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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Wednesday said it paid $2.05 billion cash to buy the 20 percent it did not already own of toolmaker Iscar from the Israeli company’s founding Wertheimer family, Reuters reports.

(Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc on Wednesday said it paid $2.05 billion cash to buy the 20 percent it did not already own of toolmaker Iscar from the Israeli company’s founding Wertheimer family.

Berkshire in 2006 bought an 80 percent stake in Iscar, a maker of metal cutting tools whose formal name is IMC International Metalworking Cos, for $4 billion.

At the time, that purchase was one of the largest acquisitions involving an Israeli company, and Buffett’s biggest bet outside the United States. Wednesday’s purchase suggests that Iscar’s value has since more than doubled.

“As you can surmise from the price we’re paying for the remaining interest, IMC has enjoyed very significant growth over the last seven years,” Buffett said in a statement.

The acquisition was announced three days before Buffett will welcome more than 35,000 people to Berkshire’s annual meeting in its hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

In his annual letter to shareholders on March 1, Buffett described Iscar as one of Berkshire’s five most profitable companies outside its insurance businesses.

While Berkshire does not break out Iscar results separately, it said the Tefen, Israel-based unit’s profit fell in 2012 because of slowing economic conditions in some non-U.S. markets.

A year ago, Buffett in his shareholder letter described Iscar’s management as “brilliant strategists and operators.”

Iscar ended 2012 with more than 11,900 employees.

The Wertheimers’ sale of an 80 percent Iscar stake in 2006, announced one day before Berkshire’s annual meeting that year, made the family among the richest in Israel.

Stef Wertheimer, who is German-born and founded Iscar in 1952, has established a number of industrial parks in Israel aimed at promoting peace by having Jews and Arabs work together.

The law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz advised the Wertheimer family on the Iscar transaction. The law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson advised Berkshire.

The post Berkshire Buys Rest of Israel’s Iscar for $2.05 billion appeared first on peHUB.

Like every console before it, the Wii U will eventually be hacked and people will use that hack to play pirated games on the console. The challenge comes in the form of actually hacking the console to allow this functionality. One group claims to have done it, and will soon be selling their secret to the world.

Wiikey, a group that sells mod chips for the Nintendo Wii, have announced the WiikeÜ. Like the mod chips before it, this soft mod for the Wii U allows gamers to play Wii and Wii U games off of any USB media. The official line is that gamers can use this mod chip to play backups of Wii U games, but most would obviously use it to play pirated Wii U titles.

Some are calling shenanigans as the group has yet to provide any proof of the exploit. The group says it’s real though, and will be selling the USB emulator in the near future to allow others to hack their Wii U consoles.

So, what does Nintendo have to say about all of this? The company takes a hardline against piracy so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Nintendo is watching this very closely. In a statement to Ars Technica, Nintendo said it’s “aware that a hacking group claims to have compromised Wii U security.” That being said, the company has “no reports of illegal Wii U games nor unauthorized applications playable on the system while in Wii U mode.” Nintendo finished up its statement with a classic by saying that it “will take the necessary legal steps to prevent the facilitation of piracy.”

If the Wii U is anything like the Wii, the system’s security will be constantly compromised during its lifetime. Of course, this will only lead to Nintendo issuing more frequent mandatory system updates to patch security holes that only serve to annoy legitimate customers while doing nothing to stop those hellbent on playing games off disc.

More tablets were shipped during January and March this year than the entire first half of 2012: 49.2 million units during the three-month period, according to IDC. The analyst firm’s Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker was published Wednesday and it shows that tablets continue grow at a rapid clip. Every major tablet maker saw large gains in shipments during the first quarter — and one of the notable results of that is that Apple’s overall share of the tablet market is decreasing.

Apple is still the world’s largest tablet seller; it shipped 19.5 million in the last quarter, up from 11.8 million the same quarter a year ago, according to IDC and its own numbers released earlier this month. That’s an increase of 64 percent. Its No. 1 mobile competitor, Samsung, saw its shipments grow even faster, from 2.3 million tablets a year ago to 8.8 million in the latest quarter. Rounding out the Top 5, Asus and Amazon also more than doubled their tablet shipments from a year ago. Microsoft, which did not start selling tablets until October 2012, shipped 900,000 Surface units between January and March.

The overall growth in tablets means Android is now the most popular mobile OS in tablets shipped during the quarter; a year ago it was on 8 million of tablets shipped worldwide, compared to the 11.8 million iPads. This past quarter saw Android shipped on 27.8 million tablets that were shipped and 19.5 million iPads and iPad minis.

All this does not mean doom and gloom for the iPad. Apple’s tablet sales continue at a rapid clip, increasing every quarter – faster than the iPhone right now. And while its overall share of tablet shipments may be slipping, it’s still selling more than double the number of tablets each quarter as its closest competitor, Samsung (see chart below).

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ORIX Ventures said that it has closed a subordinated term loan to Virtustream, a provider of enterprise class cloud software and services. The money will be used for growth capital, the firm said. Specific terms of the deal were not released.

PRESS RELEASE
ORIX Ventures announces the closing of a subordinated term loan to Virtustream, a leading enterprise class cloud software and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider. The funding will provide growth capital to support further product enhancements and expansion across new geographic markets and industry verticals as demand for enterprise class cloud solutions continues to increase rapidly.

“Its team understands our business, and this financing will further drive client growth, accelerate enhancements to our cloud solutions and expand Virtustream’s geographic coverage to meet rapidly escalating cloud demand, particularly from the enterprise, service provider and government market sectors.”
Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Virtustream delivers enterprise class cloud solutions to enterprises, governments and service providers. With Virtustream, businesses can move complex production applications to the cloud and benefit from the dramatic operational advantages and cost savings of cloud computing. This funding highlights ORIX Ventures’ flexible growth capital solutions for high-growth companies and its ability to team up with Silicon Valley Bank.

“We are excited to be working with ORIX Ventures,” said Mike Provenzano, CFO of Virtustream. “Its team understands our business, and this financing will further drive client growth, accelerate enhancements to our cloud solutions and expand Virtustream’s geographic coverage to meet rapidly escalating cloud demand, particularly from the enterprise, service provider and government market sectors.”

Jeff Bede, managing director in ORIX Ventures’ Washington, D.C. office, commented, “We are impressed by the significant traction and product disruption of Virtustream’s cloud software and IaaS solutions. With our resources, ORIX Ventures is well equipped to support its continued growth as a leading cloud software and IaaS provider.”

About ORIX Ventures
ORIX Ventures provides customized financial solutions to mid- and late-stage growth companies with established customers and run-rate revenues of $10 million or greater. ORIX Ventures is capable of leading debt or private equity transactions with total commitments as high as $50 million. Since its inception in 2001, ORIX Ventures has invested more than $1 billion across more than 100 growth companies throughout the U.S. and Canada. For more information on ORIX Ventures, visit us at www.orixventures.com. ORIX Ventures is a subsidiary of ORIX USA, a Dallas-based financial conglomerate with more than 1,400 employees and primary offices in Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, Columbus and Minneapolis. ORIX USA holds approximately $6 billion of assets and manages an additional $25 billion. ORIX USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of ORIX Corporation, a Tokyo-based, publicly owned international financial services company with operations in 28 countries worldwide. ORIX Corporation is listed on the Tokyo (8591) and New York Stock Exchanges (IX). For more information on ORIX USA, visit www.orix.com.

Please contact any of our ORIX Ventures’ offices to discuss your company’s vision. http://orixventures.com/contact/

About Virtustream

Virtustream is a leading cloud innovator offering enterprise class cloud solutions to enterprises, governments and service providers. Virtustream enables businesses to move complex production applications to the cloud – whether private, public or hybrid – while delivering the full economic and business benefits of the cloud. Virtustream offers xStream, cloud management software for private/public/hybrid clouds and also offers the Virtustream Cloud which provides secure, high availability, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to enterprises. Both xStream and the Virtustream Cloud deliver secure, cloud efficiency with performance SLAs for mission critical applications (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft and thousands more). Virtustream’s solutions are backed by professional services to design, migrate to, and manage clouds.

Virtustream offers these enterprise class cloud solutions worldwide; owns data centers in the U.S. and EMEA; operates an international Cloud Exchange, SpotCloud®; has offices in San Francisco, Atlanta, New York, Washington D.C., Toronto, London, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and has partners in Asia and China.

The post ORIX Ventures Backs Virtustream with Debt Financing appeared first on peHUB.

Square 1 Bank announced that Rilus Graham has relocated to Seattle to grow the bank’s life sciences practice in the Pacific Northwest. Graham will manage the region’s existing life sciences portfolio and establish new connections in the area, the firm said.

PRESS RELEASE
Square 1 Bank, the premier banking partner to entrepreneurs and the venture capital community, today announced that Rilus Graham has relocated to Seattle to grow the bank’s life sciences practice in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Graham will manage the region’s existing life sciences portfolio and establish new connections within the area’s entrepreneurial, venture capital, and industry communities.

“Rilus’ fierce drive and passion for startups, networking and the life sciences industry is a tremendous asset as the bank continues to grow our life sciences practice,” said Scott Foote, founder, senior vice president and managing director of Square 1 Bank’s Life Sciences West practice. “He has already done great work in helping to build our portfolio and reputation in San Diego, and I am confident he will continue to blaze trails as he takes this step. With Rilus’ addition to the Seattle team, we are reinforcing our commitment to the startup communities of the Pacific Northwest region and broadening our capabilities to best meet our clients’ needs – providing additional access to flexible, focused solutions and service to help them be successful.”

On moving to Seattle, Graham added, “Being part of Square 1′s west coast life science launch in 2009 was a huge opportunity for me. I am excited to take those experiences and lead a similar effort in Seattle, as the bank looks to grow our life sciences practice here. I plan to hit the ground running; bridging existing relationships with new partnerships.”

Since joining Square 1 Bank in 2007, Graham has served in several roles of increasing responsibility, starting as a portfolio analyst at the bank’s headquarters in Durham, NC where he supported technology and life sciences portfolios. In 2009 Graham moved to San Diego to help jumpstart the bank’s life sciences practice on the west coast. There, Graham played a key role in expanding Square 1 Bank’s presence in the Pacific Southwest, while also co-founding Spark Bio, a life science venture capital networking association.

About Square 1 Bank

Square 1 Bank is a full service commercial bank dedicated exclusively to serving the financial needs of the venture capital community and entrepreneurs in all stages of growth and expansion. Square 1′s expertise, focus and strong capital base provide flexible resources and unmatched support to meet our clients’ needs. The bank offers tailored products and solutions aided by the latest in technological innovations. Square 1 has offices coast to coast in Austin, Boston, Denver, Durham, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Seattle, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC.

The post Square 1 Bank Expands into Nortwest appeared first on peHUB.

A rope walks into a bar, and he sits down and orders a drink. Bartender walks over, annoyed, and says “hey, we don’t serve your kind in here.” The rope, confused, leaves the bar. The next day he comes back, sits down, and orders a drunk. Once again the bartender tells him to get out, and that his kind isn’t welcome in his establishment.

The rope, dismayed, walks out the door. Thinking that he could fool the bartender into serving him a drink, the rope messes up his hair and walks back into the bar.

The bartender, fooled by the rope’s new look, serves him a beer. But later on in the evening, the bartender seems to recognize the rope. “Hey, aren’t you that rope from earlier”

“Frayed not,” said the rope.

That’s my favorite dumb joke.

Well, Adam Patch’s wife had her own corny joke to tell after she drank a bottle of wine. He then decided to animate it. The result is drunk history-style gold:

[Adam Patch, Vimeo, via UPROXX]

For many Windows 8 users one of the problems with the modern apps is that they function in the modern screen and cannot transgress to the classic desktop. Stardock fixed this by releasing ModernMix, a nifty solution that allows you to treat Windows 8 apps as if they were regular applications.

Although it is not as popular as Start8 (reviewed here), which brings a S… (read more)

JC Penney has put out a video apologizing for alienating loyal customers, and essentially begging them to come back.

The basic gist goes like this: We did some stuff that upset you, and we’re acknowledging that we screwed up (without saying specifically what we screwed up exactly). But you have to admit, you liked some of the stuff we did. Right? Anyway, please, please, please come back and shop with us again.

The actual wording goes: “It’s no secret, recently JCPenney changed. Some changes you liked and some you didn’t, but what matters with mistakes is what we learn. We learned a very simple thing, to listen to you. To hear what you need, to make your life more beautiful. Come back to JCPenney, we heard you. Now, we’d love to see you.”

As you’re probably aware, JC Penney brought in CEO Ron Johnson a couple years ago, who decided to push for a wealthier customer base, and got rid of the store’s sales (which obviously didn’t sit well with the regulars). Recently, the company fired Johnson, and brought back the guy they had before him (Mike Ullman).

So, they’re sorry.

Back in March, rap star Lil Wayne was hospitalized after suffering what was reported to be multiple seizures. That episode followed one in October 2012 when the rapper’s plane flight was diverted after he began suffering seizure-like symptoms.

This week, Lil Wayne is back in the hospital after suffering another seizure. A TMZ report states that the 30-year-old was taken to Ceadars-Sinai in Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was treated for the episode and released early on Wednesday morning.

Lil Wayne reassured fans this afternoon, tweeting out a short message conveying his thanks for supportive messages:

Follow @LilTunechi

Lil Wayne WEEZY F
@LilTunechi

I’m fine. Thank u

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

Lil Wayne’s previous trip to Cedars-Sinai was more serious, with doctors labeling him as being in critical condition. He spent nearly one week in the hospital’s intensive care unit, and his mother flew in to make medical decisions on his behalf. TMZ reported on that occasion that the rapper had to have his stomach pumped multiple times to remove drugs.

TEDxCERN will be held inside CERN’s world-famous Globe. Photo: TEDxCERN

You have probably heard of CERN — the European Organization for Nuclear Research and the home of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator that is longer than the island of Manhattan. CERN and LHC are famous for their role in the recent discovery of what very likely is the Higgs boson, a particle crucial to the standard model of physics. But now, CERN will house another exciting first: their first TEDx event.

This Friday, May 3, CERN will bring together thinkers of all kinds to examine our universe and provide insight into why studying it matters. And lucky for you, you don’t have to go to Switzerland to watch in real time. The program will stream live online at the TEDxCERN website from 13:45  to 20:00 (CEST).

So why should you tune in?

1. Because of the incredible speaker lineup. CERN has invited 23 great speakers and performers to the stage. Some highlights of the lineup:

• Philosopher John Searle, the winner of the 2004 National Humanities Award
• Astrophysicist George Smoot, cosmologist and Nobel Prize laureate
• Chris Lintott, the head of Zooniverse at Oxford University and co-presenter of the BBC’s Sky at Night program
• Marc Abrahams, MC of the Ig Nobel Awards and editor of the Annals of Improbable Research
• 18-year-old Britney Wegner, grand prize winner of the 2012 Google Science Fair
• Sergio Bertolucci, director for research and scientific computing at CERN

2. Because the venue will be thrilling. TEDxCERN will take place at the Globe of Science and Innovation on the CERN campus in Geneva. This giant wooden globe — about the size of the Sistine Chapel — was first constructed for the 2000 World Exhibition in Hanover, but now stands as a stirring tribute to the groundbreaking work happening at CERN’s headquarters every day. Says the CERN website, “A landmark by day and by night, the Globe … sends a clear message on science, particle physics, cutting-edge technologies and their applications in everyday life.”

3. Because they make understanding particle physics child’s play. Part of CERN’s mission is making the work done there accessible to those who don’t have a deeply-honed understanding of particle physics. To that end, CERN scientists have teamed up with the animators of TED-Ed to create five easy-to-understand (and fun-to-watch) lessons that explain concepts like the Big Bang, dark matter, big data and Higgs boson. The first of these lessons, “The beginning of the universe, for beginners,” is currently available via TED-Ed. The other four lessons will premiere at TEDxCERN — those watching live will be the first to see ‘em.

4. Because CERN is part of the reason we have the internet. Ever wondered who created that little thing called the World Wide Web? Tim Berners-Lee was a software engineer at CERN in the 1980s, when he proposed the idea to his bosses as a way to “reframe the way we use information.” Twenty years ago this week, CERN offered up the software required to run a web server, a basic browser, and a standard library of code — all royalty free. To celebrate the anniversary, CERN posted the very first public web page ever — dedicated to the “World Wide Web project itself.”

5. Because Higgs boson is poised to change everything. In 2012, the media was abuzz with stories about the “god particle,” aka Higgs boson. This particle was theorized to exist in 1964 by six scientists, including one Peter Higgs. The existence of the particle would confirm the existence of the Higgs field, believed to surround everything, giving mass to elementary particles that, without it, would be massless. The discovery of Higgs boson is the beginning of a whole new field of research and several TEDxCERN talks will touch on where it’s headed. We’re looking forward to the talk, “What the Higgs might mean for the fate of the universe,” from theoretical physicist Gian Giudice.

6. Because you won’t be alone. More than 25 universities, laboratories and organizations will be hosting TEDxCERN livestreaming parties, including TEDxAthens in Greece, the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, Università di Pavia in Italy, Kathmandu University in Nepal, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States, and even TED HQ here in New York! Take stock in knowing you’ll be watching along with some of the world’s leading scientists, researchers, and hard thinkers.

Tune in to the TEDxCERN webcast on Friday, May 3rd. It will be available to the public here »

For more information on TEDxCERN, visit their website, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

TEDxCERN set-up, in progress. Photo: TEDxCERN

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of consumers, publishes its report on safety in the digital age. There are some winners and also some major losers this time around in the “Who has your back?” statement — hint put down your cell phone, step away slowly and nobody gets hurt.

The annual report looks at major technology service providers’ commitment to users’ rights in the face of government data demands. EFF examines 18 companies’ terms of service, privacy policies, advocacy, and courtroom track records and awards up to six gold stars for best practices in categories such as requiring a warrant for content, telling users about government data demands and publishing a transparency report.

Major U.S. cell carriers fare poorly — the understatement of the day. In fact, Verizon scores a grand total of zero stars. Yes, none. Big Red does not require a warrant, does not disclose requests to users, publishes no transparency report or law enforcement guidelines and does not fight for privacy rights. In other words, you (and me, as I am a customer) may as well turn ourselves in right now. For the record, MySpace also receives a zero ranking, but perhaps because there are no users left to protect.

AT&T is not much better, actually managing to garner a single star — for fighting for user rights in Congress. Neither Sprint not T-Mobile are ranked in the report.

But enough bad news. How about the companies that actually care about you? Dropbox, Google, LinkedIn and SpiderOak all manage five stars while Twitter is one of two to receive six.

Wondering about others? Microsoft fares reasonably well with four, Facebook receives three, Amazon manages two. But, beware your cable provider if it happens to be Comcast. The company is not exactly at the top of the heap with two stars — for publishing law enforcement guidelines and fighting for user rights in court.

Apple, which has already been in the news lately with virus problems, does not have your best interests at heart either. The company ranks a one for its almost universal failure to keep the customer in mind.

“There’s a lot to celebrate in this report, but also plenty of room for improvement” EFF staff attorney Nate Cardozo says. The latter seems more to the point.

This report should serve as a wake-up call to Internet users that they require more protection from companies that they trust with their digital communications. These companies are not fighting for us, though they do manage to find the time and money to lobby for their own benefit.

Chart: EFF
Photo Credit: Joe Wilcox

Two new developments in RFID research could pave the way for tags that are thinner, cheaper, and more versatile. Using new materials and cutting-edge laser fabrication, engineers at North Dakota State University have made RFID tags compatible with paper or metal, with applications ranging from banknotes to cargo containers.

The key to embedding ultra-thin RFID tags into paper is what’s called Laser Enabled Advanced Packaging. Instead of using the pick-and-place robotic methods generally employed with today’s larger tags, a laser pulse is used to insert the RFID circuitry into a substrate: in this case, paper. The force generated by this laser pulse is essential when dealing with chips that are so thin — 20 microns, less than most commercial RFID chips — in order to overcome the attractive forces that could hinder the pickup and placement with conventional methods. Static electricity, for example, can make the super-skinny chips stick to the robot, which impacts assembly speed and precision.

The speed and precision of this contactless method beats current manufacturing techniques, according to the researchers, and it also doesn’t result in bumps in the paper. An added benefit is that the chip’s silicon becomes flexible at such tiny scales, so it can bend if needed. The paper-embedded RFID tag still has a tiny antenna, which is first printed onto the paper before the laser etching. Another NDSU discovery has done away with the antenna altogether, overcoming the interference problems associated with tagging metals or containers filled with liquid.

The passive ultra-high frequency tags use the metal objects to which they are attached as antennas. This means that they can be thinner, because no spacer is required to isolate the tag from the metal surface to make it readable. In addition, the tag’s highly permeable material lets current flow into the integrated circuit. “RFID on metal” could be used to track assets from laptops to medical devices and oil barrels, and because they can be embedded in the metal itself, they can stay with an object from origin to end. While the creation of antenna-less RFID tags isn’t entirely new, the development marks another step towards realizing the internet of things.

Image via North Dakota State University Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering

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Reddit has just announced that they have completely rewritten their privacy policy “from the ground up,” to be clearer and more accessible to the average user.

“For some time now, the reddit privacy policy has been a bit of legal boilerplate. While it did its job, it does not give a clear picture on how we actually approach user privacy. I’m happy to announce that this is changing. The reddit privacy policy has been rewritten from the ground-up. This new policy is a clear and direct description of how we handle your data on reddit, and the steps we take to ensure your privacy.”

The new policy will go into effect on May 15th.

The main difference (other the clarity) in reddit’s new privacy policy, as opposed to the older policy, is that this one is more specific to reddit. The previous privacy policy was overbroad, having been written by Conde Nast (who owns reddit).

“The old policy was written very broad. It was a generic one written by Conde Nast. This was written specifically to apply to reddit. The goal was to be clear and specific. Especially about data retention. Some things were added like reddit Gold and specific information about the new advertising providers,” says legal strategist Lauren Gelman, who helped write the new policy.

For one, the new policy expresses exactly what information reddit collects from its users. One new additon involves posts and comments, and how long they stay accessible (hint: forever):

The posts and comments you make on reddit are not private, even if made to a subreddit not readily accessible to the public. This means that, by default, they are not deleted from our servers– ever– and will still be accessible after your account is deleted. However, we only save the most recent version of comments and posts, so your previous edits, once overwritten, are no longer available.

Reddit clarifies that if you truly want a comment gone for good, it’s best to simply edit it.

Another involves IP addresses:

reddit stores the IP addresses associated with specific posts, comments, and private messages for 90 days after they are made or sent.

On a site like reddit, privacy is paramount. Just spend any time on there, and you’ll see what I mean. If you want to read the (incredibly readable) new privacy policy, check here.

Park-Ohio Holdings Corp. has acquired Bates LLC from NYX Inc. Based in Lobelville, Tennessee, Bates is a manufacturer of tight tolerance automotive hoses and industrial gaskets. Terms of the deal were not released.

PRESS RELEASE
Angle Advisors is pleased to announce that Park-Ohio Holdings Corporation (“Park-Ohio”) has acquired Bates, LLC (“Bates” or the “Company”) from NYX, Inc. (“NYX”). Angle Advisors acted as the exclusive investment banking advisor to NYX in completing this transaction.

NYX Bates Logos Based in Lobelville, Tennessee, Bates is a leading manufacturer of high quality, tight tolerance automotive hoses and industrial gaskets. The Company’s product offering includes rubber hoses, nylon hoses, thermoplastic tubes, and rubber gaskets. The Company’s manufacturing capabilities include rubber and nylon extrusion, thermoplastic extrusion, thermoplastic injection molding, hose forming, assembly, and testing. Bates sells to both automotive and industrial customers and ships to 125 destinations around the world.

Edward Crawford, Chairman & CEO of Park-Ohio, noted, “Bates is another example of a look-alike acquisition that fits with Park-Ohio’s current goal of growing its three business silos. Bates has been in business over 40 years and has been servicing a great list of customers with an experienced workforce. We expect the annual revenues from Bates to exceed $45 million and be accretive to Park-Ohio earnings.”

Jay Sandhu, Chief Executive Officer of NYX, commented, “Our management team at Bates has performed at a high level and they are excited to leverage Park-Ohio’s extensive resources to grow the business. Although we will miss our Bates co-workers, the transaction will allow us to focus our resources and attention to the upcoming launches of our core offerings, as well as the expansion of our Tennessee molding operation and the startup of NYX, Mexico. We’d also like to thank the team at Angle Advisors who executed a very efficient sale process. We are thrilled with the results of this transaction and found Angle’s execution ability and industry relationships to prove critical.”

Based in Livonia, Michigan, NYX designs, develops, and manufactures interior, automotive systems, and technology solutions for the automotive industry. For additional information, please visit www.nyxinc.com.

Park-Ohio is a leading provider of supply management services and a manufacturer of highly-engineered products. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the Company operates 37 manufacturing sites and 45 supply chain logistics facilities throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Park-Ohio’s stock is traded on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “PKOH.” For additional information, please visit www.pkoh.com.

Angle Advisors, with offices in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, and China, specializes in mergers and acquisitions with a particular emphasis on the vehicular and industrial sectors. The firm’s 33 professionals have completed 82 M&A transactions since the beginning of 2009 for multinational corporations, privately-held companies, private equity funds, and public sector clients.

The post Park-Ohio Holdings Acquires Bates appeared first on peHUB.

Ascension Health Ventures and Heritage Group have put an undisclosed amount of new capital into Vivify Health Inc., formerly known as Intuitive Health. The company develops a cloud-based “Remote Care Management” platform for hospitals and home health agencies.

PRESS RELEASE
Vivify Health, Inc. (“Vivify”), formerly Intuitive Health, Inc., has received funding from two healthcare investment firms, Ascension Health Ventures (“AHV”) and Heritage Group (“Heritage”). Proceeds will be used to accelerate the delivery of Vivify’s cloud-based Remote Care Management platform that enables hospitals, home health agencies, payers and other stakeholders to accomplish population health objectives, including reducing readmissions, managing chronic diseases, improving care transitions, and engaging patients in their own well-being.

Vivify’s Software as a Service (SaaS) platform delivers the next generation of direct-to-consumer care, including customized care plans, coaching, educational video content, and interactive video conferencing for any clinical condition. The system’s capabilities include aggregating in-home health status and vital signs from wirelessly enabled personal health devices, thereby automatically transmitting that data to providers and caregivers via wireless networks. The platform seamlessly integrates with health information processes and systems such as EMRs, PHRs and HIEs, enabling organizations to improve clinical outcomes and quality, derive caregiver efficiencies, and enhance the patient and provider experience.

Vivify Health was founded under the brand Intuitive Health in 2009 by Eric Rock, a successful entrepreneur whose prior companies include the provider of the nation’s leading emergency department information system. The rebranding to Vivify, which means to “renew and revitalize”, better reflects the company’s approach to optimizing patient engagement within the broader framework of population health. Rock is joined by a management team with more than 150 years of relevant clinical, telehealth and health system integration experience.

“We are pleased to complete this round of funding, and believe that our financial partners’ commitment further validates the powerful growth opportunities ahead for Vivify as we help improve the health of patients across the entire continuum of care,” said Rock. “It is important to note that before our customers can experience their desired outcomes with at-risk populations, they first must possess the tools that enable continual patient engagement. Our highly intuitive software delivered via common consumer devices is a winning combination for all, allowing the patient to stay connected with their providers, family and friends.”

More than three years in development, Vivify has been deployed in large health systems since early 2011 and has proven highly effective at delivering value and improving patient outcomes in multiple Institutional Review Board (IRB) settings across the United States. Vivify’s commitment to the IRB model was rooted in their confidence to further the degree of credible outcomes associated with their offering.

“We have demonstrated Vivify’s ability to virtualize care delivery to the home, well beyond what other remote care solutions provide today,” said Robin Hill, RN, Vice President of Clinical Solutions for Vivify. “While many legacy systems are designed solely for chronic diseases such as diabetes or congestive heart failure, Vivify has no such limitations. The elegance and flexibility of our platform’s architecture combined with our in-house clinical care plan expertise sets the stage for this comprehensive approach.”

Compared to traditional hardware-centric approaches to remote care, the Vivify platform delivers a network and device-agnostic approach that reduces unnecessary costs and increases flexibility via “connected apps”. To ensure unrivaled quality, scalability, and security, Vivify has formed alliances with multiple leading global companies, including AT&T, Ericsson, Polycom, and Samsung. “We recognized early on that delivering a scalable consumer-connected platform, including mobile high-definition video conferencing, requires core competencies of these leading consumer technology providers,” said Rock.

Vivify’s strategic investors, AHV and Heritage, have more than $715 million in combined capital under management. Both firms bring healthcare expertise and strategic value through their base of limited partners, comprised of more than 580 acute care hospitals, a prominent health plan, a leading home health and hospice care company, and a leading distributor of medical supplies and pharmaceuticals. In conjunction with the investment, Victor Kats from AHV and Rock Morphis from Heritage have joined Vivify’s Board of Directors.

“As market dynamics continue to evolve and providers assume more responsibility for post-acute care management, Vivify’s solution will have tremendous applicability,” said Rock Morphis, Managing Director of Heritage Group. “We are excited to be part of this company at such an instrumental time in its growth and development.”

“We share Vivify’s vision that the next generation technology and service requirements for effective population health management call for enabling hospitals, physicians, nurses and other stakeholders to successfully engage with the patient outside of the care setting,” said Victor Kats, Investment Director of Ascension Health Ventures. “Vivify’s flexible platform can drive this transformational change forward.”

Vivify Health will demonstrate its solutions at the annual ATA international conference May 5-7 in Austin, TX in booths #912 (AT&T), #632 (Polycom), and #342 (Qualcomm Life). To schedule a meeting or demonstration while attending ATA, please email Vivify Health at [email protected].

About Vivify Health
Vivify Health delivers, through common and non-proprietary consumer mobile electronics, a cloud-based, device-agnostic, and ecosystem-connected Remote Care Management platform to enable its provider and payer-based customers to impact a great deal of their overarching strategic objectives. Examples include the ability to advance overall population health, optimize patient engagement, reduce unnecessary readmissions, improve patient satisfaction, facilitate expansion of physician practice services, and achieve significant cost avoidance.

Unrestrained to any particular clinical condition, Vivify’s flexible platform facilitates healthcare consumers of all types to maintain their health at home while staying connected to their providers and caregivers. Patient engagement is further enhanced with educational video content and embedded high-definition video conferencing capabilities. Through delivery of multi-dimensional, customizable, and algorithmic-branching care plan templates, both qualitative and quantitative data are collected, delivered instantly to caregivers’ mobile devices and seamlessly integrated within the providers’ ecosystem. For more information, visit www.vivifyhealth.com or connect on Twitter.

About Ascension Health Ventures
Ascension Health Ventures was launched in 2001 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ascension Health. Today it is a subsidiary of Ascension Health Alliance, a parent holding company formed in 2012. AHV’s role has been to construct and manage a strategic portfolio of investments that deliver a venture investment return, have the potential to transform the healthcare industry, and significantly enhance the experience for patients, their families and their caregivers. AHV has three venture funds under management and its limited partners include Ascension Health Alliance, Catholic Health East, Catholic Health Initiatives, Decatur Memorial Hospital, Dignity Health, Mercy, and Intermountain Healthcare. For more information, go to www.ascensionhealthventures.org.

About Heritage Group
Heritage Group is a Nashville-based, venture capital firm with over 25 years of experience financing, operating and advising companies at all stages. Created by a diverse group of the nation’s leading healthcare services firms, the Heritage Healthcare Innovation Fund is a $167M strategic initiative focused on investments in businesses that improve the delivery of healthcare services.

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HybridCluster, an early stage software company, has raised $1 million in fresh capital from investors including Jason Seats, former vice president of engineering at Rackspace Cloud; Charles Grimsdale, partner at Eden Ventures; Anil Hansjee, former Head of Corporate Development, Google EMEA; and Toivo Annus, former Head of Engineering at Skype.

PRESS RELEASE
HybridCluster, an early stage software solution provider to the cloud and hosting industry, today announces completion of a $1m fundraising and immediate availability of version 2.0 of its integrated suite of storage, replication and web clustering software. Amongst the investors are established industry figures including Jason Seats (former VP of Engineering of Rackspace Cloud), Charles Grimsdale (partner at Eden Ventures and former CEO & founder of OD2), Anil Hansjee (former Head of Corporate Development, Google EMEA) and Toivo Annus (former Head of Engineering at Skype).

“For too long web hosting companies have lived in fear of unforeseen failures, spikes in traffic or user error striking their operations, stopping their business in it tracks,” said Luke Marsden, CEO and founder at HybridCluster. “With this investment in the company we are now able to launch Hybrid Cluster 2.0 and compete effectively in the hosting market across Europe and North America.”

Liam Eagle, Analyst, Internet Infrastructure Services at the analyst firm, 451 Research, pointed out: “HybridCluster is a compelling platform in that it targets system failures and spikes in demand. Performance and availability are two on-going challenges for shared hosting providers, and two key metrics by which their customers measure their services. Hosting providers are likely to appreciate it as a means of bringing the benefits of cloud technology to their hosting environments.”

HybridCluster 2.0 provides service providers the ability to create cost effective, high availability hosting and email infrastructure. It provides:

· High-Availability: Self-healing to automatically recover when hardware, software, networks or even an entire region fails – and in less than a minute from a backup made less than a minute ago.

· Intelligent Auto-Scaling: Scaling to provide and charge for scalability in response to spikes in traffic.

· Rapid Restore Data Vault: ‘Time machine’-like capability to allow hosting company customers to roll back to last good version of files themselves in case of accidental data loss or malicious attack for websites, databases and mailboxes.

“HybridCluster is a rare combination of a disruptive and game-changing technology from a company run by an inspiring and highly motivated team in a market that has undeniable need for, and clear benefits, from the technology,” stated Jason Seats, former Rackspace Cloud VP Engineering and MD of TechStars Cloud.

BrickStreet Data Systems, a provider of high availability SaaS and website hosting to businesses in North America, has been a HybridCluster customer since February 2013. “We wanted to grow our hosting business but our old platform was vulnerable to systems failures, traffic spikes and end users deleting their own files. It was also exceedingly difficult to do even routine maintenance on each server,” explained, Andrew Skattebo, CEO of BrickStreet Data Systems.

“That’s why after months of research and testing and finding other solutions either too complex or too expensive, we chose and deployed HybridCluster.” Skattebo added: “Today we can offer a more cost-effective, high-availability hosting platform that is easier to maintain and takes away many of the risks that normally affect a business like ours.”

HybridCluster 2.0 is available immediately to cloud and web hosting service providers. The majority of HybridCluster customers across America and Europe are now live on version 2.0. Users can visit www.HybridCluster.com to sign up for a trial. Visitors to HostingCon in Austin, Texas, from June 17 to 19, can see HybridCluster in action on the exhibit floor at exhibit #723 as well as see HybridCluster’s CEO, Luke Marsden, first up on the Tech Track on the conference agenda.

About Hybrid Cluster (www.HybridCluster.com / @HybridCluster)
HybridCluster has triggered a rethink about cloud and hosting industry’s dependency on high cost, legacy virtualisation and storage stacks that fail to fully protect both businesses and end users. Computer scientists and industry experts have combined at HybridCluster to deliver breakthrough storage and hosting platform technology that automatically detects and recovers data centre outages in less than one minute, delivers 4x better density of customers per server, and offers end user to self-recover lost files and data.

Founded in 2008 and based in Bristol, UK with offices in Europe and America, HybridCluster’s backers and advisors are widely recognised and respected industry veterans, and its customers amongst the most innovative hosting providers across Europe and the Americas. HybridCluster is a SETsquared company.

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5 people were shot at an annual street party in Florida on Saturday, leaving one man dead.

19-year old Devontee Tramine Ocasio has been charged with first degree murder, discharge of firearm with injury, aggravated of assault with a firearm and possession of a firearm after he opened fire in a crowded public area last weekend. Williston’s Crab Festival is actually not a celebration of crustaceans, but rather a series of “Hip Hop Style Street Parties” which aren’t regulated by the county yet draw upwards of 10,000 visitors each year. Officials say the parties are always fraught with violence and attempted to be prepared for the enormous gathering this time around.

“The Levy County Department of Public Safety had pre-staged ambulances and a Medical helicopter in the area for the Festival. The large crowds made it impossible for ambulances to reach the wounded,” reads a press release from the Levy County Sheriff’s Office. “Despite the large crowds walking and dancing in the roadway, Deputies and EMS personnel were able to evacuate the victims in law enforcement and private vehicles.”

Authorities say they are investigating the possibility that another party was involved in the shooting, but so far Ocasio is the only one to be arrested. His bond is set at $1.5 million.