Business Journal-Portland articles from January 1998

Business Journal-Portland archives from January 1998

Critics bash Columbia IPO. (Columbia initial public offering)
January 2, 1998... Mother Boyle is a mother hen. Wall Street watchers described Columbia Sportswear Co.'s decision to go public as a way for 73-year-old Gertrude Boyle, former company president, current chairwoman and marketing gimmick, to take care of her...

Out-Foxed: Cushman in, Bean out. (Fox Tower Development; Cushman & Wakefield; Doug Bean and Associates)
January 2, 1998... Unhappy because no tenants have been secured for his $90 million Fox Tower development, former theater magnate Tom Moyer has hired Cushman & Wakefield to replace Doug Bean & Associates as the listing agent for the project. Losing the listing...

Merger migraine easing for Wells. (Well Fargo)
January 2, 1998... Wells Fargo appears to be taking the first steps on the road to recovery following one of the messiest mergers in banking history. Deposits and loans are starting to stabilize after more than a year of dramatic declines. The bank's share price...

Rollups: turning tykes into turbines. (Wall Street initial public offering roll-ups)
January 2, 1998... Savvy conglomerate-builders are touting a new investment strategy Wall Street has an eye on a shrewd breed of consolidator that is combining similar mom-and-pop businesses across the country and taking them public in a finance gambit called...

The Commish takes CEO post at HealthFirst. (Kerry Barnett, HealthFirst Medical Group CEO)
January 2, 1998... HealthFirst Medical Group PC, one of the biggest physician clinics in Portland, has snagged former state insurance commissioner Kerry Barnett as its chief executive officer. HealthFirst hired Barnett, an attorney and former head of the state...

Nike pegs apparel identity on new style, ad campaign. (Nike Inc)
January 2, 1998... Nike Inc. wants people to believe it's not just shoes that make the athlete. It's apparel too. The Beaverton-based company plans to take its case for clothes to television, starting this month with its first-ever advertisements built around...

Beaverton projection maker claims 10 percent market slice. (Beaverton-based Lightware Inc)
January 2, 1998... But Lightware still lags far behind competitors Less is more at Lightware Inc. Less cost and less weight has propelled the young projection display device maker into fifth place in its industry with a 10 percent market share, according to a...

Yeah, yeah, yeah! Beatles' sale a hit with Django's. (Django Records)
January 2, 1998... Doing business is nothing more than a series of deals, right? When First Bank System Inc. of Minneapolis bought U.S. Bancorp, that was a big deal. It involved lots of money the changing ownership of a cherished local institution, employee...

Spieker nails '97 land-grab prize. (Spieker Properties)
January 2, 1998... Spieker Properties' purchase of $160 million worth of Portland real estate from affiliates of WCB Properties and the Whitehall Street Limited Partnership last month was by far the largest real estate deal of 1997. The deal, which included...

'Java Jacket' maintains its cool. (Starbucks Coffee Co's product)
January 2, 1998... Inspiration can come from strange places. Isaac Newton got conked on the head with an apple. Ben Franklin was struck flying a kite in a rainstorm. Six years ago in Portland, Jay Sorensen dropped a cup of hot coffee in his lap because the paper...

Teleport Communications' focus remains on technology. (Teleport Communications Group)
January 2, 1998... Teleport Communications Group spent most of 1997 underground. Now, after finishing one fiber optic ring and turning on its switch, the company has surfaced and is ready to dig into the Portland-area business telecommunications market. Teleport...

Prosperity reshapes Sellwood.
January 9, 1998... Lucille Schaffer remembers bringing the kids to the downtown Sellwood-Moreland neighborhood every Saturday in the 1940s and 1950s. They'd shop at Rodgers and maybe see a movie at the theater on Milwaukie Avenue. Today, Schaffer is walking...

Ranking mutuals: '97 winners, losers. (mutual funds)
January 9, 1998... In its first full year of existence, Carl Marker's mutual fund, the IMS Capital Value Fund, felt some birthing pains. The young fund, managed in Portland with just over $10 million in assets, generated a total return of only 6.71 percent in...

Squeeze time for town cars: major airport car service fails as battle escalates. (includes related article on Pacific Executive Services Inc.)
January 9, 1998... Pacific Towncar Inc. has collected its last fare and put its fleet of Crown Victorias on the auction block. The company quietly ceased operations Dec. 28, in what could be an omen of turbulent times for Portland's town car industry. The...

The show goes on for ITEC creators; American Show Management a hit after hiring of 'guy from corporate America.'
January 9, 1998... Under-capitalized, under-educated and overconfident, John Inglis was not an atypical entrepreneur when he jumped into the exposition management business in the early 1980s. He almost put himself out of business twice - first because he...

Protocol stock plunges as bad news hits the Street. (Protocol Systems Inc.; Wall Street)
January 9, 1998... But CEO Moon says the earnings surprise is only a bump on a much smoother road Protocol Systems Inc. may see its profits go flat-line in 1998, but the medical monitor maker says it is building a longterm strategy to boost the company's...

OrCAD's twice-bitten deal will happen, company insists. (acquisition of MicroSim)
January 9, 1998... OrCAD's end of the year sprint to finish up an acquisition was tripped up by an accounting rule. The Beaverton-based maker of electronic design automation software announced this week that its acquisition of Microsim won't happen until the end...

Semiconductor testing firm sues for patent infringement. (Cascade Microtech Inc.)
January 9, 1998... Cascade Microtech Inc. thinks a Carson City, Nev., competitor is infringing on its patents and has asked the U.S. District Court for relief. Cascade and the defendant, The Micromanipulator Co., both make equipment that test the performance of...

GST 'investment' nets $89.4 million. (GST Telecommunications Inc.)
January 9, 1998... Vancouver-based GST Telecommunications Inc. will soon receive a handsome payoff from an investment that began almost five years ago. The local telecommunications company announced this week that it will sell its interest in NACT...

Standard Insurance positions itself for growth. (interview with Ron Timpe, pres. and CEO)(Interview)
January 9, 1998... Standard Insurance Co. recently announced that it's jumping on the IPO bandwagon within two years in order to remain competitive in the quickly consolidating financial services industry. For Standard, a mutual company "owned" by its...

Red Chip Review: filling small-cap gap: as other analyst firms are brought up, The Review touts its independence.(Focus on Banking & Finance)
January 9, 1998... When the early 1990s financial services consolidation wave broke, the bridges between individual investors and small-cap companies were washed away. Now, the big insurance, investment banking and commercial banking firms that control Wall...

Lattice Semiconductor Corp. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
January 9, 1998... NASDAQ: LSCC 5555 N.E. Moore Court, Hillsboro, Ore. 97124 Lattice Semiconductor Corp. designs, develops and markets high-speed programmable logic devices and related software. The products are sold worldwide through an extensive network of...

Stampeding to refinance. (falling interest rates)
January 16, 1998... With interest rates in a virtual free-fall since the start of the new year, mortgage lenders and brokers are experiencing a refinancing boom. Interest rates cracked the 7 percent barrier this month, falling to about 6.875 percent for 30-year...

Feds pounce on alleged scam. (fraud cases against investment brokers)
January 16, 1998... Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's office in Spokane have slapped a group of business people with ties to Portland and Southwest Washington with a 47-count indictment for fraud. The indictment alleges the brokers and salespeople promoted...

Investors scrutinizing Phoenix Gold. (Phoenix Gold International Inc.)
January 16, 1998... It began with an outgoing director raising questions about the way Phoenix Gold International Inc. was conducting its business. Now, a New York investment group with a large stake in Phoenix Gold wants to discuss the local audio product maker's...

Washington Mutual's rush to the top: bold actions of CEO Kerry Killinger have made the Seattle thrift a powerhouse. (Washington Mutual Savings Bank)_
January 16, 1998... Bold actions of CEO Kerry Killinger have made the Seattle a powerhouse When Kerry Killinger assumed full command of Washington Mutual Savings Bank in the spring of 1990, the Seattle thrift was nothing to write home about. With $6.6 billion...

New Sheraton Hotel planned for downtown office building.
January 16, 1998... Plans to convert a 13-story building in downtown Portland to a 16-story Sheraton Hotel are working their way through the city's approval process. Located at Southwest Sixth Avenue and Oak Street and owned by developer John Beardsley, the...

By following the three C's, this merger made sense. (merger between Fleming Softlink Systems and QuadraMed Corp.)
January 16, 1998... For Fleming Softlink Systems, the proposed merger with a much larger San Francisco Bay area competitor came down to the three Cs - critical mass, credibility and compatible technology Once those three issues were addressed, Mark Hand, Fleming...

Columbia Sportswear won't run with IPO money. (Columbia Sportswear Inc.'s initial public offering)(interview with Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle)(Interview)
January 16, 1998... Columbia Sportswear Inc. announced Christmas Eve it intended to go public early this year, stilling rumors that have been circulating for years and putting the company up for Wall Street scrutiny. The company intends to sell 6.67 million common...

Kaiser makes house calls, '90s style. (Kaiser Permanente's online services)(Focus on Health Care)
January 16, 1998... Project allows patients to go online to request medical advice, appointments and prescriptions Virtual operating rooms? Internet inoculations? Online office visits? Not yet. But Kaiser Permanente has taken some bold steps to enhance the way...

Providence does away with paper trail, too. (Providence Health Systems' electronic medical records)(Focus on Health Care)
January 16, 1998... It used to be that health care was just between you and the doctor. You visited the office with a pain, left with a prescription and the insurer paid for it. No questions asked. "Docs mostly had paper records because they were the only ones...

Windermere agents bolt. (Windermere/Cronin & Caplan Realty Group)
January 23, 1998... Following a series of mergers in the local residential real estate market, four top brokers with the recently acquired Windermere/Cronin & Caplan Realty Group have left and started Realty Trust Group. Brian Pienovi, Sue Coon, Jan Caplener and...

New pilgrim finds furniture Mecca. (opening of Furniture Outlet)
January 23, 1998... From the ashes of one retailer's failed venture a new one will arise when, next month, Furniture Outlet opens for business in the former Paul Schatz Fine Furniture building in Tualatin. The move by Furniture Outlet, based in Hubbard, Ore.,...

Her job: a new Nike image. (VP for corporate responsibility Maria Eitel)
January 23, 1998... Maria Eitel joins an elite group of U.S. executives Critics of Nike Inc. and promoters of corporate citizenship said they are happy to hear the company has hired a vice president for corporate and social responsibility. But they emphasized...

$38M TriQuint deal wins Street's praise. (TriQuint Semiconductor Inc.)
January 23, 1998... TriQuint Semiconductor Inc.'s recent acquisition of a Raytheon business unit has the Hillsboro company and stock analysts excited about its newfound access to key markets, a topnotch engineering team and a new manufacturing facility. The...

Morrow's snowboard ride hits bumps. (Morrow Snowboards Inc.)
January 23, 1998... Salem company takes financial bath in 1997, but expects to rebound this year Between 1989 and 1996, Morrow Snowboard's explosive growth had investors lining up to ride the stock of the quirky Salem snowboard maker. But last year, the ride...

Software association adjusts to life without Sandy Hogan. (Software Association of Oregon)
January 23, 1998... Sandra Hogan is leaving the Software Association of Oregon after guiding the organization through 2 1/2 years of rapid growth. Hogan's resignation as the association's president is effective at the end of the month. "I have the highest regard...

Tek's Mr. Fix-it returns - with plenty to fix. (interview with video and networking division president Tim Thorsteinson)
January 23, 1998... Tim Thorsteinson brings a reputation for results to his new post as president in charge of Tektronix Inc.'s troubled video and networking division. The division has been a money loser over the past few years, and Thorsteinson, who is referred to...

Treading international waters. (Small Business International Trade Program of the Portland Community College)
January 23, 1998... There's an old saying that if you give a man a fish it will feed him today, but if you teach him how to fish. he can feed himself tomorrow. Teaching people how to fish in international waters is the goal of Tom Niland, who runs Portland...

Eugene's new toxics law strains Hyundai relationship. (Portland)(Hyundai Electronics America)(Lane County: For Business & Pleasure)
January 23, 1998... Critics say stringent new law is redundant and could poison city's reputation with tech-related industries It's been a rocky road from the get-go for Hyundai Electronics America and the city of Eugene. Ever since the computer chip maker...

Oakridge pins economic hopes on new city-owned industrial park. (Oakridge, Oregon)(Lane County: For Business & Pleasure)
January 23, 1998... City spends $2.2 million on industrial sites, but many doubt it will help Oakridge economy in the near future The fall of the timber industry left dozens of Oregon towns, small and large, in an economic quandary. But of all those towns,...

Springfield: Lane County's city of transformation. (Oregon)(Lane County: For Business & Pleasure)
January 23, 1998... Emerging from Eugene shadow, Springfield comes into its own with new industries, development Springfield is in trouble - the type of trouble for which most cities would do anything. After years of little or no growth, this community, rarely...

Experts like Fredy's appetite. (Fred Meyer Inc.'s merger with Ralph's Grocery Co.)
January 30, 1998... Retail giant Fred Meyer's ambitious expansion is normal these days The proposed megamerger of Fred Meyer Inc., Quality Food Centers Inc. and Ralph's Grocery Co. is being billed as one of the supermarket industry's most aggressive expansion...

Posh club scuttled; Spieker steps up. (ScanlanKemperBard Companies of Portland's abandonment of hotel plans and negotiations to sell property to Spieker Properties)
January 30, 1998... ScanlanKemperBard Cos. of Portland has abandoned plans for a swank hotel and health club near Lake Oswego and is negotiating to sell the land to Spieker Properties. Citing bureaucratic red tape as the $55 million project's downfall, SKB...

Ex-cabbies collide with New Rose City. (breach of contract lawsuit against New Rose City Cub Co.)
January 30, 1998... New Rose City Cab Co. and its drivers have clashed over an attempt to change the terms of its drivers' employment, causing at least 20 drivers to resign and slap the Portland taxi company with a $2 million lawsuit for breach of contract. This...

Kaiser expects another growth spurt. (Kaiser Permanente)
January 30, 1998... CEO predicts enrollment rise, but financial results may not improve in '98 Kaiser Permanente, which added a record 1.5 million new HMO enrollees last year, expects to enjoy equally explosive membership growth in 1998, according to CEO David...

Steelworkers accuse Precision Castparts of wrongdoing. (illegal thwarting of labor organizing attempts)
January 30, 1998... Charges that Precision Castparts Corp. illegally thwarted a labor organizing attempt by the steelworkers in October 1996 is headed before an administrative law judge on March 30 in Portland. It has been nearly three years since the United...

Olympic Venture picks up another $6M for latest fund. (Olympic Venture Partners)
January 30, 1998... When a $70 billion company talks, the folks at Olympic Venture Partners listen. The Pacific Northwest venture capitalists thought they had closed their fourth VC fund to investors for the second and final time in October. But an investment...

Asian economic crisis is a headache, but not disaster.
January 30, 1998... Ailing Southeast Asian economies aren't having a big impact on Portland-area technology companies yet. But that could change if the problems persist or if the weakness spreads to Japan. Two definite trends have emerged: No local company has...

Crabbe Huson picks run contrary to the Street. (interview with Crabbe Huson Group partner Dick Huson; Wall Street)(Interview)
January 30, 1998... The term "contrarian "has come to take on many shades of meaning in the world of investing. Portland's Crabbe Huson Group Inc., both a money manager for institutional clients and the operator of a family of mutual funds, likes to define its...

Saliva Diagnostic Systems Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
January 30, 1998... NASDAQ: SALV 11719 N.E. 95th St., Vancouver, Wash. 98682 Saliva Diagnostic Systems Inc. develops, manufactures and markets rapid immunoassays for use in the detection of infectious diseases, and medical collection devices. The company was...