
The database PrivCo provides info on private companies, private market deals, venture capital funding and private investors. PrivCo recently released the PrivCo 100 rankings, which ranks the top 100 companies in the U.S. based on 2013 revenue.
Four companies headquartered in Michigan made the list:
17. Penske Corp: Bloomfield Hills, MI
Revenue: $23,100,000,000
26. Meijer: Grand Rapids, MI
Revenue: $16,620,000,000
41. Alticor, Inc.: Ada, MI
Revenue: $11,800,000,000
53. Gordon Food Service: Grand Rapids, MI...
Continue reading "The Top 100 Private Companies in the US"...For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, a phablet is a smartphone with a screen size from 5.5 inches to less than 7.0 inches. The iPhone 6 Plus is an example. According to the mobile analytics firm Flurry, phablet activation increased 225% year over year during the week of Christmas, taking share away from full-size tablets whose activations were down 35.3%.
For more on phablets, or to read the full article, "Phablets Performed Fabulously on Christmas," go to eMarketer.
Citation: eMarketer. (2015, January 5) Phablets Performed Fabulously on Christmas. Retrieved...
Continue reading "Phablets Performed Fabulously on Christmas"...
It’s time for the end of the year, where we take a look at what we learned and figure out what to take with us to the next year. For me, that means taking a look at what I’ve learned about business in 2014 and what media has contributed to that. Here are some of the highlights from the television, radio, and computer.
This list is by no means comprehensive, but represents some of my favorite resources for learning more about the art and science of creating and operating businesses. Each of the following pieces of media was informally rated based on 1) my actually having read or...
Continue reading "Year in Review: TV, Podcasts, & MOOCs"...
IBM recently announced a partnership with Twitter in which IBM will help companies make more strategic decisions based on Twitter data. This partnership aligns with their current goal of moving further into the analytics arena. The Twitter data will be added to IBM’s Watson technology, which is a cognitive technology that processes information like a human and is able to answer questions using natural language. The use of cognitive technology with data from Twitter is another large step in the area of data analytics.
The Eli Broad College of Business has made data analytics a...
Continue reading "IBM, Twitter to Partner on Business Data Analytics"...
The Gast Business Library will offer time with therapy dogs for stress relief during finals week. These trained, certified therapy dogs give students an opportunity to “paws” for a fun break!
When: Monday, December 8 and Tuesday, December 9 from 1-3pm
Where: Room 13 in the Business Library
Therapy dogs will also be available at the Main Library.
Questions? Contact Laura Leavitt.

In the Wall Street Journal article “Google Searches for Role in App Age,” Rolfe Winkler breaks down Google’s strategy to ensure its advertising business stays relevant in the mobile age. Google was built around searching the web. The company deployed “spiders” to find links and created algorithms to rank the value of pages. Now, with the increase in mobile phone use, siloed apps have left Google out of the loop, causing the need for a new approach. On smartphones, traditional web browsing currently only represents 20% of use, according to mobile-analytics firm Flurry. The rest of the...
Continue reading "Google's Deep Links"...Maps were no longer just for kings and scholars. By the late 1500s, maps were increasingly purchased by ‘regular’ (though still fairly wealthy) people. After all, everyone was interested in the voyages of discovery and exploration going on at this time. European map makers now had enough dribbles of information to piece together world maps based largely on observation rather than on myth.
Ortelius gathered information from many different sources for this world map. The Americas are here, and even part of Australia. Monsters and the worst errors are pressed into parts of the...
Continue reading "Monsters Patrolling the Oceans in this 1588 World Map"...
For all of you who love your iPads and Android tablets, MSU Libraries subscribes to BrowZine, an app that can help you read and stay current with scholarly journals.
Within the BrowZine app, you can:
Create a bookshelf of your favorite journals for easy, fast access
Li. Spatial pattern dynamics in aquatic ecosystem modelling. CRC Press, ©2009. Call Number: QH 541.5.W3 L5 2009
Wiegand and Moloney. Handbook of spatial point-pattern analysis in ecology. CRC Press, ©2014. Call Number: QH 541.15.M34 W54 2014
Nelson, Earle, and Spellenberg. Trees of Eastern North America. Princeton University Press, ©2014. Call Number: QK 110 .N45 2014
Spellman and Whiting. Handbook of mathematics and statistics for the environment. CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, ©2014. Call Number: TD 145 .S6765 2014
Bisen. Laboratory protocols in...
Continue reading "New Books"...In October, the Lansing area hosted Startup Weekend: Maker Edition, where teams from across the region came and competed, turning an idea into a business over three days. In the run up to that weekend, 12 local organizations celebrated their role in enabling people to bring their visions to life by being a part of the Maker Week Lansing. Food and fashion incubators, makerspaces, and everything in between hosted activities and keynotes related to making.
Lansing is a great place to be a Maker. Recently, there has been a progression of support services and opportunities for...
Continue reading "Lansing Maker Week Recap"...