Startup Talk: Obama administration proposes new entrepreneur rules for immigrants

Editor’s note: Each Thursday, Talk Business & Politics provides “Startup Talk,” a round-up of startup, technology and entrepreneurial news.

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OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PROPOSES NEW ENTREPRENEUR RULES FOR IMMIGRANTS
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has published a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register inviting public comment for 45 days on the Obama administration’s proposed International Entrepreneur Rule.

The new regulations would allow eligible international entrepreneurs to stay in the U.S. to start and scale their businesses. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker said the proposed rule will have a significant impact on the immigrant entrepreneurs that make extraordinary contributions to America’s economy.

“We know that all too often, promising startups lose top talent because of visa challenges, causing companies to either close or to relocate abroad,” Pritzer said. “Both scenarios can be detrimental to our nation’s economy. I encourage every entrepreneur, startup and business to provide feedback during the rule’s public comment period and to participate in this program once implemented.”

To view the proposed rules before the comment period ends on Oct. 17, 2016, click here.

CS&L COMPLETES $230 ACQUISITION OF TOWER CLOUD, FORMS NEW ‘UNITI FIBER’ BUSINESS UNIT
Communications Sales & Leasing announced the completion of its $230 million acquisition of Tower Cloud Inc. (“Tower Cloud”). The newly started Little Rock real estate investment trust (REIT) said it used cash-on-hand and borrowings under its revolving credit facility to fund the $185 million cash portion of the purchase price and transaction costs and issued 1.9 million common shares.

CS&L President and CEO Kenny Gunderman said his company will now combine Tower Cloud and its recent PEG Bandwidth acquisition into a unified organization under the “Uniti Fiber” brand name. The new business unit will be led by Ron Mudry, while Mike Friloux, previously CEO of PEG, has been named Chief Technology Officer of CS&L. Uniti Fiber’s network consists of 406,000 strand miles of fiber with approximately 184,000 fiber strand miles awarded for future deployment for wireless carriers.

DENSO SEEKS TO ADVANCE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE KNOWLEDGE FOR BUSINESS USE
In an effort to deepen and advance its knowledge in artificial intelligence, Denso Corp. has entered into a technical advisory contract with one of the world’s foremost researchers in computer vision, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Dr. Takeo Kanade. Through this contract, the Japanese auto parts giant said it is looking to advance its artificial intelligence technology and expand its engineering expertise in the areas of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomous drive, and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Kanade, who oversees Carnegie Mellons’s robotics and computer science program, will provide technical guidance to Denso engineers on image recognition and machine learning, and will also speak at lectures and seminars organized by Denso for a variety of purposes, such as recruiting and relationship building. These activities will be held mostly in Japan. Denso, which operates a 500-worker HVAC manufacturing plant in Osceola, expects to use artificial intelligence technology in more areas of its business. Currently, it uses machine learning in its sensing technologies and applies them to its sensing products.