By Brian E. Clark
RISING
High-tech business in Madison
The state’s capital city has scored a pair of high-tech coups, with
Microsoft Corp. and Google opening downtown facilities in Madison.
Microsoft’s advanced development lab in downtown Madison follows a
visit by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates last year. The center will be
run by David DeWitt, who retired recently from the UW-Madison computer
science department. He is considered a global leader in database
research. The lab will open this summer with a staff of six. Microsoft
officials also said the company will fund five graduate research
assistants in the computer science department, provide internships
consulting opportunities for faculty members. Eventually, the lab could
expand to 20 scientists.
Google’s following a similar model, although no ties to the university
are anticipated. Researchers Jim Laudon and Jim Smith (who recently
left his job as a teacher at UW-Madison) will reportedly be working on
hardware and software systems design at the Madison office.
MIXED
Farmers
Corn, milk and soybean prices are high – but that doesn’t mean farmers
aren’t worried; it’s in their nature.
Analysts say rising debt, high land costs and the reliance on $6
billion in state and federal ethanol subsidies – which could evaporate
with political shifts – mean the tables could be turned quickly on
farmers’ fortunes.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farm business debt
will rise to $228 billion by the end of 2008, an $8 billion increase
from 2007 and a record high for the fourth consecutive year.
Economists say no downturn is imminent. But they point to the late
1970s, when demand for American crops soared and farmers borrowed
heavily. When the market slowed, farmers’ incomes dropped significantly
and many lost farms that had been in their families for generations.
FALLING
Janesville GM plant
General Motors will cut one shift at the Janesville assembly plant in
July and lay off 756 employees, a little more than 30 percent of its
total workforce.
Other Rock County companies that supply the GM plant could also be
affected by the furloughs, with hundreds more layoffs possible.
Analysts said the move is a response to soaring fuel costs and slowing
sales by the automaker.
The plant currently builds 880 SUVs a day, with two 10-hour shifts
producing 440 vehicles each. Come July 14, one shift will build 580
vehicles a day.
In a letter to workers, plant manager Gary Malkus said the decision to
idle one line was “very difficult” and “made to bring production
capacity in line with market demand.”
See the WisBusiness.com story:
http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=124677
