A medical software company based in Tennessee is opening an outpost in Durham, with plans to add 45 technology jobs, Gov. Bev Perdue's office announced today.

Health IT Services Group is a division of Fresenius Medical Care, a German company that is the world's largest provider of kidney dialysis.

Health IT provides electronic medical records and other services to kidney doctors across the country. Nephrologists use the company's technology to access patient data online.

The company has leased more than 12,000 square feet in the American Tobacco Campus that was previously occupied by GlaxoSmithKline. Health IT is recruiting software developers and other employees.

Taiwanese cell phone maker HTC's recently opened Durham office now employs about 60 people and is looking to add a dozen more.

HTC announced late last year plans to open a research and development office in Durham. The company chose Durham over Seattle and Atlanta.

HTC said at the time that the office would initially employ 45 people, with that number expected to increase to 99 within five years.

The average annual wage for jobs was expected to be $125,000.

HTC received $150,000 in incentives from the city of Durham.

The company has a dozen job openings in North Carolina listed on its website for a range of positions, including financial analysts, market analysts and design engineers.
 

For those wondering where the Triangle's leading entrepreneurs went this morning, they were all in Durham meeting with Obama Administration officials and some of corporate America's biggest names.

The occasion was a convening of Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, which includes former AOL CEO Steve Case, Citigroup Chairman Dick Parsons, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

It was one of five similar economic meetings held across the Triangle this morning in advance of Obama's appearance today at the Durham headquarters of LED-maker Cree.

The group that met at Durham's American Tobacco Campus was focused on entrepreneurship.

After a tour of American Underground, the the ATC space designed to foster start-ups, the council members joined Triangle business leaders at the headquarters of advertising agency McKinney.

The goal, as stated by Austan Goolsbee, chair of Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, was to talk about things that both the government and the private sector can do to make life easier for entrepreneurs.

The issues raised this morning will be familiar ones to anyone who has followed similar discussions in the past: Access to capital, particularly early seed money; the transfer of promising technology from the labs and classrooms of the area's universities to the private sector; the existence of a mentoring network to help entrepreneurs grow; and the access to talented employees.

Bronto Software is getting a bigger pad.

The email marketing company is adding another 8,000 square feet to its 13,000-square-foot headquarters in Durham's American Tobacco Campus by expanding into three adjacent offices.

Bronto employs about 90 people, but wants more room as its business increases. The company has about 20 open positions, said CEO and co-founder Joe Colopy.

"Things are going in the right direction," said Colopy, who co-founded the company in 2002 out of his Durham house. "We're having a good time."

Bronto sells marketing services to retailers and other businesses, including Party City, Timex, BatteriesPlus, Dean & Deluca, Samsonite and more. They hire Bronto to help connect with customers through email, social media and, increasingly, various mobile devices.

Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO and co-founder of private equity firm The Blackstone Group, will be in Durham on Monday to announce a new charitable initiative designed to further entrepreneurship.

Schwarzman will be joined by a bevy of state politicians and university officials, including Gov. Bev Perdue, Senator Kay Hagan, Duke University President Richard Brodhead, N.C. Central University Chancellor Charlie Nelms, North Carolina State University Chancellor Randy Woodson and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp.

The event is being held on the American Tobacco Campus at 11 a.m.

Blackstone's charitable foundation earlier launched a $50 million entrepreneurship initiative, called LaunchPad, that is working with universities to develop programs for aspiring entrepreneurs. 

The foundation hopes to make LaunchPad a national model for developing entrepreneurship through higher education.

It has committed to expanding the number of LaunchPads in the U.S. over the next five years.

Among those on the losing end of Monday's announcement that Red Hat would be staying in Wake County was Durham's American Tobacco Campus.

American Tobacco made an aggressive pitch to try and win over Red Hat, and at the annual Downtown Durham Inc. luncheon in November Jim Goodmon (left), CEO of Capitol Broadcasting, the owner of American Tobacco, told the crowd that he intended to win Red Hat.

Luring Red Hat to Durham would have been a major coup, particularly since ATC just recently landed the cellphone maker HTC.
 

Taiwanese cell phone maker HTC said today that it plans to lease space in downtown Durham's American Tobacco Campus.

HTC is leasing about 15,000 square feet, plus an additional 12,000 square feet for future expansion.

The company said the facility, a new research and development office, will employ 45 people initially.

“HTC has been successful bringing its unique brand of people-centric innovation to consumers, and with the establishment of this new R&D office, we are taking an important step to extend our leadership position in the wireless industry,” said Ron Louks, chief strategy officer for HTC, in a release.

“Durham is a perfect place to open our new R&D office because we are able to tap into this deep pool of technical talent that complements HTC’s leading-edge R&D efforts going on around the world.”

The announcement is a major win for both downtown Durham and American Tobacco.

In October, the Durham City Council approved $150,000 in incentives for HTC. A proposal before the council said HTC expected to create 99 jobs over five years.

The average annual wage for jobs would be $125,000.
 

American Underground, the recently opened basement space at American Tobacco Campus in downtown Durham, has announced five new tenants.

The startups include Acorn Innovestments, Adzerk, Jaargon Ltd., Preation and Two Toasters.

They join the earlier announced companies Launchbox Digital, Joystick Labs and the Council for Entrepreneurial Development.

American Underground includes 26,000 square feet of space on the lower levels of the Strickland and Crowe buildings. It had been used as storage space until this fall.

The space is designed for startups -- rents are about $5 per square foot cheaper. It includes offices and suites, shared conference rooms and break rooms and a classroom that accommodates 60 people.
 

Capitol Broadcasting pulled out all the stops on Tuesday when it unveiled its plan to convert the basements in two American Tobacco buildings into an office complex for startups.

The announcement, held at Bay 7 on the American Tobacco Campus, included an elevated stage made to look like the set of a talk show. Acting as host during the event was Michael Goodmon, Capitol's vice president of real estate and the son of CEO Jim Goodmon.

Michael Goodmon interviewed his father about the new space, which has been dubbed American Underground, as well as a panel of guests that included Durham Mayor Bill Bell and Rick Weddle, CEO of the Research Triangle Foundation.

He also gave introductions to a number of prepared videos that were shown on a large video screen.

One of those videos included a cartoon version of Jim Goodmon from the future. Asked in the video what the future was like, Goodmon said there were Plensa installments in every home.

The Plensa line could be viewed as a not so subtle dig at Raleigh officials.
 

Two business incubators and a nonprofit that helps foster entrepreneurs and startup companies plan to set up shop in downtown Durham's American Tobacco Campus.

The Council for Entrepreneurial Development will join LaunchBox Digital and Joystick Labs at the campus. The additions are aimed at turning the successful commercial development project into a hotbed of entrepreneurial activity.

The three organizations will be tenants in the newly named American Underground, a 26,000 square-foot space in the lower levels of American Tobacco's Strickland and Crowe Buildings.

The three groups will take about a third of the American Underground space. American Tobacco will seek to lease the rest at about $19.95 per square foot. That's below the square-foot price of $25.95 that the campus is seeking for 88,000 square feet that GlaxoSmithKline said it will vacate next May.