Boston-based ConnectEDU, a technology firm that specializes in online tools for college admissions and career planning, announced in a press release that it has surpassed its projected $5 million goal for its Series C funding round. The company states that it has raised $8.2 million with the help of previous investors, the names of which were not disclosed. A new group of investors, led by Allen & Company, also joined the round.

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Fido just might be a homeowner’s new best friend. The watchdog in question isn’t a vigilant Doberman or German Shepard, but rather the flagship product of EcoDog, a home energy-monitoring start-up based in Vista, CA. The device connects to a home circuit breaker and delivers real-time information on the home’s energy usage.

"Fido" keeps watch on your electric grid

One nifty aspect of the technology is that Fido does not use an internet data or wireless technology to transmit the data to your home computer. Instead, once Fido is installed, it automatically uses your home’s electrical wiring to send data. Fido delivers a detailed report on the electricity usage of the house, room by room, appliance by appliance.

Founder and CEO Ron Pitt, a software engineer by training, used to work in the alternative energy industry. But he became increasingly frustrated with the impracticality of solar and wind-generated power for the average homeowner. He thought there was an overemphasis on “how to generate one more kilowatt per hour.” Instead, Pitt decided that focusing on energy management “can make a much greater impact than any number of solar panels you put on roofs.”

EcoDog CEO Ron Pitt

This philosophy has translated into EcoDog’s marketing, which touts how Fido can save homeowners money by offering complete transparency of their utility costs. “Environmentally green is good, but money green is better,” says Pitt. “People want to do the right thing, but unless you make it financially advantageous to them, it’s never going to gain wide acceptance. Solar is not a compelling financial model.” It just so happens that by bringing down their electricity costs, homeowners simultaneously streamline their energy usage.

Other methods of measuring home energy consumption, Pitt says, are based on canned questionnaires, which offer little insight into the specific details of an individual residence’s electricity costs. “The beauty of Fido is that it is able to take actual usage data from your home, as well as the projected rate from the utility company, to deliver a report tailored to you.” A homeowner may find out that certain inefficient appliances are responsible for the bulk of the utility bill. Pitt cites one homeowner in the pilot program who discovered that a single dehumidifier in a storage room was responsible for $90 a month in electricity.

“The point of the system is to measure where the problem areas are,” he says. “You don’t have to guess.”

EcoDog has come a long way since 2005, when Pitt sodered his first energy …Next Page »

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Flame-thrower enthusiasts and giant dinosaur puppet-makers of the world, rejoice. The Awesome Foundation for Arts and Sciences wants to support your efforts. Starting in July, the new Cambridge, MA-based “microtrust” will be giving out one grant each month in the spirit of supporting creations that evoke “surprise and delight.” The application process is simple: explain your activity, project, or research idea in 500 words or less. Sufficiently awesome ideas will net their creator $1,000 and a month’s workspace in Beta House, the creative and technological work co-op in Cambridge’s Central Square.

But what lends an idea awesomeness? “It’s something ambitious. Outlandish. Unexpected,” says Tim Hwang, the founding member of the Awesome Foundation. The winning idea could be a computer program, an art project, a machine, or some unforeseen combination of the three. “We’re intentionally keeping it vague,” says Hwang. The foundation is reluctant to define “awesome” too rigidly, he says, for fear of restricting grantees’ creativity.

Ideas do not have to include a business model, though the Awesome Foundation is not averse to supporting a for-profit project. “We’re agnostic as to whether or not you’re going to make money off your idea,” Hwang says.

A researcher at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Web Ecology Project, Hwang came up with the idea for the Awesome Foundation while immersed in the grant application process. Applying for funding, he says, “is a really depressing thing. People get really excited about their idea, but run up against the bureaucratic nature of grants.” He hit upon the idea of creating a “microtrust” where a group of people would commit to donating a small amount of money—$100 a month. The money would be given free of any stipulations or strings. In early June, Hwang announced on his blog that he was looking for 10 people to contribute and form the first board of the Awesome Foundation.

Reed Sturtevant is one of Hwang’s “microtrustees.” When not funding awesomeness, he manages Microsoft’s Startup Labs in Cambridge. He sees his involvement with the Awesome Foundation as a way of giving back and encouraging entrepreneurial spirit. $1,000 might not seem like much, Sturtevant says, but “so many people just do amazing things for no reason. There are great creative people and ideas that just need a little spark to help them come forth.”

The application form for an Awesome Grant went online last Friday. By the end of the first day, the foundation had already received 30 prospects, Hwang says. Aside from a few joke applications (such as this one from “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad”: “I need funds to help fix an election in my country. Funds will go to paying people to vote for me, changing votes, lashing out at Western media, and getting my snazzy beard trimmed”), the ideas have run the gamut from technical to artistic. The first winner will be announced near the end of July. Hwang says the only thing the foundation asks of the winner is to show off their work at the end of their month at Beta House.

“We’re thinking of ordering a big checkbook,” Hwang said, “and some of those big scissors to do a ribbon-cutting.”

Awesome.

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5AM Ventures, a life sciences-focused early stage venture capital firm, has surpassed its $150 million target for its third fund, reports PE Hub. An SEC filing that indicates 5AM, which has offices in Waltham, MA, and Menlo Park, CA, has raised $159.2 million from 34 investors. Companies in the firm’s portfolio include Pulmatrix, a Lexington, MA-based startup developing an aerosol treatment for flu other pathogens, and Cambridge, MA-based Semprus BioSciences, which is making polymers that bond to the surface of medical devices to prevent clots and infections and to promote healing.

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Cambridge, MA drug giant Biogen Idec (NASDAQ:BIIB) and Hawthorne, NY-based Acorda Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ACOR) announced today that Biogen Idec has acquired the rights to develop and commercialize Acorda’s multiple sclerosis drug, Fampridine-SR, in markets outside the U.S. Acorda will receive an upfront payment of $110 million and additional payments of up to $400 million, and retains commercialization rights to Fampridine-SR in U.S. markets. The deal increases the Cambridge company’s MS drug footprint, which already includes Biogen drugs Avonex and Tysabri. The latter drug has come under scrutiny recently for its link to a severe brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML.

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[Corrected 7/1/09]

The atmosphere at last Wednesday’s XSITE energy breakout session was electric—clean electric, that is. The topic of the hour was the future and feasibility of wind, solar, and other alternative energy industries in New England. Rob Day, president of the Renewable Energy Business Network, moderated the panel, which included Jay Fiske (a VP at solar firm Wakonda Technologies), Daniel Goldman (EVP and CFO of GreatPoint Energy, a developer of coal gasification technology), Gerry Haines (EVP and chief legal officer at biofuel firm Verenium), and Roger Freeman (president of wind power firm Solventerra Energy).

The energy industry is staring down the barrel of heavy government involvement in its affairs. The Waxman-Markey bill, which at the time of the panel was still being debated in the House of Representatives, poses both potential opportunities and potential headaches for the clean energy industry. The new emissions regulations aimed at the largest polluters, intended to force large energy companies to develop cleaner fuels, may provide a huge boost to smaller cleantech firms. “The problem with Big Oil is, even with incentives given to work on alternative fuels, they’re not really in the tech development business, so we work with them,” said Haines.

Waxman-Markey’s detractors, however, say that the stricter federal standards for controlling carbon emissions leaves less room for companies, especially smaller ones, to adjust to local conditions. The costs that are more easily absorbed by large oil or coal interests may prove more challenging to a small cleantech company.

When asked how startup energy firms could cope with more stringent government regulation, GreatPoint Energy’s Goldman noted that utilities, for the most part, have always been regulated, and that “we have to accept that we work in a regulated industry, and that government policy plays a very significant role.” On the other hand, he said, most companies “can’t afford time to sit in Washington influencing members of Congress.” He advised that smaller cleantech companies not try to lobby for policy changes on their own, but to piggyback onto the efforts of larger companies. “Figure out how your company’s interests align with, say, GE, and leverage off their focus.”

When asked to comment on the difficulties that energy startups face in acquiring venture funding, Solventerra’s Freeman, the former managing director of the nonprofit Citizens Energy Corporation, said that the lack of potential for a big—or bigger than expected—payoff was the problem. “Energy is a tangible business. You put x amount in and get x amount of energy out. You can measure the risk pretty successfully, so it doesn’t attract as much venture investment.”

“It’s not Web 2.0,” said Day.  “You have to actually make something.”

Fiske noted that in the current economic climate, investors might be cautious, but alternative sources of funding for cleantech have never been more abundant.  Cleantech can always look to “SBIR grants, competition winnings, and of course, the three Fs—friends, family, and fools.” [Editor's note: this quote was originally misattributed to Daniel Goldman. We regret the error.]

Day asked the panel to describe some of the barriers in New England to the success of cleantech. Freeman said that Boston’s deeply engrained parochialism means navigating a maze of regulation for even the simplest matters. Major additions and infrastructure changes can only be that much more of a headache. “It took my friend two years to get a permit to build a deck. How long do you think it takes to get one for a wind turbine?”

“The good thing is, we have a forward-thinking administration here in Massachusetts,” said Goldman. The Patrick administration, he says, is a staunch supporter of cleantech innovation.

Wakonda’s Fiske said that Massachusetts could be doing more to capitalize on its intellectual resources, and that universities in particular could better support spin–offs and the commercialization of their research. The panelists all concurred that the concentration of both high-level research institutions and scientists was New England’s greatest advantage.

“Intellectual capital,” said Haines, “is our best resource.”

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Seattle’s mighty Amazon isn’t feeling too friendly toward the Ocean State. This morning, the online retail giant sent out a terse notice to its Rhode Island affiliates, informing them that their accounts were closed effective June 29th, due to impending changes to the state’s tax laws that apply to certain online purchases. This echoes a similar move the company made three days ago in North Carolina, after that state enacted a similar tax change.

The affiliates are members of a program called Amazon Associates, in which participants place ads for Amazon products on their websites. Users are funneled to Amazon’s website through the links, and each affiliate receives a commission if purchases are made. A new provision in the Rhode Island state budget will require Amazon to collect sales taxes on all purchases made through the affiliates program. Amazon’s letter, which was posted on Seattle news website TechFlash, calls the provision “an unconstitutional tax collection scheme.”

The legislature says it is merely closing a loophole. Under the current incarnation of Rhode Island tax law, Amazon is not required to charge sales tax on purchases since it does not have a “physical presence” in the state. The tax (here called a “use tax”) does legally have to be paid, though—it’s just that most consumers do not take it upon themselves to send the state government a check for seven percent of their Battlestar Galactica DVD box set and other affiliates-related purchases. Many other states, including financially floundering California, are looking to enact similar proposals.

Steven Costantino, chair of the Assembly’s Finance Committee, told the Providence Journal that the changes in tax law were a “matter of fairness” to local businesses with actual physical presences in the state. The loophole-closing provision is based on previous legislation enacted in New York state— called, appropriately enough, the “Amazon law.”

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Biogen Idec (NASDAQ:BIIB) reported a tenth case of a serious brain infection in a patient taking Tysabri, the Cambridge, MA-based company’s drug for multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease. The news was disclosed late last Friday on the company’s website (pdf here). Luke wrote back in December about the history of Tysabri, which was pulled from the market in February 2005 after two cases of PML and returned to the market under a strict monitoring program in July 2006.

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Our Seattle compatriots have all arrived in Boston for XSITE. We wish we could say they brought the rain with them, but in fact, Boston has been far wetter than Seattle all month. The week’s life sciences news, however, isn’t quite the downpour you’ve all been dealing with outside.

—Wide-roaming correspondent Ryan McBride took in some sea air while attending the Convergence conference in Newport, RI. Policy wonks abounded, as the health care industry is nervously awaiting changes to federal patent standards, generic biotech drug regulation, and healthcare coverage. Ryan gathered insights on GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK)’s purchase of Cambridge, MA-based Sirtis last spring from Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) CEO Henri Termeer’s account of a conversation he had with Sirtis CEO Christoph Westphal. For all this and more, check out his report.

—Ryan also profiled PubGet, a Cambridge-based scholarly search engine aiming to provide faster, more useful results than the likes of GoogleScholar and PubMed. Instead of clicking through multiple links to get to the paper, a PubGet search will take you directly to a full-text PDF (assuming your institution has access). PubGet’s just announced that 50 research institutions have adopted its service.

—Marlborough, MA-based Exact Sciences is going back home to where the buffalo roam. The colorectal cancer test maker is relocating to Wisconsin after securing a $1 million loan from the Badger State.

—ImmunoGen (NASDAQ: IMGN), which produces technology to aid the effectiveness of antibody drugs, raised $33 million, after expenses, through a stock offering. The Waltham company sold 5 million shares at $7 apiece.

—Cambridge’s Living Proof, which aims to apply advanced materials science to beauty products, raised $9 million in an equity financing round. The funds came from Polaris Venture Partners, the sole venture backer of the company. Living Proof recently debuted its first product, the hair treatment NoFrizz.

—I-Therapeutix, a Waltham-based maker of tiny hydrogel-based eye bandages, landed $15 million in venture capital during a Series C Financing round. Between this latest news and the recent clearance of its flagship product, the I-Zip bandage, in European markets, I-Therapeutix is sitting pretty. The company hopes to enter the American market early next year, and is currently batting its lashes at the FDA.

—Norwich Ventures sounds like a great boss to work for. The Waltham venture firm loves to invest in medical device companies at an early stage, and unlike other, larger players, doesn’t pressure companies in its portfolio to sell or exit within five years. Hear more about their strategy in Ryan’s piece here.

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Rafe Anderson is moving up into the big leagues. His sports social media network, TruFan, officially goes national today. TruFan grew out of a collection of websites—Sawxheads, Celtsheads, and Blackandgoldheads—which focused solely on Boston teams. Now the national network will include 122 communities for clubs across the country, spanning Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball League, and the National Hockey League.

When signing up, fans indicate which teams and players are their favorites, so that TruFan can funnel them content to match their particular preferences. Users can write their own blogs, vote up news stories, post photos, friend other fans and chat with them. The face of the front page changes according to which news stories are getting the most votes.

“Sports fans in general are used to being spoken to,” says Anderson. TruFan is “more about fans speaking to each other. Instead of the editor-in-chief dictating what headline should be, it’s more compelling because fans are contributing their own content.”

Anderson has spent much of the past few years at Fenway Park, and not just for recreation. Before becoming president and CEO of Brighton, MA-based TruMedia Networks, he spent six years as a consultant for the Fenway Sports Group, a sports marketing group that counts among its clients the Red Sox and NASCAR team Roush Fenway Racing, as well as Professional Bull Riders, Inc. In August of last year, he left to take charge of the TruFan platform, which until that time was a side project of North Adams, MA-based Boxcar Media.

TruFan’s business model, says Anderson, is “all about diversification.” The site does not currently sport any online advertising, which Anderson is leery of as a workable profit generator. Instead, TruFan intends to build its fortune with a multi-pronged approach. The site has entered into a partnership with AceTicket, which allows fans to purchase tickets from each other, and will soon be selling merchandise as well.

But the big-ticket moneymaker isn’t in tickets or even hats—it’s in licensing. TruFan has contracted with the Boston Globe’s website to bring its platform to the boston.com sports page. The result is Slugfests, where fans can spar virtually over burning questions like “what is the Red Sox’s biggest need?” or “Does Paul Pierce have heart?” Other fans referee the debate, voting to decide the victor. So now, instead of having to trek all the way to Cask ‘n Flagon to bellow at fellow Bostonians, you can argue the virtues of Varitek from the comfort of your screen.

“It’s great to be amongst friends that share your passion,” says Anderson. Going national while still retaining the local aspect is essential, he says, allowing fans to “be part of their community, but to also step outside the walls of their comfort zone.” Anderson knows a little something about that: “My best friend is a Yankees fan,” he admits.

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Marlborough, MA-based signaling company Axis Semiconductor has completed half of a proposed $2,050,000 equity financing round, according to an SEC filing. No details on the investors were provided, par for the course for the company, which has been in stealth mode since its incorporation in 2007. Three members of Axis’ board of directors, including the chairman, previously worked at Analog Devices, the Norwood, MA-headquartered signal communications firm. Axis’ website claims its technology “improves the efficiency of signal and data processing by orders of magnitude over existing solutions.”

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Ladies and gentlemen, Xconomy readers have spoken, and the view is optimistic. We posed several questions about what the coming year will bring for the economy as people registered for our June 24 Xconomy Summit on Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship (XSITE). The recovery, they think, will start soon: 24 percent of the first 130 respondents believe U.S. gross domestic product will begin to grow again in the fourth quarter of 2009, and nearly 70 percent of the respondents believe growth will return between the fourth quarter of this year and the second quarter of 2010.

The survey also indicates that next year might bring wind farms to Boston Harbor—or that we could all be pumping our Priuses full of algae-produced gasoline (talk about green fuel). When asked to name what sector of the New England innovation economy will grow fastest in 2010, 35 percent of XSITE registrants surveyed selected cleantech. Biotech was a close second with 26 percent, and healthcare was third with 23 percent of the vote. The lone write-in vote was for the mobile industry; iPhone app developers, take heart.

In the final question, where respondents were asked to predict where the Dow will close on Jun 24, the day of XSITE, 69 percent selected the 8,000-8,999 range. As of today, it sits squarely in the middle of that range, around 8530. We’ll see whose estimate was closest on June 24.

Registration is still open for our conference, so prepare to get (cautiously) XSITE-d!

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New England technology and business newspaper Mass High Tech is moving from a weekly to a biweekly print publishing schedule effective in September, publisher Michael Olivieri said yesterday. The Boston Globe reported that MHT laid off four employees in the restructuring, which will see the paper shift from 24 pages a week to 32 pages every two weeks. In the story in MHT, Olivieri described the change as a natural step in enhancing the “web emphasis we have been working toward for some time.”

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Framingham, MA-based Interlace Medical, which develops medical devices for gynecologists, announced today it has raised $20.5 million in Series C funding. The round was led by Baird Venture Partners and HLM Venture Partners and included new investors Hambrecht & Quist Capital Management and Aperture Venture Partners. Previous backers New Leaf Venture Partners and Spray Venture Partners returned for this round as well. Interlace says the Series C funds will be used to initiate the commercialization of its MyoSure system, which is intended as a less invasive method of removing fibroids and polyps from the uterus.

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Two weeks before the best damn innovation conference on either side of the Charles, Xconomy and friends flocked to the Cambridge Brewing Company Wednesday night, and Kendall Square was awash in a spirit of brotherhood and appreciation of innovation. Incidentally, there was plenty of beer.

Judging by the levels in the taps (and glasses), the most popular brew of the night was the caramel-y Cambridge Amber, though I myself was partial to the Spring Training I.P.A. Lighter on the hops than I usually expect in an I.P.A., but it was light and breezy, with more of a grassy aroma than a pine forest. It’s like drinking Fenway Park, minus the chalk.

Of course, we had some prizes to hand out as well! Rylan Hamilton, the Chief Runner for RunMyErrand, the little service network that could, will be having breakfast with our editor-in-chief Bob Buderi at Henrietta’s Table, along with copies of Bob’s 3 books. (Bob may or may not give him a quiz on the reading.)

Scott Piegza, founder of 1st Sniff, snagged the iPod touch and lunch with our intrepid correspondent Wade Roush. Tom Ermolovich, Online Program Director at Northeastern University, will have no trouble finding dining companions this week—he won the $500 gift certificate to No. 9 Park, which was given courtesy of Atlas Venture.

Xconomy Editor-In-Chief, Bob Buderi (L) and Rylan Hamilton (R) of RunMyErrand

In other ticket contest-related news, Deborah Monosson, President of the Boston Financial & Equity Corporation, won a Garmin GPS, donated by the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium, to go along with her ticket to XSITE. If you haven’t registered yet, don’t worry—there’s still time to sign up for the fun. And yes, we’ll be having another party the night of the event.

Twelve days to XSITE!

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Design isn’t just about deciding which shade of taupe to paint City Hall or whether to make a water bottle square or round. It can mean the difference between comprehension (think iPhone) and confusion (think butterfly ballot). A new multidisciplinary organization launched yesterday is out to promote the importance of the Bay State’s design industries, and to serve as a resource for the more than 44,500 people in Massachusetts who work in graphic design, industrial design, landscape architecture, and interior design, among other fields.

Called the Design Industry Group of Massachusetts, or DIGMA, the organization had its coming-out party at the West Newton design firm Continuum, birthplace of the Swiffer mop. Housing and Economic Development Secretary Gregory Bialecki announced at the event that DIGMA would receive a $150,000 grant from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative’s John Adams Innovation Institute. Additional funds for the group came from Massachusetts Cultural Council, The Boston Foundation, and the Boston Redevelopment Authority.

DIGMA’s leadership comprises CEOs, professors, and leaders of universities, including Kay Sloan, the president of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, which is a large sponsor of the organization.

“MassArt has invested in DIGMA in order to ensure the Commonwealth’s competitive advantage in the design industry is maximized to its full potential,” she said in a press release.

As one of its first initiatives, DIGMA will organize the first annual Massachusetts Design Festival—to be held from September 24 through October 24, 2009—in order to publicize examples of design around the state. The Festival encompasses several other design-related events: Boston Design Center’s Design Boston 2009, Boston Fashion Week, and National Design Week.

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Four years ago, Rush Hambleton and his wife left their wedding reception on a restored 1962 Vespa motor scooter. The professional photographer missed it. But luckily, an aunt just happened to catch the shot on her digital camera, and eventually sent the couple a print. The Vespa image, Hambleton says, was “the” shot of the wedding. Soon after, Hambleton watched as guests exited a friend’s wedding reception, one after another. Every wrist had a digital camera dangling from it.

“I thought to myself, ‘How many Vespa shots are going out the door?’ ” Hambleton told me. “‘How many shots won’t make it back to this bride and groom?’”

Hambleton, who was studying entrepreneurship at the Franklin W. Olin school of business at Babson College, wasn’t going to just leave it at that. While he was still working on his MBA, Hambleton founded Canditto, a Cambridge-based service that rents out photo-sharing kiosks. Guests insert the memory card from their digital camera, and the kiosk downloads their pictures onto a USB flash drive. The kiosk’s software only downloads pictures taken in the last 8 hours. Additionally, the kiosk recognizes if a card was inserted earlier in the party, and will only download new pictures. It’s simple enough for even the most technologically-challenged (or inebriated) relatives to use.

The original model was cobbled together by Hambleton from an Ikea cabinet, a flatscreen monitor, and a laptop computer. He enlisted an engineering student at Olin College to write the software code by pasting up flyers around campus. Canditto’s earliest customers had their kiosk delivered by Hambleton, who wrestled it into the trunk of his car for treks around New England to weddings, reunions, bar mitzvahs, and even a summer camp in Vermont. Since the summer of 2008, Canditto has benefited from a write-up in the New York Times, seed funding from angel investors, and $30,000 from the Babson Entrepreneurial Competition. Hambleton’s kiosk has attended 26 events so far.

This month, Hambleton is releasing the new Canditto— a sleek plastic affair about the size of a basketball that resembles a fashionably dented white melon. Hambleton and his business partner spent hours looking at perfume bottles at Crate & Barrel before dreaming up the new design. The kiosk will cost $450 to rent for a week, “enough for the rehearsal, wedding, reception, and Sunday brunch,” says Hambleton. The price also includes round-trip Fed-Ex shipping.

Canditto doesn’t necessarily have to replace the professional photographer, says Hambleton, since the price is roughly equivalent to only an hour or two of a photographer’s fees. And sharing everyone’s photos means that all the Vespa shots can be captured for posterity. “While the friends of the bride and groom run outside to decorate the couple’s car, the grandmother is inside dancing with her grandson. So much is happening at the same time. This lets you get those photos you otherwise wouldn’t get.”

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Gather, a Boston-headquartered social networking site aimed at users over 30, announced today that it has raised $5.3 million in equity financing. Major investors in the round include Allen & Company, American Public Media, Jim Manzi (former CEO of the Lotus Development Corporation), Jack Connors (former CEO of Hill Holiday), Kevin McClatchy, Andrew Tobias, and the Gerace family. They join previous investors Hearst, The McGraw-Hill Companies, and Southern California Public Radio. Gather also reported that bookings in the first quarter of 2009 were up 49 percent over the first quarter of 2008; the company expects to reach profitability in early 2010.

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Noble Environmental Power, an Essex, CT-based wind energy company, has withdrawn its planned for an IPO. The offering, initially filed in May 2008, was to include some 23.4 million shares worth up to $375 million. In its filing today, Noble said withdrawing the offering “is consistent with the public interest and protection of investors.” The company operates six wind farms in New York state, one in Texas, and has 8 more under development in New York, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

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[Update, 3:05 pm Eastern]

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn’s representatives say they have pulled out a victory in their proxy contest with Biogen Idec, winning two of the four seats that were up for grabs in a shareholder election. The official results weren’t yet announced, as the company adjourned the annual shareholder meeting without declaring who won.

Alex Denner, an Icahn portfolio manager, and Richard Mulligan, a professor at Harvard Medical School, told a group of reporters during a recess in the meeting this afternoon they believe they won seats on the Biogen board. They based their comments on feedback from a proxy solicitation firm, although they didn’t provide hard numbers or a margin of victory.

The mood was tense, just minutes before shareholders stepped back into the meeting when it reconvened at 2 pm. “This could have happened in a more dignified way,” Mulligan said to the group of reporters. When one reporter asked he and Denner if they considered this to be a victory, Denner said yes.

Then, at 2 pm, Biogen chairman Bruce Ross called the meeting to order. He made his comments brief. The polls were closed, he said, but results are still being tallied and the meeting would have to be adjourned until a final count is available, Ross said. The final result will be made available when shareholders re-convenes later this month at Biogen headquarters, he said. Biogen Idec spokeswoman Naomi Aoki said the company plans to issue a statement shortly on the day’s events.

Denner clarified things a little more in a follow-up call to my boss, Xconomy editor-in-chief Bob Buderi, after the meeting was adjourned. “From what our sources tell us it’s very clear,” that he and Mulligan had won, Denner says. But, “I guess you never know.” The polls are closed, Denner says. So presumably that indicates there’s no more possibility of campaigning for more votes that might change the outcome.

It was an anticlimactic end to a tense series of events. Earlier in the day, Ross dismissed calls from Icahn’s representatives to announce the voting results, and instead declared a recess in the meeting at about 11 am. That prompted Icahn to accuse the company of trying to manipulate the voting process, with Denner at one point blurting out to Ross that, “this is not North Korea.”

The fight is over the future direction of the Cambridge, MA-based biotech company (NASDAQ: BIIB), the world’s largest maker of multiple sclerosis drugs. Icahn, who holds the fourth-largest position in the company with 5.6 percent ownership stake, launched a blistering attack on the company this proxy season for failing to introduce any new drugs since 2004, for botching the marketing of its existing products, letting expenses get out of hand, and for a stock price that has lagged its peers. Icahn said the company suffers from “failed leadership” and he suggested the company consider splitting into two pieces, one focused on cancer research and the other on inflammation, to sharpen its focus.

Biogen fought back, as it did a year ago, when Icahn also tried to gain influence on the company’s board. It countered that its pipeline of drug candidates is strong, physicians are regaining confidence in its fastest-growing multiple sclerosis drug after a couple of safety scares, and that splitting the company up would be counterproductive because it would raise expenses and inefficiencies. Icahn’s ideas would “destroy shareholder value,” the company said.

If Denner and Mulligan do end up victorious, they will win three-year terms to the Biogen board, which has 13 members. Their candidacy gained significant currency last month when RiskMetrics Group, the largest and most influential advisor to institutional investors on proxy elections, endorsed them for the Biogen board. The other Icahn nominees were Thomas Deuel of The Scripps Research Institute and David Sidransky of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

There was no word on the outcome of an Icahn-backed resolution about whether the company should reincorporate from Delaware to North Dakota. Corporate laws in North Dakota make it easier for shareholder activists like Icahn to mount successful proxy campaigns to take over company boards.

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