Washington Business Journal articles from August 1999

Washington Business Journal archives from August 1999

Intel plans $40M Fairfac center.(includes related article)(data center in Fairfax County, VA)
August 27, 1999... Gilmore expected to announce deal soon Technology titan Intel plans to build a $40 million data center in Fairfax County - a move that may underscore the region's momentum in attracting national tech brands and huge networking facilities...

Developers ready to battle D.C. lease law.(Washington, D.C.)
August 27, 1999... Business leaders and D.C. Council members are uniting to fight a proposed law giving Mayor Anthony Williams the authority to cancel city leases at will. The law, attached to the District's appropriation bill passed by the House, is...

CACI enhances e-commerce image with new software.(CACI International)
August 27, 1999... Arlington-based CACI International is pushing to extend its government contracting portfolio into the red-hot commercial e-commerce market. Aimed at corporate and government customers, CACI's e-commerce software, Comprizon.Buy, was...

Fast forward: new strategy revives Atlantic Video.
August 27, 1999... When Todd Mason took the reins of District-based Atlantic Video late last summer, he faced a daunting challenge. Mason said he found a dwindling client base, "material" revenue losses and a potential technological crisis at the...

Sprint poised to boost wireless Internet access.(Sprint PCS Group)
August 27, 1999... Mobile phone customers are about to tap into the immediate and personal benefits of the Internet. Sprint PCS Group next month will turn on a nationwide wireless service that offers untethered users a combination of voice and data...

In the final analysis: General Dynamics sinks $75 million into commercial partnership.(partnership with Final Analysis)
August 27, 1999... Lanham-based Final Analysis recently locked up a $75 million partnership with aerospace giant General Dynamics - which will help the company build out its digital data satellite system and make an additional equity investment in the company....

Md. firms poised to brave uncertain IPO market.(Maryland; initial public offering)
August 27, 1999... The market for Internet initial public offerings may be stalled, but at least three Maryland companies seem to be moving ahead with plans to raise money on the open market. Owings Mills, Md.-based Americas-Doctor.com, an Internet medical...

Howard on verge of keeping Amerix in the county.(Howard County, MD)
August 27, 1999... Amerix, a fast-growing company that had been considering moving its headquarters out of Maryland, has apparently decided to stay. An official with the Howard County Economic Development Authority said the agency has finally wrapped up...

US Airways explores its options in Charlotte hub.(Charlotte Douglas International Airport)
August 27, 1999... With the release this month of a consultant's report on competition at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, local business and government officials should soon get a clearer picture of how best to market the airport to...

Fred Shiffman: to this advertising executive, all the world's a stage.(Journal Profile)(VP of Abramson Labus Van De Velde)
August 27, 1999... His critics have called him the king of comedy in Washington theater. He's considered the prince of marketing at a major local advertising agency. Fred Shiffman just may be the jack-of-all-trades. On most days, he works as vice...

$330M in venture funds pours into local firms.(Washington, DC)
August 20, 1999... Venture capitalists in the second quarter of 1999 pumped a staggering $329.7 million of investment into D.C.-area companies - almost three times the figure invested in the previous quarter. Among the 39 companies that took funding, about...

Telecom firm dials up $115M in VC funding.(Diginet Americas; venture capital)
August 20, 1999... D.C.-based Diginet Americas recently hit the venture capital circuit looking for $73 million, but the Latin American telecom provider instead hauled in a whopping $115 million, one of the nation's largest VC prizes for the quarter. ...

Help wanted: construction need overshadowed by tech shortage.
August 20, 1999... Kurt Reineke has been trying to hire an electrical engineer to help Herndon-based KTA with its burgeoning construction management and design business for six weeks. He's gotten four resumes. None of them worked. While the region's...

Firm finds funds in New York City.(Liveprint.com)
August 20, 1999... After knocking unsuccessfully on the doors of more than 50 local venture capital investors, Alexandria-based Liveprint.com CEO Rick Steele recently traveled to a Manhattan firm, where he locked up $2.9 million in less than an hour. ...

Telemundo prepares to invade Univision air space.(cable television broadcasting companies)
August 20, 1999... The heated competition between Univision's WMDO and Telemundo's WZGS - local affiliates of the nation's two largest Spanish-speaking TV networks - has reached fever proportions thanks to the long awaited inclusion of WZGS on Montgomery...

A boost in capita gives CareFirst a ratings boost.(CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield)
August 20, 1999... CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield's Free State Health Plan recently got a nod from a HMO rating service. The Weiss Ratings, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., listed Free State as one of this year's three "notable upgrades," giving the plan...

Ad shops tapped for Md. utility dereg campaign.(Maryland)
August 20, 1999... Noble Steed Associates, a mid-sized advertising firm in Hunt Valley, Md., may be one of the first Maryland agencies to get to feed at the trough of electricity deregulation advertising. The state agency charged with regulating public...

Texas company to take health care info online: USIS Health turned to doctors for help in developing network.
August 20, 1999... USIS Health turned to doctors for help in developing network Two entrepreneurs once again are making Austin, Texas, the launch pad for another online health information network. USIS Health is intended to simplify health care from the...

University of Md. Medical System hit hard by losses.
August 20, 1999... The University of Maryland Medical System once a model of hospital prosperity has since landed $6.2 million in the hole. While changes in Medicare and Medicaid payment systems over the past couple of years have created some tenuous times...

First Union employees get online banking info.
August 20, 1999... First Union Corp. figures that to sell customers on the idea of online banking, it must first sell its employees on the idea. So earlier this month, the bank mailed its 68,000 workers a CD-ROM demo disk with instructions for using the...

Md. firm targets video game giants on West Coast.(InterAct Accessories)
August 20, 1999... A Baltimore-area tech firm is stepping up its year-old effort to expand rapidly in the video game business and take on the industry's giants. Hunt Valley, Md.-based InterAct Accessories, which opened a Silicon Valley office last year,...

Willard aims to stay no. 1 with its $1.8M face lift.(remodeling of the Willard Inter-Continental Hotel)
August 20, 1999... First it was the Washington Monument. Now another historic D.C. landmark is getting a face lift. The Willard Inter-Continental Hotel, at 1401 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, is undergoing its first round of improvements since reopening in 1986...

W.Va. firm to relocate here.(Ultraprise.com)
August 13, 1999... Ultraprise.com, an Internet start-up that recently pulled down $9 million in venture funding, is relocating its headquarters to the D.C. area. The Shepherdstown, W. Va.-based company, which has created an online auction site for the...

In the pink.(start-up Netword's path to Nasdaq's national market)
August 13, 1999... Gaithersburg-based Netword is taking a renegade path to Nasdaq's national market, abandoning the exhaustive tour of road shows with venture capitalists to have its holdings quoted more immediately on a risky, inferior stock listing dubbed the...

Competition looms large.(In the Pink)(Netword's more visible opponent RealNames)
August 13, 1999... As it begins its steep climb toward listing on Nasdaq, Gaithersburg-based Netword is facing another major hurdle to success: staunch competition from a worthy and more visible opponent - San Carlos, Calif.-based RealNames. Twelve-person...

Gilmore targets air fares: state to promote low-cost airlines.(Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore)
August 13, 1999... When Tricia Drennan and other executives from LCC International fly on company business, the McLean telecommunications firm usually chooses the airport based on one criteria - price. That means LCC employees, like many Virginia business...

The drought leaves farmers feeling blue.
August 13, 1999... Francis Roland's truck is a lot lighter than usual this year. "Produce is fairly scarce," said Roland, head gardener at the Arlington County Farmers Market. "I had no string beans this year, and that's my best money maker." Other...

GRC to buy research co. for $27M.(GRC International; Management Consulting and Research of McLean)
August 13, 1999... Deal will help systems integrator reach revenue goal Vienna-based GRC International announced plans Aug. 6 to purchase Management Consulting and Research of McLean, moving the systems integrator closer to its goal of achieving $260...

That's Amore scores a touchdown.(chain of restaurants' contract with the Quarterback Club of Washington)
August 13, 1999... Fred Berman's two worlds collided last month as the die-hard Redskins fan made a deal to host regular luncheons with the team and other fans at his Vienna restaurant, That's Amore. The Quarterback Club of Washington chose Berman's...

Designing the future: publishing firm reinvents self.(Westbound Publications)
August 13, 1999... It's a new day for McLean-based Westbound Publications, a design firm that's rebuilding a client base and revenue generators - made up of corporate marketers, associations and publishing managers. In almost three years, Westbound - which...

Financial planning firm makes deal with Aetna.(Legacy Unlimited; Aetna Retirement Services)
August 13, 1999... Three years ago, Legacy Unlimited began holding free financial planning seminars at historically black churches, colleges and universities and through groups of municipal employees. Meeting with people who often didn't even have a bank...

Airport, hotel TV productions target D.C. visitors.(Washington Airport Media and InfoTravel's advertising services)
August 13, 1999... Chris Sarris has tried almost everything to draw tourists into his Arlington restaurant, Orleans House: He's advertised with The Washington Post and The Washington Times, as well as Washingtonian and Where Washington magazines. But...

Snyder switches focus to external changes.(Dan Snyder, owner of Washington Redskins)
August 13, 1999... From changing the color of the carpet at Redskins Park to firing dozens of employees, Dan Snyder is wasting no time making sweeping changes to the Washington Redskins since he bought the team earlier this year for a record $800 million. ...

SBA, San Jose, Cisco plan entrepreneurship center.(Small Business Administration; San Jose California; Cisco Systems)
August 13, 1999... A business resource center dubbed the largest of its kind in the United States is planned for downtown San Jose, Calif. The center will be backed by a coalition made up of the city, the Small Business Administration and Cisco Systems. ...

Monteilh lands at Chamber; former city official's appointment irks District mayor.(Richard Monteilh; Washington D.C. Chamber of Commerce; Mayor Anthony Williams)
August 6, 1999... Former city official's appointment irks District mayor Richard Monteilh, who was forced out in late June as director of D.C.'s Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), has been hired as executive director of the D.C....

A dash of art, a dash of culture: new magazine slated for Northern Virginia this autumn.(elan)
August 6, 1999... The former publisher of the Gazette Community Newspapers - now part of the Sun-Gazette newspaper chain - has turned over a new leaf. Look for "elan," David Reynolds' new four-color magazine, to hit the newsstands this October. The monthly...

Sunrise buys living for $88M.(Sunrise Assisted Living; Constellation Health Services' senior living assets)
August 6, 1999... Fairfax-based Sunrise Assisted Living has agreed to buy the senior living assets of Constellation Health Services of Columbia. The terms: $72.2 million in cash and the assumption of $16 million in Constellation debt. In return,...

Signal Perfection eyes roll-up of AV companies.(plan to acquire audiovisual firms)
August 6, 1999... A large Columbia-based audiovisual company is making noise as an aggressive acquirer of similar companies. Signal Perfection's founder and CEO Chad Gillenwater's plan is to roll-up companies with various audiovisual specialties around...

At Abramson, a case of the young and the restless.(Abramson Labus Van De Velde's recruitment of creative directors Terry Coveny and Dave Martin)
August 6, 1999... There's a new mix of creative juices flowing at Abramson Labus Van De Velde, the area's 10th largest ad agency. The firm has hired two reputable creative directors - a 30-something and an empty nester - to initiate a creative renaissance....

jetBlue prepares for takeoff.(jetBlue Airways' plan for low-fare service starting January 2000)
August 6, 1999... The most well-financed start-up airline in history is expected to start low-fare service around January 2000, and would primarily be serving New England and New York initially. New York-based jetBlue Airways officials plan to serve 44...