Christmas special: update on news snippets from Silicon Fenners released in festive season
Welcome back. Here are the news snippets you may have missed over the festive season. Unlike politicians, who often release bad news when people are sure to be occupied doing other things, these items are generaly good news.
Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, part of Cambridge Enterprise Ltd, said Genapta Ltd, a University of Cambridge spin out with a technology portfolio specialising in optical platforms for biochemical screening, has been sold to a North American instrumentation company for an undisclosed sum.
Co-founder of Genapta Dr Julian White (pictured) said: “In recent years we have worked with customers and partners to commercialise our patented technology, but on the whole it is a challenging task for a small enterprise to protect, develop, manufacture and support a new application and market. Using the resources of our new parent company, all these issues will now be addressed”.
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Meldex International plc, the specialty pharma and healthcare company, announced new product launches for its Dexo Italy operation, which are expected to contribute revenues over €12m in the next three years
It is launching seven new products in Q1 2008, which will bolster its existing product portfolio of prescription products licensed from GSK and Pfizer. Three of the products have been licensed from AD Pharma, including: Atox, a treatment for steatosis and as a liver detoxicant; Antisterol, a treatment for cholesterol and triglyceride blood level; and Floract, which provides a rebalance of the intestinal flora. The products do not require regulatory registration. These new in-licensed products will also be made available in other markets where the Group operates.
Additionally, Dexo will launch four products currently marketed in France:- Hypozalix, an artificial saliva; Ronflux, to help reduce snoring; Calme, an extract of Griffonia Simplicifolia to help promote balanced serotonin levels; and Gel Circulatoire, a topical gel to help soothe muscle cramps and rheumatic pains in the legs.
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Autonomy Corporation plc, specialists in infrastructure software for the enterprise, said a major global bank – believed to be Lloyds TSB - has placed a multi-million dollar order in the area of compliance and regulatory solutions. The agreement, with an expected value of around $70m as it is rolled out over the next few years, will enable the bank to deploy Autonomy's industry-leading archiving solution throughout its operations around the world.
The Cambridge-HQed group also said it has entered into a license agreement with Bayer to license Autonomy's Intelligent Data Operating Layer software.
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NextGen Sciences, a subsidiary of NextGen Group plc, a provider of gene-to-protein products and services, announced a commercial allance with Paragon Bioservices Inc of Baltimore, a provider of contract research and manufacturing services in support of developing biologics. The Alliance expands the portfolio of both companies with the ability to offer existing and future customers an integrated offering including molecular biology, protein production, proteomics, functional assay development, biomarker discovery and monitoring.
The company said the alliance extends NextGen Sciences' commitment to expand their fee for service offering in strategic partnerships in addition to adding new capabilities in house such as the protein biomarker monitoring services which was announced in November 2007. NextGen Sciences and Paragon Bioservices have agreed to co-market each others fee for service offerings to the market which now allows client companies to choose a one stop shop for their entire gene to protein needs.
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Reciva Ltd and Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) announced their joint platform for Internet radio receivers and networked devices. Combining Reciva's expertise in Internet radio software with Marvell's silicon, this solution integrates Wi-Fi and LAN connectivity, all popular audio decoders, a comprehensive list of thousands of live radio broadcasts and podcasts from across the world, and a wide range of value-added and premium content, all in a single circuit board smaller than a business card.
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CSR said its RadioPro example design has been selected by Intempo Digital for its Daisy internet radio. Intempo's internet radio offers access to thousands of internet and FM radio stations, providing wireless streaming of internet radio via Wi-Fi without the need for a PC. CSR cooperated with DAB radio specialist Radioscape who provided Intempo with the FM functions for the Daisy. The Intempo internet radio will be in production by April 2008 with a price tag of £149.
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Light Blue Optics, developer of holographic laser projection technology, opened US Operations with an Engineering and Business Development facility in Colorado Springs, CO. The news follows LBO’s closure of a $26m Series A funding round in October 2007 and will boost the Company’s product development and commercialisation program to bring its miniature projection systems to high-volume markets.
Dr. David Bolt recently joined LBO as the VP of Engineering, responsible for all product engineering activities within LBO, and is based in the Colorado Springs development facility. Having previously worked for Philips Electronics and Plasmon, Dave brings with him 20 years of experience in working with global partners and managing large, multi-disciplinary teams of engineers to deliver world-class electro-optic products into volume production. Dave added, “I am very excited to be joining LBO to lead the product development activities of the Group.
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Cambridge Biostability, the developer of temperature-stable vaccines, has appointed Luca Guerzoni as chief executive, replacing Dr David Stone who will remain on the board as a non-executive director. Mr Guerzoni was managing director for Chiron Vaccines in Italy and had previously held roles at Merck Sharp & Dohme and Sanofi Pasteur MSD.
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Cybit Holdings plc, the Telematics service provider, said it has signed a £0.5m a year contract with one of the world's major suppliers of heavy Land Seismic Exploration equipment. Cybit will supply VHF radio based tracking and precise positioning equipment to this customer over a contracted seven year period. The Cybit Tracs - TDMA product will provide an intelligent VHF radio network which is fully integrated with GPS positioning, to provide tight tracking and precise positioning control across land seismic spreads.
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CMR Fuel Cells plc, the compact fuel cell stack specialist, said that Gordon Crawford, Non-Executive Chairman, will step down from the board on 31 March after three months hand-over. Tim Curtis, currently a Non-Executive Director, will become Non-Executive Chairman. Mr. Curtis's has been Chairman of IBS OPENSystems plc since it's IPO on AIM in March 2005 and between 1992 and 2004 was CEO of main market listed Telemetrix plc, a designer and manufacturer of power efficient analogue semiconductors.
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Xaar plc, the inkjet printing technology group said in a trading update that revenue for the year ro end December 2007 is expected to be approximately £47.9m, an increase of 13% over the prior year. Growth in the company's existing Platform 1 products was solid whilst interest in the latest Platform 3 product, the Xaar1001, continues to grow. Profit before tax for the year was approximately £7.3m (2006: £6.9m) which was in line with the IFRS compliant market consensus figure. Profit for the year is stated after charging amortisation of capitalised R&D of £1.0m (2006: £0.5m), the cost of share options of £0.9m ( 2006: £0.7m) and the fixed cost of the new Huntingdon manufacturing facility which was within expectations at £2.5m.
13th January 2008
