FCC warns Net-phone firms about enhanced-911 deadline
Companies that provide Internet-based phone service may find themselves disconnected from new customers after missing a government deadline to provide reliable 911 emergency service.
The Federal Communications Commission gave the companies 120 days to comply with its order requiring enhanced 911, or E911, in all their markets. Monday was the deadline to show the government where E911 is available.
The Voice on the Net Coalition, an industry group, estimated that about two-thirds of Internet-phone users would have enhanced 911 by the deadline.
Vonage, the nation’s largest such provider, said 90 percent of its 1 million customers have enhanced-911 services. The company has asked for an extension to comply with the order. Getting the remaining 10 percent of subscribers – who mostly live in rural areas – connected to E911 services will take several more months, the company said.
Comcast, which introduced its Voice over Internet Protocol service in Colorado in November, said all of its phone customers nationwide have enhanced-911 services.
FORT COLLINS
Advanced Energy sells product line
Advanced Energy Industries, a Fort Collins-based high-tech manufacturer, has agreed to sell its IKOR product line to California-based iWatt Inc. for $10.4 million in cash.
The line consists mostly of power-supply components and modules used in computing, office automation and communications products.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Schuck finds Minn. partner for TransPort
The Schuck Corp., based in Colorado Springs, is partnering with Värde Partners Inc. in Minneapolis for investment in the TransPort rail, truck and air commerce hub near Front Range Airport in Aurora.
TransPort is a project that could be developed over 20 years or more and yield thousands of jobs.
LAFAYETTE
Aegis gets $3.5 million in equity financing
Aegis Analytical Corp., a Laf ayette-based provider of software solutions and services for pharmaceutical and biotechnology manufacturers, announced Wednesday the closing of $3.5 million in equity financing. Aegis has received more than $25 million in funding to date.
The investment round was led by Boulder-based Skyland Capital and was joined by four previous investors – Future Capital AG of Frankfurt, Germany; Lafayette Equity Fund LP of Lafayette; Merck Capital Ventures LLC of Montvale, N.J.; and 3i, a venture-capital company with offices in Palo Alto, Calif. and Waltham, Mass.
SANTA FE
Court upholds city’s $8.50 minimum wage
A court has upheld a city ordinance that raised the minimum wage to $8.50 an hour.
The New Mexico Court of Appeals rejected arguments by business interests that state minimum-wage laws bar cities from raising the minimum within their borders. Under the law, Santa Fe’s minimum wage will increase to $9.50 an hour Jan. 1. The federal minimum wage and the state minimum wage are both $5.15 an hour.
REDMOND, Wash.
Microsoft developing online classifieds
Microsoft Corp. is developing an online classified service to compete with the likes of Craigslist. It is becoming the latest company to capitalize on growing consumer interest in buying and selling everything from cars to babysitting services on the Web.
Such Web-based classifieds are proving to be tough competitors for the ads that traditionally provided a big chunk of newspaper revenue.
Microsoft is hoping to distinguish its service, code-named Fremont, from rivals by tying in functionality with other Microsoft products.
NEW YORK
Icahn may sue over possible AOL deal
Carl Icahn, the billionaire financier who is taking on Time Warner Inc., ratcheted up his rhetoric against the giant media conglomerate Wednesday. He threatened to sue its directors if they make a deal for AOL that Icahn finds unacceptable.
Speaking at an annual corporate-governance conference in midtown Manhattan, Icahn made the remarks a day after disclosing that he had hired the investment bank Lazard Ltd. to advise him.
CHARLOTTE, N.C.
Revisions may delay Krispy Kreme data
A number-by-number revision of flawed financial statements dating back four years will probably keep Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc. from meeting a Dec. 15 deadline set by its lenders for submitting the reports, the interim chief executive said Wednesday.
“The whole objective here is to ensure that when they come out, the statements are the statements,” turnaround specialist Stephen Cooper said. “Our plan is to get it right and not be careless and rush it.”
WASHINGTON
Fannie Mae reports smaller portfolio
Fannie Mae said Wednesday that its mortgage investment portfolio shrank by an annualized rate of 16.1 percent in October for a balance of $717.2 billion. The balance was $727.8 billion in the prior month.
The agency began slimming its mortgage portfolio a year ago as it raised funds to meet higher minimum capital requirements.
BROOMFIELD
McData ends quarter with $7.5 million loss
McData Corp., a provider of storage networking technology, reported a third-quarter loss of $7.5 million, 5 cents a share, compared with a loss of $5.5 million, 5 cent a share, in the same quarter a year ago. The company took in $168.5 million in revenue, up from $98.5 million from the third quarter of 2004.
“Our third-quarter performance was marked by both success and disappointment,” said John Kelley, McData chairman, president and chief executive, in a statement. “We continued to execute strongly with respect to achieving our integration targets and generated positive operating cash flow.”
SAN FRANCISCO
Samsung price-fixing gets $300 million fine
Samsung, the world’s largest maker of computer memory chips, pleaded guilty Wednesday to a charge it participated in a worldwide price-fixing conspiracy that damaged competition and raised PC prices.
After accepting the plea and a deal with prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton ordered Samsung Electronics Co. and its U.S. subsidiary to pay $300 million.
