New Hampton Inn opens

Executives from Chartwell Hospitality were in Colorado Springs Friday for the official opening of the new Hampton Inn and Suites at 2910 Geyser Dr. — the company’s 1,500th hotel under the Hampton brand. Hampton, a sponsor of USA Cycling, donated 150 bicycles to the local Boys and Girls Club in honor of the milestone.

TAEUS helps EU go after Microsoft

Colorado Springs-based TAEUS International Corp. played a key behind-the-scenes role in a record $1.3 billion fine imposed Feb. 27 against Microsoft Corp.
The European Union hired TAEUS (Tear Apart Everything Under the Sun) in 2005 for nearly $1 million to investigate whether Microsoft violated a 2004 antitrust decision. The EU ordered the company to share interoperability information with rivals and sell a version of its Windows computer operating system without its Media Player software.
If the software giant appeals the fine, TAEUS President Art Nutter said last week he hopes the EU will award another contract to the company to continue working on the case. Rob Fetter headed the six-person TAEUS team in the Springs working on the Microsoft case.
TAEUS employs about 20 along with more than 200 independent contractors worldwide who focus on reverse engineering used in patent infringement cases.
“We had to reverse engineer Microsoft’s software code to determine if they were doing what they said they would — making other software interoperable with Windows — and found repeatedly that they are not,” Nutter said.
In case you’re wondering, Nutter said most of the computers TAEUS uses are made by Apple Inc. and use the Mac operating system.
For more information, go to http://www.taeus.com/.

Spectranetics looking to new market

Spectranetics Corp. is hoping to tap a potential $100 million-a-year market in a new clinical trial started earlier this month.
The trial that uses its medical laser to clear clogged stents in upper-leg arteries and then inserts a plastic-lined stent made by W.L. Gore & Associates Inc. to prevent new blockages. The patients were treated by Dr. Eric Dippel at Midwest Cardiovascular Research in Davenport, Iowa.
Spectranetics Chief Executive John Schulte said last week that the company hopes to sign up 100 patients in the trial by year’s end and gain federal approval for the new therapy. Schulte estimates about 50,000 patients a year could benefit from the therapy.
“It is a big market opportunity. Physicians are looking for a new mechanism for these types of patients,” Schulte said.
The potential new market would be good news for investors, shocked earlier this month when the company’s stock dropped 30 percent after it missed analysts’ fourth-quarter earnings forecasts by 2 cents a share.

Boecore Inc. wins Nunn-Perry Award

Boecore Inc. has grown its revenue by 75 percent in the nearly three years it has been mentored by defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp.
That growth helped Colorado Springs-based Boecore and Northrop-Grumman win a 2008 Nunn-Perry Award, which has honored companies participating in the Defense Department’s Mentor-Protégé Program since 1995. The award is named for former Sen. Sam Nunn and former defense secretary William Perry and will be presented March 12 in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Northrop Grumman, which nominated Boecore for the award, selected Boecore for the program in 2005, based on Boecore’s previous work, as part of an effort to boost the work it contracted out to small businesses to meet Defense Department requirements.
As part of the relationship, Boecore manages the U.S. Missile Defense Agency’s Enterprise Network Operations Security Center, which protects the agency’s computer network, as well as providing engineering and systems administration for the agency’s labs.
“The support provided by the Missile Defense Agency and Northrop Grumman team under the Mentor Protégé Program has enabled Boecore to build a strong technical foundation,” Boecore President Kathy Boe said. The program “has played a major role in propelling Boecore’s growth.”
Brian Esterby, project manager for the Joint National Integration Center research and development contract for Northrop Grumman, said the program is designed not "to make Boecore a little Northrop Grumman, but to make them a partner in all kinds of work we pursue."
Boecore is the second Springs company to win the award: TAC Services, a computer maintenance and repair subsidiary of The Aleut Corp., an Alaska native regional corporation, won a Nunn-Perry Award in 2001 for its work with the environmental management arm of Foster Wheeler Ltd.
For more information, go to http://www.boecore.com/.