Featured Articles in Business

Snap Spins Off Gen-AI Video Team to Form Dotmo, a New Independent Firm

Social-media company sheds in-house AI video unit as it looks to rein in the rising costs of developing generative-AI models and immersive gaming products Snap Inc. is carving out its generative-AI video team into a new, independent company called Dotmo, the latest move by the social-media giant to manage the soaring costs of building artificial-intelligence Read More…

SpaceX Makes History With Record-Breaking $75 Billion IPO — Shares Surge Nearly 20% on Debut

Elon Musk’s SpaceX priced its initial public offering Thursday, raising $75 billion and cementing the rocket maker’s place among the world’s most valuable companies in what stands as the largest IPO in U.S. history. On Friday, Wall Street delivered its verdict: investors wanted in. The offering valued SpaceX at approximately $1.77 trillion at its IPO Read More…

Janicki Industries Selects Great Falls for $800 Million Manufacturing Campus

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Gov. Greg Gianforte announced that Janicki Industries selected Great Falls as the site of an $800 million manufacturing campus expected to create more than 1,000 jobs in its first five years and ultimately employ more than 2,000 people once fully built out. John Janicki, president of the company, made the announcement Read More…

All in: Business

Uber teams with Sears on new rewards program for drivers and riders

Uber today announced yet another rewards program for its drivers and riders, this time in partnership with retailer Sears and its “Shop Your Way” loyalty platform. The program offers drivers points redeemable for products at Search, Kmart and Lands End, as well as discounts on vehicle maintenance and repairs at Sears Auto Centers. Meanwhile, riders who Read More…

GTUIT Makes Inc. 500 List

Billings-based GTUIT, LLC has earned the 203rd position on Inc. magazine’s 2016 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private American companies with a three- year revenue growth rate of 1,894%. For 35 years, Inc. has tracked the fastest-growing private companies which have included firms like Microsoft, Under Armor, Oracle and Yeti Cooler. GTUIT stands out because Read More…

Helix Business Solutions adds technology sector to Dillon economy

If you have listened to Montana gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte speak on his economic plans, one key area regarding jobs is to bring the state’s kids home with high paying jobs in the technology sector. Gianforte and his wife founded and grew RightNow Technologies in Bozeman before selling the business to the multi-national corporation Oracle. Read More…

In a hopeful sign, Wyoming unemployment rate falls for first time in 18 months

Wyoming’s unemployment rate fell in August for the first time in 18 months, the Department of Workforce Services reported Tuesday. The shift from 5.7 percent unemployment in July to 5.5 percent last month is not a statistically significant drop, but it offers hope that the state economy is stabilizing. Natrona County had the fourth-largest decrease Read More…

Supporters of North Dakota pipeline protests gather in Great Falls

Members of the Chippewa Cree Tribe gathered along the bank of the Missouri River in Great Falls on Tuesday evening to show their support for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota. The group is joining in protest of the multi-billion dollar Dakota Access Pipeline that would cross the Missouri River several times across Read More…

8 leadership lessons from the book Facebook’s HR chief recommends to all new managers

When Lori Goler, Facebook’s Vice President of People, joined the company in 2008, she got to work making the company a “strengths-based” organization. It’s a term based on Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman’s 1999 bestselling management guide “First, Break All the Rules.” The coauthors were Gallup analysts at the time and drew insights from 25 years Read More…

Owners of former Stimson mill site give tour of business activity

BONNER — When Steve Nelson and Mike Boehme bought the former Stimson lumber mill site in Bonner in 2011, they saw potential in the blighted, polluted industrial area. Recently, the duo gave a tour to showcase the business activity going on there. Today, 10 separate businesses employing roughly 250 people occupy the 170-acre site, including Read More…

Industry sources question state’s decision to award $7M tourism contract to Wisconsin agency

After a decade-long partnership with Bozeman advertising agency MercuryCSC, Montana’s Office of Tourism and Business Development recently awarded the state’s $7 million annual marketing contract to a company based in Wisconsin. The department awarded the contract to Milwaukee agency Hoffman York at the beginning of August using a point system it says is objective to Read More…

Wheat Montana launches non-G.M.O. product line

THREE FORKS, MONT. — Wheat Montana recently reformulated its Healthyloaf line of bread using only non-G.M.O. ingredients. The company worked with vendors to assure that all ingredients are non-G.M.O., and plans to submit all items for non-GMO Project verification. The Healthyloaf line of better-for-you sliced bread has been a top-seller for Wheat Montana since its Read More…

One of ND’s largest oil producers posts wider loss on oil price slump

HOUSTON—Continental Resources Inc., North Dakota’s second-largest oil producer, posted a quarterly loss on Wednesday that missed Wall Street’s expectations because of the slump in crude prices. The loss is an example of the difficulty facing the oil industry as it seeks to offset the period of low prices. Many companies have slashed costs to survive. Read More…

AlphaGraphics Billings Announces Top 10 Sales Award

At the AlphaGraphics Annual Conference in New Orleans, AlphaGraphics of Billings owners Jake Eaton and Dustin Frost were presented with the AlphaGraphics 2015 Top 10 Sales Award, recognizing the locally owned center’s annual sales volume as 10th highest among the nearly 300 AlphaGraphics business centers worldwide. AlphaGraphics of Billings, a full service print communications company, Read More…