Economic Development

Wisconsin entrepreneurs looking to jumpstart their businesses are invited to take part at the first-ever Small Business Academy, which will take place from on Wednesday, Oct. 22, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Potawatomi Hotel & Conference Center in Milwaukee.

After a turbulent start to 2014, the National Retail Federation announced today it expects sales in November and December (excluding autos, gas and restaurant sales) to increase a healthy 4.1 percent to $616.9 billion, higher than 2013’s actual 3.1 percent increase during that same time frame.

Milwaukee-based National Baking Co. Inc. has acquired Oak Creek-based Melody Cookies Inc.

Shelter Mortgage Co. LLC will lay off 63 employees from its office at 4000 W. Brown Deer Road in Brown Deer.

Omaha, Neb.-based Cosentry, a leading Midwest IT solutions provider, announced it has acquired Milwaukee-based Red Anvil, a full service, managed data center provider.
The acquisition enables Cosentry to instantly expand its operations into the Milwaukee market enhancing the region’s current data center services with new disaster recovery, colocation, cloud services, managed hosting, and other managed service offerings.

Milwaukee-based ARI Network Services Inc. announced it has acquired TCS Technologies, a Cookville, Tenn.-based provider of software, websites and digital marketing services designed exclusively for dealers, wholesalers, retreaders and manufacturers within the automotive tire and wheel vertical.

Waukesha-based Generac Holdings Inc., a designer and manufacturer of generators and other small engine powered products, has acquired Bismarck, N.D.-based MAC Inc. and its related entities.

U.S. Bank will host How to Protect Your Business Against the Newest Threats on Monday, Oct. 20, from 8...

Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21, has hired Matt Dorner to serve as its economic development director.

New Orleans, LA – Oftentimes, entrepreneurs lack the resources or the expertise to identify candidates to pilot a new product. Or, with testing complete, an established company may have only a loose understanding of the universe of potential customers for its new technology. Commercializing a new innovation requires insight—detailed knowledge of the audience that stands to benefit from the breakthrough. That's where WatrHub Inc. comes in.