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Cary’s Carpio Lands $10 Million Investment
Carpio Solutions (www.carpio.com), the Cary-based software-services provider, recently closed $10 million from Palladium Equity Partners in New York. The funds will be used to make acquisitions in Brazil and the U.S.

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SIMtone Buys Aspeed Software
SIMtone Corporation (www.simtone.net), the Durham-based seller of virtual desktop computing technology, purchased Aspeed Software, a New York-based company that sells application acceleration and optimization software. Terms were not disclosed.

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Get Interactive Set for First Offering
Get Interactive (www.getinteractive.tv) will launch its interactive product-placement technology to consumers in various media within the next several weeks. The Winston-Salem company’s technology allows providers and creators of digital content to link brand name product placements to a separate advertising pitch. Get Interactive has signed deals with Universal Music Group and video-game maker Sega, with more in progress.

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NCSU, Partners, Receive Grant for Fuel Generation
Researchers from N.C. State University (www.ncsu.edu), RTI International (www.rti.org) and the University of Utah (www.utah.edu) received a three-year, $3.2-million research grant from U.S. Department of Energy. The project – a result of the newly formed Research Triangle Energy Consortium – will attempt to create liquid fuels from biomass products like sawdust or bark, prove that large-scale biofuels production technology can be performed, and establish that the process is cheaper than extracting ethanol from corn.

North Carolina State University and RTI are CED members.

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State Announces Transportation Energy Center
Gov. Mike Easley announced last week a joint venture with Progress Energy and Duke Energy to form a new center at North Carolina State University to create technology and infrastructure for plug-in hybrid cars. The Advanced Transportation Energy Center will be located at Centennial Campus.

Duke Energy Carolinas and Progress Energy are CED members.

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GlaxoSmithKline Refuses State Incentives
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK, www.gsk.com)declined at least $1.4 million in state incentives related to the expansion of its manufacturing plant in Zebulon. GSK did not think it could meet the requirements of the incentive plan in light of the global pharma company’s recently announced worldwide, three-year restructuring plan which included significant job cuts. Temporary and contract employees have already been laid off at the plant.

GlaxoSmithKline is a CED member.

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Biotech Center Funds Biology Lab at Mount Olive College
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center (www.ncbiotech.org) presented a $71,000 grant to Mount Olive College to fund construction of cell and molecular biology lab at the school, located just south of Goldsboro. Plans are already under way for developing the curriculum for a course in cell physiology and establishing a minor in biotechnology to be offered as early as 2008 fall semester.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center is a CED member.

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State Launches Green Business Grant Program
Tar Heel entrepreneurs can apply for $1 million in new grants to foster eco-friendly and alternative technologies from the Green Business Fund, announced last week by Gov. Mike Easley. Businesses with under 100 employees are eligible for a maximum of $100,000 per grant. The deadline for grant applications is April 30. More information is available at www.ncscienceandtechnology.com/.

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CED Releases a New On Demand Resource for Entrepreneurs
StartUps24/7 (www.startups247.com) provides access to the best-of-breed content that is created annually through CED’s 150+ forums, conferences, roundtables and workshops. Updated weekly, StartUps24/7 provides expert-moderated forums, publications and hands-on business development tools.

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Project to Explore the Impacts, Challenges and Opportunities of Globalization
The N.C. Rural Economic Development Center (www.ncruralcenter.org) is currently working on a project to explore the impacts, challenges and opportunities that exist in North Carolina as a result of globalization. To better understand the experiences and thoughts of people across the state, they are conducting a short survey on globalization and would like your help. The survey should take approximately five minutes to complete and all responses to the survey are anonymous. A link to the survey on the Rural Center's home page under “What's New?” The results of the survey will be available from the Rural Center later this year. For more information, contact Catherine Moga Bryant, senior research associate at the Rural Center, cmoga@ncruralcenter.org.

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Events Update

8/26 Entrepreneurs Only Workshop™: Service Provider Vs. Service Partner
9/09 Entrepreneurs Only Workshop™: Doing Your Due Diligence
9/12 CFO Roundtable: Raising Venture Capital

 

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