April 22, 2010

The May Report: 4/22/2010: MIT-EF panelist Tony Kolton, just in from central
casting at The Sopranos, provides some welcome comic relief to an otherwise
dull discussion of Local Innovation Systems, aka clusters, in this case the
trading industry; Ever friendly Nik Rokop says, “This is a hundred year product
development roadmap,” referring to something else; Jigsaw sold to salesforce.com

Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com,
www.themayreport.com , 773-525-3944.

If you missed an article, go here:
www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Scoop section:

— Douglas Dynamics prepares IPO
— Jigsaw sold to salesforce.com
— Charles Stack
— Nik Rokop
— Sloan School finds Non-Compete Agreements Hinder High Tech Development..
— Willinger event April 30th
— Tuesday, May 4th: BNC VC Group
— Briefly noted, by Ron May
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_______________________________

The Scoop section:
_______________________
Douglas Dynamics prepares IPO

Douglas Dynamics Inc., a Milwaukee-based maker of snow plows and salt
spreaders for light trucks, has set its IPO terms to 10 million common
shares being offered at between $14 and $16 per share. It would have an initial
market cap of approximately $316 million, were it to price at the high end of
its range. The company plans to trade on the NYSE undder ticker symbol PLOW,
with Credit Suisse and Oppenheimer & Co. serving as co-lead
underwriters. It had net sales of $174 million in 2009, compared to $151
million in 2008. 2009 net income was $9.8 million, down from $11.47 million
in 2008. Shareholders include Aurora Capital Group (68.65% pre-IPO stake),
Ares Corporate Opportunities (33.03%) and the GE Pension Trust (15.23%).
________________________________________

Jigsaw sold to salesforce.com

Dear [Name withheld]:

I’m writing to let you know that Jigsaw has just signed an agreement to be
acquired by salesforce.com. Please feel free to read the press release.

What does this acquisition mean to you?

Nothing substantial will change from an operations standpoint. Jigsaw will
operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of salesforce.com, and Jigsaw will
continue to offer the same free, pay, and corporate options that we do
today.
The Jigsaw Community will continue to play a critical role in our success.
Jigsaw started as a crowd-sourced model and will continue to lead the market
in accurate business information through that model.
Integration with salesforce.com will get even better. As an open data
platform, we’ll also continue to build out our set of APIs and connectors to
other Web-based software and data management solutions.
In short, we believe this acquisition will let Jigsaw achieve the mission we
set out to accomplish when we opened our doors in early 2004-only faster and
more easily!

This is a significant acquisition that will generate a lot of buzz. On
behalf of the entire Jigsaw team, I want to thank you for helping make this
event possible. Your efforts over the past six years have been an important
part of Jigsaw’s success, and we appreciate your contribution.

Warmest regards,

Jim Fowler, CEO and Co-Founder
____________________________________________
Charles Stack

From: “Charles Stack, MPH” cstack@2ci.com
Sender: “Charles Stack, MPH” cstack@2ci.com
Subject: re: Hi Ron! Look what I found…
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2010 22:05:00 -0500
To: “ron@themayreport.com” ron@themayreport.com

Hi Ron! Hope you are well!

As a graduate of University of Illinois in the 1970′s (LAS, 1977), I had the
pleasure to do some coursework on the UI “Plato” computer network. This was
the Plato IV generation.

These were very advanced machines for the times, including touch-screen
plasma monitors and extensive networking capabilities. Most of what we now
take for granted on the Internet (instant messaging, email, etc.) seemed to
originate from the folks in Urbana in the ’70s.

I see that there is an upcoming reunion of this generation of UI computer
geeks:

www.platohistory.org/conference/50th-anniversary/

Wow! Ray Ozzie, who was one of my UIUC contemporaries (I didn’t know him at
the time), will be speaking! Maybe my old dorm-mate Len Kawell (co-founder
of Glassbook, Inc. and co-developer of Lotus Notes) will be there?

We have a lot of UIUC alums in Chicagoland, and the reunion isn’t for a few
months, so some may have interest. The Plato History.org site is a scream,
I think others will enjoy it!

It still amazes me how much we owe to the folks at the computing center of
UI!

Best, Chuck

Charles R. Stack, MPH
Vice President
Constant Compliance Inc.
140 South Dearborn Street
Suite 411
Chicago, Illinois 60603 USA
Cell phone (630) 841-8706
Fax (312) 782-0936
Website: www.2Ci.com/
________________________________________________
Nik Rokop

From: Nik Rokop nrokop@stuart.iit.edu
Subject: Ron May at IPRO day
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:20:33 -0500
To: The May Report ron@themayreport.com, Jennifer Keplinger keplinger@iit.edu

Ron,

Please contact Jennifer Keplinger with your questions about IPRO Day and
accessibility:
(312) 567-3940

Make it a great day!

Nik

Nik Rokop
Managing Director
IIT-Knapp Entrepreneurship Center
c: 312-404-4454
_____________________________________________
Sloan School finds Non-Compete Agreements Hinder High Tech Development..

From: MIT Sloan School of Management denning@mit.edu
Subject: Non-Compete Agreements Hinder High Tech Development…
Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:48:31 -0400
To: ron@themayreport.com

Dear Ronald:

I thought this research about non-compete agreements and their effect on high
tech development might be of interest. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Paul

Non-compete agreements take a toll on specialized technical workers, MIT
researcher finds

By allowing employers to block workers from switching jobs, states may hinder
development of high tech regions

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 21, 2010 ? Non-compete contracts, which bar employees
from working for a competitor after they leave a job, have a disproportionate
effect on specialized high tech workers, MIT Sloan Assistant Professor Matt
Marx has found in his research.

In a study of employment trends in Michigan before and after a ban on
non-compete contracts was repealed, Marx and two other researchers found that
specialized technical workers were two times less likely to change jobs as
other technical workers after the ban was lifted.

“If you are highly specialized in your field, there are probably not that many
companies interested in you outside of your company and its direct
competitors,” Marx says.

The findings have important implications for states and regions looking to
attract high tech industries, according to Marx.

“If a state enforces non-competes strictly, it is not going to have the
circulation of talent and ideas that you need for these clusters to thrive,”
Marx says.

Non-compete agreements can discourage spin-off businesses?a key ingredient in
successful high tech clusters?and they can cause a brain drain, as skilled
workers seek employment in states where non-competes are banned, according to
Marx.

Employers in many industries ask workers to sign non-compete agreements to
prevent employees from defecting to a rival, taking trade secrets, accounts,
and customers with them.

In the United States, laws regarding non-compete agreements vary widely. In
most states, the agreements are legal with some restrictions. Several states
closely regulate non-competes, and California bans them entirely. With the
recession and jobless recovery severely limiting employment opportunities,
state laws on non-competes are under increased scrutiny today.

For nearly 75 years, Michigan banned non-compete contracts. Then, in 1985, the
state legislature inadvertently repealed the law when it was overhauling
antitrust legislation. Corporate lawyers apparently got the word out to their
clients.

Marx and researchers Lee Fleming of Harvard Business School and Deborah
Strumsky of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte compiled information in
Michigan patent filings, which include the employment history of individual
filers.

By studying over 40 years of data, the researchers were able to capture the
effect of the change in the law on advanced industries. The study controlled
for individuals working in the volatile auto industry.

The study also found that job changing slowed generally in Michigan after
non-compete agreements were legalized, which the researchers expected. “That’s
what the agreements are designed to do,” Marx says.

Marx says he has done preliminary research with Jasjit Singh of INSEAD
Singapore suggesting that non-compete agreements are a factor in where highly
skilled individuals decide to seek work. “They’ll leave Massachusetts, which
allows non-competes, and go to a company in California, where they don’t have
to worry about them,” he says. “That can be a problem for Massachusetts, which
obviously wants to retain its skilled workers.”

In another study, Marx surveyed a thousand engineers attending a conference of
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers about their experience
with non-compete contracts.

More than 70 percent discovered only after they had accepted a job offer that
they would have to sign the contracts, and 25 percent said they learned of the
contracts on their first day of work.

“What can you do? Sometimes you’ve just moved your family across the country,”
he says.

Younger workers are affected most by these tactics, according to Marx. “They’re
much less likely to fight it or say, no, and about half of them say they felt
it was non-negotiable.”
___________________________________________
Willinger event April 30th

Subject: please run
Date: 4/20/2010 3:37:27 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: jwillinger@rightpoint.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com

Fortune 2000 companies are adopting social computing at a record pace to reap
benefits including enhanced collaboration, improved knowledge management,
better innovation, and increased productivity. In fact, social networking
software is the top enterprise spending category among Web 2.0 technologies
that will generate $4.6 billion in sales globally by 2013, according to
Forrester Research.

April 30, 2010 we are having a FREE half day SharePoint Social Computing
Seminar at Microsoft’s Chicago Offices 200 E Randolph St ste 200 Chicago, IL
8:30am-12:30pm

Register here: www.clicktoattend.com/invitation.aspx?code=146795

Jeffrey S. Willinger
312.622.2300 cell

jwillinger@rightpoint.com

rightpoint
200 West Madison Street Suite 2240
Chicago, Illinois 60606
(312) 920-8390 office
(312) 920-8384 fax
www.rightpoint.com

www.linkedin.com/in/jeffwillinger

twitter.com/jwillie
_____________________________________________
Tuesday, May 4th: BNC VC Group

Subject: BNC VC Group 5/4 5:00 PM at LLB&L Presenters: Point Bearing
Date: 4/21/2010 11:51:25 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: len_bland@conceptequity.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com

The BNC Venture Capital Group introduces exciting investment opportunities to
professional investors (angels, early stage venture capitalists, and private
equity firms seeking add-ons) and fosters the growth of entrepreneurial
activity.

Len Bland, CEO of Concept Equity www.conceptequity.com, and David Carman, CEO
of Business Network Chicago www.bnchicago.org, lead the BNC Venture Capital
Group.

We will review three entrepreneurial opportunities. Each presentation lasts 10
minutes, followed by a 15 minute Q&A.

Effective presentations answer 4 questions:

·What is the product or service?
-Why will customers buy it?
·Why is this management team the best one to run the business?
·How will the investor make money?

5:00 PM – Networking
5:30 PM – Introductions
5:45 PM – Point Bearing
6:15 PM – Presenter
6:45 PM – Break
7:00 PM – Presenter
7:30 PM – Results

Point Bearing www.pointbearing.com/ provides user identification
security that enables businesses to make sure the person signing on has the
authority to use the service or system. Biometric and multi-factor security are
combined with an option to keep the user’s information private and out of the
database.

Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell www.lockelord.com/
111 South Wacker Drive, 41st Floor

Chicago, Illinois 60606

Sign up at tinyurl.com/bncvc0504 – Event cost $25

Evening Meeting includes food and beverages

Call Len Bland at 847-317-0656 or write len_bland@conceptequity.com with
questions or if you have any difficulty registering. Other investors welcome.

If you have a scheduling conflict, please join us for the next meeting set for
6/1/2010.

DISCLAIMER: Neither the BNC Venture Capital Group, Concept Equity Group, Inc.
(together with BNC Venture Capital Group, the “Sponsor”) nor the host for this
event, Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP (“LLBL”), has verified, approved or
endorsed any materials or information provided (whether in writing or orally)
by the presenters, audience or other participants at this event . UNDER NO
CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL SPONSOR OR LLBL BE RESPONSIBLE IN ANY MANNER FOR, AND EACH
OF SPONSOR AND LLBL DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY WHATSOEVER IN RELATION TO, ANY
MATERIALS OR INFORMATION PROVIDED BY, OR THE CONDUCT OF, THE PRESENTERS,
AUDIENCE OR PARTICIPANTS AT THIS EVENT OR ANY OTHER THIRD PARTIES (INCLUDING,
FOR EACH OF SPONSOR AND LLBL, ANY MATERIALS OR INFORMATION PROVIDED BY, OR THE
CONDUCT OF, THE OTHER). In addition, any written materials provided by LLBL,
and any presentations made generally to the participants at this event by LLBL,
are solely for informational purposes and are not intended to constitute legal
advice or to create an attorney-client relationship.

Regards,

Len Bland, CPA
CEO

twitter.com/conceptlen
Office/Cell: 847-317-0656
Fax: 847-919-4396
www.conceptequity.com
Next BNC Venture Capital Group Meeting
Join BNC Venture Capital Group notification list
Current investment opportunities
Concept Equity Blog
_________________________________________
Briefly noted, by Ron May

*
www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/04/13/13greenwire-resistance-to-weedkillers-a-
growing-problem-fo-20578.html

I’ll be doing some deep dive investigations in May – including the relationship
between Gary Slack and Searle and Jeff Bergau and Monsanto, one of the most
despised companies in the world. In honor of Bergau’s firm Chempetitive
receiving an award from B2B magazine, I thought it was time to take a look at
the man behind the curtain — and what a look I am having. When this report is
published you’ll see why Monsanto’s PR guy in the UK was at one time cited as
one of Britain’s most hated men; Bergau was one of the PR guys for Monsanto in
the US; and Slack worked for G. D. Searle in the same capacity, a company owned
by Monsanto. Now, I’m not saying that this is like finding that your doddering
old neighbor had been in the Hitler youth, but working for a company that is
notorious for putting out misinformation can’t be a feather in anyone’s career
cap.

* More than half the audience at the MIT-EF meeting left early, but they had
more than 100 attendees. I sat in the front row so I did not see when people
left, but at times it did seem to move along somewhat slowly. Both Avery Cohen
and I agree that there was much more info. in the meeting than at first meets
the eye. And the meeting was in the planning for 15 months! Scott Oldach, the
moderator, is not exactly a dynamic guy and he could put one to sleep if the
topic was not an attention grabber, but I think the biggest problem was not
Scott or the panel. It was that we really did not know what business each
panelist was in. Also, another contributing factor was that Scott was standing
off on one end while the panel was on the other. I would add that some of the
panelists, most notably and hilariously, Tony Kolton, a former trader who
founded LMI, did not really know what a cluster is. I have Tony’s remarks on
tape and will transcribe that section for you since it is so funny. Tony is Mr.
Chicago and he is a dead ringer for a spot on The Sapranos TV series.

And surprise, surprise, Tony knows my buddy Lou Borsellino. Lou dresses better
though. Tony has a rumpled suede brown suit that won’t button and Lou wears
$4,000 suits. Tony is fat and jolly and Polish and Lou is Italian, and pretty
serious — at least he was at the trial.

Tony also made it clear that he’s tired of clusters and trading. He wants to do
good for humanity, not just himself. Before I forget, the original software for
LIM (Logical Information Machines, www.lim.com came out of Bell Labs
where they developed the software for use in phone systems.
+++++++++++++++++++
www.answers.com/topic/logical-information-machines-inc

Type: Subsidiary
On the web: www.lim.com
Employees: 85

Logical Information Machines (LIM) can tell you how much things really cost
when your dad was a boy. Founded in 1988, LIM provides software (branded as
Market Information Machine, or MIM) that enables users to perform price
analysis on historical trading data from energy and financial markets. The
company supplies MIM users with data — such as the historical prices of bonds
and equities, as well as commodities like oil and metals — from its Historis
database; the analyzed data can be used to determine present and future market
trends. The MIM product also features a data warehousing service where users
store, manage, and monitor their data. In 2009 the company was acquired by
Morningstar for $51.5 million.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2008:
Sales: $19.0M

Officers:
President and CEO: Tony Kolton
CFO: Terrence (Terry) Gray
CIO: Ron Gilmer

Competitors:
DST Systems
Misys
SunGard
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I thought that the best part of the meeting ws the Q&A where the panelists did
delve deeper into the subject. The topic was LIS, aka Local Innovation Systems,
and a few examples being tires in Akron, OH, publishing in New York City, or
autos in Detroit. In Chicago, we have the trading industry in a cluster or
concentrated form.

Scott called these micro-clusters, but let me let Avery Cohen write this up and
I will have some additional comments to follow up on Avery.

Off the top of my head some of the attendees included:

Ed Letchinger
Collin Canright
Bob Brill
Frank Luchese
Phillipe Lavie
Nancy Munro
Steve Swibel
Bob Lepkowski
Terry Flanagan
Chris Rollyson
Sheldon Rosenfield
Bill Burnett
Preston Urka
Peg Conway
Avery Cohen
Paul Golitz (formerly with Sun)
Spencer Maus
Scott Oldach, moderator
Nural Eusufzai
Nik Rokop
Ron May
Peg Conway
Tim Curley
Joe O’Malley
Andrew Skipor
Justin Townsley
Dave Culver
Sam Sansome
Barbara Manley
Shalesh Kumbhat
Katie Snodgrass
Julianna Greer
Steve Bennett
Jack Curley
Lanny Feder

I did not see:
Ted Wallhaus
Richard Cross
Steve Smith not there because he is stuck in Holland
Monica Metzler

There were a lot of new people at the meeting and some of them were:

Fadi Kassir, In-Pipe Technology, www.in-pipe.com
Salloum Abou-Saleh, RTS, www.rtsgroup.net
Diane Saucier, VP Market Development, Trading Technologies,
www.tradingtechnologies.com
Todd Krause, Managing Director, Operations, Zacks Investment Management,
www.zacks.com
Richard Cousins, www.commandhub.com
Kevin Glynn, Managing Principal, www.laminargroup.com
Angela Loewen, AE, www.artemistechnology.com
Ray Burchett, Founder, www.intuitiveperformance.com
Yao Li, Strategy and Market Mgt., Software Group, Rational, www.us.ibm.com

Scott Oldach works for the The Patent Board and his website is
www.patentboard.com and soldach@patentboard.com

Scott had some good overheads which I hope to get from him soon.

The panelists were (audience’s left to right):

Stephen M. Goldman, Director of Enterprise Architecture, CME Group,
www.cmegroup.com
Mike Dennis, MikeDennis80@gmail.com who was filling in for Terry Duffy who
could not make it, and Mike is at Professional Trading Group.
Anthony G. Kolton, www.textwarden.com among other firms (and Tony is invested
in a biotech firm in Madison, WI). What I am trying to tell you is that he’s an
angel investor and not wedded to trading or Chicago. anthony.g.kolton@gmail.com
Michael Burns, President, Exchange Connectivity, Trading Technologies,
www.tradingtechnologies.com

I was disappointed that David Weinstein, Linda Darragh and Ellen Rudnick were
not there. They have a strong interest in the trading field, and should have
been there.

David and Linda, you can’t show up just when you’re on the panel.

If I may do some unsolicited back patting, I believe I asked the best question
of trhe night. I asked which factor has had the greatest impact on the growth
of this local innovation cluster.

The three options I gave the panelists were:

1. Chicago is the hog butcher to the world
2. Chicago is a telecom hub
3. The Black-Scholes options pricing model and other financial theorise coming
out if the University of Chicago.

The panelists seemed to agree that the hog butcher role of Chicago allowed the
exchanges to exist but the telecom made them successful.

* Monday evening I made it down to the TBIF meeting and I will have more in
that tomorrow. Nik Rokop has gotten a hair cut which is mighty short.

There were 20 people in attendance. Nineteen were wearing pants including
Monica Metzler. Thank god no one had a camera phone.

Monica was the only woman and I was the only guy without pants.

BTW, some sites that were referenced and I have permission to print this, were:

www.berecruited.com
and www.tonido.com or www.codelathe.com

The quote of the day has to be: “This is a hundred year product development
roadmap.” That quote came from Nik Rokop and was referring to the presenter.

There were some good stats on mobility computing and I will have that tomorrow.

* Following in the footsteps of Al Wasserberger: Plagued by lawsuits, McAfee
founder hunts for cures in Belize.
www.fastcompany.com/magazine/145/fantasy-island.html?partner=homepage_new
sletter

* Willinger’s next event on the 29th:
smcchicago0410.eventbrite.com/

______________________________________
END OF REPORT