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Cliffs Natural Resources plans to build a $1.8-billion chromite processing facility near Capreol, north of Sudbury. The move is expected to employ 450 people during the smelter's construction, and as many as 450 people when the facility is in operation. An additional 750 jobs could be created with the development of the company's Black Thor mine property located in the Ring of Fire, as well as its mill development, and construction and operation of transportation infrastructure.
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Few people know the Atlantic Canada region is a leader in cancer research, says the director of the Atlantic Cancer Research Institute. Rodney Ouellette made the comment during a presentation in Halifax that outlined some of the newest developments in the battle against the disease. The institute’s researchers are working toward early detection for many cancers including prostate, colon, ovarian and lung cancer, Ouellette said. And finding ways to catch cancers in their earliest stages is the goal for the institute’s researchers.
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Medtronic CryoCath, part of Ontario-based Medtronic of Canada, a subsidiary of Minnesota-based Medtronic will receive $15 million from the Quebec government contribution toward a $50-million expansion of its research, training and manufacturing operations in Montreal. The grant is being made through Investissement Québec. The project will provide more than 200 new jobs at two facilities in Montreal, said Neil Fraser, president of Medtronics of Canada.
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Encana Corp said Japan’s Toyota Tsusho Corp will buy a royalty interest in its southern Alberta natural gas field for $602 million as depressed dry gas prices force the company to cut spending or look for partners. Encana said in February that it would sell a 40% stake in its British Columbia gas field to Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp in a $2.9 billion deal. Toyota Tsusho, part of Toyota Motor Corp, paid $100 million and will invest about $502 million over seven years to buy a 32.5% royalty interest in about 4,000 existing wells and 1,500 potential drilling locations.
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Canada's banks are collectively the soundest in the world, according to Moody's Investors Service, which recommended the financial institutions to jittery global investors. The agency rated all of Canada's big banks at double-A2 or better, higher than bank rankings in the U.S., Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and other areas of the world. Canada's big banks also posted good results in the first quarter of 2012, the agency noted. "The combination of strong underlying credit fundamentals, a prudent regulatory environment, sound government fiscal management policies, and a more stable real estate market have all contributed to the superior standing of Canada's banks," senior director Allerton Smith said in the report.
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John Lutz, president of IBM Canada announced a research and innovation partnership between the governments of Canada and Ontario, the University of Toronto, Western University and IBM Canada. The company is launching its first formal R&D lab in Canada through a $175-million investment over the next 21 months in a consortium with seven Ontario universities, the company said.
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Renewable energy specialists Natural Forces Technologies acquired the business and assets of Wind Prospect. The acquisition is in line with the Dartmouth firms mandate to bring renewable energy to the Maritimes through partnerships with local and international firms. Wind Prospect, the Canadian arm of U.K.-based Wind Prospect Group, set up its offices in Halifax and Vancouver in 2006.
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Toyota says it is increasing RAV4 production at its Woodstock, Ont. assembly plant. The company now expects to increase its annual capacity to 200,000 vehicles in the facility by early 2013, an increase from a target of 150,000 in 2012. The company says the $80 million investment will result in about 400 new jobs. Currently, the plant has about 2,000 workers.
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Merck Canada is partnering with Lumira Capital and other venture capital firms to launch a multimillion-dollar R&D fund to attract pharmaceutical firms to Quebec. The Montreal-based subsidiary of the U.S. pharmaceutical giant is set to announce an investment to create the Merck-Lumira BioScience Fund. The fund will initially be worth several tens of millions of dollars, The Canadian Press has learned. Merck has committed to investment $100 million through 2015 in biopharmaceutical R&D collaborations with Quebec-based companies and academic institutions.
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Nufarm and Sumitomo Chemical Co. announced new distribution arrangements for Canada and three European countries. In Canada, Nufarm Agriculture will sell crop protection and specialty products of Sumitomo-owned companies Valent USA Corp. and Valent BioSciences Corp. The agreement expands their distribution partnership launched in 2011 when Nufarm Agriculture began selling Valent’s Valtera herbicide.
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Commodities trader Glencore, backed by partners Richardson International and Agrium, has agreed to buy Canada’s Viterra in a cash deal valuing the country’s largest grain handler at $6.1 billion. Glencore said the deal had been unanimously approved by Viterra’s board. The price, broadly in line with market expectations after days of speculation, amounts to a 48% premium over Viterra’s closing price on March 8, the day before it announced it had received expressions of interest. Glencore, which is in the throes of a long-awaited $36-billion takeover of miner Xstrata, already markets and produces crops as well as metals, minerals and oil, but it has earmarked agricultural commodities as an area for growth.
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The vast majority of shareholders of Canadian communications equipment maker RuggedCom have tendered their stock to a takeover offer from Siemens Canada. Siemens will now move to buy the rest of the shares under the “compulsory acquisition” rules available to it. Siemens, which is paying about $400-million for RuggedCom, has promised to keep the Canadian company intact, while giving it access to the German company’s massive international operations.
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Ottawa moved to open the door to foreign ownership and smaller players in an effort to boost competition in the Canadian telecom industry. Industry Minister Christian Paradis says the new measures will allow new wireless carriers into the market and foster greater competition in the telecom industry after a spectrum auction expected in 2013. The changes to the auction rules will let at least four companies obtain spectrum in each of Canada’s 14 licence areas, effectively making one block available for one of the smaller players. As well, companies with less than 10% of the telecom market will no longer have restrictions on foreign investment.
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Wooshii, an online marketplace for video and animation, has chosen Halifax as its North American base of operation, citing the city's location, infrastructure and talent pool as deciding factors. The branch of the Manchester-based business will house a development team and an agency team, and manage the network of account managers throughout North America. Its newly appointed president, Paul Ryan, is a veteran of highly respected New Brunswick social media company Radian6, and its seed investors were two Albertans, Timo Ewalds, founder of social-media site Nexopia, and Mike Sikorsky, co-founder of such start-ups as Cambrian House and Robots and Pencils.
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An Eastern Ontario steel mill is planning an $80-million expansion, federal officials said. Ivaco Rolling will add as many as 50 jobs to its current workforce of about 425 as it adds capacity to produce steel billets and wire rod. Ivaco was established as a rolling mill in the early 1970s and became a full steel mill in 1975, recycling steel scrap from Ottawa, Montreal and other sites. It was acquired in 2004 by Heico Holdings, a U.S.-based investment firm, and has become a major supplier of wire rod used in mining and construction and the automotive and oil and gas industries.
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Hitachi Construction Truck Manufacturing is expanding its Canadian operation by more than doubling the size of its work force in Guelph, and boosting its output of giant mining trucks by almost 100%. The company says the presence of a skilled and veteran work force at the plant, which Hitachi purchased in 2000, is the reason for expanding in Canada rather than in Mexico. The Japan-based company’s strategy stands in contrast to the wave of plant closings that has affected southern Ontario -- notably the shutdown by Caterpillar of its Electro-Motive Diesel Canada locomotive factory in London.
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North American arts and crafts specialty retailer, Michaels, is investing $20 million to open seven stores in Quebec this fall and create 600 new jobs. The majority of the big boxstyle outlets, the first in the province, will be located in the Montreal area, the company said. Michaels Canada president Tom Making said the Texas-based firm has long-recognized the growth opportunities in the Quebec market and has been preparing for its entry into the province for the past two years.
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In a bid to strengthen its recent entry into the mobile broadband market, Swedish telecom giant Ericsson acquired BelAir Networks for an undisclosed amount. Ottawa-based BelAir has raised approximately $43 million in VC funding since it was founded 10 years ago to create wireless Internet technology for cellphone carriers. Ericsson launched its own carrier-grade WiFi solution last September and is adding the Canadian technology to help meet growing demand. BelAir makes both indoor and outdoor WiFi products, which AT&T and other major wireless carriers have already started to deploy.
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Mustus Energy will be working with Lockheed Martin to build a new 41.5 MW biomass-fuelled power generation plant in La Crete, Alberta. Lockheed Martin will manage the construction of the plant, which is planned to commence this spring. The biomass facility is expected to begin commercial operations by the fall of 2013, and will provide base-load electrical power to the Alberta grid.
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Encana is selling a major stake in its B.C. gas assets to Mitsubishi, announcing the $2.9-billion deal on the same day it posted a net loss of almost $250 million for the fourth quarter. The agreement will see the integrated Japanese global business enterprise take a 40% interest in the Cutbank Ridge Partnership. The partnership holds about 409,000 net acres of Encana's undeveloped Montney-formation natural gas lands in northeastern B.C. with proved undeveloped reserves of approximately 900 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent. Mitsubishi is to pay $1.45 billion on closing.
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The gap between healthy banks and those that remain in the doldrums will fuel acquisition activity in the coming years, a Virginia investment management firm predicts. FJ Capital Management published an updated version of a 2011 white paper that argues an M&A wave is coming, even though the activity last year was a letdown. In 2011, 159 open-bank deals were announced, down from 175 in 2010. The rebound could even eclipse 1994, a blockbuster year for M&A following the economic downturn of the late 1980s and early 1990s. That year 526 deals were announced.
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Industrial giant General Electric has opened a new $50 million aircraft engine testing and R&D centre in Winnipeg that could eventually create up to 50 jobs. The U.S. company said the centre will be run by joint venture partner StandardAero and will perform icing certification testing and develop other tests and equipment for GE Aviation's aircraft engines.
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Fujitsu Canada, a unit of Japan-based Fujitsu, is buying TMC, a business and IT consulting company based in Saskatchewan. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed. "The acquisition of TMC enhances Fujitsu Canada's offerings and consolidates its presence in Saskatchewan, a province that has experienced major economic growth," said Andre Pouliot, president of Montreal-based Fujitsu Canada. TMC has about 70 employees. David Luterbach, president of TMC, said the deal will help boost growth for both companies.
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McKesson Corp. announced that it is buying a few units of Katz Group, a private Canadian company that operates a retail pharmacy network, in a deal worth $920 million. Specifically, McKesson is buying Drug Trading Company, which has a marketing and purchasing arm for a network of over 850 independent pharmacies that primarily operate under the I.D.A. and Guardian brands, and Medicine Shoppe Canada, which runs a franchise business that provides services to 160 independent pharmacies.
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Siemens will buy RuggedCom, a Canadian maker of data communications networks systems, for about $382 million, to improve access to markets in North America and the Asia-Pacific region. The deal is Siemens' largest since it took over Israeli solar thermal fields maker Solel for $418 million in 2009. Anton Huber, CEO of Siemens Industry Automation division, said the acquisition of RuggedCom would improve Siemens' router and switch products.
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McKesson Canada, a subsidiary of U.S.-based McKesson Corporation, is investing $25 million into a distribution business in Moncton, N.B., that will serve the Maritime region. McKesson Canada is moving to a new distribution centre in Moncton’s Caledonia Industrial Park, where it will employ 90 people. The new centre will hire 40 new workers on top of the 50 existing employees the company had at its previous facility. The company says its distribution centres supply 40% of the medicines used in Canada to 6,300 retail pharmacies and 1,350 hospitals, clinics and institutions.
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Radio frequency products manufacturer Mitec Telecom has agreed to a reverse takeover by Israel-based Optiway, the Montreal company said. Mitec shareholders will own between 30% and 40% of the combined company. Financial details weren't provided. Mitec is looking for growth opportunities to exploit its infrastructure and background knowledge in wireless technology, Mandel said. The agreement still requires shareholder and regulatory approvals in both Canada and Israel.
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Canadian technology to help manage mobile phone bill shock has attracted attention from a major U.S. software firm. Anomalous Networks, a Montreal-based provider of real-time telecom expense management software, was purchased by Tangoe. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, although a regulatory filing made by the Connecticut-based acquirer said the offer included a combination of cash and stock worth approximately US$9 million. Anomalous offers a free app for consumers as well as a paid version for businesses.
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Xerox Corp., a Conn.-based printing company, acquired LaserNetworks, an Oakville, Ont.-based provider of managed print services. Although financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, Industry Canada filings note LaserNetworks has annual revenues ranging between $10-million and $25-million, suggesting the final price tag would be above the high end of that range. Since being founded in 1987, LaserNetworks has been named Profit Magazine’s fastest growing company three times and currently has 189 employees. Under the terms of the deal, founder Chris Stoate will continue to lead the company as the top executive of a Xerox Canada subsidiary.
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Windstream Wolfe Island Shoals said it has signed a binding agreement with Siemens to supply as many as 130 turbines for a 300 MW offshore wind power project on Lake Ontario. The turbine blades will be manufactured at Siemens’ factory in Tillsonburg, Ontario, the company said.
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Alexion Pharmaceuticals agreed to acquire closely held Montreal’s Enobia Pharma Corp. for as much as $1.08 billion, adding experimental treatments for genetic metabolic disorders. Alexion will pay $610 million in cash upfront for Enobia, and as much as $470 million in addition if certain regulatory and sales goals are achieved, the Connecticut-based company said. The companies said they expect the deal to close in the first quarter of 2012.
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The work of McGill University computer science professor Jérôme Waldispuhl is allowing video game players to advance science's understanding of the genetic basis of such illnesses as Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and cancer. The Web-based video game that Waldispuhl's team has designed, called Phylo, allows players to contribute to scientific research by arranging sequences of coloured blocks that represent DNA. These DNA sequences provide researchers with insight into genetically based diseases. Waldispuhl started about a year ago and has had more than 500,000 visits to the website and has provided a huge pool of about 350,000 solutions to help improve the alignment for 521 genes
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Toyota Tsusho Corp. (TTC), the trading unit of Asia’s largest auto maker, has agreed to buy all of Montreal-based Matamec Explorations’s output from its Kipawa mine deposit in the Témiscamingue region of Quebec. The non-binding deal between TTC and Matamec is conditional on conclusive results from a feasibility study of the economics of the Kipawa project. TTC is paying $17.5 million for its position, which will give it a supply of metals needed for its hybrid and electric vehicles.
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Montreal's Enerkem, a developer of thermochemical technology that converts municipal solid waste into syngas, said U.S. Waste Management Inc. and EB Investments are investing $15 million for a minority equity stake in Enerkem Alberta Biofuels, now building an Edmonton biofuels plant. The total raised by Enerkem for the project this year is $103 million, including contributions from Alberta Innovates, the City of Edmonton and Alberta Energy. "This is a further validation of Enerkem's strategy and strong position in the cellulosic ethanol sector." CEO Vincent Chornet said. "The plant will be among the first full-scale advanced biofuels facilities to be built in North America."
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Canadian researchers have invented a device that could make it easier, faster and cheaper to track the progression of HIV in patients living in the developing world. A team led by Rakesh Nayyar, University of Toronto student James Dou, and Stewart Aitchison, has created a portable device that uses a computer chip with software capable of analysing blood tests outside the lab. The team's portable cell analyzer makes it possible for healthcare workers to monitor HIV patients in remote areas by testing their blood on the spot and receiving results within minutes, Nayyar explained.
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March Networks, a Kanata-based developer of video surveillance technology, revealed it had agreed to be acquired by Infinova , a unit of Shenzhen Infinova of China, for $90 million. This was the culmination of nearly six months of searching by March Networks for a way out of an impasse. Even before March Networks’ board of directors decided last June to canvass a range of options — from mergers to private equity transactions — the company’s CEO Peter Strom had been discussing a business arrangement with Infinova, which generates the majority of its sales in China.
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Canada's economic, fiscal and financial strengths are helping to increase business investment in the country, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said. Flaherty said that Canada’s strong economic fundamentals, sound fiscal management and well-supervised financial sector support increasing business investment. Flaherty cited international recognition of Canada’s financial sector leadership, noting that for four consecutive years the World Economic Forum has rated Canada’s banking system as the world’s soundest.
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Fujitsu Canada has launched the Fujitsu Innovation Center in Quebec City, a $20 million initiative that will create 50 jobs and could lead to the creation of other specialized jobs in the years to come. A $14 million over three years has been made by Fujitsu, headquartered in Tokyo. The Fujitsu Innovation Center is a collaborative space where business partners and customers will work with Fujitsu specialists to put ideas into practice and build business solutions. “The work there is different from that of an R&D center,” explained Mr. Giroux, senior vice-president and director of Fujitsu’s Quebec City office. “The work involves prototyping or demonstrations,” he says Fujitsu estimates that it will develop some 20 initiatives in cooperation with about ten partners in its innovation center by March 2014, innovation being one of the key elements of its development strategy.
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Rio Tinto Alcan is pushing ahead with construction of a US$3.3-billion smelter in Kitimat, B.C., even as stagnant prices have spurred a selloff of other aluminum assets. London-based Rio Tinto, which acquired Montreal-based aluminum giant Alcan for $38.1 billion in 2007, is expected to announce it has final approval to modernize the 57-year-old smelter to double its capacity. Approval will see Rio spend another $2.7 billion on Kitimat, after already setting aside $650 million towards the upgrade, raising the construction price tag more than 30% from $2.5 billion. The project, said to be one of the largest private-sector investments in the province in many years, will create hundreds of jobs and will be a economic boon for the depressed northwestern region after the collapse of the forest industry.
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Hamilton, Ont.-based Bermingham Foundation Solutions Ltd. has secured "a significant investment" from the world's largest construction company, chairman and fourth-generation owner Patrick Bermingham has announced. Its new strategic partner, Soletanche Freyssinet, is part of the VINCI group, a Paris-based, publicly traded company that employs 180,000 people in about 100 countries. Bermingham is a foundation and marine specialty contractor, with a focus on the transportation, energy and mining markets.
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A $70-million joint project between the private sector and the government of Quebec has been announced to develop more energy-efficient technology. The initiative, called Equation, will bring together six ICT companies working on similar projects having to do with cloud computing and smart meters. Each of the companies will undertake their own projects. However, the non-profit company, Prompt, which forges partnerships between the industry and university research, will coordinate much of the work. The participating companies are CGI, Ericsson, Fujitsu Canada, IBM, Miranda Technologies, and Teledyne DALSA. They will invest a total of $40 million into the project.
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Trying to move beyond its thin client business, Wyse Technology has acquired Montreal’s Trellia Network, a mobile device management company focused on helping companies deal with the consumerization trend. Trellia will become a subsidiary of San Jose, Calif.-based Wyse, the companies announced. The acquisition has been in the works for about six months.
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Mining company Vale says its plan to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions in Sudbury will create 1,300 new jobs. Angie Robson, speaking for the company, said Vale's $2 billion Atmospheric Emissions Reduction project will create many new jobs and reduce Vale's emissions by 70%. The project is expected to be approved by Vale's board of directors by the end of the year.
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Eidos, the video game studio known for its Tomb Raider and Deus Ex franchises, is expanding its Montreal operations and creating 250 new jobs. Eidos Montreal said it will build a new development centre next year and create 150 jobs and expand its current operations, adding another 100 jobs. Eidos Montreal said 100 of the jobs will be to create a new video game as well as R&D on gaming platforms. The other 150 jobs will be part of the new Eidos studio in Montreal. The technology company is now part of Japan's Square Enix video game publisher.
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Huawei Technologies, which now employs more than 120 researchers, developers and engineers at its R&D centre in Kanata, announced it will double that number to 250 employees in the next 18 months, according to its president, Sean Yang. Huawei has more than 400 employees in Canada at present, including its headquarters in Markham, Ont., and branch offices in Montreal and Edmonton. “It’s quite good for a business environment, compared to the United States,” Mr. Yang said, calling Canadian minds more open and its governments more accommodating. “It is a very flexible culture and at the same time there is very good talent in human resources.”
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Honda announced it will begin manufacturing the 2012 CR-V compact sports utility vehicles in Alliston, Ont., in early 2012. The Japanese automaker said it had hired 400 workers to accommodate the new vehicle line, and would produce all CR-Vs sold in Canada there. The news of increased production in Alliston will be welcomed after a difficult year in which Honda’s North American plants have been hampered by parts supply issues first in the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and most recently by the flooding in Thailand. Honda has reduced production by up 50% at its North American plants throughout November, including in Alliston, where Honda currently employs 4,200 workers.
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Two Canada-U.K. research teams have been funded through the Canada/UK Partnership on Antibiotic Resistance, a collaboration between the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the U.K. Medical Research Council. The partnership's aim is to stimulate high quality research on innovative alternatives to existing antibiotics. Both teams, composed of researchers from Canada and the U.K., will receive more than $7 million over four years from CIHR and MRC. They will be working to find new targets for antibacterial drugs and new ways to prevent or stop the spread of drug resistant infections in hospitals and other health care settings.
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Illinois-based Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) says it will construct a biodiesel plant in Alberta. Construction on the biodiesel plant will start in April 2012, and be completed in the fourth quarter of 2013. The new plant with a capacity of 265 million litres will be located adjacent to ADM's existing canola crushing facility in Lloydminster which will help optimize the company's agricultural origination, transportation and processing assets in Canada.
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Les Laboratoires Servier, France, and Prognomix, Canada, announced that they have entered into a R&D agreement aimed at identifying novel targets as part of programs meant to develop innovative type 2 diabetes and metabolic disease treatment. As part of the agreement, Servier will make a contract signature fee payment and will be granted options to obtain rights to use the results of the collaboration.
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A Japanese e-commerce company has reached a deal to acquire Canadian e-reader and tablet maker Kobo in a USD$315-million deal that represents a huge vote of confidence in the technology company on the international stage. The acquisition by Rakuten provides a sizable windfall for Indigo Books & Music and a vindication of CEO Heather Reisman’s decision to invest in e-reader technology, creating Kobo and then spinning it off into a separate company. Tokyo-based Rakuten’s agreement to acquire 100% of Kobo’s total issued and outstanding shares will equal a more than 300% return on Indigo’s investment. Kobo will maintain its headquarters in Toronto. Its management team, including Mr. Serbinis, and Canadian employees will remain with the business.
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UPS says it will expand its Canadian network by opening its own operations in Atlantic Canada next April, creating about 250 jobs. The package delivery giant said it will begin pickup and delivery services in Moncton and Halifax, replacing its current agent. UPS says it will add other cities to the network later in 2012. The expansion involves a multimillion-dollar investment from the company based in Mississauga which is part of the UPS, a global package delivery company based in Atlanta, Ga.
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Aluminerie Alouette on Quebec’s Lower North Shore is pushing ahead with a $2-billion expansion of the facility after clinching a low-cost electricity deal with the province. Quebec Premier Jean Charest announced the agreement in which Hydro-Québec is to provide the Alouette consortium with a 500-megawatt block of power. Alouette, North America’s biggest aluminum smelter, is 40% owned by Rio Tinto Alcan; the balance is held by Investissement Québec and four other investors; Hydro Aluminium Canada, Aluminium Austria Metall Québec and Marubeni America Corporation.
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L'Aluminerie Alouette a annoncé s'être entendue avec Québec pour l'octroi d'un nouveau bloc d'énergie, un accord qui permettra l'expansion de la plus grande aluminerie en Amérique du Nord. Le nouveau bloc d'énergie est une condition importante à la troisième phase de l'expansion, laquelle représenterait un investissement de plus de deux milliards de dollars sur 15 ans et entraînerait la création de 1500 emplois dans la province. Alouette est une coentreprise détenue à 40% par Rio Tinto Alcan. Ses autres actionnaires comprennent Investissement Québec, Hydro Aluminium Canada, Aluminium Austria Metall Québec et Marubeni America Corporation.
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Merck completed a $33.2 million expansion of its Pointe Claire facility in Quebec that will increase the plant's international competitiveness and preserve local jobs, according to the Montreal Gazette. A warehouse was built at the site and the company has installed manufacturing equipment at the plant which will enable it to make 14 new products. The facility is one of the locations in Merck's global network outside of the U.S. to have received QSP-2 certification from the U.S. FDA, which permits Canadian products to be exported to the U.S.
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Genome Alberta announced that it is leading a group of funding partners on two large-scale genomics projects which will help improve Canada's livestock sector. These projects build on Genome Alberta's Applied Livestock Genomics Program which was launched in Dec. 2010. The work will lead to new strategies for disease control in addition to new drugs, improved vaccines, and a safer food chain by reducing the use of antibiotics. Funders for the projects include Genome Canada, Genome Alberta, the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency, PigGen Canada, Genome Prairie, an international consortium led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Western Economic Development, and a number of international agencies and organizations.
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EDF EN Canada, a subsidiary of France-based EDF Energies Nouvelles, announced it has obtained the “Decret” from the Government of Quebec authorizing the construction and operation of the 150 MW Massif du Sud wind project. With an investment of close to $350 million, the project will create about 200 jobs during the construction phase, and 8 to 10 permanent operation and maintenance jobs. The project, located in the municipalities of Saint-Luc-de-Bellechasse and Saint-Magloire in the MRC des Etchemins and in the municipalities of Notre-Dame-Auxiliatrice-de-Buckland and Saint-Philémon in the MRC de Bellechasse, will generate green energy to power the equivalent of over 30,000 Quebec homes.
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Calif.-based Adobe Systems announced its acquisition of Vancouver-based developer, Nitobi Software, creator of PhoneGap. PhoneGap is a tool that allows developers to code once and author native apps in multiple mobile environments. Paul Gubbay, vice president of product development for design, web and interactive at Adobe calls PhoneGap a natural fit. Dave Johnson, CTO of Vancouver based-Nitobi Software, agrees, despite the fact that Nitobi went about it in a different way, making PhoneGap open source and allowing the community to contribute.
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Q1 Labs, a firm that started as a University of New Brunswick student's work project, was acquired by IBM. Q1 Labs joins Radian6 as the second deal involving one of the province's tech startups. Radian6 was sold to Salesforce.com in March for $276 million plus $50 million in stock. Q1 Labs has two R&D offices in New Brunswick, one in Fredericton and the other in Saint John, as well as one in Ireland. Q1 Labs CEO Brendan Hannigan, who will head up the newly formed IBM security systems division, said his firm caught IBM's eye because of the hard work done in New Brunswick.
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Site Selection magazine has ranked the province of Ontario as Canada's most competitive province in an annual review of best places for investment and business development. Ontario received top rankings for the efficacy of its regional economic development groups; and four Ontario municipalities: Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor and London, are ranked among the leading Canadian metro areas in corporate facility development.
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Researchers Dr. Carl Douglas and Dr. Shawn Mansfield, both at UBC, are using genomics to enhance breeding and selection of poplar trees to improve their potential as a biofuel resource. The researchers are using genomics to study tree growth at the molecular level, to develop short-rotation, fast-growing trees that can grow in a variety of climates across Canada, and produce wood that can be more readily converted to biofuel while minimizing the ecological footprint. Genome BC has funded the POPCAN project as part of Genome Canada’s 2010 Large-Scale Applied Research Project Competition.
