WASHINGTON – Nine states, including Massachusetts, seeking stricter antitrust penalties against Microsoft Corp. asked a federal judge recently to reject the company’s proposal to delay hearings in the case until the summer, Bloomberg News reported. The states said in court papers filed Dec. 31 that the remedies phase of the 3 1/2-year-old case should be held in March as the judge has ordered. The company proposed delaying it until July or August. Evolving Funding Landscape for Not-for-Profits Not-for-profit organizations are being asked to do more with less,… The software company said on Dec. 21 that the delay is warranted because the nine states are seeking new penalties that amount to a “dramatic expansion” of the case. The nine states are seeking restrictions on Microsoft’s business practices that go beyond a proposed settlement signed by the Bush administration and nine other states. Among other changes, the states want Microsoft to forfeit control of its Internet Explorer browser. The other eight states that did not sign onto that settlement are Iowa, California, Connecticut, West Virginia, Utah, Minnesota, Kansas and Florida. Ionics, Inc. sells its water bottling operations WATERTOWN – Ionics Inc., a water-purification and treatment company, said it sold its Aqua Cool Pure Bottled Water operations to Nestle SA’s Perrier-Vittel unit for $220 million. The final purchase price is subject to adjustment based on the number of customers and working capital levels with $10 million of the proceeds to be held in escrow, Ionics said in a press release distributed by PR Newswire. Aqua Cool water is delivered to offices and homes in the U.S., the U.K. and France, generating more than $70 million a year in sales, Watertown, Massachusetts-based Ionics said. Company officials were not immediately available to comment. Vevey, Switzerland-based Nestle, the largest foodmaker, has purchased other mineral-water companies in the past year, including Aberfoyle Springs of Canada. Waters CEO Berthiaume to sell two million shares MILFORD – Waters Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Douglas Berthiaume will sell as many as two million shares of the lab instrument maker’s stock as part of a plan to sell some of his stock options, Bloomberg News reported. Beginning in February 2002, Berthiaume will be able to sell as many as 400,000 shares of Waters stock per quarter over the next two years until the maximum of 2 million shares has been reached. The move is part of a planned stock-selling program to allow for the sale of stock options that expire in 2004, the company said in a statement distributed by Business Wire. Shares of Waters have dropped 52 percent this year. BioTransplant study shows results fighting tumors CHARLESTOWN – BioTransplant Inc. said a study of its AlloMune system, combining an antibody treatment with a bone marrow transplant, showed promising tumor-fighting results in lymphoma patients, sending shares up as much as 13 percent, Bloomberg News reported. BioTransplant is testing its AlloMune treatment in patients with lymphoma, a cancer of the blood and lymphatic system, who have not benefited from other treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation. In most of the 18 patients studied, the treatment decreased tumor size, stopped progression of the cancer or led to a remission, said Elliot Lebowitz, BioTransplant’s chief executive officer. BioTransplant’s AlloMune system is designed to stimulate a cancer patient’s immune system through a bone marrow transplant method that mixes donor and patient bone marrow. As part of the treatment, the antibody MEDI-507 is given to suppress the immune response against the donor bone marrow. The mixed bone marrow transplant creates a “new immune system” that more aggressively attacks the cancer than the patient’s own immune system, Lebowitz said. “We are utilizing a natural biological process,” Lebowitz said. BioTransplant plans to test the AlloMune treatment in a larger trial next year. Implant Sciences to Form Explosives-Detection Unit WAKEFIELD – Implant Sciences Corp. said it is forming a unit that will make and sell equipment to detect explosives by their vapor, Bloomberg News reported. Implant Sciences said last month that it had developed an explosives-detection system for screening baggage and people at airports. The system is 100 to 1,000 times more sensitive than the abilities of explosives-sniffing dogs, the company said. Leo Krasnobaev, who developed the equipment, will head the new unit. Implant Sciences’ Chief Executive Officer Anthony Armini cited an incident last weekend in which a passenger is suspected of attempting to ignite explosives in his shoes on an American Airlines flight. Armini said the incident demonstrated the need for new bomb-detection equipment. The new division will eventually be a wholly owned subsidiary of Implant Sciences. (Compiled from news reports and releases, print and electronic.)
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