Comings & goings: Farewell, Northwest

NOW DEPARTING....

Northwest Airlines, ranked No. 10 on last year's list, took off for Atlanta last year after its megamerger with Delta. The former red-tailed carrier became the highest-profile departure on our list, but it was not the only airline to take off. ...

MAIR Holdings, the former owner of Mesaba Aviation and Big Sky Transportation, finally liquidated in August 2008. Mesaba was sold to Northwest in 2007.

GOING HOLLYWOOD

Struggling Italian family-style restaurant chain Buca Inc., No. 62 in 2007, was acquired by Planet Hollywood in September. Buca seems miscast with Planet Hollywood, best known for its Hollywood-themed casual restaurants but also venturing into hotels, casinos and coffeeshops. Still, Planet Hollywood got a sweet deal, picking up a restaurant company with 89 locations for approximately $28.5 million.

IPOS, SORT OF

Some public companies in 2008 simply faded away. Several were delisted, deregistered or filed for bankruptcy. Making those losses more jarring was the fact that there were hardly any new public companies to fill the void.

Cardiovascular Systems Inc. went public in February, but in a reverse merger with Replidyne Inc. The company had registered for an initial public offering in January 2008 but never gained the traction to complete its IPO.

The last companies to complete initial public offerings in Minnesota were Enteromedics Inc. and Virtual Radiologic Inc. in November 2007. Enteromedics remains a development-stage company; it has yet to generate revenue from its neuroblocking technology that treats obesity. Virtual Radiologic rose to number No. 72 this year, up from its debut last year at 79.

NOTABLE DEALS

Mergers and acquisitions activity stalled in late 2008, but not before several notable deals were closed that took out companies from last year's list. Possis Medical (No. 85 in 2007) was acquired by Bayer Schering Pharma, US BioEnergy Corp. (No. 50 in 2007) was acquired by VeraSun, and Lifecore Biomedical (No. 86 in 2007) was acquired by Warburg Pincus.

PUBLIC NO LONGER

The higher costs of being a public company in the tougher Sarbanes-Oxley regulatory environment and the difficulty many had in maintaining listing standards led some to deregister as a public company or be delisted from major exchanges. Among them: Micro Component, deregistered as a public company on March 25, and PPT Vision, deregistered in July 2008. STEN Corp., with $15.9 million in annual revenue, chose to delist its common stock from Nasdaq, citing substantial costs and limited benefits, in January.

Delphax Technologies (No. 96 last year) had $41.6 million in revenue for 2008 and would have moved up to 90th this year. Delphax deregistered in December, citing the rising costs of compliance for consultants, audit fees, insurance and extra headcount.

DOWN AND OUT

Among those fading away was Ciprico Inc., which was never big enough to make the ST100. Ciprico filed for Chapter 11 on July 28.

The long downward slide for Lenox Group Inc. (No. 54 in 2007) finally culminated in its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November. After a bidding battle for Lenox assets, a group of lenders and New York investment firm Clarion Capital Partners agreed in February to buy the remaining assets. According to bankruptcy filings, the Clarion group agreed to pay $35 million for the Lenox, Dansk, Gorham and Department 56 brands.

Wilsons the Leather Experts (No. 60 in 2007) had been losing revenue since sales peaked in 2001. Last year, the company's mall-based stores were closed and liquidated. The company then planned to change its name to PreVu Inc. but was delisted by Nasdaq in July and finally filed for Chapter 7 liquidation on Sept. 12.

ARRIVALS

Our methodology excludes companies that do not trade on a major exchange.

Health Fitness, No. 78 this year, has had enough sales muscle to make the list in the past, but it traded local-over-the-counter and so wasn't eligible. This year, Health Fitness made the move to the NYSE on Oct. 22. The company's fitness management segment manages fitness centers for corporations, hospitals and other organizations. The health management segment helps companies manage delivery of fitness and wellness programs.

Also new to the list is Multiband Corp. (No. 90), whose growth-and-acquisition strategy allowed it to gain 25 spots in the revenue rankings. Multiband, formerly known as Vicom Inc., is the nation's largest DirecTV "master system operator'' for apartment buildings. It had strong organic growth aided by the acquisition of Michigan MicroTech Inc. in March 2008. In January, Multiband acquired operations of DireTECH Holding Co., adding more than 3,000 employees. And it is still hiring.

The floor of this year's list is $24.7 million, almost $10 million less than last year, and a sign of the distressed economy. But several companies joined as a result, including Image Sensing Systems, WSI Industries and Clearfield Inc. at Nos. 98, 99 and 100, respectively.

Clearfield Inc., which provides fiber-optics management systems, grabbed the 100th spot with a 31 percent increase in sales over the same period last year. The company turned its first annual profit in September and reported a strong first quarter that ended in December.