Venture Capital News
IBM, Top Universities Continue Software Intellectual Property Reform
Repesentatives of IBM and seven leading U.S. universities announced Thursday new open software research projects under a program designed in conformance with the Open Collaboration Research Principles, a set of guidelines announced previously to help promote an open approach to overcome university-industry intellectual property challenges.
Under IBM's new Open Collaborative Research program, results developed between IBM Research and top university faculty and their students for specific projects will be made available as open source software code and all additional intellectual property developed based on those results will be openly published or made available royalty-free.
Universities participating in the program include Carnegie Mellon University, Columbia University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, Rutgers University, University of California at Berkeley, and the University of California at Davis. Initial projects will address software quality, privacy and security, mathematical optimization and clinical decision support.
The program will enable researchers at IBM to actively collaborate with faculty and students at top U.S. universities on a number of strategically defined software projects, specifically chosen for their immense societal importance, technical difficulty and need for a collaborative effort.
The research aims for major advancements in the development of defect-free software, new healthcare solutions for better decision making by doctors and nurses, new technology to protect a person's identity and secure a company's data from thieves, and advanced mathematics to optimize methods for how we live and work everyday.
More specifically, the topics and universities for the initial collaborations are:
- Software Quality (Rutgers University and University of California at Berkeley): The collaboration will develop program analysis techniques and tools for detecting and correcting software defects before they reach customers, focusing on industrial-size framework-based software systems that pose new challenges in their size and complexity.
- Privacy and Security Policy Management (Carnegie Mellon University and Purdue University): The team will address the difficult problems faced by organizations in creating and managing end-to-end privacy and security solutions covering all types of data and work to drive the adoption of the open standards needed to achieve this.
- Mathematical Optimization Software (Carnegie Mellon University and University of California at Davis): The collaboration is intended to significantly advance the size and scope of industrial problems that can be solved with mathematical optimization software.
- Clinical Decision Support (Columbia University and Georgia Institute of Technology): The collaboration will include computer scientists and clinicians working in a variety of settings to create easy to use tools and interfaces for clinical decision support, removing barriers to IT adoption in this area.
These research projects demonstrate continued benefit from the Open Collaboration Principles announced by the University & Industry Innovation Summit Team in December 2005. The principles complement other industry and university initiatives and accelerate collaborative research for open source software by providing guidelines for handling research results.
The IBM program is intended to accelerate the innovation and development of open software across a breadth of areas, thus enabling the development of related industry standards and greater interoperability, while managing intellectual property in a manner that enhances these goals.
University & Industry Innovation Summit Team participants:
Carnegie Mellon University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, The University of Texas at Austin, Cisco, HP, IBM, and Intel.
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Cisco Makes Strategic Investment in China Communications Services
Representatives of Cisco announced Wednesday that it has made a strategic investment of $50 million in China Communications Services Corporation Limited (CCS). Cisco is the largest foreign strategic investor in CCS.
CCS is the specialized telecommunications support businesses arm of a major telecommunications group in China. CCS has been reorganized and spun-off to form a separate independent entity, with China Telecom Group, China Mobile and China Unicom also as shareholders. CCS is now publicly traded on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with the ticker 0552.hk.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco and CCS will jointly provide managed telecommunications services, such as network operation and administration, to enterprise customers in China. Additionally, the two companies will provide customers with new network solutions, including IP infrastructures, digital video, and 3G platforms and applications.
The announcement marks another milestone in Cisco's longstanding strategy to invest in new and innovative businesses in China. While CCS is Cisco's largest direct investment in China, the company has also committed over $700 million in venture funding to help launch nearly 30 Chinese start-up companies such as e-learning company Ambow and gaming company Shanda.
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Celanese Signs Agreement to Sell Oxo Products and Derivatives Businesses to Advent International
Representatives of Celanese Corporation announced Wednesday that it has entered into an agreement to sell its oxo products and derivatives businesses, including European Oxo GmbH ("EOXO"), a joint venture between Celanese AG and Degussa AG, to Advent International, a global private equity firm, for the purchase price of EUR €480 million, (US$630 million). This sale is consistent with Celanese's strategy to optimize its portfolio and divest non-core businesses.
The sale includes oxo and derivative businesses at Celanese's Oberhausen, Germany, and Bay City, Texas, facilities; and portions of its Bishop, Texas, facility. EOXO's facilities within the Oberhausen and Marl, Germany, plants are also included in the sale. As part of the transaction, Celanese will transfer all of the EOXO business to Advent International, including Degussa's 50 percent interest of the venture.
The oxo derivative chemicals business of Celanese, which has approximately 1,100 employees, earns revenues of approximately $700 million and has EBITDA margins of about 10 percent. EOXO, which has approximately 200 employees, has non-consolidated revenues of approximately $700 million and contributes $5 million to $10 million of equity earnings to Celanese annually. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including consent from senior secured lenders and regulatory approvals.
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High Street Partners Announces New Office in Southern California
Representatives of High Street Partners, a consulting firm providing finance, accounting, compliance and HR assistance to companies with international operations, announced the opening of a Southern California office.
HSP's objective in expanding the firm's California footprint is to advance its position as an emerging leader in the international expansion space, and to assist clients headquartered in the area. Demand for the firm's services and expertise, particularly as they relate to expansion into China, India, Japan and Western Europe, has led to steady growth.
This is the third office expansion for High Street Partners this year. The firm plans to capitalize on the burgeoning Southern California technology market, where the growth in venture investing has outstripped all other regions but Silicon Valley over the last three years. According to the most recent PwC MoneyTree survey of venture capital activity, more than 300 companies in the region received venture funding in each of the last two years, and experts believe Southern California is likely to overtake New England as the second most active region for venture investing in the country, behind only Silicon Valley, within the next several years. Opportunities for Southern California start-ups in China and throughout Asia are believed to be a significant driver in this growth.
