ANN ARBOR - Sakti3 Inc., a developer of lithium-ion batteries, said it received a $4.2 million investment by General Motors Ventures LLC and Itochu Technology Ventures to speed commercialization of its battery cells. The two new strategic investors join previous investors Khosla Ventures of Menlo Park, Calif. and Farmington Hills-based Beringea, Michigan?s largest venture capital
KANSAS CITY - In any given year in the U.S. economy, new and young companies make up the largest bloc of companies by age category, meaning their considerable job creation record is partly structural, according to a study from Kauffman Foundation. The study, Neutralism and Entrepreneurship: The Structural Dynamics of Startups, Young Firms and Job
DETROIT ? Leslie Smith has been on the job less than two months ? she is the new general manager at Wayne State University's TechTown ? but she already understands the magnitude of the task facing her at one of the world's largest business incubators. "Understanding all the moving pieces here," she answered when asked
KALAMAZOO - Change is constant is a common theme for Jeffrey Brittan, the President and CEO of StructureTec. Recognized as a Gazelle Company by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation in 2000 and one of the Michigan 50 Companies to Watch in 2009, StructureTec is continually changing. "You can't be satisfied," Brittan said. "You have to
GRAND RAPIDS - Entrepreneurship can be a tough journey, but it is never one that has to be taken alone. Small business owners Tammy Kinzel and Carol Renis will tell anyone that running a small business requires collaboration and teamwork to achieve success. After working together for a number of years, Kinzel and Renis decided
GRAND RAPIDS - The Academy of Professional Small Business Consultants is a certification program of business skills for individuals including bankers, accountants, economic developers, and other groups that assist small business owners and entrepreneurs. The Academy offers the participants a basic understanding of the problems facing small business entrepreneurs. The purpose of the two week
DETROIT - Jonathan Browning, Volkswagen Group's international sales coordinator, has been promoted to chief executive of Volkswagen of America, the company announced on Monday at a news conference in Washington. Browning, 51, joined Volkswagen in June and was in charge of improving interaction between the sales arms of the group's 10 brands. He previously held
PITTSBURGH - The US-CERT warned Friday of a new mass-mailing worm that contains a link to what looks like a PDF file but instead is a malicious screensaver file that will interfere with security software on Windows-based computers and spread the message to everyone in the e-mail address book. Subject lines of the variants include
SAN FRANCSICO - A new clickjacking scam was spreading on Facebook luring victims with a purported video of "cheerleaders gone wild," a security expert warned on Thursday before Facebook shut the attack down. Victims' accounts were posting messages that said "cheerleaders gone wild - have to see this" with a photo of, you guessed it,
SAN FRANCISCO - Cybercriminals are cranking out fake Web sites branded as eBay, banks, and other financial companies to the tune of tens of thousands every week, according to new research. During a three-month study of its global malware database, Panda Security found on average 57,000 new Web sites created each week with the aim