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$2.00/FEBRUARY 17 - 23, 2014
Window closing for XP support Once Microsoft stops providing security help, many businesses will be on their own By CHUCK SODER csoder@crain.com
Still use Windows XP? You’ve got a target on your back. Microsoft says it will end almost all support for XP on April 8. That pronouncement means no more security updates for the many, many local businesses that still rely on the second-most widely used operating system for desktop and laptop computers.
Hackers probably have that date circled on their calendars, according to Jay Mellon and other information technology experts here and nationwide. The patient ones probably are waiting until then to exploit undiscovered flaws in the Windows XP software, because Microsoft has said it won’t step in to fix them after April 8. “The hammer’s going to drop on the other side of that date,” said Mellon, a partner at AtNetPlus, an information technology services firm in Stow. Mellon’s business and other local IT companies are on a last-minute push to make sure their clients that still use the 13-year-old operating system are as ready as they can be come April 8. See WINDOW Page 38
Solon complex soon will get a makeover SCOTT POLLACK
WILL SUPPORT BE DISPLAYED? Arts group will use this year to gain backing for extension of cigarette tax
By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
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f the political football — or baseball or basketball — that is the sin tax for Cleveland’s sports playgrounds batters the community this year, will Cuyahoga County voters be willing to renew another tax on their cigarettes in 2015? That’s the question already on the mind of the local arts community, which, like the Browns, Cavaliers and Indians, is supported by a sin tax.
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Cosmetics company Cosmax will occupy L’Oreal’s property By STAN BULLARD sbullard@crain.com
Before the city of Solon says its final goodbye to the operations of cosmetics maker L’Oreal’s, it’s saying hello to its replacement, Cosmax Inc., a South Korean cosmetics company that plans to launch its
U.S. operations in L’Oreal’s properties on Carter Street. Cosmax USA, as the company calls its new U.S. venture, plans to operate a skin care and makeup factory to supply cosmetics to customers that sell name-brand products in the United States, said Sok-Min Yu, managing director of the new operation, in an email to Crain’s from South Korea. The company is a contract manufacturer and supplier for private-label firms and name brands such as L’Oreal and Maybelline. See MAKEOVER Page 7
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ALSO INSIDE
LOCAL BREW Cleveland Coca-Cola plant reveals community branding ■ Page 5
Entire contents © 2014 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 35, No. 7