Briefcase
IT-Lifeline teaming with Seattle-based company
Liberty Lake-based IT-Lifeline announced it has formed a partnership with Business Continuity Center of Seattle, a company that provides similar business recovery services, critical data management and protection.
The goal of the deal is to increase West Side business for IT-Lifeline, which has offices and operations in the TierPoint building in Liberty Lake.
Most of IT-Lifeline’s customers are from Eastern Washington. With the new deal, the privately held company plans to build more business relationships in the Puget Sound area.
Business Continuity Center of Seattle is an ideal partner for that role, said Brandon Tanner, vice president of sales and marketing of IT-Lifeline.
Staff reports
WSU students’ Ecowell relocating to California
A vending machine company that grew out of a Washington State University student project will move to the San Francisco area this summer.
Ecowell provides plastic-free beverage vending machines connected to a water source. Users can choose hot, cold or carbonated water. They can add flavors to their drink, as well as manipulate how much of what flavor to use. The drink is dispensed into the user’s personal bottle or cup.
Eight machines operating in Spokane and locations on the Palouse are being removed for the move south.
Three WSU students in the Harold Frank Engineering Entrepreneurship Institute, which includes engineering and business students, created the product with an accompanying marketing strategy in 2009.
Moscow-Pullman Daily News
State farm exports are at record highs
OLYMPIA – The Washington Agriculture Department reports farm exports reached record highs in the final quarter of last year and first quarter of this year – more than $1.9 billion a quarter.
The department says sales beat the old record set in 2008.
Japan was the top destination from October through March for Washington products, buying wheat, hay and potatoes. Canada was second, buying seafood, apples and vegetables. And China came in third, buying seafood, potatoes and apples.
Associated Press
Groupon files papers for public offering
SAN FRANCISCO – Rapidly growing online coupon seller Groupon Inc. is dangling its most tantalizing deal yet – an initial public offering of stock.
Groupon took the first step toward selling its stock on Wall Street by filing its IPO papers Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The much-anticipated filing comes just two weeks after LinkedIn Corp., a popular Internet service for professional networking, saw its shares double in the first day of trading. That surge evoked memories of the early stages of the dot-com boom in the 1990s.
Groupon, based in Chicago, offers its subscribers the chance to purchase daily discounts targeted to their city and preferences.
Associated Press