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GREAT NECK, NY–(Marketwire - April 25, 2008) - Investment firm Bang Ventures reminds all would-be venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and anyone interested in the business of starting up a new company that the deadline is fast approaching to vote for your favorite new business idea in the You Be the VC competition. Votes must be cast at www.youbethevc.com by 11:59 pm on April 30, 2008, to be counted in the judging of America’s best new company concepts.
The competition, which launched in the fall of 2007, offers people from all walks of life, not just insiders in the traditional VC community, to compete for resources to start their own companies. The nineteen finalists were selected by an expert panel of judges from companies such as Google, GrandCentral, Slide and Pownce and are currently in the running for the top three spots, which will be chosen with the help of public voting and announced in May.
The finalists are: Covel Allen of Arizona, Gil Allouche of Massachusetts, Raymond Angel of Indiana, Juan Carvajal of Florida, Andre Charoo of New York, Peter Ciancarelli of New York, James Clavin of North Carolina, Pete Coppola, Tyler Davis of Georgia, Joe DiPasquale of Connecticut, Leon Gomez of Florida, John Lynn of Nevada, Michael McCarthy of Massachusetts, Dan McLellan of New York, Michael O’Neil of Ohio, Tim O’Rourke of Massachusetts, Joe Uwazurike of North Carolina, Volodymyr Zakrevskyy, and Eric Zurbrugg of Georgia.
“We took an American Idol-inspired approach to finding some of the best hidden entrepreneurial talent in the U.S.,” said Lynn Martin, of the You Be the VC competition at Bang Ventures. “As a result, we’ve seen an incredible response from people with terrific new ideas and the drive to see them through. We’re excited to move into the next phase of You Be the VC and are looking forward to unveiling the winning ideas in a few short weeks.”

marketwire.com

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Air Force said on Friday it had picked a transatlantic team led by Northrop Grumman, instead of Boeing, to start building a new aerial refuelling fleet in a surprise choice worth about $35 billion (17 billion pounds).
Northrop Grumman Corp and its European partner, Airbus parent EADS , “clearly provided the best value to the government,” Sue Payton, the Air Force's chief weapons buyer, told reporters at a briefing.
The contract is to supply up to 179 tanker aircraft in a deal valued at about $35 billion over the next 15 years, the Air Force said in a statement. The aircraft will replace Eisenhower-era KC-135 tankers built by Boeing Co .
Northrop shares rose as much as 6 percent in extended trading from their $78.61 close on the New York Stock Exchange, while Boeing slipped 3 percent to $80 per share.
The initial contract for the newly named KC-45 tanker is for four test aircraft for $1.5 billion.
The program marks the first stage of a multi-decade plan to replace more than 500 KC-135 tankers used to extend the range of fighter jets and other warplanes.
With follow-on orders and in-service maintenance, it could be the second costliest military purchase over decades, topped only by Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Future phases of the purchase could bring the cost of the entire fleet to more than $100 billion, although the winner of this competition is not assured of winning future ones, Air Force officials said.
Boeing's KC-767 had been widely predicted to win the initial contract, partly because it had a greater amount of U.S. domestic production compared with the Northrop-EADS aircraft, based on the Airbus A330 airliner.
“I am extremely surprised,” said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, a prominent defence analyst. “To get this outcome, Northrop Grumman had to convince the Air Force to consider the aerial refuelling mission in a new way. Their analysis must have been compelling.”
The U.S. Air Force calls the new tanker fleet its top acquisition priority.
In 2004, the U.S. Congress killed an earlier $23.5 billion Air Force plan to lease and then buy 100 modified Boeing 767 tankers amid a Pentagon procurement scandal brought to light chiefly by Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the all-but certain Republican nominee for U.S. president.
(Reporting by Jim Wolf, editing by Tim Dobbyn)

iht.com