Brown & Sharpe for sale
NORTH KING-STOWN – Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing, which specializes in tools and equipment for precise measurements, is actively seeking a merger or buyout, according to a report in last Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal. Brown & Sharpe’s stock has suffered over the last two years, dropping to $2.75 a share as of last Wednesday, some 85 percent below its spring 1998 level. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company has said it might close if it’s unable to merge or find a buyer.
In the first half of this year the company posted a $15.4 million net loss. Some analysts believe, however, that there’s life in Brown & Sharpe and are predicting the company will find a buyer or merger partner, the article said.
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Texas Instruments sells division
ATTLEBORO – Texas Instruments last week said it is selling its Materials & Controls Engineered Materials business to a Cleveland private equity investment fund, Blue Point Capital Partners. The division employs about 450, some 10 percent of Texas Instrument’s Attleboro workforce. The company said the division and workers will remain in Attleboro at the site.
Stanley Fastening Layoffs
EAST GREENWICH – Stanley Fastening Systems, a subsidiary of The Stanley Works of New Britain, Conn., sent lay off notices to more than 56 workers in late August. It was the latest layoff over a two-year period, reducing the workforce over that period of time by 38 percent to about 850.
It is also part of The Stanley Works restructuring, which was initiated some time ago to reduce costs and increase efficiencies.
Stanley Fastening makes pneumatic nailers, staples and nails. Stanley Works is a well-known name in tools, doors and related hardware.
Oil, gas prices rising
Home heating oil is on the rise, up five cents a gallon last week to an average of $1.439, according to the state’s Energy office. A year ago the cost was 96 cents per gallon, nearly 50 cents less than last week.
Gasoline prices, which were stable for a few weeks and even had dropped some, rose a penny last week. The average for regular unleaded, self-service was $1.649 a gallon A year ago it was $1.289.
Gates foundation awards $20 million to Rhode Island schools
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving $20 million to Rhode Island schools, most to Providence ($13.5 million) in support of Superintendent Diana Lam’s plan, called “Rekindling the Dream” that links literacy to the dropout rate. Lam has been an advisor to the foundation.
Coventry is also receiving $3 million and the originators of the “Met Center,” a school-to-work school in Providence, will receive $3.5 million to create a network of similar smaller high schools elsewhere in the country.
Coventry intends to use the funds to put teacher-coaches in schools and to connect students in that system with the schools’ computer network.
The $3.5 million goes to Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor in the Bit Picture Co., which created the Met School, a concept of linking the classroom to work situations.
Justice Weisberger to retire
Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger of the state Supreme Court said recently that he plans to retire either at the end of the year or next July, ending a 44-year judicial career.
Weisberger, who turned 80 last month, was appointed to the Superior Court in 1953, after serving as town solicitor in Glocester, town moderator in East Providence and as a state Senator for three years. He was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1978, became its acting chief justice in 1993 and was named chief justice two years later.
He is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School.
Neurotech to unveil new R&D facility in Lincoln
LINCOLN – Rhode Island’s fledgling high technology community is about to get a bit bigger.
Next Wednesday, Sept. 20, Neurotech USA, Inc. will open a state-of-the-art, 7,000 square-foot research and development facility in Lincoln.
Neurotech USA and Neurotech France collectively employ 38 highly skilled scientists, engineers and managers focused on developing encapsulated cell-based therapies to treat a number of devastating diseases and conditions, including eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration. Neurotech acquired Encapsulated Cell Technology (ECT) intellectual property assets from CytoTherapeutics in December 1999. Neurotech USA, Inc. will focus on the development of ECT at its Rhode Island facility.
Grand opening ceremonies will include the introduction of Neurotech USA President and Chief Executive Officer Thomas Shepherd, who is currently in the process of moving his family to Lincoln. Members of Neurotech USA’s Board of Directors, management, and research and development teams, as well as representatives of Rhode Island’s academic, biotechnology and medical communities are also expected to attend the ceremonies.
