• Homeland security: U.K. perspective // by Terry Shear, MBE

    The United Kingdom is a preferred market for security companies: It has a global financial center in the City of London, years of experience in dealing with terrorism threats to its infrastructure, and has therefore reacted and developed accordingly with sophistication and expertise in the sector

  • Sequiam files for Chapter 11

    Orlando biometrics company claims its lead investor reneged on as much as $3 million of the firm’s $11 million loan commitment; late last week this investor announced plans to become the lead financier for Sequiam’s rival

  • Fingerprint market to reach $2.1 billion by 2013

    The fingerprinting/biometrics segment will reach $940 million in 2008 and $2.1 billion by 2013; next five years will be a boon to forensic technologies

  • Pay By Touch discontinues biometrics services

    Pay By Touch came to market with much fanfare, offering to process biometric transactions for merchants; things did not work as planned, and company discontinues service

  • Canadain chocolate factory off-limit to visitors

    Non-American companies exporting food to the United States must comply with the strictures of the 2002 BioTerrorism Act; for a Victoria, Canada, chocolate factory this meant prohibiting school kids from touring the factory

  • Company profile: Universal Detection Technology (UDT)

    UDT licenses spore detection technology from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and commercializes it; UDT developed a real-time continuous detection device capable of identifying abnormal levels of bacterial spores in the air, which is signature of a possible anthrax attack

  • Western companies eyeing India's $90 billion processed food market

    The globalization of food supply is a two-way street: More and more Western food companies sell their products in the growing Indian market; rising standard of living and working mothers drive the demand for pre-packaged and pre-prepared food, but local culinary preferences, and government bureaucratic practices, die hard

  • Company involved in largest U.S. meat recall admits it was at fault

    In February Hallmark/Westland Meat was forced to recall 143 million pounds of meat — the largest recall in U.S. history — after it was revealed that the company processed cows which were potentially sick; a week after the recall, the company went out of business; company’s president admits company was at fault

  • Beyond fingerprinting: Alternative biometric technologies advance

    As more organizations turn to biometric technology to help them perform their missions, they show interest in a variety of technologies — vein architecture, retinal scan, facial recognition, and more; these are good times for innovative biometric companies

  • Fuel cell joint venture formed

    In an effort to accelerate the development of fuel cells, two companies form a JV to target the light industrial, commercial, and residential markets in the United Kingdom and Ireland

  • Resistance to a U.K. hedge fund's effort to control CSX

    Ever since the 2006 Dubai Ports World’s takeover of management operations in major U.S. seaports, Congress has shown increasing irritation with attempts by foreign companies to own U.S. critical infrastructure assets; there is a growing resistance in Congress to U.K.-based TCI to take control of rail operator CSX

  • Singapore embarks on water reclamation project

    Singapore suffers increasing water shortages; the country’s Public Utility Board (PUB) has joined with two specialists in the field in a joint development of wastewater reclamation technologies using separation membranes

  • Bosch acquires Extreme CCTV

    Video surveillance is a growing market, and Bosch moves in by acquiring Canadian specialist in infrared illuminators

  • Canberra shows Falcon 5000 portable radiation detector

    The company has more than four decades of experience in radiation measurements of all kinds; the Falcon 5000, a portable radionuclide identifier for first responders, determines whether there is a radiation source present, the location of that source, and which isotopes are emitting the radiation

  • VCs invest $3 billion in clean tech in 2007

    VCs investment in clean tech in 2007 increased 43 percent over similar investments in 2006; U.S.-based companies received $2.52 billion, or 83 percent of the total, in 159 clean-tech deals