Risk assessment and decision analytics firm Verisk Analytics (Jersey City) has signed a deal to buy Aspect Loss Prevention (Minneapolis) for the net purchase price of $8 million. Aspect provides loss prevention software and analytic systems to the retail, entertainment and food industries, using exception-based reporting and analytics. Verisk said it has seen an increased retailer need to detect and prevent both internal and external theft, reduce other forms of loss and monitor and improve operational activities.
Open Data Centers has a new facility in Piscataway. The company offers colocation services in an 8,000-square-foot, carrier-neutral facility. Open Data Centers is positioning itself as an affordable alternative in a “market populated by high-priced data center space and expensive cross connects,” according to Data Center Knowledge.
Majesco Entertainment, headquartered in Edison, has entered into a publishing agreement with Zynga (San Francisco), the high-flying gaming company that went public in December 2011. Zynga will publish Majesco’s “Mini Putt Park,” a social game expected to launch on Facebook and Zynga.com later this summer.
This from Philly Tech News: Princeton-based DoughMain, a startup that helps parents and children learn how to better manage money, has received an investment of unspecified size from a private equity fund managed by former auto executive Lee Iacocca’s family. DoughMain recently acquired Allowance-Plus , a similar company founded by Iacocca’s son-in-law Ned Hentz, who will serve as chief creative officer and have a board seat.
Samsung, whose U.S. headquarters is in Ridgefield Park, has been ordered to stop selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer and the hotly anticipated Android 4.1 Nexus Jelly Bean phone. Apple contends the phone’s designs violate its patents. “It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging,” Apple said. Apple is also trying to ban the sale of other Galaxy Tab models.
Hillsborough-based Primus Green Energy, a green fuel business startup, recently demonstrated gasoline made from wood pellets at the company’s N.J. demonstration plant. The company’s largest investor is Israel Corp., a holding company listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. According to the New York Times, Primus says it hopes to build a $200 million commercial plant with Bechtel Hydrocarbon Technology Solutions (Houston, Texas), a Bechtel (San Francisco) energy conglomerate unit that would financially assist Primus in scaling the pilot unit to commercial size. “Once completed, that facility would have an annual capacity of 20 million to 30 million gallons,” the Times said.
Red Bank-based Natcore Technology said five solar device manufacturers, two in North America and one in Europe, have asked the company whether its black silicon and liquid phase deposition (LPD) processes can help them reduce costs and improve their solar energy products’ performance. The companies typically use plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) to deposit films on their products. The two North American companies have sent Natcore sample wafers, some to process using black silicon, some with Natcore’s proprietary LPD surface passivation technology and some using both processes.
Two Chinese manufacturers have also asked Natcore to apply an “absolute black” antireflective coating (i.e., Natcore’s super low-reflectance black silicon with LPD silica passivation) to the sample wafers they provided. The European manufacturer wants Natcore to process wafers with a very thin LPD silica layer. The thin layer is an integral part of the cell structure the company now has in pilot production and could reduce cell production costs.
MX Solar USA, N.J.’s only solar panel manufacturer and a subsidiary of an Italian one, has stopped production at its Somerset facility, The Record reported. Carlo Santoro, the company’s director of business development, said MX is selling its inventory and contemplating its next move. The solar panel industry has been severely affected by China’s dumping of cheap solar panels, and several U.S.-based manufacturers have gone out of business.
Rudolph Technologies, a Flanders, N.J., tech manufacturing company involved in the design, development, manufacture and support of defect inspection, process control metrology and data analysis systems and software used by semiconductor device manufacturers, has acquired the assets of NanoPhotonics GmbH (Mainz, Germany). The addition of NanoPhotonics’ inspection technology and its substantial intellectual property portfolio will strengthen Rudolph’s established presence in the high-growth advanced packaging market, the company said.
