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Incubator lures biotech upstart: Fish vaccine biz hoping to land on canal

Hatching new businesses is getting to be routine for Indiana University. So it was easy for Richard Wagner to contemplate moving his biotech startup from Columbus, Ohio, into IU’s 2-year-old business incubator on the Central Canal. “It’s an excellent facility. Every time I go up, I’m more and more impressed with it,” Wagner said. “They put a lot of thought into designing it to meet the needs of life science and biotechnology research.” Wagner, who holds a doctorate in plant…

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INVESTING: As bull market winds down, time remains for bargains

There wasn’t enough space last week to complete the discussion of the long-base theme. These are stocks that have been trading in tight ranges for many years and can offer tremendous returns to investors. Last week, I brought up Honda and Franklin Resources. Here are a few more that have been moving sideways for years: Energy company Smith International Inc. traded as high as $44 a share at the end of 1997, then pulled into a tight sixyear trading range….

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Little jets get the test in Indiana: New aircraft could help small airports shave costs

A top Indiana economist will study whether an emerging class of aircraft known as “very light jets” could fuel an economic boom, especially in the state’s smaller, more isolated communities. Morton J. Marcus, director emeritus of the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University, will gauge the potential impact of VLJs in six communities, including Mount Comfort Airport in Hancock County. Several aircraft makers next year plan to launch the diminutive jets, which can whisk up to six people as…

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Appnuity LLC: IT firm targets small businesses, not-for-profits Web-hosted services one of the company’s fastest-growing areas

Appnuity founders David Eckel and Mark Castelli started their information technology business in 1999 specifically to serve this client base. They provide a wide array of personal-computer network solutions, Web site application development, Web-hosted services and structured cabling, which is determining the type of cabling needed to support current and future technology needs. The partners’ skills complement each other. Eckel, 33, who is president and CEO, has experience as a network technician and sales consultant. Castelli, 34, is Appnuity’s vice…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY Don Altemeyer: Let’s rebuild Indiana’s rep as construction powerhouse A well-paying career More research A lesson from hoops

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY Don Altemeyer Let’s rebuild Indiana’s rep as construction powerhouse A well-paying career More research A lesson from hoops We could wear out our hands clapping like Gene Hackman’s Hoosiers, and it’s not going to change the fact that basketball in Indiana this year has been nothing short of unremarkable. Despite the state’s long-standing reputation as a basketball powerhouse, it’s the other teams playing in our arenas that are making history. There’s a similar story taking place,…

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Million dollar baby: Hospital reaps benefits of caring for high-profile boy A public relations jackpot

The Afghan boy may have arrived last month at Riley Hospital for Children with heart trouble and a need for complicated surgery. But behind those soft, brown eyes and that adorable smile lies a 12-cylinder marketing engine. A sample of the 15-month-old’s power: Qudrat’s often-reported story created at least $1 million in free media for Riley, according to hospital officials. That’s 10 times the amount Riley spends on print or broadcast advertising in a year. He could be responsible for…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: There are reasons for rising school construction costs More technology More sports

Public school officials around the state have received sharp criticism in recent years for authorizing construction that critics decry as ostentatious and excessively expensive. Chief among the targets, but not exclusively, are athletic facilities that are often perceived as superior to all but the largest of our NCAA Division I colleges and universities. Without taking sides in the fray, I would simply remind everyone that K-12 education is basically a community function driven by local decisions. The bulk of the…

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INVESTING: Somnambulant stocks a good buy for patient investors

The longer the base, the higher in space. For any technical analysis geeks out there (like me), this phrase brings visions of money raining from the skies. Stocks that have moved sideways for years or have been stuck in trading ranges can, under the right conditions, unlock massive wealth. The trick is to find these gems. Extremely long-term trading ranges exist because investors typically forget about the stock. The owners are frustrated but don’t want to sell, so they figuratively…

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Struggling IndyGo pays big for technology expertise: At $94 an hour, IT director raises some eyebrows

Financially struggling IndyGo is paying a handsome sum to its information technology director, hired to help turn around a city bus system that began 2004 with a $4 million budget deficit. Dale Meyers would earn about $188,000 if he worked 40 hours a week, based on a $94-an-hour employment agreement inked last July. Meyers’ pay would dwarf the $120,000 annual salary of Indy-Go CEO Gilbert Holmes. It’s also salty compared to others’ in his field. The median pay for an…

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Purdue ousts biz guru: Director fired amid shakeup of high-profile tech incubator

The billboards read “Go Businessmakers,” but the yellow flag is up. Purdue University is reorganizing its primary program to assist high-tech startups and has fired the director. Part of Purdue’s nationally recognized effort to transform raw university research into viable businesses, the Gateways Program had been managed since October 1998 by Sam Florance, a former investment banker and management consultant. Purdue closed Gateways and eliminated Florance’s position on March 14, IBJ has learned. On March 18, Joseph B. Hornett, senior…

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TAWN PARENT Commentary: The importance of being different

Well, there’s a conversation-starter you don’t hear every day, I thought. It was inane even for the preschool crowd, which is known for the inanity of their questions. “Um, I think it’s a Kenmore,” I replied. “Oh,” he said. “Ours is an Oreck XL Classic commercial-grade vacuum with a bristled-edge cleaning system, long-lasting drive belts, an easy-load bag dock, metaxalloy motor fan, pile-lifting roller brush and non-marring bumper,” or something to that effect. That’s when I realized Henry was no…

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Supreme Court drug case could restrict development: Lilly, other firms want research exemption confirmed

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments April 20 in a case that Eli Lilly and Co. and other pharmaceutical corporations say could restrict the development of new drugs. The dispute stems from a June 2003 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. The panel affirmed a district court’s finding that Merck KGaA in Germany infringed upon four of New Jersey-based Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corp.’s licensed patents. At issue is whether pharmaceutical companies…

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INVESTING: Tumbling indexes should not be cause for panic-yet

The market’s been taking a bit of a beating lately. On March 4, the Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index closed at 3-1/2-year highs. Apparently that was enough to bring out sellers, because the major averages suffered pullbacks of 2 percent to 3 percent the next week. Each time the market falls, I get the feeling there are more than a few people ready and willing to call the start of the next bear market….

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GIZMOS: Videoconferencing is envisioning change

I’m used to technology, but sometimes it creeps me out. A while back, I was in a small conference room that had one of the newest small videoconferencing units crouched atop a massive monitor. I picked up the remote from the table to move it out of my way, and abruptly the unit came to life, swiveling about to stare at me. The monitor, until then comfortingly black, now had my picture on it. It was a flashback moment to…

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File-sharing issue hits crescendo: Supreme Court set to hear sides in heated copyright-law debate

By 1984, when the U.S. Supreme Court thwarted an attempt to prohibit consumers of Sony Betamax from recording television programs, music lovers already were accomplished at taping their favorite bands. A blank Maxell cassette, a tape deck, a turntable and a copy of, say, your buddy’s new R.E.M. “Reckoning” album provided the essential tools to copy the tunes without actually spending $7.99 on the record. Fast-forward two decades and the debate over whether technological advances have made it too easy…

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GERALD BEPKO Commentary: Chicago World’s Fair is model for Indiana

Cities seem to progress in stages with moments of decline, growth, exceptional energy, and, at times, a sense of destiny. For many years, Indianapolis has been a city on the move, a little like Chicago in 1893 when it hosted a World’s Fair. Chicago sought to shed its frontiertown image and establish itself as a city of global consequence. It beat out New York, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., for the right to host the fair. In hosting it, Chicago…

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Unifying Indiana’s IT efforts: State’s new CTO plans to centralize computing

Indiana’s state Web portal, access-Indiana, won at least a dozen awards over the last four years. It was frequently lauded as a model of modern government efficiency-robust, reliable and user-friendly. But, according to new Indiana Chief Technology Officer Karl Browning, the reality was only skin deep. Certainly, accessIndiana is the handsome public face of state information technology. But beneath the surface, there’s a tangled mess of unconnected systems, each managed independently by a separate agency. Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican,…

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Library project set to resume: Firms play blame game over bungled work

Steel erection for the troubled Central Library expansion is finally expected to begin next month, library officials say. But they acknowledge the start of construction on the six-story addition won’t signal they’ve finished fixing defects on the underground garage or resolved who’s to blame for them. While officials say they’re confident it’s safe to build atop the garage that will serve as the foundation for the addition, they say it will continue to undergo repairs for another year or so….

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RETURN ON TECHNOLOGY: How to enjoy wi-fi ‘hot spots’ on the road

I recently stayed at a charming hotel in California that dates back more than a century. At least, it was charming to me. It’s been retrofitted many times over the years as it’s struggled to stay no more than 30 years behind the times. It has two elevators, only one of which is completely automatic. The other still has its manual operations lever, and is apparently used only for freight. Most of the room doors still have the old key…

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GIZMOS: High-tech watch keeps information at your fingertips

The idea of a portable device to indicate the time of day is nothing new in the world of technology. Watches of various forms have been around for years. However, it’s only been in the last 30 years or so that modern technology has changed the face-literally-of telling time. Since the days of the original Pulsar LED digital watches (think red calculator digits) in the early 1970s, watch manufacturers have tried to appeal to technology’s early adopters by adding functionality…

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