Company News
Published Jan 9 2002
*Techne Corp., Minneapolis, said the U.S. District Court in St.
Paul has granted Amgen Inc. a $28 million summary judgment
in the Epo supply dispute between the companies. Techne said
it will appeal if final judgment is entered against it.
*Stride Rite Children's Group Inc., Lexington, Mass., said its
Kid Smart and Baby Smart footwear brands will be available
at Target stores this spring.
*Rehabilicare Inc., New Brighton, has appointed John Maley
as chairman and Serge Darcy as president and CEO of its
wholly owned subsidiary, Compex SA. Maley has been on the
Rehabilicare board since 1997. Darcy most recently was
general manager of sales and marketing for Compex.
*FinishMaster Inc., an Indianapolis-based distributor of
industrial and automotive paints and coatings, has contracted
with U.S. Bancorp's Corporate Payment Systems unit for
purchasing-card services.
*United Shipping & Technology Inc., Plymouth, said it has
reincorporated in Delaware and will change its name to
Velocity Express Corp., effective Monday. The company's
symbol on the Nasdaq will change to VEXP from its current
USHP symbol.
*Curative Health Services Inc., St. Louis Park, has acquired
Hemophilia Access Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company
based near Nashville, Tenn., for $2.65 million. Hemophilia
Access provides pharmaceuticals, therapeutic supplies and
disease-management services to people with hemophilia and
related bleeding disorders. The company is expected to
generate more than $5 million in revenue in 2002 and will
provide immediate accretion to Curative's 2002 earnings,
estimated to be 2 cents per share.
*PlanAnalytics Inc., Mendota Heights, the parent company of
Search401k, an online 401(k) research and distribution service,
said Thomas Plumb has been named president and CEO. Eric
Schneeman, the company's founder and former president and
CEO, will lead the company's sales, marketing and
client-services efforts.
*Cardinal Health, Dublin, Ohio, has signed an agreement with
Mayo Foundation, Rochester, making Cardinal's Allegiance
Healthcare subsidiary the exclusive provider of medical and
surgical products to Mayo's hospital and clinics in Minnesota,
Arizona and Florida.
*Ecolab Inc., St. Paul, has purchased certain operations of
Kleencare Hygiene, a subsidiary of LHS Holdings, Manchester,
England. Kleencare provides products, systems and services for
the food and beverage industry. Ecolab will acquire Kleencare
operations in the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and
the Netherlands with total annual sales of about $30 million.
*Heartland Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in
Minneapolis-based Ciprico Inc. to 3 percent, according to a
filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Heartland Advisors owned 484,000 Ciprico shares for a 9.6
percent stake as of Sept. 30.
*Alliant Techsystems Inc., Hopkins, said a joint venture
between its ATK Thiokol Propulsion Co. unit and United
Technologies Corporation's Pratt & Whitney Space & Missile
Propulsion subsidiary received a one-year, $191 million
contract option from TRW Inc. for the Air Force Minuteman
Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System Propulsion
Replacement Program. Alliant Techsystems said it will receive
about 60 percent of the contract value for its work as the joint
venture lead contractor.
*Warner Music International has selected Eagan-based
Wam!Net's Optical Media Solution to provide digital
transmission and delivery of the company's audio masters and
packaging graphics files from its studios in the United States,
United Kingdom and Japan to its manufacturing facilities in
Alsdorf, Germany.
*Medwave Inc., St. Paul, said it's Vasotrac APM205A device
for measuring blood pressure has been awarded the Seal of
Acceptance from the Alliance of Children's Hospitals. The
seal is awarded to products that have been judged to be safe and
effective for use in pediatric care.
*Genmar Holdings Inc., Minneapolis, has reached an
agreement with Deutsche Financial Services Corp. (DFS) and
Yamaha Motor Corp. USA to acquire complete ownership in
all senior secured loans made by DFS to Champion Boats Inc.
Under the DFS loan documents, the owner of the secured notes
holds a first-priority secured position in essentially all tangible
and intangible assets of Champion, including the brand names
Champion Boats and Back Country Boats. Terms of the
agreement were not disclosed.
*XOX Corp., Bloomington, has agreed to merge with Tele
Digital Development Inc., Minnetonka. Upon completion of
the merger, shareholders of XOX will own about 23 percent of
the merged company and Tele Digital shareholders will own
about 77 percent.
*Fraser Community Services, Minneapolis, has received a
$53,000 donation of Net services software from Novell Inc.
Fraser provides education and therapy services to people with
disabilities.
*The Sportsman's Guide Inc., South St. Paul, said its stock
was named the best-performing sporting goods industry stock
for 2001 by Sporting Goods Business. The Sportsman's Guide's
common stock appreciated 405.8 percent for the 12 months
ended Dec. 31, leading a group that included The Sports
Authority and Gart Sports.
*Multi-Tech Systems Inc., New Brighton, has earned ISO
9001 certification for its telephony, Internet/intranet access,
remote access and modem-product operations.
*Antares Pharma Inc., Exton, Pa., which has offices in
Minneapolis, has reached a license agreement with BioSante
Pharmaceuticals Inc. in which BioSante licensed from Antares
Pharma development and marketing rights to a transdermal
hormone replacement gel for use by women. The product
initially will be developed for the treatment of female sexual
dysfunction.
*Regis Corp., Edina, said December same-store sales at its
domestic salons rose 3.8 percent. The company said
consolidated revenue for December rose 10 percent to $133
million.
*Go Rachels.com Corp., Bloomington, and Target Corp.,
Minneapolis, will expand distribution of Go Rachels.com's
Archer Farms potato chip line. Go Rachels.com will
manufacture the potato chip line for about 320 more Target
stores beginning in April and about 30 more SuperTarget
stores by October. The Archer Farms line is distributed in
about 62 SuperTarget stores and 80 Target stores.
*RS Investment Management reported a 19.5 percent passive
stake in Victoria-based HEI Inc. The company said it
beneficially owned 1.16 million shares of HEI common stock as
of Friday.
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