GE & Partners Announce Winners of the First Stage of $100 M "healthymagination Cancer Challenge"

Press release:

27 March 2012

GE & Partners Announce Winners of the First Stage of $100 Million “healthymagination Cancer Challenge”

· Challenge focused on early-stage breast cancer breakthroughs that warrant discovery, incubation and acceleration through seed funding

· Winning innovations could expedite breast cancer detection, diagnosis and improve the identification of effective therapies, allowing more patients to survive

SAN FRANCISCO--27 March 2012-- GE (NYSE: GE) announced today five innovation award winners as part of the first stage of its $100 million “GE healthymagination Cancer Challenge.” More than 500 ideas from 40 countries were submitted, sparking robust conversations among more than 200 academic institutions and researchers on the Challenge’s open innovation platform.

The five innovation award winners have the potential to help doctors find cancer earlier, make more accurate diagnoses and choose the best possible treatment based on each patient’s unique cancer. The submitted ideas include ones that could help doctors better understand the molecular similarities between breast cancer and other solid tumors with a particular focus on tumors associated with triple negative cancer, a type of cancer that is less responsive to standard treatments and is typically more aggressive. GE is committed to a new approach at healthymagination that shines a spotlight on early-stage ideas to accelerate the researchers’ work and ultimately help patients sooner.

Beth Comstock, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, GE said, “We launched the Challenge as a call to action for oncology researchers, businesses, and other innovators around the world to accelerate innovation and help stop this deadly disease. It is often challenging for early stage research to grab the attention of seed investors. The Challenge has shown us that there are a remarkable number of breakthrough ideas out there that deserve promotion, investment and incubation.”

In addition to the $100,000 seed award, GE will provide support for each winner through mentorship and access to GE researchers and industry thought leaders with opportunity for expanded partnerships in the future.

“GE and Clarient focus on helping health providers understand and define the drivers of a patient’s particular cancer. The Challenge winners' work will change the future of fighting cancer,” said Carrie Eglinton-Manner, general manager of Clarient, the cancer diagnostics company acquired by GE in 2010. “In addition to the grant money, we will help mentor, develop and accelerate the growth of these winning ideas.”

The winners were selected by a panel of judges that included venture capital partners, GE executives, and several leading healthcare luminaries including former U.S. FDA Commissioner and National Cancer Institute Director, Dr. Andrew Von Eschenbach; Professor of Surgery and Director of the University of Michigan Breast Care Center, Dr. Lisa Newman; and cancer medicine specialist and Imperial College’s professor of cancer medicine, Dr. Justin Stebbing.

The five innovation Challenge award winners are:

• MyCancerGenome- Personalized Approach to Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee is developing MyCancerGenome, a free online cancer medicine resource and decision-making tool for physicians, patients, caregivers and researchers. It provides up-to-date information on what mutations make breast cancer grow and related treatment implications, including available genome-directed clinical trials for triple negative breast cancer.
• Creating Safer & Stronger Breast Implants with Cancer-fighting and Healing Properties: The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio is developing new materials for breast reconstruction to transform tissue expanders and implants into cancer-fighting and healing devices. Using coatings embedded with pharmaceutical agents the new device is expected to help fight infection, reduce inflammation, and possibly even target and destroy stray cancer cells.
• Identifying a Predisposition to Cancer Spread: Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida is working to understand the genetic "modifier" genes and their role in predisposition to the spread of cancer to other parts of the body following cancer onset. This research could form the basis of diagnostic testing for genes that place a patient at disproportionate risk for cancer spread and guide aggressiveness of treatment.
• Saving Lives in Developing Countries: For developing countries such as Uganda, breast ultrasound holds promise in identifying cancers in young women with palpable lumps. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington and Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI) in Kampala are establishing a breast cancer screening program where women will receive education about breast cancer and those with symptoms will be offered clinical breast exam and breast ultrasound. Women with suspicious lumps will be referred to the UCI for tissue sampling and, if malignancy is diagnosed, treatment.
• Moving to Personalized Therapy for Triple Negative Breast Cancer: Researchers at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee have demonstrated that gene expression analysis reveals at least six distinct disease subtypes for triple negative breast cancer that likely respond differently to chemotherapy. Using this discovery, the Center is designing clinical trials with targeted therapy for select subtypes which will soon be offered to patients.

Information on the winners is available at www.healthymagination.com.

Launched in September, the Challenge is part of GE’s healthymagination commitment to accelerate cancer innovation by investing $1 billion in cancer technology research and development as well as improve care for 10 million cancer patients around the world by 2020. Additional strategic commercial partnership announcements from the Challenge will be made later in 2012. For additional details on the challenge, and to view the full terms and conditions visit healthymagination.com/challenge.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and helping to cure the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

About GE’s healthymagination Initiative

Launched in May 2009, GE’s healthymagination initiative is focused on four critical needs: low-cost technology; healthcare IT; innovation accessible to all; and consumer-driven healthcare. GE has committed that by 2015 it will:

• Invest $3 billion in research and development to launch at least 100 innovations that will help deliver better care to more people at lower cost.
• Provide $2 billion in financing and $1 billion in technology to bring healthcare information technology to rural and underserved areas.
• Reduce the cost of procedures that use GE technologies and services by 15 percent and develop products tailored to underserved regions of the world.
• Reach 100 million more people every year with services and technologies essential for health.

More information at www.healthymagination.com.

News Release from NetApp

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Customers Rely on NetApp for the Highest Level of Excellence in Secure Solutions for their Missions

NetApp Data ONTAP 8.0 Earns Internationally Recognized Common Criteria Certification to Meet Stringent Government Standards

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — March 5, 2012 — NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) this week announced that NetApp Data ONTAP® 8.0.0 operating in 7-Mode and Data ONTAP® 8.0.1 operating in 7-Mode have completed evaluation for an EAL2+ certification under the Communications Security Establishment Canada’s (CSEC) Common Criteria Evaluation and Certification Scheme (CCS). Government and commercial customers alike receive the best possible security solutions from NetApp as the company continues to commit to achieving the highest caliber in IT government security validations.

As the first storage vendor to meet Common Criteria Certification standards in 2005, NetApp set the bar for excellence in security features across the storage industry. Today’s Data ONTAP EAL2+ certification is evidence of NetApp’s continued commitment to help customers run their missions better, more cost effectively and securely.

“We are proud to be able to successfully continue to invest in securing our customers against attacks on their valuable data,” said Mark Weber, president and general manager of the U.S. Public Sector, NetApp. “It is that commitment to our customers that makes NetApp one of the best storage vendor to do business with in the U.S. Public Sector and in the world.”

In order to facilitate the prompt completion of the Common Criteria certification, NetApp partnered with Corsec Security, Inc., a consulting, documentation, and project management services firm.

“NetApp’s achievement of Common Criteria certification for Data ONTAP® 8.0.0 operating in 7-Mode and Data ONTAP® 8.0.1 operating in 7-Mode underscores their dedication to continuously providing security assurance in their technology,” said Matthew Appler, CEO, Corsec Security. “We were highly impressed with NetApp’s solution and with their commitment to the evaluation process.”

As befits an industry leader, the NetApp security story is much broader than achieving common criteria certification. NetApp offers multiple FIPS 140-2 validated data at rest encryption solutions, such as NetApp Storage Encryption using self-encrypting drives and Brocade FibreChannel Encryption Switches and blades. Upgraded NAS encryption appliances will be announced soon.

NetApp’s Secure Multi-Tenancy architecture, developed in concert with Cisco and VMware, is a unique service-oriented infrastructure that includes all server, storage, and networking hardware and software to facilitate secure sharing, reuse, and dynamic resource allocation for next-generation data centers and cloud service providers.

NetApp has also achieved ISO/IEC 27001, the global standard for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS). This provides NetApp customers, partners, vendors, and employees with the confidence that information in the hands of NetApp is protected in accordance with the ISO standard .

NetApp demonstrated NetApp Storage Encryption in the OASIS KMIP interoperability demo at the RSA Security Conference in San Francisco last week.

Nuance to Acquire Transcend

Nuance to Acquire Transcend


Accretive Transaction to Accelerate Adoption of Nuance Healthcare Solutions by Small- to Mid-Sized Hospital Market, Bring Strong Customer Base and Recurring Revenue

With Transcend, Nuance will accelerate access to and expand its customer base within the small- to mid-size hospital market, which comprises approximately 90 percent of hospitals in the U.S. and increasingly demands cost effective, voice-enabled, clinical documentation solutions to achieve Meaningful Use and the transition to ICD-10. With Nuance’s voice-enabled and Clinical Language Understanding technologies and deep electronic health record (EHR) integration, combined with Transcend’s high-quality transcription and editing services, hospitals can make clinical documentation and workflow more productive and cost efficient and extract greater value from clinical information.

“The acquisition of Transcend will expand the delivery of our innovative voice and Clinical Language Understanding solutions especially to small- and mid-size hospitals,” said Janet Dillione, executive vice president and general manager of Nuance’s Healthcare business. “With Transcend, we will drive change and improvement to the way these hospitals capture and leverage clinical information. The acquisition is a natural extension of Nuance’s existing healthcare business, and will strengthen our solution and services portfolio, as well as enhance our profitability.”

Nuance has agreed to acquire Transcend through a cash tender offer of $29.50 per Transcend share, representing an approximately 30 percent premium over Transcend’s 90-day volume weighted average share price. The transaction has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of each company. Based on Transcend’s 11.1 million diluted weighted average shares outstanding as of December 31, 2011, the acquisition is valued at approximately $300 million, net of Transcend’s estimated cash at closing. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of Nuance’s fiscal 2012, subject to regulatory approval and other conditions.

Nuance expects the acquisition in fiscal 2013 to add between $140 million and $150 million in revenue; non-GAAP earnings between $0.08 and $0.09 per share; and, GAAP earnings between $0.02 and $0.03 per share. See “Discussion of Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for further information.

The addition of Transcend brings many advantages and synergies to:

• Accelerate Growth within the Small- to Mid-Size Hospital Market – Transcend brings operational excellence and customer satisfaction, as well as a leading position with national Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) particularly within the small- to mid-size hospital market. Greater access to these organizations will expand the delivery of Nuance’s voice-driven and Clinical Language Understanding solutions in this segment and in turn will contribute growing revenue streams for Nuance’s healthcare business.
• Strengthen Services for Healthcare Organizations – With Transcend, Nuance will gain additional medical transcription and editing capacity for its healthcare offerings. Together, the combined organization will help a broader set of healthcare organizations achieve cost effective, efficient clinical documentation workflow.
• Drive Recurring Revenue and Enhance Profitability – The acquisition of Transcend is a natural extension of Nuance’s existing healthcare business that affords a stable, recurring revenue stream from its strong customer base and will enhance profitability within the division.

“Nuance recognized Transcend’s services experience and excellence and saw real benefit in adding Transcend’s employees and management team to its healthcare business,” said Larry G. Gerdes, CEO of Transcend. “Both Nuance and Transcend share a vision to reduce healthcare costs through technology and increased efficiencies. The strength of the combined organization will truly benefit the industry and we look forward to providing Transcend customers access to Nuance’s leading HIT technology.”

Key members of the Transcend management team will play integral roles in strengthening Nuance’s position in the healthcare industry, including Susan McGrogan, Transcend’s president and chief operating officer, and Lance Cornell, Transcend’s chief financial officer.

The tender offer is expected to commence on or before March 20, 2012. The offer will be open for a period of not less than 20 business days from its commencement and will be conditioned upon valid acceptances of the offer in respect of shares representing at least a majority of the outstanding Transcend shares on a fully diluted basis as well as other closing conditions, including receipt of required regulatory approval. The tender offer will be followed by a merger in which each Transcend share not acquired in the tender offer will be converted into the right to receive $29.50 per share in cash, without interest. The transaction will be financed through cash on hand at Nuance.

Transcend Services, Inc.
Transcend Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: TRCR) provides premium quality transcription and clinical documentation services to the healthcare industry. Its services encompass a wide range of solutions - people, products and processes - designed to turn medical dictation into meaningful electronic documents. Transcend provides its clients with exceptional quality, turnaround time and service so that they can focus on what matters most – their patients.  For more information, visitwww.Transcendservices.com .

Nuance Healthcare 
Nuance Healthcare, a division of Nuance Communications, is the market leader in providing clinical understanding solutions that accurately capture and transform the patient story into meaningful, actionable information.  Thousands of hospitals, providers and payers worldwide trust Nuance voice-enabled clinical documentation and analytics solutions to facilitate smarter, more efficient decisions across the healthcare enterprise.  These solutions are proven to increase clinician satisfaction and HIT adoption, supporting organizations to achieve Meaningful Use of EHR systems and transform to the accountable care model.  Recognized as “Best-in-KLAS” 2004-2011 for Speech Recognition we invite you to learn more, http://www.nuance.com/for-healthcare/index.htm.

Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world.  Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications.  For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

GM to Build New CNG Vans for AT&T

News release from AT&T:

GM Wentzville Plant to Build New CNG Vans for AT&T

Order shows AT&T's "continued commitment to alternative fuels and to investing right here in Missouri," says AT&T Missouri President John Sondag

St. Louis, Missouri, February 01, 2012

Fresh on the heels of the announcement that is has deployed its 5,000^th alternative fuel vehicle, AT&T* announced today that it plans to take delivery of 1,200 Chevrolet Express dedicated compressed natural gas (CNG) cargo vans to be deployed to AT&T service centers nationwide. It is the largest-ever order of GM CNG vehicles.

“St. Louis is home to AT&T’s Fleet Operations and we have more than 200 alternative fuel vehicles in the state,” said AT&T Missouri President John Sondag.  “This order shows AT&T’s continued commitment to alternative fuels and to investing right here in Missouri.”

AT&T, which has announced its intention to invest up to $565 million to deploy approximately 15,000 alternative fuel vehicles over a 10-year period through 2018, will use the vans to provide and maintain communications, high-speed Internet and television services for AT&T customers. Last week, the company announced the milestone deployment of its 5,000th alternative-fuel vehicle, a Chevrolet Express van, as part of the commitment.

 “CNG technology is important to AT&T because it helps us reduce our fleet-based carbon emissions,” said Jerome Webber, AT&T vice president of Fleet Operations. “It is also cost-effective and readily available in our country right now.” 

According to the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, CNG-powered vans can produce approximately 25 percent fewer carbon dioxide emissions than similar gasoline and diesel-powered vans, which supports AT&T’s corporate commitment to minimize its impact on the environment.

In 2010, AT&T and other large U.S. fleet operators joined in the Department of Energy’s Clean Cities’ National Clean Fleets Partnership as part of a national challenge launched by President Obama to cut America’s petroleum imports by one-third by 2025. Through 2013, AT&T anticipates it will have purchased up to 8,000 CNG vehicles at an estimated cost of $350 million. Additionally, over the life of the commitment, AT&T expects to invest $215 million to replace approximately 7,100 fleet passenger cars with alternative-fuel models.

According to a 2009 Center for Automotive Research report, AT&T’s planned alternative-fuel vehicle initiative would:

• Save 49 million gallons of gasoline over the 10-year deployment period
• Reduce carbon emissions by 211,000 metric tons – the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 38,600 passenger vehicles from the road for one year

More Sustainable Service Garages

Beyond the AFV deployments, AT&T is turning to its service garages to help minimize its environmental footprint and cut operating costs within its overall fleet. These programs include:

• Redirecting an estimated 60,000 old tires annually through a new recycling program that turns old rubber into fuel and consumer products
• Recycling all primary garage products, including 180,000 pounds of oil filters; 200,000 gallons of oil; and 23,000 gallons of antifreeze annually
• Eliminating the purchase of 9,000 pounds of lead annually that were being used to balance new fleet vehicle tires at high speeds

For more information about AT&T’s sustainability efforts and to view a copy of AT&T’s 2010 Sustainability Report, please visit www.att.com/csr.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.


About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation’s fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse^® and AT&T |DIRECTV brands. The company’s suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT.

Dell OEM Partners with SUSE

News release from Dell:

Dell OEM Solutions Makes Available SUSE Linux Enterprise Server to Customers

SUSE is the First Linux Vendor to Join the Dell OEM Technology Partner Program

Date : 1/24/2012

Dell and SUSE today announced the Dell OEM Solutions division will offer customizable, integrated systems based on SUSE Linux Enterprise with services and support for customers worldwide. Now, Dell OEM Solutions customers can customize any Dell-standard hardware within its extensive portfolio and utilize the versatility, performance, reliability and security of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, helping reduce cost and time to market.

   Gartner conducted a primary research survey of 547 IT leaders in organizations (excluding technology and service providers) in 11 countries in the second half of 2010. More than half the organizations surveyed have adopted OSS solutions as part of their IT strategy, with nearly one-third citing benefits of flexibility, increased innovation, shorter development times and faster procurement processes. Lower total cost of ownership was a key driver.*

"Enterprises are increasingly using Linux in integrated systems, ranging from consumer electronics, to industrial control, aerospace and military technologies," said Nils Brauckmann, president and general manager, SUSE.

"This partnership marks another milestone in our ongoing relationship with Dell. It combines Dell's OEM product, industry standard hardware and global services capabilities, with SUSE's flexible, reliable and cost-effective operating system and tools, to meet the specific needs of the embedded and OEM markets."

Dell will use SUSE Studio, a powerful image customization and provisioning tool, to build and deploy application stacks based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server onto Dell OEM Solutions’ embedded, built-to-order and customized solutions. Using SUSE Studio, Dell can help its OEM customers reduce the complexity and overhead costs associated with bringing integrated systems to market.

“We are pleased to welcome SUSE as the first Linux vendor to the Dell OEM Technology Partner Program. By partnering with SUSE, we are broadening and strengthening our solutions for the embedded and OEM markets,” said Ron Pugh, executive director and general manager, Dell OEM Solutions, Americas. “Our customers that use Dell OEM Solutions with SUSE Enterprise Linux Server for product design can help accelerate their time to market and cut operational costs.”

More information about the Dell OEM and SUSE partnership can be found on the Dell OEM Technology Partner website.

* Gartner, Inc., Survey Analysis: Overview of Preferences and Practices in the Adoption and Usage of Open-Source Software, Laurie F. Wurster, Bob Igou, Zeynep Babat, January 24, 2011