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Mergers & Acquisitions April 12, 2018

New parent for veteran Ronkonkoma machinist

By GREGORY ZELLER // An established Long Island machine shop with three decades of professional output has been acquired by an Ohio-based aerospace manufacturer – but will continue operating in its longtime Colt Court home, albeit under a new flag. DRT Power Systems LLC, on Ohio-based manufacturer with a number of shops in its national portfolio, has added another in Ronkonkoma-based H&H Technologies, a circa-1990 precision machinist offering a full slate of manufacturing-related services. Financial…

Startups April 11, 2018

Filling a modest plate, sweetly, at startup Foodcubate

By AMY ONORATO // The food industry is Anna Kotler’s bread and butter. The 20-year marketing veteran built her career working on brand development for food-focused Fortune 500 companies like Campbell’s Soup Co. and Conagra Brands Inc. – but when it came to defining her own recipe for success, Kotler wasn’t satisfied with the corporate climate’s structured lifestyle. “After working for those big packaged-food companies, I wanted a little more flexibility in my schedule,” Kotler…

Analysis April 10, 2018

‘Adaptive reuse’ makes its mark on Long Island (sorta)

By GREGORY ZELLER // “Adaptive reuse” is on the rise, bringing new life to outmoded infrastructure and new hope to struggling regional economies. That’s the big takeaway from a new “topical report” by Canadian commercial real estate services firm Avison Young, which maintains dozens of satellite offices across the United States and its north-of-the-border home country, including a big one in Melville. The report, “Adaptive Reuse Projects: What’s Old is New Again,” is basically an…

Startups April 9, 2018

Rethinking the science of business (and clean energy)

By AMY ONORATO // Becoming an entrepreneur introduced Slowa Solovyov to a new way of thinking about science – a mindset incorporating business and marketing factors that went beyond straight research and development. For Solovyov, who had spent the previous 20 years pursuing superconductor research at Brookhaven National Laboratory, it was a challenge. And it would answer the question: What happens when a scientist wants to become an entrepreneur? Solovyov – also chief scientist at…

Health April 9, 2018

Island epilepsy centers earn national reaccreditation

By GREGORY ZELLER // The National Association of Epilepsy Centers has re-upped five Northwell Health epilepsy programs, including three on Long Island. The Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Manhasset’s North Shore University Hospital, the Pediatric Epilepsy Center at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park and the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at Lenox Hill Hospital, located in Manhattan, have all earned NAEC Level 4 reaccreditation. That designation means each center provides complex neuro-diagnostic monitoring, complete evaluations…

Startups April 6, 2018

Harvesting cash crops on a sprouting ‘urban farm’

By AMY ONORATO // Don DiLillo’s entrepreneurial journey doesn’t begin in a boardroom, but a basement – in his parents’ basement, on homemade shelves, in boxes of soil and seeds. In 2016, DiLillo was a 23-year-old working steadily for Empire LED Solutions in Farmingdale. But outside of the lighting-technology business, he was an agriculture enthusiast, a passion ignited over summers working the land at Ronkonkoma’s Thera Farms and cultivated at night, when DiLillo enjoyed YouTube…

Gizmos April 5, 2018

Robocall terminator sets sights on data thieves

By GREGORY ZELLER // Bad news for data thieves: The Terminator is coming for you. Robocall-ridding, autodialer-assassinating, telemarketer-terminating Nomorobo is extending its shields beyond voice calls and spam texts. The popular call-blocker has released Version 2.5, a souped-up app that includes data-tracking protection and other defenses against nefarious forces deceptively using web advertising to track consumer behavior. Featuring an online ad blocker that “virtually eliminates all types of ads and privacy-invading trackers,” according to Port…

Biotech April 5, 2018

Memo to Applied DNA: It’s payday in Pennsylvania

By GREGORY ZELLER // Memorandums of understanding are swell and all, but for a scrappy enterprise forever waging a bottom-line battle, nothing beats getting paid. So, Stony Brook-based Applied DNA Sciences should be very happy to receive the first of two “milestone payments” accompanying the March 31 signing of a new licensing deal with Pennsylvania manufacturer Colorcon Inc. Announced Thursday, the license and cooperation agreement grants Colorcon the exclusive worldwide right to add Applied DNA’s…

Awards and Events April 5, 2018

Stanford legend earns ‘Fame’ from alma mater SBU

By GREGORY ZELLER // A global computer-science legend has received top honors from the Long Island college where he earned his highest academic degrees. Stanford University President Emeritus John Hennessy was inducted Thursday into the Stony Brook University College of Engineering and Applied Sciences Hall of Fame. Hennessy, a longtime professor of electrical engineering and computer science, earned his master of science degree (computer science, 1975) and his PhD (1977) from the SBU engineering college….

News April 4, 2018

Willey walks, Whiteley takes on CSHL tech transfer

By GREGORY ZELLER // A seasoned veteran of scientific- and medical-research commercialization has taken over Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s technology-transfer operations. The laboratory announced Tuesday that life sciences business leader Andrew Whiteley has succeeded Teri Willey as vice president of business development and technology transfer. Willey, who took the reins of CSHL’s Business Development & Technology Transfer Office in late 2013, stepped down March 12 to oversee a new philanthropic venture fund based in Indiana….

Awards and Events April 3, 2018

Canon USA earns EPA Energy Star recognition

By GREGORY ZELLER // One of Long Island’s largest private employers has earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s nod as a public-health leader. Melville manufacturer Canon USA is one of 163 organizations – including Fortune 500 companies, schools, hospitals, retailers, builders, commercial building owners and others – who will be honored as 2018 Energy Star Partners of the Year. The partners are recognized for outstanding contributions to public health and the environment. One of only…

Earnings April 2, 2018

Westbound Falconstor erases 4Q, fiscal year losses

  FALCONSTOR SOFTWARE INC. Headquarters: Austin, Texas Industry: Software OTC: FALC Reporting Date: March 22, 2018 Reporting Quarter: 4Q FY2017 Quarter Ended: Dec. 31, 2017 Numbers: Total revenues for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2017, were reported as $6.3 million, a 14.8 percent decrease from the $7.4 million reported for the same quarter last fiscal year. Net GAAP operating income was reported as $1.4 million, turning around a $1.2 million loss reported for 4Q…

The Debrief April 2, 2018

Debrief: In San Diego, a socioeconomic blueprint for LI

From Innovate LI’s San Diego office… (no, just kidding, we wish). But indeed from San Diego comes a regional innovation saga with surprisingly familiar themes. You might not think it at first blush, but California’s San Diego County and Long Island have lots in common: a crippling 20th century departure by the aerospace industry, a strong university-based innovation pulse, healthy tourism numbers and more. The difference between the two economies is in the timing –…

Awards and Events March 30, 2018

Ten finalists to shoot for Hofstra-Digital Remedy gold

By GREGORY ZELLER // Ten finalists – including eight solo acts and two team efforts – will square off for three top slots (and more than $70,000 in prizes and working capital) when the 2018 Hofstra-Digital Remedy Venture Challenge hosts its final showdown April 20. The finalists were selected by a panel of esteemed judges during the semifinal round of the annual business plan pitch-a-thon, held this week at the Hofstra University Center for Entrepreneurship’s…

Startups March 29, 2018

Ready to roll, MunchMoney already tastes the big time

By GREGORY ZELLER // Several different fuses lit Chris Kane’s lightbulb moment, but if there’s a recurring theme in this origin story, it’s his own munchies. Kane, now the CEO of MunchMoney Inc., was following a fairly familiar arc – a finance and mathematics degree from James Madison University, a burgeoning career as an administrator with Hauppauge-based Gemini Hedge Fund Services. But his stomach was rumbling, literally and figuratively. “Entrepreneurism is something I always wanted…