for the first nine months of 2007 was $254M [San Diego Union Tribune, Jan 5]

Illumina fell 10% despite better earnings. [Feb 2, 07]

IlluminOss Medical (East Providence, RI)

IlluminOss Medical (East Providence, RI; no SBIR) raised $11M in Series B funding, according to published reports. ... develops medical devices for the treatment of bone fractures. [Mass High Tech, Apr 4]

Illumitex (Austin, TX)

Illumitex (Austin, TX; no SBIR) has received $4.3 million of a planned $10 million round of financing. ... develops light-emitting diode technology ... founded in 2007, has been operating in stealth mode ... In June, the company was reportedly in beta production [Austin Business Journal, Oct 14, 09]

Immersion

Immersion up 11% [Jul 27, 09]

Immersion down 23% [Jul 1, 09] is conducting an internal investigation into certain previous revenue transactions in its Medical line of business. [Business Wire, Jul 1]

Immersion down 10% [May 5, 09]

Immersion down 10% [Apr 20, 09]

Immersion up 12% [Mar 23, 09]

Immersion down 13% [Mar 5, 09]

Immersion down 25% [Mar 3, 09]

Immersion down 13% [Feb 9, 09]

Immersion down 13% [Jan 20, 09]

Immersion up 14% [Dec 8, 08]

Immersion up 12% [Nov 24, 08]

Immersion down 15% [Nov 14, 08]

Immersion up 10% [Nov 13, 08]

Immersion down 11% [Nov 5, 08]

Immersion up 11% [Nov 3, 08]

Immersion up 12% [Oct 30, 08]

Immersion up 16% [Sep 16, 08]

Immersion down 12% [Aug 1, 08]

Immersion up 15% [Jun 5, 08]

Immersion up 11% [Apr 29,08]

Immersion climbed 13% amid news that a new CEO and president was appointed [smallcapinvestor.com, Apr 25, 08]

Immersion up 14% [Jan 31, 08]

Immersion up 14% [Sep 27, 07]

Immersion down 10%. [Aug 15,07]

Immersion dropped 16% after an analyst offered cautious comments on the company's shares ... are pricing in "unachievable" growth opportunities beyond his already bullish assumptions. [Jul 16, 07]

Immersion up 17% [Mar 2, 07]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals

Immtech Pharmaceuticals down 46% after the New York pharmaceutical company said it will discontinue all development for a potential treatment for African sleeping sickness, after the development of kidney and liver abnormalities in a subgroup of volunteers in a safety study of the drug. [Wall Street Journal, Feb 26]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals up 15% [Feb 5, 08]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals up 15% [Jan 23, 08]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals down 16% [Jan 16, 08]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals down 20% [Jan 4, 08]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals up 36% [Dec 28, 07]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals down another 25% [Dec 27, 07]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals down 51% [Dec 26, 07]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals up 14% [Dec 5, 07]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals down 10% despite new scientific support for it product. [Aug 14,07]

Immtech Pharma down 10%. [Mar 5, 07]

Immtech Pharmaceuticals up 19% [Dec 14, 06] after its earlier announcement of a Phase 2 trial of a malarial prophylactic.

Immunetics (Boston, MA)

Immunetics (Boston, MA; 24 workers; $5.5M SBIR) won two federal grants totaling $1.2M to develop a test for antibiotic resistance in bacteria. [Mass High Tech, Jun 6, 08] Company press release [Jun 4] announced [FDA] approval of its test for anthrax infection

ImmuneWorks (Indianapolis IN)

ImmuneWorks (Indianapolis IN; no SBIR) , a life-sciences startup based at Indiana University's Emerging Technologies Center, has developed a therapeutic product it says can help fight IPF and increase the success rate of lung transplants. ... The company last week secured $300,000 in early-stage funding from BioCrossroads' $6 M Indiana Seed Fund 1, and hopes to begin clinical trials by next summer. [Chuck Bowen, Indianapolis Star, Oct 30]

Immunicon

Immunicon slipped 12% after reporting a bigger loss. [Feb 21, 07]

Immunicon down 12% in a soggy week for its stock. [Dec 14, 06]

ImmunoGen (Cambridge, MA)

Roche and ImmunoGen reported on a "guided missile" combination drug called T-DM1 that shrank tumors by 30% or more in one-third of critically ill, advanced breast cancer patients in a trial. The therapy combines Roche's Herceptin with a second, potent cancer-killing drug from ImmunoGen, with Herceptin acting as the guidance system, using its ability to home in on cancer cells to deliver the treatment directly to its target. [BusinessWeek.com, Dec 17, 09]

ImmunoGen announced a second license granted to Amgen Inc. for its maytansinoid Targeted Antibody Payload technology for an undisclosed target. The deal promises a $1 million upfront payment to ImmunoGen, with up to $34 million in milestone payments and additional royalties [Mass High Tech, Nov 20, 09]

Immunogen down 11% [Oct 30, 09]

ImmunoGen ($1.6M SBIR in the 1990s) today priced its public offering of 5 million shares of common stock and expects proceeds of $33 million. [Boston Globe, Jun 19, 09]

ImmunoGen (Waltham, MA; $1.6M SBIR) has raised $24.7 million through a purchase of 7.8 million shares of common stock. [Mass High Tech, Jun 23,08]

ImmunoGen (Cambridge, MA; $1.7M SBIR) earned a $1.5 million milestone payment in connection with a drug candidate for treating certain types of tumors. [Boston Globe, Feb 2]

Immunomedics

Immunomedics up 24% [Jan 8, 10]

Immunomedics up 13% [Oct 29, 09]

Immunomedics down 11% [Oct 1, 09]

Immunomedics down 15% [Aug 28, 09]

Immunomedics ($4M SBIR) rose 61% after announcing with partner UCB SA that a midstage trial comparing their treatment with placebo for treating lupus over 12 weeks showed "meaningful treatment effect." [Wall Street Journal, Aug 28, 09]

ImmuRx (Lebanon, NH]

ImmuRx (Lebanon, NH) vaccine developer for cancer and chronic infections, has pulled in $250,000 in seed funding .... brings additional funding to the $329,000 SBIR grant from the NIH [Mass High Tech, Jun 18, 08]

Impact Science Technology [Nashua, NH]

Bombs Away. Impact Science & Technology [Nashua, NH] won the contract for the production and support of 1,100 "vehicle-mounted counter-radio-controlled IED electronic-warfare systems," according to the U.S. Department of Defense. The technology is expected to be produced quickly for use in the field by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. [Mass High Tech, Apr 16] No SBIR, and not be confused with Impact Technologies (Rochester, NY) which has at least 30 SBIR Phase 2s in the last decade. IS&T is also now a subsidiary of EDO.

Imperium Renewables (Seattle, WA)

Imperium Renewables formally withdrew its proposed $345 million initial public offering this morning, blaming "unfavorable market conditions." The Seattle-based company, which operates the largest biodiesel facility in the U.S [Angel Gonzalez, Seattle Times, Jan 3]

Imperium Renewables in Seattle, which is armed with $145 M in VC and private equity funding. Imperium buys practically every drop of oil U.S. algae startups are producing. ... expects startups to be making 100 million gallons a year. At that point, Tobias reckons, the price per gallon will fall to $1.70, from as much as $20 today. [Gail Edmonson, Business Week, Dec 3]

Implant Sciences (Wakefield, MA)

Implant Sciences announced a contract totaling approximately $6 million for its Quantum Sniffer(TM) QS-H150 Portable Explosives Detectors and associated support. ... by the Government of India, for use by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in Force Protection and Public Safety applications throughout the country. [company press release]

Implant Sciences disclosed Tuesday it missed a $7.65 million payment on its convertible promissory notes and is working with its lender to negotiate the financing of the loans. ... for the fiscal year ended June 30 ...,it generated $8.7 million in revenue and $12.8 million net loss. [Jackie Noblett, Boston Business Journal, Dec 23, 09]

Implant Sciences reports it has landed $1.2 million from a government agency in China for its explosive detection technology. Under the deal, the Wilmington-based defense and homeland security sensor maker will deliver its Quantum Sniffer QS-H150 Portable Explosives Detectors to be used for transportation security applications throughout China. [Brendan Lynch, Mass High Tech, Aug 14, 09]

Implant Sciences raised $5.6 million in a note and warrant sale on condition that two board members be replaced, including David Eisenhaure, founder of Sat Con Technology. [Mass High Tech, Dec 17, 08]

Implant Sciences reports that its wholly owned subsidiary, Core Systems, has been sold to the group�s management in a $3 million deal. ... has been gradually shedding parts of its business since the beginning of the year. [Mass High Tech, Nov 17, 08]

Implant Sciences has retained the services of an M&A advisory firm to help with �strategic alternatives,� one day after Implant reported a fourth quarter loss of $2.46 million. [Mass High Tech, Oct 16, 08] The stock traders have already marked the company way down below the buck despite its most recent Phase 2 SBIR.

Implant Sciences continues to shed medical IP business assets, this time announcing a sale to Best Medical International The definitive agreement, closing on September 18, ensures that Best pay $100,000 initially to acquire Implant�s intellectual property from its former brachytherapy products business. [Mass High Tech, Jul 30,08]

Implant Sciences reports it has sold equipment used to make coatings for medical products for $750K as part of a plan to withdraw from the medical coatings business. [Mass High Tech, Jul 3, 08]

Implant Sciences got $2.7 M in contracts for its portable explosives detection systems [Mass High Tech, May 29,08]

Implant Sciences reports plans to sell Core Systems, the company's wholly owned semiconductor subsidiary. [Mass High Tech, Feb 21]

Implant Sciences is reaching for world markets in its appointment of Richard Meyerhoff as its new Vice President of Sales and Service in the Security Division. He holds a BA in Economics from Universidad Catolica Argentina and an MBA from the University of Michigan. Mr. Meyerhoff speaks several foreign languages and has had responsibility for leading and managing sales operations, distributor networks and business units in the U.S., Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Europe and Latin American regions. [company press release, Nov 26, 07] Notably, the company has five directors: its two founders, two from SatCon Technology, and a former CEO of a medical products company.

Implant Sciences shipped six units of the company's Quantum Sniffer BTS benchtop bomb-finding system to Beijing for the Olympics.

Pulling Up Seeds. Implant Sciences completed the first phase of its plans to get out of the radioactive prostate seeds business. [Mass High Tech, Jul 2, 07]

Implant Sciences is down to 10% of its stock price three years ago. [Jun 07]

Implant Sciences got a patent for a device used in an automated explosives detector capable of desorbing trapped explosives vapors at speeds of less than 1 millisecond.. [bizjournals.com, Apr 3, 07]

Implant Sciences got a service contract that could be worth up to $1.5M from a big tech company. [Mass High Tech, Jan 31]

Implant Sciences up 10% on news that its quantum sniffer would show up in a prime-time TV show. [Nov 20, 06]

Implant Sciences up 11% [Oct 25, 06] and down 7% the next day.

Implant Sciences jumped 17% after saying it expected a big revenue jump. [Sep 06]

Sniffer Orders Flowing. Over the past several weeks [Implant Sciences] has received domestic orders from public agencies and private companies that plan to use the detectors for shipboard, cargo and overnight delivery security The latest is New Jersey which brings orders to $20M in the past 12 months. [Mass High Tech, Jun 19] Unfortunately, all those sales led to a $7M loss. Now if they could make it up in volume.

Implant Sciences shot up 11% Wednesday (Apr 13, 06) on news of a Chinese order for another twenty quantum sniffers.

101 Noses. Although chemo-explosive detectors don't do as well as dogs, China is buying 101 Quantum Sniffers from Implant Sciences for several million dollars. The stock traders loved it and ratcheted the price up an enthusiastic half before dropping back to +10%. Implant Sciences led the AMEX percentage gainers with 10%. [7/20/05]

Implant Sciences ships product and wins patents but the stock traders don't seem impressed. two more Quantum Sniffer handheld explosives detection devices overseas to exclusive sales agents in Italy and Kuwait ... a fourth patent for its trace explosives detection technology. The patent, titled �Virtual Wall Gas Sampling for an Ion Mobility Spectrometer,� covers a special form of gas sampling vortex in which a large space is enclosed by spinning air. [Mass High Tech] Meanwhile, the stock price is down to 20% of its roller-coaster high.

Implant Sciences got a patent for its explosives detection system's vortex air sampling system used in its Quantum Sniffer explosives detection systems. [Apr 05]

Implant Sciences paid $11.3M to acquire Accurel Systems International - a Silicon Valley commercial laboratory specializing in Failure Analysis Microscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy and Focused Ion Beam Circuit Repair Services. The unimpressed stock traders hit the stock another 10%, driving the price to below half of its year-ago price. [Mar 10, 05]

Implant Sciences sold $7.8M of stock plus warrants to unnamed institutional investors.CEO Tony Armini said the proceeds will be used for an acquisition. [Mass High Tech, Mar 9, 05]

Implant Sciences sold a Quantum Sniffer (QS) explosives detection devices to the Pakistan Airport Security Force. [Mass High Tech, Nov 29, 04]

Buying Cash Flow. Implant Sciences is buying Core Systems (Sunnyvale, CA) to provide a steady cash flow to fund new explosive detection products without needing to dilute shareholders by raising money in the capital markets, says CEO Tony Armini. Core and Implant compete in semiconductor wafer processing which has become almost a sideline for Implant as it tries to cash in on new explosive detection technology. Sounds like Implant thinks it can get a better return for its $2M cash than simply buying Treasury bonds as semiconductor stocks are wallowing. [Mass High Tech, Oct 14]

Sniffing a Market. Implant Sciences sold a dozen trace explosive sniffers to the Army as the first order for commercial quantities of the Quantum Sniffer. That follows a $1.7M Navy production. contract. The market liked the news and put the stock up 32% last week. [Jun 04]

Implant Sciences up 15% for the week even though the quarterly earnings report emphasized government R&D contract revenue and a $1.1M loss (buried in the fourth paragraph) blamed on the expense of performing those contracts.

Implant Sciences, got a $1.7M Navy contract for a test buy of three explosive sniffers. Implant's stock is up 40% in the past month and has quintupled in a year. In a demonstration that a small company with a new technology doesn't need SBIR to succeed, and may be actually held back in development by SBIR, Implant got the Navy attention with a TV appearance of its Quantum Sniffer. Once alerted that there was publicly known technology that seemed to work and that the politicians would soon be badgering the military about it, the Navy instantly found the money for a contract. The moral is that if your gizmo works, get as public a demonstration of it as you can muster. High noon in Times Square if you can arrange it. All the bureau talk about budgeting and program limits and such and such will disappear in a New York minute. The downside is that you take all the R&D risk but then you own the intellectual property and the world will rush to your door in the classic better mousetrap. For those with no money and no courage, keep applying in 25 pages or less to the government for money to develop your unproved ideas such that the government takes all the risk. SBIR is perfect for mediocrity of both company and government.

Implant Sciences got a $600K deal with TSA to demonstrate its table-top explosive sniffer with the promise (governmental promise, of course) for $400K more if all goes well. TSA desperately needs an explosives detection device that can be used in a wide variety of security screening applications, including screening luggage, passengers, cargo or vehicles. Especially cargo. [Oct 03]

Implant Sciences stock has doubled this summer even though the company is still not profitable. Its "Quantum Sniffer" has attracted government attention with a Marine Corps SBIR (Phase 1 only so far) and live demos at the ASIS International show for security professionals. The Quantum Sniffer uses proprietary laser ion mobility spectrometry technology which electronically detects minute quantities of explosive vapor molecules in the air.

The stock price of Implant Sciences has taken a drubbing this year, Friday's 7% decline brought the price to about half its Jan 1 (2003) price. The last good news was a Phase 1 SBIR for $70K in December. Press releases for Phase 1s are not the stuff of confidence.

Implant Sciences got $2.5M convertible financing and an invitation to show its prototype explosives detector at DOT laboratories whereafter it got test and evaluation processing. Since DOT is probably buried in security gizmos, don't wait up for a volume procurement.

Half a minute for a whole company. Implant Sciences says it will become an explosive detector company with its two prototype explosives detectors being readied for a queue of customers. Its laser ion mobility spectrometer sucks up particles from a suitcase and looks for traces of explosive in 5-10 seconds, a practical improvement over 47 seconds per scan. Half an airport minute saved for the frenetic business traveler. CEO Tony Armini says the company is in discussions with government (so are zillions of other potential contractors with new gizmos). [facts by Matthew French, Mass High-Tech, Aug 5] TSA has a long queue in the waiting room with detectors sure to solve the explosive detection problem. Just send money. Implant has been around for 16 years, the last few years as a public company with a variety of sub-critical products on which it can lose a little money. The stock traders were not impressed by the announcement as the stock went down on a big up day.

Implant Sciences finished developing its handheld explosives detection product and plans commercially availablility by 2003. Nevertheless, the soggy NASDAQ market has bit a fourth from the market cap.

More Revenue, Less Loss, says Implant Sciences as revenue rose 37% and losses decreased fir nine months. The press release prattles about the relatively good news nine-month results before getting to the latest quarter in which losses grew to $1M rather than shrunk. With only $1.6M in cash, how much longer can it keep trying to make up in volume what it loses in transactions?

An Explosive Sniffer(Dec 11)Implant Sciences shot up by half, and led the AMEX percentage gainers, when it said on Dec 4 that it had developed a prototype explosives sniffer. Implant said that the sniffer could detect vapor from at least five types of explosives, at airborne concentrations measured in parts per trillion. The system is 100 to 1000 times more sensitive than the capabilities of explosive-sniffing dogs. Which is good because the dogs are getting tired everywhere since Sept 11. Implant has had no Phase 2 SBIRs that sound like the source of this sensor although it has had a smattering of Phase 1s over the decade.

Implant Sciences reported sales up 58% and losses down 42% thanks to the growing sales of I-Plant(TM) radioactive seeds for the treatment of prostate cancer.

More Implant Workers. (Sep 12) Implant Sciences said it would immediately increase its production workforce by half to keep up with growing demand for its radioactive seeds used to treat prostate cancer. It said that demand for its I-Plant Iodine-125 brachytherapy seeds has grown at a compounded rate of 27% per month since it became commercially available last November. With that kind of growth in sales, it might even start to make a profit.

Implant Sciences took in 44% more revenue for the quarter to just equal the loss of $700K in the same quarter last year.CEO Tony Armini said We are extremely pleased with the significant progress .

Implant Deal on Stent
(Mar 23)Implant Sciences (Wakefield, MA) which develops products for the radiation oncology, interventional cardiology and orthopedic markets, announced it has entered into a joint development agreement with CardioTech International to begin a new research program to develop a porous polymer covered vascular stent. This joint research and development program will utilize CardioTech's proprietary porous polymer biocompatible coating technology as a platform for Implant Sciences' proprietary radioactive brachytherapy technology. The total vascular stent market is estimated today to be in excess $2B. The polymer covered stent is expected to reduce restenosis after balloon angioplasty by providing means for either local radiation delivery, drug delivery or gene therapy within the polymer. This porous polymer could also provide a platform for CardioTech's endothelial cell seeding technology. [company press release, Mar 21,00] CEO Tony Armini made the usual cooing noises.

Mass Says OK to Implant Sciences
(Jan 13)Implant Sciences (Wakefield, MA) says that Massachusetts OK'ed a license to make and sell its I-Plant(TM) Iodine-125 brachytherapy seeds that are good for radiation oncology, interventional cardiology and orthopedic marketplaces (love those multi-syllable words). Implant says Permanent implant of radioactive seeds for the primary treatment of prostate cancer is a relatively new technique that is rapidlygaining acceptance as a method of treating early stage prostate cancer. The market liked it, pushing IMX up 11% - back above its IPO price from which it had lost 50% only a few months ago. No, no info-tech involved unless you count the new BMDO SBIR for the world's first ion implanted blue light emitting diode (LED) produced from gallium nitride. Implant has had almost no SBIR support since its founders split from Spire which has had tons of SBIR support.

Implant Moves to AMEX
(Sep 9) An SBIR stock moves to a bigger pond as Implant Sciences (Wakefield, MA) moves to the AMEX. All SBIR companies heretofore have stayed on NASDAQ after going public. CEO Tony Armini, a 1980s escapee from Spire Corp said, The Amex will provide Implant Sciences with heightened visibility, a potentially larger investor base and a more liquid auction market. Which seems an old view in the face of the huge market cap corporations like MSFT and INTC on NASDAQ and likely to stay there. Inmplant's market cap is only $35M but visibility counts for a lot in the capital game.

Implant Comes Out
(Jun 25) After a delay caused by the original underwriter's failure to buy the shares, Implant Sciences (Wakefield, MA) started trading. Priced at 7.50,the stock closed at 8.125 after the first day of trading. Implant has had precious little SBIR even though the firm its founders came from, Spire has had a ton but is now looking for a savior. Tony Armini and Steve Bunker developed a real commercial business in ion implantation to compete with Spire. Officially, Implant's main business is developing medical radiation therapy implant devices. In the line of future business, it has a new Phase 2 SBIR from BMDO for a new version of gallium nitride for blue lasers.

Implant Sciences IPO
(May 4) Implant Sciences (Wakefield, MA) first went public and then pulled it the next day before trading started due to market conditions It had priced 18% of the company at $7.8M. Implant, formed by two escapees from Spire (Bedford, MA), has had 25 Phase 1 SBIRs and one Phase 2 (1991, Army). BMDO just picked Implant for its second Phase 2, no doubt with substantial co-investment by real business partners. Implant has been on the brink of an IPO for months waiting for the right moment.

Implant Sciences IPO Due
(Feb 15) Implant Sciences (Wakefield, MA) is scheduled for IPO this week to raise $8M. Although Implant has had only one Phase 2 SBIR, it is the type of company that would do something commercial with a decent result because SBIR is clearly NOT its business focus. Its founders split from an SBIR multi-multi user, Spire, to do ion implantation its own way.

The IPO of Implant Sciences (Wakefield, MA) to raise $8M for 19% of the equity has been put off to January. The firm plans to make radioactive seeds (awaiting FDA approval) to treat prostate cancer; it also wants to sell coronary stents, catheters, and other devices with radioactive coatings that make them visible when X-rayed. The company currently uses proprietary ion implantation techniques to alter the surfaces of semiconductors and orthopedic devices (thus minimizing friction and wear). [Hoover's] Implant Hopes for IPO
(Nov 9) Implant Sciences (Wakefield, MA) filed Sep 29 for an IPO to raise $7.8M. Says Hoover's Implant Sciences hopes to counter the growth of cancer with the seeds of science. The firm plans to make radioactive seeds (awaiting FDA approval) to treat prostate cancer; it also wants to sell coronary stents, catheters, and other devices with radioactive coatings that make them visible when X-rayed. The company currently uses proprietary ion implantation techniques to alter the surfaces of semiconductors and orthopedic devices (thus minimizing friction and wear). Sales to Biomet and Stryker account for some 48% of sales. Chairman, president, and CEO Anthony Armini will own nearly 27% of the company after it goes public; VP and chief scientist Stephen Bunker will own 14%. Implant has used some SBIR, not enough to get dependent - a little over $1M 1993-97 all Phase 1s.

i-Nalysis (Concord, MA)

i-Nalysis (Concord, MA; no SBIR) has landed a six-figure round of angel funding and its first customer for the company�s handheld materials analyzer ... X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer is a small, light and inexpensive device that identifies the elemental analysis �of almost anything,� [Mass High Tech, Dec 22, 09]

Incyte (Wilmington, DE)

Eli Lilly is laying a $90 million bet on an arthritis drug developed by Incyte (Wilmington, DE; no SBIR) [Jeff Swiatek, Indianapolis Star, Dec 22, 09] Incyte's last five years highly variable revenue with losses totaling $600M against which it has raised $800M from securities sales. [Thomson Reuters]

Indiana Nanotech

"I knew nothing about teeth." A year-old life-sciences company .. six months away from bringing its first product to market. .. Robert Karlinsey earned a doctorate by studying the way nanoparticles behave when water turns to ice. One day, while waiting for some test samples to freeze, he got to thinking about new applications for his work. By looking at calcium, fluoride and other chemicals at a molecular level, Karlinsey found he could combine them to form a substance with unique properties. [that] actually does a better job than its individual elements of protecting people's teeth from decaying. Indiana Nanotech [no SBIR], founded in October 2006, has raised $300,000 in seed money, [and] hopes to have its first product, a fluoride mouth rinse, to market by February. [Chuck Bowen, Indianapolis Star, Sep 11]

Infinera

Infinera down 19% [Jul 20, 09]

Infinera up 10% [Jun 4, 09]

Infinera down 15% [Apr 22, 09]

Infinera up 11% [Mar 12, 09]

Infinera up 15% [Mar 10, 09]

Infinera down 18% [Jan 30, 09]

Infinera down 13% [Dec 15, 08]

Infinera down 16% [Dec 1, 08] On a stock bloodbath day

Infinera up 10% [Nov 26, 08]

Infinera up 13% [Nov 24, 08]

Infinera up 10% [Nov 17, 08]

Infinera up 14% [Oct 16, 08]

Infinera down 16% [Oct 15, 08]

Infinera up 15% [Oct 10, 08]

Infinera down 14% [Oct 2, 08]

Infinera up 18% [Sep 19, 08]

Infinera down 13% [Sep 9, 08]

Tools for An all-optical Internet. one-centimeter-square chips built at Infinera (Sunnyvale, CA). Each chip contains more than 40 optical devices that are important to managing the transmission of data on light beams; due to be commercialized this summer, they can replace individual components within Internet hubs. And this fall �Luxtera (Carlsbad, CA) is commercializing a chip that integrates 100 optical components on silicon. [MIT Tech Review, J/A08]

Infinera up 10% [Jul 23, 08]

Infinera down 26% after it cut its full-year revenue forecast and projected third-quarter sales well below analysts' expectations. [Wall Street Journal, Jun 18, 08]

Infinera down 18% [Apr 23, 08]

Infinera down 10% [Mar 10, 08]

Infinera down 10% [Feb 29, 08]

Infinera up 44% [Feb 1, 08] on losing a lot less than expected.

Infinera up 10% [Jan 23, 08]

Infinera down 10% [Jan 15, 08]

Infinera down 12% [Jan 4, 08] on a day of NASDAQ pain that puts it at half its first day price last summer. Intel was down 15% for the week and one wag opined pushed small-capitalization stocks to the brink of a bear market

Infinera expects to raise $240M this week with a secondary. [Oct 07]

Infinera up 12%. [Jun 28, 07]

Infinera up 12% after a big commo provider picked its Digital Optical Network for its regional network. [Jun 15, 07]

Infinera was up 28% after shooting up 52% the day before above its IPO price. [Jun 8, 07]

Infinera ($2M SBIR) filed to go public. [Feb 07]

David Welch, looking younger than he did a decade ago, graces the story on his new photonic integrated circuit at his start-up Infinera. [story by Kate Greene, MIT Tech Review, J/F 07] David was chief at R&D at SDL which sold itself for uncounted zillions to JDS Uniphase near the top of the IT bubble. He has had at least $1.3M in SBIR to supplement his apparent re-cycling of his profit from SDL.

Infinia (Kennewick, WA)

Infinia (Kennewick, WA; $3.5M SBIR) which is using Stirling Engines to convert the sun�s rays into electricity, has raised $14 million in debt financing, according to a filing with the SEC. ... part of a $50 million capital raise � follows a massive $50 million venture round [John Cook, Puget Sound Business Journal, May 22. 09]

Infinity Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA)

Infinity Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR), a cancer drug discovery and development company, said that it has "elected to terminate" a trial of a drug candidate called IPI-504 in patients with refractory gastrointestinal stromal tumors. [Boston Globe, Apr 16, 09]

Inframat

Inframat and its sister company, US Nanocorp... are idea labs. In 2003 the companies pulled in $3M in revenue, only 10% from commercial sales. The bulk was government research money, the main source of the $20M grants and contracts Reisner has sucked up since 1996, when he started out, from the likes of the Navy, NASA, the National Institutes of Health and other agencies. Private capital abhors abstruse products that can take years to reach the market. Besides, he says, "We would have had to give away half the company for a few hundred thousand dollars." ... Reisner, who has three children, quit his job and lived off the income of his wife, who has an ob-gyn practice. ... cranking out nanopowder by the ton. At $35 a pound the stuff will help pay the salaries of all those Ph.D.s. (Some of whom "understand when we miss the payroll by a few days," says Hsiao.) Powder sales have totaled $100K in the last three years. [Thomas Kellner, Forbes, Jun 21] Another SBIR company living on government money until the happy day when the commercial world (or military procurement) cottons on to nanostuff. Could be a long haul to his retirement or bankruptcy. Moral: if you're going to depend on SBIR for your advanced technology dream, marry a doctor with a practice. Meanwhile, the government SBIR people may tout your technology for their commercialization reports without giving you any money. Especially if your payoff to their programs is far in the future.

InfraReDx (Burlington, MA

Until last October, InfraReDx (Burlington, MA; no SBIR) considered itself a symbol of the kind of science-based innovation that creates durable healthcare industry jobs. Now, InfraReDx represents the perils of the recession for small companies working on promising medical technologies that hospitals and insurers see as experimental. The company, which makes a laser-scanning system that locates signs of heart disease, has been through two rounds of layoffs, reducing its work force to 72 from 92. It would have run out of money this month if its investors had not agreed to a new round of investment. [Barnaby Feder, NY Times, Apr 5, 09]

US regulators approved the first device that lets doctors see fat buildup inside coronary arteries to gauge heart attack risk. ... made by InfraReDx (Burlington, MA; no SBIR). [Boston Globe, May 1, 08] a privately-funded, early-stage medical device company with expertise in photonics and medicine. ... founded in 1998 ... to develop novel, photonic-based medical devices that will help improve the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases [company website]

Infoscitex

Infoscitex (formerly Foster-Miller (says SBA), or at least some part thereof, $13M++ SBIR from at least 87 projects since 2005 (SBA database crashes just trying to spit out the data)) landed $49.5 million from the USAF .... will create modeling, simulation, and analysis tools and techniques for research and engineering for the Air Force... [Mass High Tech, Mar 19] Vision and Mission go beyond simple elevator-pitch statements. Our values are the underpinning of our culture and these core values are the primary reasons for our success. got that? ...currently employs 80 professionals throughout the U.S. and anticipates revenue of $17 Million in 2008.[company website] got that?

Inhibitex (Alpharetta, GA)

Inhibitex (Alpharetta, GA; one SBIR) was dogged again in the third quarter by higher research and development costs. ... ... a net loss of $4.5 million [Atlanta Business Chronicle, Nov 6, 09]

INI Power (Cary, NC)

INI Power Systems (Cary, NC; $800K SBIR while in IL) raised $4M VC as the company moves closer to marketing methanol-powered fuel systems that could replace batteries in portable electronic devices [Raleigh News & Observer, May 31]

InnerPulse (Research Triangle Park,NC)

A recent beneficiary of venture capital is InnerPulse, a Research Triangle Park [NC] medical device company that is developing a defibrillator for reviving a heart. A group of venture capitalist firms invested $15.1M in the company in late 2003, even though its technology was unproven. Now, InnerPulse has 40 employees and is on track to test its device -- which would be implanted like a pacemaker -- in humans next year. The company has raised $85M in financing. [David Ranii, Raleigh News and Observer, Mar 21] No SBIR.

InnerOptic Technology (Hillsborough, NC)

InnerOptic Technology (Hillsborough, NC; $500K SBIR), working on ultrasound equipment that promises to help surgeons, has raised up to $370,000 from private investors and CatoBioventures. [Raleigh News&Observer, Dec 20] Launched in 2003, InnerOptic is a spin-off of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's pioneering Computer Graphics Department. [company website]

Innography (Austin, TX)

Austin startup Innography Inc. has raised $6.5 million in venture capital to expand the marketing of its software, which helps companies manage, protect and leverage their patents. The company was founded by Tyron Stading, who filed two dozen patents during his five years as a software engineer and industry solutions manager at IBM Corp. in Austin. [Austin American-Statesman, Aug 18]

Innovalight

Innovalight (Sunnyvale, CA; $900K SBIR in Texas) which sells silicon ink-based high efficiency solar cell materials and technology, said it raised $18 million in new capital. ... the fourth round of funding was led by EDB Investments of Singapore. [Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, Jan 7, 10]

NanoReturn. Will any of this stuff translate into an economic windfall for Minnesota? So far, the U has licensed nanotechnology to three companies, two of them local, with mixed results. Nanocopoeia (St. Paul , MN; $1M SBIR) is trying to divest its original medical device coating business to focus on pharmaceuticals. Rushford Hypersonic (no SBIR) next month will open the world's first hypersonic plasma particle disposition plant in southeastern Minnesota. Innovalight, (Austin, TX to St. Paul, MN to Sunnyvale, CA; $900K SBIR in TX), which originally focused on light bulbs, is now making solar cells. ... The U's uneven experience with nanoscience mirrors corporate America's teasing and often frustrating flirtation with a technology that's failed, so far, to match hype with reality. Despite millions of dollars in government research money and venture capital, making big bucks off nanotechnology remains an elusive dream. [Thomas Lee, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jun 28, 09] Nanostuff, GaAs, CVD diamond, SiC substrates, and such, are the kind of futures that SBIR should invest in until economic barriers show that it has only a long term possible future. Then it should be turned over to long term investors with long green, not slogged away in a small high tech nursery program. SBIR's goal should be economic visibility for a technology, not long term development a few bucks at a time in life-style companies.

We have embarked upon . . . a new frontier of silicon Innovalight (Santa Clara CA; $0.9M SBIR in Texas) has silicon ink, a secret nanotechnology recipe it developed that the company says lets it make solar cells that are more efficient than current models, at a lower price. Another $28M of VC, this time led by Norway (with all that North Sea oil money stashed away). [story San Jose Mercury News, Oct 15] It may be a secret formula for commercial markets, but the government's SBIR rights could cause some trouble in selling it for obscene profit to the government.

Korgel and Johnston, placed bits of silicon in a pressurized titanium chamber. They poured in a brew of solvents and then heated it to 932F. What emerged from this pressure cooker were itsy-bitsy crystals of silicon, visible only under the most powerful microscopes. But something was very peculiar about silicon at this atomic scale. It wasn't its usual sandy self. Far from it. These so-called nanocrystals, when hitched to electrical current, emitted steady light. That glow attracted venture capitalists. [S Baker and A Aston, Business Week, Oct 11] There's always at least one VC who will invest in almost anything new. Korgel's UT spinoff InnovaLight attracted five VC firms plus "investments" from the government: AF STTR, DOE, and NSF (SBIR). MIT Tech Review (Oct 04) highlights three top nano startups: Quantum Dot (two HHS SBIRs), AmberWave (an Army SBIR), and Neah Power Systems. Two of those startups are the brainchild of two of the top 100 innovators under 35.

Innov-X Systems (Woburn, MA)

Innov-X Systems (Woburn, MA; no SBIR, founded 2001) , maker of handheld chemical and elemental analyzers, has landed a $4.5 million investment ... a three-pound portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) device that can determine the presence of elements such as lead or mercury .... received $27 million in venture funding [Rodney Brown, Mass High Tech, Jun 24, 09]

Innov-X Systems (Woburn, MA) got $27 M in venture funding for its 3-pound gadget that detects cadmium and mercury. [Mass High Tech, Jan 8, 07]

Innovative Silicon (Santa Clara, CA)

Innovative Silicon (Santa Clara, CA; no SBIR) developer of Z-RAM, raised $25M for ultra-dense memory. ...so far reached licensing deals with Hynix Semiconductor and Advanced Micro Devices [Matt Marshall, Venture Beat, Nov 7]

Innovative Spinal Technologies (Mansfield, MA)

Innovative Spinal Technologies (Mansfield, MA; no SBIR) that ceased operations in February, has officially filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. ... focused on minimally invasive spine surgery and motion preservation [Mass High Tech, Jun 1, 09]

Innovative Spinal Technologies (Mansfield, MA; no SBIR) has shut down its website and did not return calls seeking comment. .... originally spun off from the Texas Back Institute .... had raised $75 million in funding and had as more than 100 employees as its peak in 2007 [Boston Globe, Feb 3, 09]

Innovative Technologies (Dayton, OH)

Defense contractor Innovative Technologies (Dayton, OH; no SBIR) was awarded $17M in punitive damages in a lawsuit that alleged three employees used trade secrets and confidential company data to set up their own competing company. ... used the trade secrets and confidential information to start their own firm, Kenton Trace Technologies LLC, in 2000 while still Innovative Technologies employees. The three then worked with a Washington, D.C.-based contractor, Advanced Management Technologies Inc., to take away a major federal contract from Innovative Technologies, according to the case. [Dayton Business Journal, Jan 4,08]

InnovaWave (Austin, TX)

Start-up InovaWave (Austin, TX) says it might double in size, adding 20 employees by the end of this year, thanks to a $7.2 million venture capital investment as well as heavy customer interest in a forthcoming software product. The Austin company, which is only 16 months old, has attracted interest from large corporations because its software enables servers in large corporate data centers to run more efficiently. [Austin American-Statesman, Jul 17]

Inorganic Specialists (Miamisburg, OH)

DOE gave Inorganic Specialists (Miamisburg, OH; $2M SBIR) $2M for research aimed at helping produce low-cost batteries to help development of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. [William Hershey, Dayton Daily News, Oct 27, 09]

Inotek Pharmaceuticals (Beverly,MA)

Inotek Pharmaceuticals (Beverly, MA) said it has shuttered several international offices, including its manufacturing plant in Israel, and shed 85 of its 120 employees over the past three months. [Todd Wallack, Boston Globe, Apr 9, 08]

Inotek Pharmaceuticals (Beverly,MA; 82 Phase 1 SBIRs and $25M in Phase 2s) closed a third round of venture capital $19M as the drug developer looks to generate more data on its product candidates, [Mass High Tech, Aug 24]

Inovio Biomedical

Inovio Biomedical announced plans to team up with the National Institutes of Health's vaccine-research center to create influenza vaccines and expedite development of an H1N1 vaccine. [Wall Street Journal, Aug 11, 09]

Inovio Biomedical quadrupled [Jul 29, 09] to a market cap of $140M. The developer of DNA vaccines said animal studies showed its experimental H1N1 vaccine provided 100% protection against the current strain of the virus. The vaccine was tested on laboratory mice and pigs. [marketwatch.com, Jul 29, 09]

InPhase (Longmont, CO)

A conventional DVD stores data only on its surface. But holographic storage encodes data as three-�dimensional patterns embedded inside a disc, vastly expanding its storage capacity. A long-awaited holographic drive from InPhase (Longmont, CO, one SBIR) is due out late this year; geared to Hollywood studios and large archives, it will cost $18,000. But a few companies, such as General Electric and Sony, are working on holographic storage systems that could be more compatible with existing technologies. [David Talbot, MIT Tech Review, J/F 09]

Insight Technology (Londonderry, NH)

Insight Technology (Londonderry, NH; $1M SBIR) landed $15 million from the Army for weapon sights ...Founded in 1988 Insight specializes in target lights and laser guides for handguns and rifles for U.S. Special Operations Forces. [Brendan Lynch, Mass High Tech, Jan 6, 10]

Insight Technology (Londonderry NH) got a $53M Marine Corps contract to develop night-vision weapons sights by the end of 2009. [Mass High Tech, Sep 19, 07]

Insight Technology got an $8.7M Army contract for weapon sight technology. [Aug 10, 07]

Insight Technology (Londonderry, NH; $1M+SBIR) got a $25M contract to build a handheld targeting system for the U.S. Special Forces. Insight employs 800 workers. Company officials declined to release financial data. [Mass High Tech, Jun 29] Its most recent SBIR, presumably before it got to 800 workers, sounds like a classic engineering study for using existing technology: Our effort will include the development of mission scenarios, an analysis of the operational and functional requirements, a market survey of the latest available functional modules for each of the functions listed, trade studies to determine the optimal configuration of the system, risk reduction demonstrations or experiments, a preliminary design of the system configuration selected, and a final report. And all for $100K. Innovation? In the eye of the federal beholder.

Insight Technology (Londonderry, NH) gets $32M Navy night vision order for night-vision sights for SEALs. [Mass High Tech, Sep 2] It had a handful of SBIRs in the 21st century.

$25M Insight Engineering. Insight Technology (Londonderry NH) got a $25M Navy procurement contract for Thermal Night Vision Devices and two Army SBIR Phase 2s in the last two years for what sounds like more of the same. It smells like the military services are using SBIR for final stage engineering of mature concepts. If you ask either Insight or the military, they will claim high innovation which is one of those terms defined each time by the user.

Insight Technology (Londonderry, NH) won a $1M part of a $43M five-year Army contract. for weapon-mounted laser sights. The night-vision company dates back to the 80s and came to SBIR in 2000 with two Phase 1s and a Phase 2. It has also won a $13M Army for night vision goggles. In typical bureaucratic fashion the Army Phase 2 contract was for $720K despite being with a company with whom the Army intends a long term relationship by committing to $50M+ contracts a year after the Phase 2 started. Sounds like the SBIR was merely a funding vehicle to cover part of the procurement contract's cost.

InSite Vision (Alameda, CA)

Like most biotechnology companies, InSite Vision (Alameda, CA; $500K SBIR) languished for years in a kind of financial purgatory, running up $150M in losses during its two-decade quest to reach the promised land of profitability. It finally got its first product approved for sale in April, helping InSite earn more than $3M for the first nine months of 2007. ... Northern California's biotech companies are maturing from cash-burning research operations to viable commercial enterprises, according to a new study [Steve Johnson, San Jose Mercury News, Jan 10, 08]

Insitu (Bingen,WA)

Insitu (Bingen,WA: 3 Phase 1 SBIRs) got a $4 M earmark (at the Appropriations Committee stage) for the Integrator Unmanned Aircraft System, a low-altitude, long-endurance aircraft designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, boasts its Senator. [The Oregonian, Sep 13]

Inspire Pharmaceuticals (Durham, NC)

Inspire Pharmaceuticals (Durham, NC; no SBIR) has scrapped a partnership with a Spanish drug company, after an experimental allergy pill that both companies were working on hit regulatory roadblocks. ... not the first setback for Inspire, which shifted to selling other companies' drugs after its own products failed to win regulatory approval. An experimental dry eye treatment called Prolacria has been held in regulatory limbo at the FDA for years. [Alan Wolf, Raleigh News&Observer, Jan 15] In July it sold $75 M of exchangeable preferred stock to Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity investor. [company website]

Insulet (Bedford MA)

Shareholders of Insulet (Bedford MA; no SBIR), maker of insulin-management systems, sold $113M in stock in a public offering. founded in 2000, produces an insulin-delivery device called the OmniPod for people with insulin-dependent diabetes. The firm reported a 2006 net loss of $36M on revenue of $3.7 M [Mass High Tech, Nov 7, 07]

IntAct Labs (Cambridge, MA)

Intaglio

Brilliant Start-Up Gone Wrong
They had a kick-ass product, cash in the bank, and eager customers. In the scrappy world of Silicon Valley start-ups, they were about to be eaten alive. Read Tim Barkow's gripping story of Intaglio, a start-up gone wrong in Wired Oct 96. Full text on-line .

Intalio

Ismael Ghalimi started software-maker Intalio with a solid business plan and leading-edge technology. But like many software entrepreneurs, Ghalimi is finding that isn't enough. After six years without showing a profit, company executives decided it was time for plan B: rather than sell customers pricey, high-end software, Intalio decided to sell open-source software instead, cutting the price from about a half-million dollars to zero. The company would charge for support and a license fee when its software is deployed on closed-source databases and middleware. [Martin Lamonica, CNET News, Jan 12, 06 http://news.com.com/Software+start-ups+feel+the+pinch/2100-1012_3-6026171.html?tag=nefd.lede ]

Integrated Fuel Cell Technologies (Burlington, MA)

Army's venture venture. The Army's VC (OnPoint Tech) current investment portfolio : A123 Systems (Boston, MA; $750K SBIR, IPO 2009) advanced Lithium-Ion based cells for rechargeable battery packs; Atraverda (UK) advanced bi-polar battery electrodes for rechargeable batteries; Integrated Fuel Cell Technologies (Burlington MA; no SBIR) next generation fuel cell systems for portable devices; Nanosolar (Palo Alto, CA; $1.7M SBIR) thin-film solar technology for roll-to-roll printing of solar cells on flexible substrates, PowerGenix (San Diego, CA; no SBIR) next-generation rechargeable batteries; Power Precise (Herndon, VA; no SBIR) a fabless semiconductor company specializing in battery management devices; Ultra Cell (Livermore, CA; no SBIR) integrated fuel cell systems; Zinc Matrix Power (Santa Barbara, CA; no SBIR) high-performance rechargeable alkaline battery technology for commercial and military markets; Akermin (St Louis, MO; no SBIR) portable fuel cells based on its proprietary �Stabilized Enzyme Biofuel Cell� SEBC� technology; Superprotonic (Pasadena CA; $200K SBIR) solid acid fuel cell. [defense-ventures.com] No surprise that a VC, even one doing it for the government, sees tech opportunity much different than does Army SBIR. I note that the three outside trustees (of five trustees) of OnPoint are a DOD political appointee, and entrepreneur/attorney, and Paul Gompers from Harvard Business School who with Josh Lerner publish a lot of venture research. Lerner did a lot of SBIR study until, I presume, he gave up on SBIR's ever being anything but a political handout.

Integration Associates (Mountain View, CA)

Austin's Silicon Laboratories will buy a small California company with chip technology that complements its own product lines. Silicon Labs agreed to pay $80 million for Integration Associates (Mountain View, CA; no SBIR), which employs more than 100 people and has quarterly revenue of about $8 million. [Austin American-Statesman, Jun 25, 08]

Integra Group (St. Paul, MN

Two Minnesota startups are joining forces to debut what they claim is a faster and more effective way to test drug-coated stents at the nation's premier biotechnology conference this week. Nanocopoeia (St. Paul, MN; $0.9M SBIR) and the Integra Group (Brooklyn Park, MN; no SBIR) will announce today a new company called NanoInterventions whose core technology is a mouse-based testing system for drug-coated stents. [Minneapolis Star Tribune, Jun 17, 08]

Intelligent Automation (Rockville, MD)

Loving Experience. Scientific Systems (Woburn,MA; $50M+ SBIR) won a NASA JPL Phase 2 SBIR for Distributed Formation State Estimation Algorithms Under Resource and Multi-Tasking Constraints. Creare (Hanover NH; $120M SBIR) won four NASA JPL Phase 2 SBIRs. Intelligent Automation (Rockville MD; $100M SBIR) won three NASA JPL Phase 2 SBIRs. Physical Optics (Torrance, CA; $200M SBIR) won one NASA JPL Phase 2 SBIR. Radiation Monitoring Devices (Watertown, MA; $90M SBIR) won one NASA JPL Phase 2 SBIR. Etc, etc, etc. A zillion start-ups all over America got letters saying there was not enough money to nurture their ideas.

Advanced materials. The challenge comes not from overseas competition but the possibility that US companies will fail to reach their innovation potential because of insufficient support for the physical sciences and engineering, lack of capital for small start-ups and uncompetitive tax credits. [Technology Business, N-D98] "What's the best advice for entrepreneurs seeking SBIR funding? Be tenacious", says Jeff Bond. "If you don't submit, you can't get selected." BMDO selects one in every three Phase 1 proposals because it is willing to take greater risks on questionable technologies with significant marketplace potential. [FM Corso, Technology Business, N-D98]

Corso's longish piece on SBIR in the rah-rah Technology Business has the wrong reason for BMDO's high acceptance rate. The risk-taking is right, but the high acceptance rate comes from discouraging hopeless proposals. After all, if BMDO got all bad proposals it would still have to fund about 200 Phase 1s a year while holding its nasal appendage. The one success story Corso uses shows the problem with evaluating SBIR (where data seems the plural of anecdote). He fawns over Intelligent Automation (Rockville, MD) which has milked the SBIR for uses of its Fuzzy CMAC technology. Of its 59 SBIRs, the latest crop 1993-1997

1993 1994 1995 1996 1997

Phase 1 7 6 4 9 23

Phase 2 2 3 4 1 1
Note the declining ratio of Phase 2 to Phase 1. Trouble in River City for agencies looking for something tangible. For one agency in that pack, BMDO probably will not see IAI as its kind of entrepreneur worthy of high-risk finance.

Intelligent Medical Devices (Cambridge, MA)

Intelligent Medical Devices (Cambridge, MA; $200K SBIR), which makes technology that fights superbug infections, has pulled in $3 million ... In November 2007, [it] told Mass High Tech after years of silence it had raised a total of $15 million from angel investors [Mass High Tech, Jun 23, 09]

Intelliphage

Intellisense (Wilmington, MA)

Corning Gobbles Intellisense
(May 23) Corning moved again to absorb optical switching companies in buying the last 67% of Intellisense (Wilmington, MA) for $500M in Corning stock. That means a $750M valuation for a company that started getting DOD SBIR in 1992 (Air Force) at five employees for a miniature navigation system using micromachining technology and stopped in 1998 at 12 employees with six Phase 2s from AF, Navy, and BMDO. It now has 50 employees which makes them worth about $15M each. The 1998 Navy award was for a typical military project - packaging technology that is an extension of IntelliSense's previously developed fiber to waveguide packaging techniques. If the government as pseudo-VC had taken a proportionate share of equity for its contribution of Intellisense's capital needs, it might today have $100-200M of Corning stock for under $6M of SBIR. $800K in a five person company makes a huge contribution and if SBIR is to be jump-start program (instead of just decent R&D) it has to seek out the Intellisense-like situations. For a whole lot less SBIR money and whole lot more Intellisenses, SBIR would be a decent venture program it claims to be instead of mostly an ordinary government R&D program which it actually is.

IntelliSense (Wilmington, MA) and Corning will collaborate on MEMS development under a joint development agreement to focus on the design,development and fabrication of optical-communications products based on MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) technology. In the deal Corning took a piece of equity. an equity. Says SPIE Intellisense had about $5M in DOD SBIR in the 90s as it grew from 5 to 12 people by 1997. Which suggests that DOD could claim a large hypothetical equity value from its investments in Intellisense. Will it go public? Or will Corning just buy it? Who knows at this stage, but MEMS is a hot market topic.

Little Gyro, Little Firm, Big Plans
The micro-machined opto-electronics resonator has two new features: sensitive measurement and unique material processing, says IntelliSense Corp (Wilmington, MA).The resonator should lead to a tiny gyroscope, less than 5 cc volume (like a pencil eraser for those who still remember pencils) and ten grams weight, that would last 100,000 hours (about 12 years, which is important for military munitions that sit patiently on shelves waiting for a war). GEC-Marconi Electronic Systems Corp wants to buy so many that it teamed with founder Fariborz Maseeh for the Phase 2 SBIR and beyond. Market studies have estimated a $2B+ market for micro-machined inertial sensors in 2000 after a present $160M. The technology core, that the SBIR funded, is the ROPE - resonant optical photonic element - based in fine optical waveguides deposited on micro-machined silicon, not a process for heavy thumbs. But if it works, it has the potential as an optical filter for WDM and very sensitive sensors for environments that are quite sensitive to particular invaders. (Now there's a competitive and conveniently theoretical market for SBIR proposers, the perfect fig-leaf for agencies winking at commercialization.) The acid test of whether this start-up can make good in the big-time will probably be in its unit-cost after the cost-insensitive military market is served. BMDO's SBIR gave it a free-money chance to prove itself....

Interactive Supercomputing (Waltham, MA)

Microsoft has acquired the technology assets of Interactive Supercomputing (Waltham, MA; one SBIR) for an undisclosed sum, various websites such as New England Tech Wire and BNET.com are reporting. [Boston Globe, Sep 24, 09]

Interlace Medical (Framingham, MA)

medical device startup Interlace Medical (Framingham, MA; no SBIR; founded 2006). has announced raising $20.5 million in Series C funding ... commercializing Myosure, its treatment for removing intrauterine fibroids and polyps. [Mass High Tech, Jun 16, 09]

Intermagnetics General

Philips Medical Systems MR, formerly Intermagnetics ($5M SBIR in the 1990s), announced that the company planned to keep SuperPower under its wing for the "foreseeable" future. ... Philips has invested $10M in the plant since the acquisition in 2006. ... SuperPower was celebrating the re-energizing of its high-temperature superconducting wire project being operated between two National Grid substations in Albany and Menands. [Larry Rulison, Albany Times-Union, Feb 22] The government's $5M in a new technology attracted an international giant which is now owns the technology in which it is investing serious money. That's what SBIR was supposed to do.

Bigger. Philips Medical Systems MR, formerly Intermagnetics General, has received town approval for a 48,000-square-foot expansion to its MRI magnet manufacturing plant in Latham, NY. ... The expansion was planned before Intermagnetics was purchased last month by Dutch electronics giant Royal Philips Electronics NV for $1.3 billion. [Larry Rulison, Albany Times-Union, Dec 22, 06]

Intermagnetics General sold itself to Philips Electronics for $1.3 B. The maker of high-field superconducting magnets had seven Phase 2 SBIRs 1986-1993.

Intermagnetics General jumped 15% on a good earnings report and a $10.7M DOD contract [Jan 4, 06] IMGC has some SBIRs including seven Phase 2s back in the 80s and 90s, starting with ... you guessed it, BMDO ... although at the time it already had 200 employees. It now has 1000+ employees.

Intermolecular

Intermolecular a "secretive" new Silicon Valley company has raised $36M and has worked with �a large logic manufacturer� to synthesize a unique molecule that will be used in copper interconnects at the 32 nm node. �This is a molecule that doesn�t exist anywhere else on Earth today, engineered to have properties of interest to that application,� [chief exec David] Lazovsky said.[Matt Marshall, VentureBeat.com, Jul 17]

InterMune

Intermune down 16% [Nov 17, 09] said it would discontinue a high-dose of its experimental Hepatitis C treatment in a study because of potential liver damage. [AP, Nov 17, 09]

Intermune up 11% [Nov 3, 09]

The former chief executive of Intermune (Brisbane, CA; $300K SBIR) was found guilty last week of fraudulently promoting the drug Actimmune for treatment of a fatal lung disease. Dr. W. Scott Harkonen, who left the company in 2003, faces up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The San Francisco federal jury acquitted Harkonen on a misbranding charge. However, the grand jury found Harkonen guilty of wire fraud. ... In 2006, Intermune agreed to pay $37 million to settle the government's civil case related to Actimmune's marketing. [Erin Allday, SF Chronicle, Oct 4, 09]

InterMune up 36% [Feb 3, 09]

Intermune up 12% [Jan 21, 09]

Intermune up 10% [Jan 16, 09]

InterMune down 10% [Dec 11, 08]

InterMune up 12% [Dec 2, 08]

InterMune up 19% after the company said its hepatitis C drug candidate met safety goals in an early-stage study and appeared to be effective. [AP, Apr 1, 08]

Intermune up 16% [Mar 24, 08]

Veteran Bay area biotechnology executive Dr. W. Scott Harkonen was indicted Tuesday on charges that he fraudulently promoted the drug Actimmune for a fatal lung disease while he was the chief executive for the drug's manufacturer, Intermune (Brisbane, CA; $300K SBIR). ... The criminal case is part of a drive in recent years by both state and federal prosecutors to crack down on company promotion of their drugs for off-label uses - that is, for diseases not indicated on a drug's FDA-approved label. Actimmune is approved for two rare diseases afflicting children, but the Food and Drug Administration never approved it for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In general, companies have been forbidden to market medicines for unapproved uses, though doctors are legally free to prescribe drugs off-label if they think scientific evidence warrants it. [SF Chronicle, Mar 20, 08]

InterMune up 14% [Jan 7, 08]

InterMune (two SBIRs) fell 21% when it ended a Phase III clinical trial that it did no better than a placebo for mortality rates from a lung disease.

International Stem Cell

In a step toward one-size-fits-all stem cell therapies, an Oceanside biotechnology company said yesterday that it has developed cell lines that could potentially be used by many different people and races without fear of transplant rejection. Scientists at International Stem Cell (no SBIR) said the four embryonic stem cell lines have a simple genetic profile in critical areas of DNA that code for immune system rejection, making them easy to �immune match� with large numbers of patients. published yesterday in the online edition of Cloning and Stem Cells Journal [Penny Crabtree, San Diego Union Tribune, Dec 20]

International Stem Cell (formerly BTHC III) up 17%.[Feb 23, 07] Its trading symbol is the same one once held by Illinois Superconductor.

Intersense (Burlington,MA)

Motion-tracking technology company InterSense (Burlington, MA;$2.5M SBIR) landed a Phase 2 SBIR from the Air Force to develop an autonomous training system designed to work with commercially available wearable computers. [Mass High Tech, Aug 3, 09] High innovation or incremental engineering? Only the AF knows and it is not telling.

Intersystems

Virginia's Four Points Technology LLC will use InterSystems' database as part of its $31.4 contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs.... Founded in 1978, InterSystems develops and markets a post-relational database, software and a health information exchange platform. The company operates offices in 22 countries and has customers in 88 countries. [Mass High Tech, Dec 1] Intersystems (New York NY) had at least eight Phase 2 SBIRs for what sound like interesting but commercially fundable software projects.

Intevac

Intevac up 22% [Jan 4, 10]

Intevac down 10% [Jul 2, 09]

Intevac up 10% [Jul 1, 09]

Intevac up 12% [May 21, 09]

Intevac down 11% [May 13, 09]

Intevac down 11% [May 7, 09]

Intevac up 12% [Apr 28, 09]

Intevac down 10% [Mar 20, 09]

Intevac up 17% [Mar 12, 09]

Intevac up 16% [Mar 6, 09]

Intevac up 12% [Dec 2, 08]

Intevac down 20% [Dec 1, 08] On a stock bloodbath day

Intevac down 13% [Nov 12, 08]

Intevac down 12% [Nov 5, 08]

Intevac up 13% [Oct 16, 08]

Intevac down 18% [Sep 29, 08]

Intevac up 23% [Sep 18, 08]

Intevac up 11% [Jun 4, 08]

Intevac down 14% [Apr 29, 08]

Intevac said Citigroup agreed to supply it $20M in credits secured by some of Intevac�s holdings in its Citigroup accounts, according to a filing with the SEC. [Jack Davis, San Jose Mercury News, Mar 10] Those accounts include Intevac's cash in "auction-rate" securities which at least temporarily have no liquid market. Is it likely that Intevac knew the risk of auction-rate instruments? I doubt it since the tech company probably relied on Citibank's advice in reaching for higher returns.

Intevac down 11% [Feb 4, 08]

Intevac down 10% [Aug 9, 07]

Intevac fell 16% on bad news of profit forecast stemming from a delay in orders from a major customer. [Jul 31, 07]

Shares of disk sputtering equipment maker Intevac tumbled 11% after a Goldman Sachs downgraded the company, predicting its orders will decline. [AP, Apr 18, 07]

Intevac soared 28% after it said that surging sales led to a doubled fourth-quarter profit.[Feb 7, 07]

IntraLase

IntraLase rose 12% to the price for which it is being bought by Advanced Medical Optics. [Jan 8, 07]

Introgen Therapeutics

Introgen Therapeutics filed for bankruptcy, the latest difficult chapter for the struggling drug development company. [Austin American Statesman, Dec 4, 08]

Introgen Therapeutics chief executive and founder David Nance resigned, along with three other top executives. The company is cutting from 45 to 15 employees [Austin American-Statesman, Nov 27, 08]

With its cash dwindling, Introgen Therapeutics said that it has hired an adviser to pursue strategic options, including a possible sale. The news came as the Austin-based biotechnology company reported a third-quarter net loss of $6 million [Austin American-Statesman, Nov 12, 08]

Introgen Therapeutics has been notified by the Nasdaq composite index that its shares could be delisted because its market value has fallen below the $50 million minimum. [Austin American-Statesman, Sep 6, 08]

Introgen Therapeutics fell nearly 40% after the company disclosed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had refused to accept the application for its cancer-fighting drug Advexin. [Lilly Rockwell, Austin American-Statesman, Sep 3, 08]

Introgen Therapeutics saw its stock price plummet about 20% [Jul 14, 08] , the same day a report from TheStreet.com was published questioning the effectiveness of the company's much-touted cancer drug Advexin. [Austin Business Journal]

Introgen Therapeutics became the first to apply for FDA approval of a gene therapy drug to treat recurring head and neck cancers. But it could be early 2009, at best, before a decision on whether it can market the drug, Advexin, on which it has been working for 14 years. [Boston Globe, Jul 1]

Introgen up 13% [Feb 20, 08] on announcement of starting a randomized, controlled study of INGN 225.

Introgen Therapeutics bolstered its cash position by selling its entire stake in a European biotechnology company for $7.5M. [Austin American-Statesman, Jan 18]

Introgen Therapeutics down 28% [AP, Dec 20, 07] after the company said it will expand the amount of tissue samples in a late-stage study in order to boost the strength of the results.

Introgen Therapeutics up 11% [Dec 19, 07]

Introgen Therapeutics up 12% as it and Moffitt Cancer Center announced plans to begin a phase 2 randomized, controlled study of INGN 225, Introgen's investigational immunotherapy product in patients with metastatic small-cell lung cancer (termed extensive stage SCLC). [press release, Sep 6, 07]

Introgen Therapeutics Up 19% [Aug 7, 07]

Introgen Therapeutics said European regulators have certified its production facilities for Advexin, a gene-based treatment for cancer. [Austin Statesman-American, Apr 17]

Introgen Therapeutics said it lost $7.2M in the quarter as revenue fell 84% while awaiting FDA approval on its primary product, Advexin which would be the first gene-based cancer treatment in the United States. [Austin American-Statesman, Mar 9]

Introgen Therapeutics expanded its licensing agreement with the University of Texas, giving the biotechnology company broader rights to a group of patent applications related to INGN 241, an anti-cancer therapy. The new agreement gives Introgen worldwide, exclusive rights to the patent applications, covering use of INGN 241 in a wide range of treatments, including chemotherapy and more advanced targeted treatments. [Austin American-Statesman, Dec 22]

Introgen Therapeutics Inc. said it struck a deal with the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston giving it exclusive rights for a portfolio of patents that focus on nanotechnology. The patents deal with nanoparticles that can deliver therapeutic bioactive proteins and other compounds to cells, including cancer cells. The goal is for the nanoparticles to increase a treatment's activity and more specifically target cells. Introgen is a drug development company that is waiting for a U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision on its leading product. That product, Advexin, is a gene-based cancer treatment based on research developed at M.D. Anderson. [Austin American-Statesman, Nov 17]

Introgen Therapeutics raised $6.1M in a private placement of stock, about the amount it lost last quarter in trying to market a novel cancer treatment. At least $2.6M in SBIR. [Nov 8, 06]

Intuitive Surgical

Intuitive Surgical up 27% [Jul 23, 09] Second-quarter net income grew 22% on strong sales of its surgical robots, defying economic headwinds hitting spending at hospitals that buy the systems. Covering of large short positions assisted the gain [Wall Street Journal, Jul 24]

Intuitive Surgical up 10% [Apr 24, 09]

Intuitive Surgical up 11% [Apr 9, 09]

Intuitive Surgical down 10% [Dec 1, 08] On a stock bloodbath day

Intuitive Surgical down 17% [Nov 16, 08]

Intuitive Surgical makes the remarkable da Vinci surgical system. Machines cost $1.3 million apiece, plus around $130,000 for yearly service contracts and $2,000 per surgery for items that can't be reused. Demand is strong, since the system's tiny incisions keep healing times and hospital stays short, while its highly scalable movements turn clumsy hands into precise ones. But Intuitive stock is trading at 38 times this year's earnings forecast at a time when low price/earnings ratios are suddenly plentiful. [Jack Hough, Wall Street Journal, Nov 6, 08]

Intuitive Surgical up 11% [Nov 4, 08]

Intuituve Surgical down 12% [Oct 17, 08]

Intuitive Surgical up 13% [Oct 16, 08] Even though it posted third-quarter earnings above analysts' views, Oppenheimer said there were high expectations. [WSJ, Oct 18]

Intuitive Surgical down 15% [Oct 15, 08]

Intuitive Surgical down 13% [Oct 6, 08]

Intuitive Surgical up 18% [Jul 23, 08]

Intuitive Surgical down 17% .after its full-year sales forecast missed analyst expectations. Although Intuitive Surgical posted an 88% higher quarterly profit, investors focused on the outlook [AP, Apr 18, 08]>

Intuitive Surgical up 20% [Feb 1, 08]

Intuitive Surgical down 12%. [Jan 29, 08]

CAN INTUITIVE SURGICAL ($2M SBIR) possibly be worth $240 a share? Since its June 2000 debut, the stock is up 13-fold in value. The company is now valued at 19 times trailing 12-month sales. That's more than 10 times the median for the S&P 500 index. ... it introduced the da Vinci surgical system in 1999 (before its SBIRs and 2000 IPO) ... already sold more than 650 machines (at $1.3M each) ... [smartmoney.com, Oct 12,07] One does wonder, though, why HHS gave it an 2005 Phase 2 STTR for the daVinci robot that was already selling commercially?

Intuitive Surgical up 32% [Jul 20, 07] on news of fat profits and projections. It which makes da Vinci surgical systems for use in urologic, cardiothoracic, gynecologic and general surgeries

Intuitive Surgical jumped 17% seemingly in response to a friendly piece by Motley Fool: the company behind the da Vinci robots used in minimally invasive surgical procedures, is a perfect example of a dynamic company that is still experiencing outstanding growth. Its five-year estimated growth rate is 35%, [Feb 2, 07]

Inverness Medical Innovations (Waltham MA)

Inverness Medical Innovations (Waltham MA; no SBIR) closed its IPO for $806M. [Boston Globe, Nov 24, 07]

Inviragen (Ft Collins, CO)

Inviragen (Ft Collins, CO; $2M SBIR) developer of vaccines with offices in Madison, has merged with a Singapore company in tandem with a $15 million equity investment from a group of venture capital investors. [Business Journal of Milwaukee, Oct 6, 09]

The Colorado BioScience Association is seeking entries for its annual BioWest Venture Showcase award. Six companies in bioscience technology (biotechnology, medical devices or biofuels) will be chosen to present to a panel of national venture capital investors on Nov. 13 at the 2008 BioWest Conference and Expo, Nov. 13-14 ... Each company will have 15 minutes to present their technologies and business plans. ... Past winners include Apoplogic Pharmaceuticals (Aurora, CO; $700K SBIR) , Inviragen (Ft Collins, CO; $700K SBIR) and ValveXchange. [Denver Business Journal, Sep 4]

Invitrogen

Invitrogen down 13% [Oct 27, 08]

Invitrogen up 15% [Oct 13, 08]

The Wall Street Journal's Patent Scorecard in Biotechnology ranks Invitrogen and Maxygen #2 and 3 in Science Strength (13-week rolling average). Sequenom was #6; Affymetrix #11 of 28 listed. Only Sequenom had an impressive stock price record, up 170% over 52 weeks.

Invitrogen, a provider of essential life science technologies for research, production and diagnostics, announced the launch of its Dynabeads� MAX Legionella, which enables a unique process for targeting and concentrating legionella from environmental water samples. The Dynabeads� MAX Legionella provides a rapid and highly reliable sample preparation process, improving the method used, and result achieved, for the detection and quantification of legionella. [Water on-line, Aug 19, 08]

A test made by Invitrogen that can determine whether women with breast cancer could be helped by taking the powerful drug Herceptin was approved yesterday by the FDA [San Diego Union-Tribune, Jul 9, 08]

Invitrogen down 10% [Jun 12, 08]

Invitrogen, which makes kits that researchers use in gene cloning, will pay $6.4 B for Applied Biosystems (no SBIR) which makes systems that can analyze DNA, RNA, proteins and other molecules, which can be used in forensics, research, testing foods for contaminants, making and testing drugs, among other applications. [Boston Globe, Jun 12]

Invitrogen up 10% after the company said its second-quarter profit doubled. [Aug 2, 07]

Invitrogen up 10% [Feb 14, 07] after fourth-quarter results exceeded expectations and it agreed to dump its BioReliance unit.

Invitrogen lost 12% after bad news about profits and the next quarter. [Terri Somers, San Diego Tribune, Oct 28] It had four Phase 2 SBIRs in the 1990s.

Invivosciences (Wauwatosa, WI)

Iomai

Iomai (Gaithersburg, MD; $5M+ SBIR) said that pharmaceutical firm Merck would test a patch Iomai is developing that is designed to stimulate a stronger immune system response to vaccines. [Michael Rosenwald, Washington Post, Apr 4, 08] The stock trades at about a third of its high after its 2006 debut.

Iomai up 11% on the beginning of testing of skin patch vaccines. [Nov 7, 06]

Iomed (Salt Lake City, UT)

Iomed jumped 31% to the value for which it agreed to be bought by ReAble Therapeutics Inc. in an all-cash merge. [May 18, 07]

Iomed (Salt Lake City, UT; one Phase 1 years ago) reported a 19% drop in revenue. [Salt Lake Tribuine, May 16,07]

Ion America

Ion America has developed a product, known as a solid oxide fuel cell, that strips the electrons from natural gas, generating electricity and leaving hydrogen as the only byproduct. In May and June, Ion was granted three patents in the U.S. to cover aspects of its technology. And last month, blue-chip venture capitalists including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates invested more than $100 M. John Doerr sits on Ion's board [Wall Street Journal, Sep 11] Which leaves a residue of carbon. No SBA data on any SBIR, but why would a company take SBIR when it can have unlimited real money.

Ion Optics (Waltham, MA)

Ion Optics got a $4M VC infusion which make a total of nearly $8M toward economic success of its low-cost high-volume device packaging precise wavelength control of infrared. Started in the 90s by an escapee from Spire, Ion has had at least eight Phase 2 SBIRs from a variety of agencies. If the government cared about economic metrics, it would include Ion as a success for getting $8M into a government technology.

Ion Optics (Waltham, MA) has an optical platform using photonic bandgap technology for controlling infrared emission and absorption wavelengths of a silicon surface. The company got another $2.5M as the opener of a $4M funding. Infrared gas sensors operate using gases� unique infrared signatures in the range of 2 to 14 microns. Because each has an individual signature, infrared sensors can conclusively identify and measure a target gas without interference from other gases. Ion Optics� technology is called SensorChip, a chip that it says will offer the accuracy and reliability of large infrared sensors in the small, inexpensive format of chemical reaction sensors. In effect, it reduces the large, complex conventional infrared sensors to fit on a chip. [Jay Rizoli, Mass High Tech, Jun 9] Ion Optics started life when Ed Johnson bailed out of Spire, soon thereafter getting seven Phase 2 SBIRs mostly from NSF and NASA.

Ion Optics Gets $1.4M
(Jan 12) Ion Optics (Waltham, MA) closed a $1.4M investment for prototype development along its route to commercializing its optical technology platform, an optical-based gas sensor made on silicon wafers with MEMS The Red Herring (www.redherring.com) says the funding round was way oversubscribed. The press release says the worldwide market for gas and chemical sensors is $560M, for the sensing elements alone. The worldwide market for emerging applications is estimated at more than 200 million additional units per year, representing an additional $1B in revenues.. Ion Optics started when Ed Johnson jumped out of Spire with high hopes of turning his SBIR-funded materials ideas into something commercial. He has had at least $2M of SBIR since 1996. (Government is slow in posting SBIR awards in public places.)

Iovation (Portland OR)

Iovation (Portland OR; no SBIR) startup wants to make the Internet a lot safer by making it a little less anonymous. ... $15M in new funding, including at least $10M from Intel Capital. ... The three-year-old company's technology tracks computers, cell phones or other gadgets that visit Web sites. ... uses that information to ensure that only authorized computers access a secure Web site -- even if someone types in a correct password. ... forecasts $8.5 million in recurring revenue during 2007. The company says it currently tracks 16 million devices online [Mike Rogoway, oregonlive.com, Nov 8]

Iowa Thin Film Technologies (Boone, IA)

Meanwhile, Iowa Thin Film Technologies (Boone, IA) http://www.iowathinfilm.com/ has released solar-film radios and tents, and it�s now developing opaque BIPV products for roofs. [both company stories by Meredith Sadin, Business 2.0, Dec 05] ITFT has had at least four Phase 2 SBIRs and a 2005 $3M Army contract for tents with flexible solar cells. By contrast with XsunX, ITFT's web site talks only about the technology and nothing about the management squad.

IPG Photonics

IPG Photonics Corp. is advancing a new laser technology that may do for industrial lasers what the semiconductor chip did for computers, making them smaller, cheaper, and more powerful. .. Costs have plunged from $4,000 a watt to $75. ... IPG's technology emerged from a Russian lab in 1990, when Valentin Gapontsev, IPG's chief executive, developed a high-power fiber laser by coupling light-emitting semiconductors, known as diodes, with optical fiber. He founded IPG a year later in a Moscow basement, later moving the company's headquarters to Germany and finally to Massachusetts. [Robert Gavin, Boston Globe, May 1]

iRobot

iRobot up 17% [Oct 22, 09]

iRobot reports it has landed $6.1 million from the U.S. Army for spare parts for robots. [Mass High Tech, Sep 8, 09]

iRobot said that it has received an order for $35.3 million from the US Army TACOM Contracting Center for more of the company's PackBot battlefield robots. [Chris Reidy, Boston Globe, Sep 2, 09]

iRobot said today that it has received a $5.1 million order from the US Army for more of its battlefield PackBot robots and spare parts [Boston Globe, Aug 12, 09]

iRobot said it has been awarded a $13.5 million contract from the Naval Sea Systems Command. [Boston Globe, Aug 10, 09]

Robots are smart, tireless and effective--and over the last two years they've cut our spending on household help by 80%. My thanks to the Pentagon for helping fund development of the technology for bomb disposal and such. ... People pushing vacuums and mops aren't going to keep getting smarter, cheaper, faster and more reliable, but iRobots certainly are. Mass production is slashing the cost and boosting the capabilities of high-power semiconductors and motors that control the flow of power to the wheels of hybrid cars. ... The prospect of new payroll taxes will certainly accelerate automation [Peter Huber, Forbes, Aug 24, 09]

iRobot down 15% [Jul 23, 09]

iRobot down 10% [Jul 8, 09]

Roomba, made by iRobot, which has sold more than 3m of the frisbee-sized vacuuming robots. The latest model, the fifth incarnation of the Roomba, has more sensors and cleverer software than its predecessors. Press the �Clean� button and the robot glides out of its docking station and sets off across the floor. [The Economist, Jun 6, 09]

iRobot said it has received a $16.8 million order from the US Army for more of the company's battlefield robots. [Boston Globe, May 7, 09]

iRobot up 12% [Apr 29, 09]

iRobot up 19% [Apr 23, 09]

iRobot up 11% [Mar 12, 09]

iRobot received a $7.8 million order from the US Army for 90 of its PackBot 510 military robots. The PackBots are used by soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan for reconnaissance and bomb disposal. [Boston Globe, Feb 11, 09]/p>

iRobot said that it has received a $5.5 million order from the US Army for its PackBot battlefield robots.that calls for the delivery of 72 iRobot PackBot 510 with FasTac Kit robots, spare parts, and repairs. "This is the eighth order under the $286 million Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) xBot contract," [Boston Globe, Jan 30, 09]

iRobot said it unveiled the second generation of its iRobot Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas [Boston Globe, Jan 8, 09]

iRobot down 11% [Dec 9, 08]

iRobot down 13% [Dec 1, 08] On a stock bloodbath day

iRobot reports it has landed $4.4 million in [six SBIR] grants from the Army and Navy. [Mass High Tech, Nov 18, 08]

iRobot up 17% [Nov 21, 08]

Porkotic. IRobot has been given $2 million worth of Congressional support to improve development and production of its Warrior 700 robot for combat areas. [Mass High Tech, Nov 12] As if all that military procurement for Iraq weren't enough to satisfy any hunger for small business success.

iRobot said it has opened its first retail kiosk. The kiosk, which will be open at Burlington (MA) Mall through mid January, will offer direct and online sales of such home robot products as the Roomba Vacuum Cleaning Robot, the Scooba Floor Washing Robot, the Looj Gutter Cleaning Robot, the Dirt Dog Shop Sweeping Robot, and the Verro Pool Cleaning Robot, the company said in a press release. [Boston Globe, Nov 8, 08]

War is Great for Business. iRobot got a $3.7 million order to provide 17 customized PackBot Man Transportable Robotic System robots, due by the end of January next year. ...part of an existing Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity contract that could result in up to $264 million in robots, parts, services and training. With this latest order, NAVSEA has placed about $102 million in orders. [Kevin Bullis, Mass High Tech, Oct 27, 08]

iRobot up 11% [Oct 23, 08] after it swung to a third-quarter profit on a 45% revenue increase [Wall Street Journal, Oct 24]

iRobot down 10% [Oct 22, 08]

iRobot down 11% [Oct 21, 08]

iRobot said it got a $2.1 million order for spare parts and repairs from the Army [Boston Globe, Oct 17, 08]

iRobot up 20% [Oct 10, 08]

iRobot down 10% [Oct 9, 08]

The Army awarded iRobot a $3.8 million R&D contract for the delivery of two iRobot Warrior 700 platforms [Mass High Tech, Oct 2, 08]

The Army gave iRobot a combined $19.1 million dollars under its existing contract for the xBot systems [Mass High Tech, Sep 25, 08]

iRobot down 12% [Sep 22, 08]

iRobot agreed to buy Nekton Research (Durham, NC; $4M SBIR, 24 employees), an unmanned underwater robot and technology company... for $10M+. [Boston Globe, Sep 9, 08] Nekton has grown into an aquatic robotic power with customers that include defense agencies. ... iRobot already gets about 45 percent of its sales from the military and industrial segment. ... traces its history to Duke University, where Wainwright was a biology professor. He wanted to understand how fish swim. [Jonathan Cox, Raleigh News & Observer, Sep 9, 08]

iRobot has been awarded a contract under which the US Army could order up to $200 million in military robots, spare parts, training, and repair services over the next five years. [Boston Globe, Sep 2, 08] And co-founder Rodney Brooks, who started iRobot in 1990 with two former MIT students, said he is giving up the part-time position to focus on his new venture, Heartland Robotics, a Cambridge company that will also develop robots, but not compete with iRobot. [Boston Globe, Sep 2, 08] War has been really good to iRobot.

iRobot announced it has received an additional Army order totaling $17.5 million for robots that can scout battlefields and dispose of bombs. [Boston Globe, Jul 25, 08] The fortunes of war.

iRobot may dust off plans for an oil-industry robot as it considers adding a third division to diversify into industrial markets, two of its cofounders said. [Boston Globe, Jul 5]

iRobot up 13% [Jun 25, 08]

DARPA and the Army Research Office have given iRobot a $3.3 M, multi-year contract to create Chemical Robots for use in unmanned urban search and rescue and reconnaissance work [Mass High Tech, Jun 17,08] to "develop a soft, flexible, mobile robot that can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than its actual structural dimensions" to perform tasks "within complex and highly cluttered environments," iRobot said. [Boston Globe, Jun 18]

iRobot said that it signed a licensing agreement with the University of Washington that "will help our robots conquer new underwater frontiers." ... to commercialize Autonomous Underwater Vehicle, or AUV, Seaglider technology previously supported by [ONR and NSF]. [Chris Reidy, Boston Globe, Jun 10] Because iRobot is now a public company, it cannot afford to play the pretend commercialization game to get SBIR money for endless R&D.

iRobot got another $22M in Army robot orders. [Mass High Tech, May 23, 08]

iRobot down 11% [May 1, 08]

War is good for business. iRobot got a $6 million deal to supply the Army unmanned robots which ups iRobot's take to $63M. BTW: what is a manned robot?

The editors of Baseline [magazine, Mar 31] identify the companies that have had the most disruptive impact in their industries by leveraging technology. Of the 25 most disruptive the only SBIR company was iRobot. If SBIR really cared about disruptive technology, how many would there have been? Remember that for all its hype, SBIR is miniscule on the scale of US R&D technology investment and completely out of touch with disruptive markets.

Just in time for spring, iRobot revealed an expanded lineup of home robots designed to clean pools of leaves, dirt, and other debris. [Boston Globe, Mar 5]

iRobot reports it has invested in a California company from which it is also licensing 3-D camera technology. The robot-maker is licensing Advanced Scientific Concepts (Santa Barbara, CA; $12M SBIR) 3-D flash laser radar, dubbed "Ladar," technology. The Ladar camera emits a billionth-of-a-second long, eye-safe laser burst to create three-dimensional images of a landscape. The technology has mapping and navigation applications for robots, iRobot said. The deal grants iRobot exclusive rights to develop and market the Ladar technology for unmanned ground vehicles and robots in exchange for future commitments to purchase units. The company will demonstrate the technology for military customers this year, with product delivery next year, iRobot said. In a separate deal, iRobot also made a minority investment of $2.5 million for preferred stock [Mass High Tech, Jan 23, 08]

iRobot said the Army has accelerated testing schedules for its program to develop a small unmanned ground vehicle, or SUVS. The updated plan calls for iRobot to deliver 25 of these robots by April [Boston Globe, Jan 17]

iRobot settled its lawsuits against Robotic FX accused of stealing intellectual property. Robotic conceded it infringed two iRobot patents. [Boston Globe, Dec 22] The Army had already switched the $268M procurement contract to iRobot.

iRobot says it got a $286M contract from the US Army [Dec 18, 07]

The Army has canceled a $280 million contract with a Chicago-area robot maker that is being sued by iRobot Corp. [Boston Globe, Dec 16].

iRobot announced upgrades to its PackBot battlefield robot. The company unveiled PackBot with Mapping Kit, a platform with a new payload designed to help warfighters deftly manage the dangerous tasks of search, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions [Boston Globe, Dec 12, 07]

A federal judge in Boston has issued an injunction against a Chicago-area robot maker accused of stealing trade secrets from iRobot [Boston Globe, Nov 3, 07] Defendant Robotic FX was not reported as railing against "activist un-elected judges."

iRobot up 16% after a court victory. [Nov 5, 07]

iRobot up 16% [AP, Oct 25, 07] despite a loss in its third quarter due to a production slowdown at a new manufacturer

Bribing Companies. Local and state tax incentives have prevented a multimillion-dollar Massachusetts company and hundreds of jobs from crossing the border to New Hampshire. iRobot will be moving its headquarters across the town line from Burlington to Bedford [Melissa Beecher, Boston Globe, Oct 26]

Meanwhile, The Army has frozen a $280 M contract with a Chicago-area robot maker that is being sued by iRobot. ... iRobot was suing Robotic FX in federal courts in Massachusetts and Alabama, alleging theft of trade secrets and patent infringement [Hiawatha Bray, Boston Globe, Oct 26]

iRobot got an $8.8 M Army robot order [Oct 07]

A new device by iRobot resembles the company's disc-shaped Roomba vacuum cleaner but has a webcam bulging from the top for parents to watch home.... in beta, expect under $500... the company also announced the Looj, designed to clean roof gutters - a messy job requiring repeated trips up and down a ladder. [Mark Jewell, AP, Sep 28, 07]

iRobot Retaliates. In a case complete with private detectives and accusations of downloaded documents and shredded evidence, iRobot alleged last month that Robotic FX's products were built with trade secrets stolen by the upstart company's founder, a former iRobot engineer. [Hiawatha Bray. Boston Globe, Sep 21] Why didn't the government notice in the procurement competition? Because the judging is not set up to investigate patent cases as part of buying goods and services needed now. What the government should have been looking for is the company's capacity to support the hardware in the field. If the idea was simply copied, the winner is not likely to have the needed technical depth when the inevitable problems arise. Also, if the government buys knock-offs, it reduces the incentive for companies to invest their own capital in developing new technology fore the government. Instead, the government will be reduced to spending its own R&D money developing everything it will need, thus slowing the advance. But the government management of SBIR suggests such a situation is just what it wants anyway. Given a choice, government technocrats would rather have control than progress. It has to abandon that choice when an enemy (Russia or al-Qaeda or whoever) presents a new challenge.

iRobot got $19M Navy order for PackBots bomb-disposal robots. [Mass High Tech, Sep 19, 07]

iRobot fell 23% as the Army picked 8A firm Robotic FX (no SBIR) to supply 3,000 robots for $280M "The loss of the contract to a startup suggests neither IP nor economies of scale are barriers to entry, and iRobot's sales and marketing execution may be flawed," wrote JPMorgan analyst Paul Coster [thestreet.com, Sep 17, 07]

iRobot reports it has filed two lawsuits against an Illinois robotics manufacturer and its president for alleged patent infringement and misuse of confidential information. ... one suit against Robotic FX , second against Jameel Ahed, Robotic FX president and former iRobot employee [Mass High Tech, Aug 20]

iRobot up 12% on news of a new DOD order for 3000 anti-IED robots. [Aug 14,07]

iRobot up 18% [Aug 8, 07] Motley Fool notes that although iRobot is doing well selling robots, Foster-Miller is selling robots that have Army OK for shoot-to-kill.

More 'bots. DOD ordered another $17.5M of robots from iRobot. [Jul 07]

Slide Show: iRobot Takes Military Robots for a Test Drive iRobot demonstrates its latest military robots, including the "Scooby Doo" PackBot EOD, which helps soldiers discover and disarm improvised explosive devices, and the PackBot 510, which features a video-game-style hand controller. [eWeek, Jun 11]

iRobot says it got $50M, a portion of which is earmarked for acquisitions. [Jun 20, 07]If little robots are good, ... iRobot got an Army sub-contract from Lockheed Martin to design a remote-controlled device to operate military unmanned vehicles. [Mass High-Tech, Jun 14] BTW, a robot thinks for itself; a remotely controlled device gets its thinking directly from a human.

iRobot has forged a partnership with Boeing to produce unmanned vehicles. The companies are expected to develop 30-pound robotic vehicles, known as a Small Unmanned Ground Vehicle (SUGV) Early, by 2008 [Mass High Tech, Apr 25]

iRobot up 13% on news that it got a $14M Navy order [Apr 3, 07]

Down 46% and Still Overpriced, Says One Analyst. ROBOTIC VACUUMS THAT boast sophisticated artificial intelligence may represent the future of housekeeping, but hopefully they're smart enough not to pick up shares of iRobot. ... Roomba demand looks to be cooling off. ... disappointing sales of the company's follow-up Scooba floor-washing robot, ... The consumer business has the real potential for the big upside over the next decade." The problem is, that's a pretty long time to wait and see upside on overpriced shares of a young company in an emerging market, especially when that company is still run by its founders. After all, it's almost an axiom of business that great entrepreneurs do not great managers make. [Dan Burrows, Smart Money, Mar 14,07]

iRobot got a $2.8M German order for 22 bomb-disposal robots and spare parts.

iRobot tripped 15% on a loss and a bleaker outlook. [Feb 13, 07]

More robots. iRobot says it got a $16.6 M order for explosive-detection robots for use in Iraq. [Jan 31, 07]

iRobot got an attaboy from the Mass Technology Leadership Council as the annual winner for emerging technologies or clusters. [Mass High Tech, Oct 12]

iRobot got $6.9 M in new Navy orders for PackBot robots, spare parts and services as an installment of a contract that could go to $70M. Love those bots in Iraq as expendable soldiers. [Sep 06]

iRobot got a $3M Navy order for EOD robots to Iraq and Afghanistan. [Aug 06]

iRobot jumped 17% after announcing a 33% quarterly revenue gain. Still no profit. [Jul 06]

iRobot got a $26M Navy contract for more bomb-disposal robots [Mar 05]. The insurgency war has been good for the EOD business.

Bad News - More R&D Spending. When you're public, short term profit prospects drive your short term stock price. IRobot took a 22% dive when it said it will spend more on R&D, selling, and marketing.

iRobot shot up 29% in its second day of trading. it also benefited from a friendly article by Bary Alyssa Johnson [PC Magazine, Nov 10] on its newest home robot: the Scooba - a smart mop first unveiled in May 2005, as the "world's first floor-washing robot."

iRobot went public to raise $100M. The maker of military robots and the Roomba automated vacuum had about $1M in SBIR from the Army which desperately needs and uses robots to clear Iraqi roadways of bombs. The future of Roomba is harder to gauge since it depends on consumer tastes and not merely on economic efficiency.

Ironbridge Technologies

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA)

Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) is flush with funding after the maker of drugs to treat irritable bowel syndrome took in $25 million in its latest financing round, according to federal documents. The new financing pushes Ironwood over $315 million in total equity financing. [Mass High Tech, Sep 4, 09]

Irvine Sensors Corp (Costa Mesa, CA)

After its second reverse split, Irvine Sensors re-qualified for NASDAQ listing. [Sep 16, 08]

Irvine Sensors down 19% [Nov 17, 06] after getting $16M in new orders after more than doubling the day before.

Irvine Sensors jumped 13% on news of a $7M classified contract. Irvine loves defense money. [Nov 3, 06] At least 82 SBIRs going back to the Stone Age (1983) with a total of something like $30M of which about $6M has my name on it. It had many interesting technical ideas that just wouldn't convert into profitable ventures.

Irvine Sensors bought 70% of the stock of Optex Systems (Richardson, TX). Founded in 1987, Optex manufactures optical sighting systems and assemblies primarily for DOD. Its products are installed on the majority of U.S. military land vehicles, such as the Abrams and Bradley fighting vehicles, Light Armored and Advanced Security Vehicles and have been selected for installation on the Future Combat Systems (FCS) Stryker vehicle. Optex's revenues for calendar 2005 were approximately $19M. [PRNewswire, Jan 3] Irvine has had at least 45 SBIR Phase 2s, including 35 from DOD; Optex none.

Irvine Sensors reported three more Phase 2 SBIRs for $2.2M. Profits? Change the subject, although it is nearly time for the quarterly fess-up. [Nov 04]

Irvine Sensors� retirement plan has spent $1M of President-Founder John Carson's poke to buy Irvine stock at about a 5% premium over the market price.

Irvine About Out of Juice. After saying that it doubted one of the basic premises of a company - a going concern - Irvine Sensors says it raised $1M in equity financing to cover its rapidly failing cash balance after another big loss year of $6M. Irvine is a big user of SBIR but failed to make a commercial go of its imaginative technology breakthroughs. How about the government's saving it just for the technology? Sorry, that's not what the government does for small companies; Irvine is no Lockheed.with lots of employees and political donors.

In sympathy with the battering that info-tech stocks have had this year, Irvine Sensors dropped back below the buck. And that is in the 1-20 reverse split stock that kept Irvine trading on NASDAQ. Market cap now below $7M.

Irvine Sensors stock zoomed 25% after news that it got yet another Phase 2 SBIR for $728K demonstrate a Miniature Night Vision Weapons Sight.

Four law firms are howling for blood over too much technical optimism at Irvine Sensors. A complaint alleges that IRSN violated federal securities laws, by, among other things, repeatedly maintaining throughout the Class Period, that Silicon Film Technologies, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary of IRSN, was near completion of its Electronic Film System or "EFS-1," a device which would interface with a conventional camera to enable the camera to take digital pictures, all the while knowing that the EFS-1 was suffering from serious and insurmountable technical design flaws. On September 15, 2001, after nearly two years of touting the EFS-1 technology, IRSN abruptly announced that SFI had suspended operations and was considering bankruptcy, essentially ending the EFS-1 project. This news caused IRSN stock price to plummet from a Class Period high of $14 a share to a low of 12 cents. The stock price plummeted again well below the buck that was established after the recent 1-20 reverse split.

Irvine Sensors proudly announces government handout of $1.8M in SBIR - three Phase 1s and two Phase 2s. Said CEO Richards,The SBIR Program sponsors the development of technologies of interest to the government that also have commercial prospects. Because of this, these pending grants are significant not only to our current fiscal year, but potentially to our future,We will have more to say on the commercial demonstration objectives of the Phase 2 awards once the procurement activities are completed. That's nice! What about the commercial results from the gazillions of earlier SBIR in a company that recently had to do a 1-20 reverse split to keep its NASDAQ listing? The government would rightly argue that new technology was advanced which is the goal of R&D spending. But SBIR was supposed to have shorter range impact on commercial success.

Irvine Sensors did a 1-20 reverse split to avoid the bullet of NASDAQ de-listing.

Irvine Shutters Subsidiary
(Sep 17) Irvine Sensors is closing its Silicon Film Technologies subsidiary and preparing for its liquidation in bankruptcy, Irvine might like to continue to finance the development of a new Electronic Film System(TM) but Irvine itself needs money to fill its own yawning losses.

Irvine Faces Delisting
(Sep 10) Irvine Sensors has to scramble to avoid being de-listed from the NASDAQ which has now warned Irvine that it no longer meets market capitalization, net worth, or stockholder equity listing. NASDAQ had already told Irvine that the stock, surrently around 30 cents must trade above $1 per share for 10 consecutive trading days before October 10.
Although Irvine's situation has reached an extreme, most SBIR stocks have been hard hit in the past 18 months of info-tech swoon. APA Optics and American Superconductor have been halved this summer.

The Hurrieder They Go
(Sep 6) Irvine sinks deeper in the hole. After Irvine Sensors reported sales of both products and contract R&D up 50% in the recent quarter, the NASDAQ traders continue to abandon the stock to whoever will buy. From a mere 60 cents a share in early August, it has slipped to half even that meager number. Over the last two decades, the government has sunk a lot of R&D money for what promises to be interesting technology while private investors have sunk a lot more into losing year after losing year. The government will get its money's worth in knowledge but the private investors look they will get nothing back because the technology is too expensive to attract private vendors. Government, of course, especially big Irvine investor DOD, cares little for cost-based competitive advantage and doesn't really care whether Irvine lives or dies. The generals are still living in the world of only the best for DOD regardless of price and subsequent marekt availability. Which is why they regularly ask Congress for big appropriations to buy big expensive hardware.

Irvine Sensors got $55M for a high-speed router spinoff that will use superconducting technology -- a technique that involves freezing ceramics cooled at extremely low temperatures, eliminating their electrical resistance. The result is a conductor capable of shunting digital signals over telecom links an order of magnitude faster than today's high-end routers. Experimental labs have managed to get superconductors to transmit digital data at rates to 740 Gbit/s. ... Irvine isn't alone in its quest for a new router technology. Atlantic Technology Ventures has started its own superconducting router project. Chipmaker HYPRES is working. And superconductor vendors such as ISCO International say it's in their future plans. One question: Isn't it pointless to focus on such futuristic technology when existing firms are struggling? And where does superconducting leave optical networking -- out in the cold? ... Irvine's business plan calls for the development of a "SuperRouter," using funds obtained from U.S. government agencies under the auspices of the SBIR. One of the contributors: BMDO. In order to peddle the product commercially, Irvine has formed a spinoff called iNetWorks Corp. ... Irvine Sensor officials acknowledge that plans for an avant garde are fraught with risk. The company admits that at least two of its ventures aren't showing any products yet. [Mary Jander, Light Reading, Jul 31]. Heard that story before? Great business plan for a future products to induce the government to spend R&D with the visionary firm. BMDO also funded those other companies with money-losing technology. Irvine, in particular, has worked that scheme for nearly two decades. Some boo-birds came out: A Solution in search of a Problem. The previous "killer app" for superconductors was wireless. The space, power, and cost for the freezer unit made superconductors dead on arrival with respect to the cellular carriers and basestation equipment vendors. The networking world isn't going to be any better. And: it would be a good idea if these people would work on solving one problem with superconductors rather than several at the same time. They talk about switches and packet processors both implemented with superconducting materials. Both are independently enormous technical challenges. But together, it strains credibility that a vendor is just going to throw it all together at the same time. And: This makes no sense whatsoever. First, routing IP packets at this speed is not critical to national security (if it was, why isn't the network connection-oriented?). Secondly, a series of load balanced Juniper routers can achieve the same thing and a lot cheaper too.

Irvine Sensors says it won one of the four DARPA Jigsaw project team awards for combat detection that hands out $1 now and maybe up to $20M over three years. IRSN, of course, used stacked silicon chips, a technology that has been bringing in government money since the mid 80s. Other teams will also get $1M in a grand competition that will narow the field to two teams after a year. Somebody may get the $20M.

Irvine Sensors won another SBIR Phase 2 which makes about a billion. This time from BMDO for what sounds like a marriage of Irvine's fifteen year-old chip stack technology and the nearly as old low temperature superconductor dreams of HYPRES (Elmsford, NY). The stock traders don't seem impressed in that Irvine is still 90+% down from its high of early Y2K. Irvine and HYPRES have each had at least 30 Phase 2s (decent count good only through about 1998 because of long lag in SBA data).

Big up mover yesterday, Irvine Sensors up 34% to 6. It was below a dollar just before Christmas. But Irvine was up in this territory years ago and disappointed a lot of hopes when it just could not make a profitable go of its technically sweet government-supported 3D electronics which Irvine claims to be developer of proprietary technologies to produce extremely compact packages of solid state micro circuitry, which offers volume, power, weight and operational advantages. Irvine has averaged about $1M a year in SBIR funding since the mid 1980s which a much smaller number than the $60M of losses covered by private capital. Its investors have had $60M worth of faith for a decade.

the human brain has only a short time left as the smartest thing on earth. By 2102 the density of computer circuits will have jumped 1000-fold and the raw processing power of a human brain will fit in a shoe box. With luck, that milestone might coma a lot sooner - perhaps as early as 2005, says John Carson, chief technology officer at Irvine Sensors, a Silicon Valley chip company. [Business Week, Aug 30] Maybe, maybe. Carson has been predicting great compression for as long as he has been proposing SBIRs (since the mid 80s) for imaginative advances. He won a lot of SBIR but the biggest compression is in the value of his stock holding as Irvine wallows near $1. Note: Unless SV extends to Costa Mesa south of LA, Irvine is not in SV.

Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) also raised cash by selling shares privately for $5.6M. But Irvine which has had a loooot of SBIR still languishes in disaster territory. Irvine Loses $1M+
(Feb 24) Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) says it lost $1.36M for the quarter, about the same as last year's quarter. But optimism still reigns During the first quarter and for the first time in our history, we realized the majority of our consolidated revenues from sales of commercial products. As a result of its recently announced supplier relationships with large manufacturers, Novalog's revenues for the first quarter were greater than all of last year, making them the first of our three product subsidiaries to break into profitability. The other two, Imagek and MicroSensors, are still committing all of their available resources toward developing products with strong revenue potential which are intended for introduction later this year. Irvine has had about 22 Phase 2 SBIRs since 1986, the stock sells today for a tenth of its 1994 value, and it has lost a cumulative $37M in the last five years. Its specialty is extremely compact microcircuitry that is assembled in 3-D stacks instead of flat layouts in order to achieve lower weights and volumes and improved speeds that seems a perennial technology of the future.

Silicon Brain Again
(Sep 30) With the usual fanfare, Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) announced another SBIR award for an ultra high density interconnect to enhance its 3D Artificial Neural Network (3DANN) technology. The new interconnect is part of Irvine's planned progression of technologies intended to eventually lead to a "Silicon Brain", a recognition system conceived to emulate performance of the human central nervous system. Irvine Sensors believes that human-level recognition technology could also have commercial applications in such fields as medical diagnostics, DNA sequencing, radiography, security systems, and speech recognition. Optical displays are also expected to benefit from the three-dimensional active transistor interconnect technology to be developed under the new contract. "Although it will take several years before the technology can be made available for products, we believe the Silicon Brain will ultimately be able to solve that problem . . . attaining petaflop performance, or quadrillions of operations per second, using less than ten watts of power, in one-third of a cubic foot, or about the size of a shoebox. This will be the same volumetric efficiency as the human brain." That's the standard press release for what has become a continuous SBIR dating back to the 80s for an interesting idea that always seems to be the technology of the future. A substitute for or emulation of the brain has been a silicon dream for as long as there have been integrated circuits and neural networks. But whether SBIR should be the vehicle for long range development is a central SBIR issue. Recipients like Irvine can always create as much rhetoric as the government demands to keep the money flowing. As a business, ISC has been a good government servant, spending as much money as the government will press upon it plus $42M of losses in the past five years. ($13M+ from DOD alone.) BMDO likes the idea and finds a continuing rationale for more SBIR funding. Odds are that ISC will present BMDO with another golden opportunity in about 18 months when this SBIR money nears its end. What might ever end the government's dreaming?

Irvine Makes A Profit (Aug 13) Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) proudly announced a profit for the quarter of $442,400 as compared to a $2,154,700 loss in the same 1997 period. That makes a cumulative profit through the third quarter of $639,800 versus a $6,408,400 loss in 1997. Irvine credits shutting its bleeding Burlington VT operation. Now if only it could graduate from SBIR.

Irvine Shoots Up (May 18) Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) stock shot up Friday from under $2 to over $4 and settled at $3.3 without a news announcement. Irvine may (don't bet on it) make a profitable quarter after years of longing?

Irvine Makes Money (Apr 17) Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) made $14K for the quarter after the Vermont money hog was finally lifted from its shoulders. During the first half of the year, the company said it has been able to achieve improvements in operating results while still making early-stage investments in several of its emerging market technologies, such as the Imagek EFS-1 Electronic Film System and MicroSensors' Silicon MicroRing Gyro. [Dow Jones, Apr 16] The market must have anticipated the improving news in the run-up of the stock in the past weeks to over $2. Uncle SBIR has poured millions into Irvine and is still waiting after more than a decade for any tax payment.

Irvine Rising Again (Mar 6) Why on a day when all 13 of the most active NASDAQ stocks were down was Irvine Sensors making a new 12-month high of $2.3 (although far, far below its 1995 high of 10)? Another bull trap? A news item on Mar 3 said IRSN got a $1.3M first-phase order of an expected $2.1M subcontract from Boeing to develop a computer-in-a-cube with its chip-stacking technology and a possible follow-on contract for pilot for maybe $0.8M. Irvine said the computer-in-a-cube will be the core of a wearable computer system will use hands-free, voice-activated controls for a DARPA program. That's nice if you like notoriously profitless DARPA development programs. And, of course, the latest $750K Phase 2 SBIR adds to a long line of government contracts. Irvine is still losing money on ts continuing operations although in the past quarter it had a gain of $1M from settling a debt.

Year's Top Product (Sep 12) Irvine Sensors got a 3 1/2-year, $2.1M subcontract to support and market processor chips being developed by a 12-member university consortium based at the University of California at San Diego, is to develop processor chips which will increase processing speeds with a parallel, optically switched processor core for computers under DARPA. At least the government money will help stave off the creditors for the overhead expenses.

And Two More Makes Twenty in Two YearsAnd Two More Makes Twenty in Two Years
(Aug 15) Irvine Sensors lost another $2M for the quarter which makes $20M in the past two years. Whatever they're brewing with that money better be profitable or a gaggle of investors will be grossly unhappier and it's not even Silicon Valley where bust is a way of life. Irvine gets 30% of its revenue from government contracts, especially SBIR and sales are up 50% from a year ago. If sales keep rising, it can go broke faster.

Direct to the Consumer (Jul 1) Looking past the theory that government tech developers and tech sellers to the mass market must be different kind of people, Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) announced a consumer product - the BayBeamer for IR transmission. With the PC market consolidating and competitors everywhere, Irvine will start by selling to OEM, as always, but says it is having "exploratory discussions" with "distribution channels". Lotsa luck, it's a jungle. Initial price $28.50 in lots of five. [Business Wire, Jul 1]

Irvine Will Do A Yet Smaller Camera (Jun 27) Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) says it got another Phase 2 SBIR for yet a smaller credit card like camera, this time from DARPA piled onto the Navy development of a similar camera. If one is good, two is better. Let's guess, just guess, that the DARPA amount is whatever the standard amount is this year and that no consideration was given to combining the two awards into a single development program. Should DARPA and Navy even compare notes about a company with zillions in SBIR and a share price flirting with a buck? Would the generator company in Milwaukee or the anti-microbial company in Seattle agree that two is better than one if they can't even get a Phase 1 from DARPA?

Irvine Cuts the Loss (May 22) Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) swallowed hard and then swallowed the IBM deal by ending its Vermont lease and removing the capital equipment to some new unnamed place or destiny. Said Irvine, The market for the ultrahigh density products built on the IBM line has not matured fast enough to continue such a capital-intensive at this time. IBM's response was not reported. IBM is rid of an old manufacturing line and has the real estate available again as the company rides high in Wall Street's estimation. Did IBM dump a loser on an unsuspecting small company? Didn't most of Irvine's money come from government contracts anyway? If so, did IBM and Irvine find a way to sell IBM's line to the public? Whatever happens, the Irvine stacked electronics cube is cutting Irvine's throat while the government keeps pouring money into the technology. Would the government ever cut its losses and dump Irvine? Less likely. Government tends to stick with its decisions to pursue a technology, adding more money when success doesn't show up on plan.

Moving right along, Irvine won another government contract, for an inertial system in the Navy's cookie-cutter SBIR program. (Every contract gets $600K plus a possible option for $150K.) Bureaucrats like uniformity, fewer decisions to be criticized for. In a typical scenario, Irvine applauded the size of the MEMS market that the gizmo is related to, as if a government contract for a military version thereby conferred a commercial advantage. Probably not unless something drastic happens to the cost. No one in government, especially the Navy, will poo-poo Irvine's story (nor force Irvine to prove it by matching private investment in such a wonderful opportunity).

Irvine Red Ink (Apr 30) Another loss for Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA). This quarter - $2.7M. Someday, the DOD wonderful new technology will either have to make lot of money, or Irvine and DOD will have to admit that it is merely an R&D arm of DOD. Return to Index

Credit Card Camera (Apr 7) The Navy will get a credit-card-size camera if the development at Irvine Sensors works out. Irvine says the camera will integrate a number of its proprietary technologies (stacked memory and IR transceiver) to cram 40 MB of solid state data storage into a cubic inch. In a typical statement of SBIR hope, Irvine said "While this goal is being driven by the needs of government customers, we believe an ultra-compact digital camera could also have applications in commercial markets such as law enforcement, security and traffic monitoring". Now where have I heard that before? And how long ago from Irvine? Oh, never mind; the government likes Irvine's technology and will spend as much SBIR on it as can be maneuvered. John Carson, VP for imagination, will keep the government guys smiling at the innovations. Even BMDO still falls for the rosy scenario line.

Not even the raft of short coverers lifted the stock price. Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) should have gotten some price lift from its short position declining 30% in the last month. To do so, someone had to buy a net of two whole days (170,000 shares) of average daily trading volume.

Enriching the Silicon Neuron (Mar 6) Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) had an expensive dream - a 3-D chip that could recognize a face. The government, SDIO become BMDO, financed the dream over a few years for many chip stacking ideas, including $5.2M for a 3D Artificial Neural Network. Now BMDO is adding another $1.5M to keep the dream alive. [Classic question for government funded R&D: does Irvine have an incentive for the project to finally succeed?] Although only Irvine knows for sure how much the government has "invested" in its stacking technology, DOD SBIR is already in for over $10M. Whatever BMDO thinks it will get if and when the face is recognized - a core function of human individuality - the NASDAQ traders aren't convinced that Irvine's profits will flow any time soon as the stock languishes around a tenth of what it was not long ago even in the high-tech froth of the 1995-1997 market. Something doesn't seem to compute. Government technocrats usually rationalize the gap as the market's ignorance of a good thing.

Some New Orders (Feb 28) Two SBIR users got new orders. Irvine Sensors $3.2 M from Lockheed-Martin-Marietta-Whoever for a solid state data recorder program, and SI Diamond Technology (Austin, TX) $0.7M for something. SI Diamnond now bills itself as a holding company. Both firms' stocks are languishing around $1 on NASDAQ.

Profit (Loss) (Feb 13) Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) (lost another $1.5M) for the quarter. Conductus (Sunnyvale, CA) (also lost $1M). SBIR to the rescue??

From Consultant to CEO
(Feb 5) Irvine Sensors Corp (Costa Mesa, CA) hired itself a consultant to be CEO, having parted company with the previous CEO. James Evert will try to wrench Irvine out of SBIR/government-land and into profit-land before the stockholders get fed up with the 90% gyrations in stock price.

The Add-In Custom Trough.
Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa. CA) will absorb another SBIR to develop image enhancement processor, an add-in board for an AF lab's equipment with a custom version of Irvine's 3-D NN real-time processor. [Photonics Spectra, Dec 96] What's the trouble? An SBIR-junkie making one-of-a-kind equipment for an AF lab with SBIR. A great deal for Irvine and the AF lab: AF gets the equipment, Irvine stays afloat while its stock price plummets, AF mainline R&D doesn't have to use its budget to buy equipment. Who loses? The innovative SBs who won't be getting AF lab investment in future marketable products. Note also that such an award mocks the SBA's FAQ assertion that patented technology is ineligible for SBIR.

More Irvine Loss.
Lost $11.5M on revenues of $12M for its fiscal year, did Irvine Sensors Corp (Costa Mesa, CA). And where would Irvine be today without the $11M of SBIR over a decade (which put it in 24th place for lifetime SBIR a year ago)? The market scowls at trend s it beat the price below $1. The DOD, though, likes the technology enough to keep pouring in SBIR and ignoring the market. After all, it would cost the DOD little for Irvine to fail because DOD is not an investor in companies; it is an investor in technology for its own purposes, and it owns all the Irvine technology that SBIR developed. Actually such a monolithic DOD does not even exist. DOD's sub-divided SBIR has no mechanism for seeing Irvine as a company or as an investment.

Irvine Breaks the Buck
On a day when the blue chips stocks soared 2%, Irvine Sensors Corp (Costa Mesa, CA) slipped below a buck a share. About the same time Photonics Spectra reports another SBIR award to Irvine. Connected? Too much of a good thing?

Down Punters Quit the Irvine Game.
The shorts quit the game. Short interest in Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) dropped 74% to one day's volume. (Shorts borrow stock to sell it and bet on buying it back later at a lower price; sell first, buy later.) The stock has taken a beating this year from nine-ish down to 1.6. The average NASDAQ short interest ration is 2.5 and small stocks 1.1, which brings Irvine back to average. The other SBIR company SI Diamond Technology that plunged this year has a ratio near 4.

Loss and Return
The quarter's revenues were double as prices and profits went south for Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA). Why? "declining margins and government procurement delays" (a convenient scapegoat who won't sue). And back to the operating helm came chairman Jim Alexiou who says he will "restructure our operations to stem our losses while exploitingthe near-term opportunities available to us from our technologies". About as definitive as Bob Dole's exposition of tax-cut arithmetic - trust me. Unfortunately for Irvine, the red ink river extends back as far as the eye can see.

Irvine Sensors Under Two
The NASDAQ price for Irvine Sensors (Costa Mesa, CA) dropped below $2 after all that SBIR money and a deal with IBM. A long way from the occasional double digits. Now it's down in the low country with SI Diamond Technology (Austin, TX) for perhaps the same reason: eating capital in a long string of losses.

Irvine Sensors Posts Big Loss Irvine Sensors Corp (Costa Mesa, CA), a big user of SDIO/BMDO SBIR, posted another substantial loss for the quarter - $3.1M lost on sales of $1.9M - which makes a loss of $6M for the half. While BMDO is probably neither surprised nor shocked (nor even interested) by the loss because BMDO wants the new technology, the investors will only stand so much getting ready before demanding a reckoning and a fix. BMDO would not, though. enjoy the company's collapse that would take the highly advanced 3-D chip technology down with it. Only in textbooks can the technology be just transferred to another lab or company. Too much of the technology is embedded in wetware.

$7M for Irvine Sensors Irvine Sensors Corp (Costa Mesa, CA) garnered $7M recently in new business: $6.3M from Lockheed-Martin-Loral-(whatever) and another Phase 2 SBIR award for its chip stacking. The SBIR is from DARPA (this year's name) to stack chips from British company, Aspex Microsystems sponsored in part by BMDO's Innovative Science and Technology parallel computing money. While it's all perfectly green money, it is more government work out of which ISC would like to graduate someday (or so it claims within the hearing of government SBIR managers). It does have a commercial subsidiary, NOVALOG which markets an IR transceiver module (says its July 2 PR).

Isis Pharmaceuticals

OncoGenex Pharmaceuticals (Bothell, WA; no SBIR) has clinched $60 million in upfront payments from Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical for the right to co-develop an experimental prostate cancer drug, as Luke reported. ... But OncoGenex�s stock took a dive as investors saw how much of the future royalties will end up going to Isis Pharmaceuticals. [Gregory Huang, xconomy Seattle Times, Dec 22, 09]

Alnylam Pharma and Isis Pharma said they have formed a new collaboration focused on the development of single-stranded RNAi (ssRNAi) technology. [Chris Reidy, Boston Globe, Apr 29, 09]

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals said it was one of two firms that invested a collective total of $20 million in Regulus Therapeutics (no SBIR) ... In 2007, Alnylam and Isis Pharmaceuticals established Regulus to "focus on the discovery, development, and commercialization of microRNA-based therapeutics," the two companies said in a press release. [Boston Globe, Mar 5, 09].

Isis down 10% [Jan 20, 09]

Isis Pharmaceuticals said it will sell its subsidiary Ibis Biosciences, which developed germ detection technology, for $175 million to molecular diagnostics maker giant Abbott Labs. [San Diego Union Tribune, Dec 18]

Isis Pharma up 10% [Dec 16, 08]

Isis Pharma down 10% [Dec 1, 08] On a stock bloodbath day

Isis Pharma down 10% [Nov 12, 08]

Isis Pharmaceuticals' third-quarter net income fell 84% on a revenue decline caused by year-earlier royalty payments. But the Carlsbad, Calif., drug-therapies developer closed up 4.8% as its third-quarter profit still topped Wall Street expectations. [Wall Street Journal, Nov 11]

Isis up 12% [Oct 13, 08]

Isis Pharm up 10% [Aug 8, 08]

Isis Pharmaceuticals up 10% [Apr 1, 08]

Isis Pharmaceuticals up another 11% [Jan 9, 08]

Isis Pharmaceuticals (Carlsbad, CA; $5M SBIR) climbed 27%, after large-cap Genzyme said it would spend $325M upfront in a licensing and investment pact with the drug developer for the rights to a cholesterol-lowering drug that could be on the market within two years. [Wall Street Journal, Jan 9]

Island Data (San Diego, CA)

Island Data (no SBIR) is one of several companies in San Diego using sophisticated algorithms to analyze data to make better business decisions � a field known as analytics. The San Diego Software Industry Council says a cluster of analytics software companies is emerging locally. [Mike Freeman, San Diego Union Tribune, Nov 9]

IsoRay

IsoRay, a maker of radioactive "seeds" that are inserted into tumors to treat cancer, has raised $16.5 million in equity sales to institutional investors this week. ... IsoRay has raised $40 million in four rounds of financing in three years, [CEO] Girard said. [Amy Martinez, Seattle Times, Mar 24]

Isothermal Systems (KY and WA)

Efficient Ears. On average, companies generated roughly $28 in earmark revenue for every dollar they spent lobbying. By any standard, that's a hefty ratio: The companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index brought in just $17.52 in revenues for every dollar of capital expenditure in 2006. ... Says Keith Ashdown, chief investigator for the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense: "The lion's share of these projects is about politics and jobs, rather than real needs." [Business Week, Sep 17] The earmark efficiency champ is an SBIR company, Scientific Research (Atlanta GA and others; about $15M SBIR), that got $344 in earmarked funds per dollar of political "investment".Other SBIR investors: Isothermal Systems (KY and WA; $2M SBIR) at $221 per lobbying dollar; Prologic (Fairmont WV; $2M SBIR) at $133 per dollar; Trex Enterprises (San Diego CA; $7M SBIR) at $116 per dollar. From an efficiency viewpoint, politicians make a good investment. You just have to learn how to kiss frogs.

Itaconix (Hampton Falls, NH)

Itaconix (Hampton Falls, NH, no SBIR) received $2 million to produce polyitaconic acid from Northeast hardwoods. The acid is a polymer that could be used to replace oil-based dispersants, detergents and super-absorbents. ... a $24 million joint USDA/DOE program to advance research in bio-based energy products. USDA funding comes through its National Institute of Food and Agriculture and requires a 20 percent funding match. [Mass High Tech, Nov 20, 09]

I-Therapeutix (Waltham, MA)

Hydrogel-based therapeutics company I-Therapeutix (Waltham, MA; no SBIR, founded 2006). reports it has raised $15 million in as Series C round of financing. [Mass High Tech, Jun 22, 09]

iWalk (Cambridge, MA)

iWalk (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) received $20 million of a $21 million Series B round to fund development of a self-contained robotic prosthetic ankle, the company has confirmed. [Mass High Tech, Aug 31, 09]

Javelin Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA)

Myriad Pharmaceuticals agreed to buy Javelin Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) in an all-stock deal worth about $96 million to acquire a postoperative pain drug, Dyloject. [Reuters, Dec 18, 09]

Javelin Pharmaceuticals (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) said that it has gotten approval to market its pain medication Dyloject in Scotland. [Boston Globe, Mar 11, 08]

Joule Biotechnologies (Cambridge, MA)

Joule Biotechnologies (Boston, MA; no SBIR)'s secret ingredient - a designer organism - looks like green Jell-O before it�s refrigerated. The stuff is kept behind several locked doors in an unmarked brick building on Rogers Street, where Joule researchers are still tinkering with how the organism, which no one here will name, consumes sunlight and carbon dioxide, then sweats ethanol. The 2-year-old company, which just made public news of its possibly revolutionary process, said that one day soon, its SolarFuel could be used to power vehicles. But until then, Joule officials said they intend to keep quiet about just what goes into their product. [Boston Globe, Aug 24, 09]

[startup] Joule Biotechnologies (Cambridge, MA; no SBIR) revealed details of a process that it says can make 20,000 gallons of biofuel per acre per year. ... grows genetically engineered microorganisms in specially designed photobioreactors. The microorganisms use energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide and water into ethanol or hydrocarbon fuels (such as diesel or components of gasoline). The organisms excrete the fuel, which can then be collected using conventional chemical-separation technologies. .... the company claims that the process will be competitive with crude oil at $50 a barrel. [Kevin Bullis, MIT Tech Review, Jul 27] At least the price of the sunlight would be correctly estimated.

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