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WisBusiness Tuesday Trends
December 19, 2006

By Brian E. Clark

RISING

UW-Madison

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has been named a “Kauffman Campus”
and received a $5 million grant to establish non-business school
entrepreneurship courses and programs.

The grant was awarded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a Kansas
City foundation dedicated to entrepreneurship and education. The award
is part of the Kauffman Campuses Initiative, which was launched in 2003
with the awarding of $25 million in grants to eight schools for the
establishment of entrepreneurship courses in liberal arts, engineering
and other disciplines outside of the business school.

The university received another feather for its cap when The Economist
Intelligence Unit rated the business school’s open-enrollment executive
education programs as the best in the world for the second year in a
row. The Economist surveyed more than 200 senior executives who
attended executive education programs. They rated programs on factors
including course content, impact, faculty, amenities, fellow
participants, post-course support and value received.

MIXED

Midwest Air

AirTran Holdings has Milwaukee business, political and labor leaders in
a tizzy, thanks to its hostile takeover bid for Midwest Air. Some said
they did not want to lose the corporate headquarters of Midwest, while
others said they feared that service would be downgraded and jobs would
be lost if the two airlines merged.

But the $290 million offer by Orlando-based AirTran to pay what it said
was a 37 percent premium over the 30-day average closing price got the
attention of some shareholders. (AirTran offered $11.25 per share on
Oct. 20.  That offer was rejected Dec. 6.) Before AirTran disclosed its
bid last week, Midwest’s shares were trading around $9 a share.

And at least one attorney — Guri Ademi of the Ademi & O’Reilly law
firm — reportedly contemplated suing the Midwest board for not
negotiating. AirTran’s CEO Joe Leonard visited Milwaukee as part of a
full-court public relations press. The company also took out a
full-page ad in Sunday’s Journal Sentinel, pledging to boost the number
of employees, improve service and increase shareholders’ value. Shares
of Midwest closed Monday at $11.72, down from the recent run-up of
$12.15. AirTran’s stock closed Monday at $12.49, down from its 52-week
high of $18.85.

FALLING

Stora Enso

The Finnish parent of Wisconsin-based Stora Enso North America is
denying that it conspired to fix the prices it charged for coated
papers used in magazines and high-volume catalogs in the United States.

The company said it will enter a plea of not guilty when it appears
before the court at the arraignment to respond to the indictment. The
indictment — from a federal grand jury in Connecticut — alleges that
Wisconsin Rapids-based Stora Enso North America illegally set prices
through an agreement with competitors from about August 2002 to June
2003.


Written exclusively for subscribers. Tuesday Trends is Copyright © 2006.