Itron partners with RouteSmart

Itron Inc. has partnered with a Columbia, Md.-based company that makes software to optimize meter readers’ routes, Itron announced Thursday.

The arrangement with RouteSmart Technologies Inc. will help Itron make competitive bids for business, said spokeswoman Christina Kelly.

RouteSmart’s software “computes route recommendations with address-specific, side-of-street-level precision and models both driving and walking route planning problems,” according to an Itron news release.

The software is useful when utilities try to catch up with population expansion or need workers to read meters in areas where radio-based automated meter-reading technology won’t work, Kelly said.

The two companies will make their software compatible and will “collaborate exclusively on joint proposals for metering projects where route optimization is required,” according to the release.

Itron says about 8,000 utilities worldwide use its technology, which includes solid-state electricity, gas and water meters and data-collection equipment.

Detroit

Chrysler deal expected to close

A historic deal that places Chrysler Group in the hands of private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP was expected to close Friday, according to a Chrysler official who asked not to be named because the deal was not yet completed.

The $7.4 billion deal was announced in May. Under the terms, DaimlerChrysler AG will transfer an 80.1 percent stake in Chrysler to New York-based Cerberus. Daimler will retain a 19.9 percent interest in the company.

A message seeking comment was left for Cerberus spokesman Peter Duda.

Former Chrysler executive Wolfgang Bernhard, a senior adviser to Cerberus, is expected to be named chairman of the automaker’s board of directors, while Chrysler Chief Executive Tom LaSorda would continue to run the company’s day-to-day operations.

Seattle

Amazon tries grocery delivery

Has enough time passed since the sensational demise of Webvan.com and its Web-to-doorstep grocery delivery peers for another company to try again?

Amazon.com Inc. sure hopes so.

The Web retailer quietly began taking orders for fresh produce and other grocery items Wednesday from residents of Mercer Island, a Seattle suburb, and dispatched a fleet of 12 delivery trucks from its grocery distribution center in Bellevue to deliver those alfalfa sprouts in one-hour time slots.

Craig Berman, an Amazon spokesman, said the company is working with local wholesalers and farmers and aiming to have inventory sit in the warehouse for less than 24 hours.

The new Web site, http://fresh.amazon.com, was first available to a small number of Amazon grocery customers on Mercer Island who were invited by e-mail to help test the business.