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Almanac
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Business New Haven
3/20/2000
By: BNH
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Zygo's Nantucket Sleighride
MIDDLEFIELD - Stock of the Middlefield-based Zygo Corp. took a wild ride March 8 on news that the company would acquire Firefly Technologies of Holliston, Mass. in a stock transaction valued at about $100 million. On that day shares of Zygo (NASDAQ: ZIGO) leapt from 11 9/16 to 64 7/16 on volume of 1.5 million shares. The company makes measurement and yield-improvement instruments used in high-tech industries. Firefly makes process-measurement equipment for the telecommunications and optical data-storage markets. The acquisition, expected to close in the second quarter, marks Zygo's entry into the high-demand optical fiber telecommunications market.
BRBC Charts To-Do List
BRIDGEPORT - Transportation, open space and Bridgeport economic-development projects top the Bridgeport Regional Business Council's 2000 legislative agenda. On transportation, the BRBC wants quick implementation of recommendations by the Southwest Corridor Transportation Study for easing traffic congestion, as well as making airports and seaports integral parts of state transportation strategy. The business group urges the creation of a broader package of state tax incentives to spur development in “distressed” municipalities such as the Park City. With regard to open space, the BRBC calls for a “policy that recognizes the continuing need for land preservation, discourages sprawl and is based on acceptance of reasonable development growth.”
And That's an Order
OXFORD - Innovative Systems Inc., an Oxford-based software-development company, has launched a new Web-enabled order entry product for business-to-business applications. The company installed its e-commerce product, called E-Ordermix, in a Connecticut fulfillment company for the Bell Atlantic Mobile group. The product allows a company to put an electronic catalogue or current merchandise on the Internet for customers to order over the Web. E-Ordermix allows the user to handle a higher volume of product and literature orders without increasing labor costs, the company says.
Micro Management
MILFORD - Subway co-founder and president Fred DeLuca has founded something else: the Micro Enterprise Hall of Fame, a Web site established to recognize outstanding entrepreneurs who really started from the ground up. To become eligible, business owners must have begun their enterprises with $10,000 or less, and now employ at least ten full-time workers or have annual sales in excess of $1 million. In 1997 DeLuca started the Micro Investment Lending Enterprise (MILE, www.mileloans.org), a not-for-profit that helps people without access to traditional means of credit to start their own businesses. MILE provides small, low-interest loans to borrowers, as well as a structured peer-support system that includes local mentors. Now the Micro Enterprise Hall of Fame is looking for a few good stories. The group can be contacted at www.microenterprisehallfame.org.
Genaissance Closes $60 Million Private Placement
NEW HAVEN - Genaissance Pharmaceuticals, a New Haven-based population genomics and informatics company, announced March 14 completion of a $60 million private equity financing to integrate gene variation information into the drug-development process. Participating investors in the financing - which the company calls one of the largest such deals in the history of genomics - include Canaan Partners, A & A Actien Bank, Alta Partners, Chase Capital Partners, Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., Lombard Odier & Cie and Sofinov as well as existing investors Biomedicine, Dresdner Kleinwort Benson and Connecticut Innovations Inc. The financing consisted of a $48 million Series B round and a $12 million Series C round, completed in February and March. Said Seth Rudnick, M.D. of Canaan Partners, “The Genaissance approach will help to solve a critical problem facing pharmaceutical companies: namely, how to integrate gene variation information into the drug development paradigm.”
Ravens on the Web
The New Haven Ravens have a new and improved Web site that allows fans to pre-order ballpark concessions online, listen to radio broadcasts of Ravens games over the Web, buy tickets online, participate in team promotions and contests and even bank online. The AA Eastern League affiliate of the Seattle Mariners upgraded the site, www.ravens.com, and team officials assert the site is one of the most groundbreaking in professional sports.
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