Ann Arbor

ProQuest acquires ebrary, LexisNexis lines, adds 100 jobs

By Newsroom

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January 12, 2011

Plenty of Ann Arbor's companies have been acquisition targets in recent months, but Proquest has been on the other end of the deals this year. The firm has been on an acquisition spree in recent years, including two more purchases in the last two months.Its acquisitions of e-book pioneer ebrary and the Congressional Information Service and University Publications of America product lines from LexisNexis have allowed it to notch double-digit growth in the last four years, after becoming a subsidiary of the Cambridge Information Group. ProQuest has grown its Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti staffs by 100 people, to reach a headcount of 585."Our growth has been extraordinary," says Elliot Forsyth, senior vice president of human resources for ProQuest. "We have grown in excess of 60 percent."ProQuest focuses on offering specialized information electronically, which it sells to researchers at every level, from grade school to commercial. The ebrary and LexisNexis-line acquisitions are expected to strengthen its product line for researchers."Our vision is to become central to researchers around the world," Forsyth says. "Our strength has been in journals, dissertations, and newspapers." Source: Elliot Forsyth, senior vice president of human resources for ProQuestWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Adaptive Materials acquired by UK-based Ultra Electronics

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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January 12, 2011

All new businesses strive to make the leap from start-up to second-stage company. However, the real challenge is moving from second-stage to established firm, a jump Adaptive Materials recently made and its founders have an opinion or two about.The Ann Arbor-based company made that leap last week when Ultra Electronics, a global firm traded on the London Stock Exchange, acquired it. Ultra Electronics' 4,020 employees will allow the newly blended company, Ultra-AMI, to sell its fuel cells world wide, a task it couldn't do with only 60 employees."For fuel cells to be successful they need to be deployed in several different markets simultaneously," says Aaron Crumm, who co-founded Adaptive Materials with his wife Michelle Crumm. So although growing a company to 60 people is a number to be proud of, it's not enough to reach their window of opportunity in the market organically. Since IPOs have been basically non-existent since the financial meltdown, acquisition was the only growth path for establishing Adaptive Materials as a significant business player in Metro Detroit.Nonetheless, acquisition has become a loaded term, often inspiring workers in Michigan to duck when they hear it. But the Crumms, now executives with Ultra Electronics, are convinced this acquisition will be more HealthMedia than HandyLab, staying local and growing their presence. Ultra-AMI has 11 open positions and plans to continue growing in Ann Arbor for the foreseeable future."We carefully choose our acquisition company to be the right-sized company," Aaron Crumm says. "They're big, but not too big. They operate globally with 24 business units. We're No. 25, but they're not too big that they can't have another business unit."He adds that acquired companies are likelier to stay put if their products are more innovative. If it's a start-up in a mature industry, then it makes more sense for the bigger company to eliminate the corporate staff to streamline the new combined operations. However, if it's in an emerging sector than it's not as easily assimilated into bigger operations. Those companies are often left to grow and continue to create jobs locally."That's ultimately the true measure of success locally, at least in my opinion," Aaron Crumm says.Source: Aaron Crumm, co-founder of Adaptive MaterialsWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Toyota partners with U-M, launches $50M safety research center in Ann Arbor

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Economic Development

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January 12, 2011

Toyota is spending $50 million to establish a new Collaborative Safety Research Center in Ann Arbor, partnering with several prominent hospitals and universities, including the University of Michigan.The new safety R&D center will be based in the Toyota Technical Center, where researchers from North America and Japan will work over the next five years. "The vast majority of the $50 million will go to our research partners," says Chuck Gulash, senior executive engineer with the Toyota Technical Center. "It will support their principal investigators, researchers, and post-docs."Toyota will work with U-M's Transportation Research Institute on a multidisciplinary project to assess the potential benefits of advanced safety systems in a systematic way, combining their expertise in driver behavior, crash data analysis, and driver modeling. The automaker is also working with Virginia Tech and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, among other institutions.Toyota employs 1,179 people between its two tech centers in the Ann Arbor area. Although this new investment won't require more hiring at those centers, the company has a number of engineering and research job openings at both centers. For more information on those, click here.Source: Chuck Gulash, senior executive engineer with the Toyota Technical CenterWriter: Jon Zemke Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Michigan Microloan Fund hits $2.5M in start-up financing

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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January 12, 2011

There isn't much that's small about the work performed by Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund in 2010. The start-up financing fund distributed $2.5 million worth of loans to dozens of companies in Michigan, many of which are in the Ann Arbor area.The $11.6 million fund has given microloans, about $50,000 each, to 52 start-ups, such as U-M spinoff and Accelerate Michigan winner Armune BioScience. These companies mostly use the cash to help commercialize their first products. These companies employ 285 people and have since attracted another $16.4 million in outside investment."These are the companies that aren't bankable in a traditional sense," says Skip Simms, interim CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK and administrator for the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund and the other funds in Michigan Microloan Fund. "There is still a milestone or two they need to achieve before they are investment worthy."Michigan's 21st Jobs Fund provided the money for the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. Ann Arbor SPARK ran the Michigan Microloan Fund, which is comprised of the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund and two other smaller funds focused on eastern Washtenaw County and Ann Arbor.The Michigan Microloan Fund was the first of its kind, proving quite popular with local entrepreneurs battling the investment cash crunch of the financial crisis. The fund inspired several smaller-yet-similar funds across Metro Detroit. These new funds are each worth a few hundred thousand dollars and focused on specific communities while the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund is worth millions of dollars and has the freedom to invest in any Michigan company.The state hasn't decided yet whether its going to invest more money into the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund. The first microloans from the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund aren't due to be paid back until 2012 so the fund is set to go on hiatus unless the state infuses it with more money. Source: Skip Simms, interim CEO of Ann Arbor SPARKWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Arbor Research Collaborative for Health moves into new HQ, expects 2011 hires

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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January 12, 2011

Fifteen years ago the Arbor Research Collaborative for Health was just getting its start with two people and a research grant for kidney dialysis. Today the non-profit employs 70 people in a number of research fields, and is hiring so steadily that it's moving into one of downtown Ann Arbor's premier office spaces.The Arbor Research Collaborative for Health is set to take over the third floor of the University of Michigan Credit Union's new headquarters, the old Ann Arbor News building at Huron and Division streets. That's 20,000 square feet for a non-profit that hired six people last year and expects to keep adding more staff in 2011."We are anticipating growing 5-15 percent a year," says Robert Merion, president of Arbor Research Collaborative for Health. "This move will facilitate five years' worth of growth."The non-profit now focuses on conducting research for all organ failures and transplants. It is also expanding into more medical-centric areas, most recently taking on some studies on health-care quality. "As we identify new opportunities for new research funding that will require us to add research staff," Merion adds.Source: Robert Merion, president of Arbor Research Collaborative for HealthWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Obama names Ann Arbor native Gene Sperling as director of National Economic Council

By Newsroom

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Community Development

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January 12, 2011

Ann Arbor natives are becoming a growing influence in the White House. Green Hills High School and University of Michigan grad Eugene Kang was named special assistant to President Obama. Ann Arbor resident and U-M professor Helen Levy was appointed to Obama's Council Of Economic Advisors, while A2 local and U-M prof Michael Barr was tapped to serve as the Department of the Treasury's Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions. Now Ann Arbor native Gene Sperling has been tapped by the president to head the National Economic Council.Excerpt:President Obama is said to be ready to name Gene Sperling the director of the National Economic Council. Mr. Sperling, 52, who held the same job under President Bill Clinton, will succeed Lawrence Summers.Here's a quick biography and reading list for those who want to get up to speed on Mr. Sperling:A native of Ann Arbor, Mich., he went to college at the University of Minnesota and law school at Yale. He worked for Mario Cuomo, then the governor of New York, in the early 1990s, before joining Mr. Clinton's presidential campaign. Mr. Sperling worked for the Clinton administration from start to finish — 1993 to 2001. He's particularly proud of the work he and colleagues did to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which has become a big part of federal anti-poverty policy.Read the rest of the story here.

ReCellular aims for $100M in sales, moves into former Borders HQ space

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Entrepreneurship

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January 12, 2011

Many growing companies talk about making the $1 million club; add a couple of zeroes and that's where ReCellular looks to make its mark. The cell phone recycler plans to become a $100 million operation and is taking its place as one of the Ann Arbor area's big business hitters, leasing space at the headquarters of the once mighty Borders."This space represent where we are today," says Mike Newman, vice president of marketing for ReCellular. "Ann Arbor is where we got our start and it's where we're staying. Being in the area is very important to us."ReCellular got its start in the early 1990s renting out then-costly cell phones. It entered the cell phone recycling business over the last decade as those phones became ubiquitous. It plans to keep its plant operation in Dexter while moving much of its corporate staff to the new space alongside Borders. The 300-person company expects to hire a few dozen people between both locations this year. Recellular recently closed out its "best year in company history" and expects to hit $100 million in revenue in 2011. The company has evolved its business model to take cell phones directly from consumers through its website and act as a direct reseller of refurbished cell phones. Its eBay operations generate $1 million or more each month. Officials are also looking into expansion into other electronic segments, such as netbooks."We're being strategic about the product categories we're entering," Newman says.Source: Mike Newman, vice president of marketing for ReCellularWriter: Jon ZemkeRead more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

Safe Routes to School program promotes walking and biking

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Community Development

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January 12, 2011

In this era of suburban sprawl and parents bypassing the bus to drive their progeny to school, a new wind is blowing. The desire for walkable communities with fitter populations is now being bred at a tender age via the federal Safe Routes to School program. Last December the Michigan Dept of Transportation announced that 10 Michigan schools will receive $1.4 million in federal Safe Routes to School funds, including a grant totaling $160,840 to Ann Arbor's Thurston Elementary School. The funds are to be used for capital and educational projects to facilitate walking and biking to school."It is both a federal program by which Thurston Elementary School and 70-plus other schools in Michigan have received funding, and it's a movement to challenge the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of students and families with regard to travel to and from school," explains Lee Kokinakis, senior director of Safe Routes to School. The Thurston Elementary School project will include, among other things, installing pedestrian refuge islands on Green Road; improving crosswalks and pedestrian accessibility on Green Road at its points of intersection with Gettysburg Road and Burbank Drive; and implementing pedestrian and bicycle safety programs at the school.Other schools, too, are laying their groundwork. As of December 20 last year, 496 Michigan schools – 26 of which were in Washtenaw County – had registered with the program, according to the Safe Routes to School team. Registration is not the same as submitting a funding application, Kokinakis emphasizes, but it is the initial step a school takes to indicate interest in planning for a safe route to school. "In cases where the distance is reasonable and where the routes are safe, walking and bicycling [to school] is a very viable alternative," Kokinakis says. "It has many benefits in that it's a very similar alternative to the general walkable community principle."Source: Lee Kokinakis, senior director of Safe Routes to SchoolWriter: Tanya Muzumdar

Bebarang’s Allen Kim is 2010 College Entrepreneur of the Year

By Newsroom

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Economic Development

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January 12, 2011

The hype behind Bebarang (formerly Bebaroo) is more than a baby bump now that one of the Ann Arbor-based startup's co-founders (Allen Kim) has been named Entrepreneur magazine's 2010 College Entrepreneur of the Year.Excerpt:College seniors skip class for plenty of unproductive reasons, but not Allen Kim. An industrial operations engineering major at the University of Michigan, he and Luis Calderon have been playing hooky to persuade investors to part with around $500,000 for Bebarang, their startup that Kim describes as a "Netflix for baby clothes." (In fact, we chatted with them on a drive back from some pitch meetings in Chicago.)Kim's "aha" moment: Last year, "my aunt, who had a baby, was complaining about how expensive baby clothes were. And I love Netflix. I thought there had to be a way to combine these two things."After some serious research, which included discussions with more than 100 moms, it really came down to the numbers."It's a $25 billion industry," Kim says. "The average kid outgrows baby clothes 16 times, which works out to be about $150 every two months on things that might be worn just a few times."Read the rest of the story here.

Accelerating Michigan’s Economy

By Jeff Meyers

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Economic Development

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January 12, 2011

Last month Ann Arbor hosted The Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition --an American Idol-style contest for start-ups. It was a joint effort between SE Michigan's top business accelerators. Concentrate chats with Dave Egner, the executive director of the New Economy Initiative, and new MEDC head Mike Finney about regional cooperation and rebuilding Michigan's economy.