DETROIT ? Wayne State University's TechTown has partnered with Microsoft to help startup companies create software using tools provided by Microsoft. The new program, called BizSpark, is free to qualifying companies in Michigan. Judy Johncox, Director of Venture Development Office at Wayne State, said TechTown was asked by Microsoft to interview and validate the companies
TROY - Strategic Staffing Solutions, a Detroit-based international Information Technology Services company, has completed the largest acquisition in its 18-year history, a move that extends the company to the West coast. Terms were not disclosed. S3 is acquiring the IT Services division of National Technical Systems, which includes locations in Los Angeles and San Francisco;
GRAND RAPIDS - Late last year when Dell announced its decision to create an integrated marketing and communications agency in a deal that was valued at $4.5 billion in agency billings (code named Project da Vinci), many focused on the $4.5 billion number and the 1000 new employees this agency would need. Others listened to
HOLLAND - Rutherford & Associates, which makes accounting and management software for food and beverage distributors, has hired Mason Koffman as national sales director. Koffman will be responsible for executing the national sales expansion plans and leadership of eoStar, Rutherford & Associates�?? flagship product. eoStar manages more than $1 billion in consumer packaged goods, predominately
WASHINGTON DC - Michigan's Congressional delegation, in a message mirrored by the delegation from Ohio, on Monday urged the Bush administration to use authority within the $700 billion financial rescue package to provide immediate help to the Detroit Three automakers. The potential crisis that could force the closure of more manufacturing sites also prompted mayors
LANSING - Michigan faces further economic calamity if it does not significantly boost spending on transportation, contends a report from the state's Transportation Funding Task Force, which listed a series of proposed tax changes and increases, along with improved government efficiencies, that it said would boost funding on the state's transport system. There was no
LANSING - The 18 Michigan Technical Education Centers operated by most of the state's community colleges have been effective in identifying and delivering occupational training for high-skilled, high-demand jobs, but the schools could do a better job using those programs and the state could improve its monitoring of those centers, an audit released Friday concludes.
LANSING - The survival of the Michigan-based domestic auto industry, hammered again with $2.6 billion in quarterly losses, is getting top attention by President-elect Barack Obama, who on Friday called the industry the "backbone" of American manufacturing. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who was part of a meeting in Chicago with Obama on the economy, said
ANN ARBOR ? Michigan's biotech trade association, MichBio, will present two sessions at its upcoming Expo specifically aimed at manufacturers that are looking to diversify into the medical device market. The MichBio Expo will be held Nov. 18-19 at the Rock Financial ShowPlace in Novi. Both manufacturing sessions are scheduled for November 19 and include
FLINT - Kettering will collaborate with Linkping University in Sweden to develop a Chemical Engineering degree that will give students the opportunity to develop bio-methane as a fuel through the Swedish Biogas project. The Swedish Biogas project will produce alternative energy from waste removed from the city of Flint�??s wastewater treatment plant. Flint has been