Washington Business Journal articles from February 2000

Washington Business Journal archives from February 2000

City OKs Akridge F Street project.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The developer of an 11-story office building planned in the 900 block of F Street NW has won permission to demolish seven historic buildings, despite a D.C. administrative law judge's ruling to the contrary. That gives the green light to...

New Hilton up for sale.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... A Washington hotel that's been open only a month is for sale. Sources say Bethesda-based Urban Development Group has been shopping the 300-room Hilton Garden Inn at 815 l4th St.NW to a number of interested buyers since November. The...

E-politics clicks.
February 25, 2000... Washington's oldest profession meets its newest obsession This is the first in a two-part series. Oron Strauss, founder of Net.Capitol, used to host networking events for geeks interested in politics at his District office. That...

Pr. William takes lesson from Loudoun.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Some of the same methods being used to stem growth in Loudoun County could be coming to neighboring Prince William. However, developers and builders are hoping it will be kinder and gentler smart growth than the fierce and angry version...

Going Postal? Not at PSINet.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... PSINet may be gobbling up Internet companies from Berlin to Beruit, but the Herndon-based Internet company couldn't hold on to one its top guys. Edward Postal, the chief financial officer for the past four years, has jumped ship to work...

State toots Townsend's horn.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Officials in Annapolis are continuing their efforts to promote Maryland gubenatorial frontrunner Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend to business interests. Townsend is chairwoman of the Cabinet council on business and economic development...

Developers crowd into Chinatown.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Developer Doug Jemal has a new tenant for the former Marlo Furniture building at 901 Seventh St. NW in Chinatown. It's Jemal himself. Douglas Development, currently in Rockville, will relocate its headquarters to the...

Schmoozing with the enemy.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Here's a news flash: Reporters prefer to ask questions, rather than answer them. That's what the Hampton Group discovered in a recent survey of journalists from media outlets including The Washington Post, New York Times and USA Today....

Correction.(Correction Notice)
February 25, 2000... The name of a new business in Fairfax County was misspelled in the Jan. 28 Feb. 3 F The business is Soirbheas.

Martin Agency to open up Reston shop.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Esteemed Richmond ad firm The Martin Agency, flush with new local clients Network Solutions and Sandbox.com, no longer is satisfied with merely pitching to Greater Washington from its downstate headquarters. It wants an even bigger share...

McLean firm looks to dial up Latino market.
February 25, 2000... Think of Juan Nelson as the Enrique Iglesias of high-tech CEOs. He's a rising star. And his Latin moves are drawing an international crowd. Nelson is president and CEO of LBS Networks, the McLean firm that launched LaOla.Net on Feb....

Tech giants team up on wireless venture.
February 25, 2000... What's an executive to do with a lagging stock price and a company with 6 million customers in an industry that has been flogged by the stock market? If you re paging guru Bill Collins of Metrocall you spin off a company and pursue...

PSINet gets into VC biz with billion-dollar fund.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... PSINet, an old-timer in the Internet game, wants a piece of the dot-com start-up craze, and it's starting with a $1 billion venture fund. By creating a corporate venture fund, PSINet joins' the big boys' of the technology industry, like...

Retail, theaters on tap near Pr. George's Plaza.
February 25, 2000... Prince George's County is planning a 120,000-square-foot retail center just outside the Prince George's Plaza Metro station that could include a Magic Johnson's Theatre complex. Planners hope to break ground early next year. The...

Silver Spring gets $21M more.
February 25, 2000... That giant sucking sound in Annapolis is the state committing more money to downtown Silver Spring. The Maryland Board of Public Works has approved an additional $21.4 million to help revitalize Silver Spring's central business district....

European feel planned for Georgetown retail block.
February 25, 2000... Lucille Valentino doesn't know where to turn. The lease on her bridal shop, Valentino of Georgetown, has expired. She's desperately looking for a new spot, but nothing seems as ideal as her home for the past six years, a 2,000-square-foot...

Zoning dispute over Yale Laundry project lingers.
February 25, 2000... The District's Zoning Commission is asking city planners to resolve a design dispute that has arisen over a new hotel planned at the historic Yale Steam Laundry site at 400 New York Ave. NW. The project, currently undergoing large tract...

P.N. Hoffman signs onto Adams Morgan project.
February 25, 2000... Those long nights driving around Adams Morgan searching for parking may soon be a thing of the past. D.C. developer Michael Gewirz has teamed with Bethesda development firm P.N. Hoffman to jump-start the long-awaited 180,000-square-foot...

Partners from infamous firm protest IRS findings.(Statistical Data Included)
February 25, 2000... New aftershocks from 1988's sensational collapse of the nation's fourth-largest law firm are reverberating among some prominent Washington-area lawyers. Seventeen of the firm's former partners have filed petitions against the Internal...

Dyke extends vet another slow-growth olive branch.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Jim Dyke's circle of slow-growth friends is growing. Dyke, chairman of the heavy-hitting Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, held another meeting with environmental and smart-growth leaders Feb. 9. It was the second meeting Dyke has...

Officials get serious about Dulles-Tysons line.(Raytheon)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Raytheon's bid to build a transit line linking Dulles International Airport and Tysons Corner to Metro's Orange Line has gotten a huge boost. The Virginia Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) voted Feb. 17 to begin a more serious...

On environmental issues, critics ask 'Where is Jim?'.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Environmentalists are blasting Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore for not showing the same leadership on wetlands and open-space preservation that he has throughout the state's garbage wars with New York. It's not the first time Virginia...

Network 1 lands VC as it readies to battle Cybercash.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Blue Water Capital, which led funding rounds in on-deck IPO firms Net2000 and OneSoft, has closed out its $76 million fund with an investment in an early-stage local tech company. The McLean-based venture fund invested $5 million in...

NexTone nabs $12M in VC.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... NexTone Communications, a Rockville-based company that provides voice and data services, received $12 million in its second round of venture capital funding led by Safeguard Scientifics. Safeguard, a Wheeling, Pa.-based incubator,...

Data center zoning rules a boon to office developers.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Clarity is critical in real estate. Developers need to know what they can build, where they can build it and when. Tenants want to know where they can go and when they can move in. Fairfax and Loudoun county officials have taken...

Water works association to pour into D.C.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The American Water Works Association will bring its annual meeting -- and 13,000 delegates -- to Washington in 2001. During peak nights of the convention, the Denver-based group will occupy 5,400 hotel rooms. Estimated economic impact:...

Insurance study called an 'insult' to small business.
February 25, 2000... A new Congressional Budget Office study concludes that only 330,000 additional people would gain health insurance coverage if more small businesses could buy insurance through trade or professional associations. The CBO estimate stands...

House passes bill limiting biz liability in civil suits.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The sun shone on business lobbyists as they stood outside the Capitol to buttonhole House members on their way to consider legislation designed to protect small businesses from frivolous lawsuits. The aggressive lobbying effort worked; by...

Arlington's AES to build $750M Bulgarian plant.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Let there be light. That's the message Arlington-based AES (NYSE: AES) has for one Eastern European country. The company will build and operate a $750 million power plant to provide Bulgaria with about 10 percent of its electricity....

Tech industry flexes its political muscle.
February 25, 2000... The scene: A couple of rich, 30-something women who symbolize everything that is dynamic about the new economy, facing down that which is staid, entrenched and powerful in Washington. Susan DeFife and Julie Holdren, each the CEO of a...

NBA pledges to help bridge Web's 'digital divide'.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The NBA will begin formulating a plan, to help bridge what is known as the "digital divide" after gathering input from several of the nation's top Internet, broadcast and sports executives at the league's first Technology Summit, said Adam...

NBA.com TV to go global in 20 markets.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The NBA is set to launch globally a service called NBA.com TV Daily, a video package containing up to 10 minutes of up-to-date NBA information and game highlights that will be delivered daily by satellite. NBA.com TV Daily, scheduled to...

Discovery CEO takes a shot at women's pro soccer.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... A proposed women's professional soccer league backed by heavy hitters in the cable industry and by the entire 1999 Women's World Cup championship team may have the right ingredients for a startup league, experts say. Earlier this month,...

Bill would OK amateur bets in Nevada.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The mushrooming debate on Capitol Hill over college sports and gambling escalated earlier this month with a bill that counters recent NCAA-supported legislation to outlaw legal wagering on amateur athletics in Nevada. On Feb. 10, Sen....

Redskins plan magazine, TV shows.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The Washington Redskins will launch a new magazine and are considering producing two new television shows as owner Daniel Snyder continues to shift most of the team's ancillary business in-house. Snyder will roll out the magazine, to be...

Official MLB baseballs hot items as switch nears.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... When Major League Baseball decided to replace American League and National League baseballs with commemorative balls displaying the signature of Commissioner Bud Selig, it did so in part to generate interest among memorabilia collectors. ...

MLB inks first Spanish TV deal.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Major League Baseball has landed its first-ever national television deal -- in Spanish. Univision and its cable subsidiary Galavision will carry four spring training games that are part of MLB's "Month of the Americas," a combination...

Chance Patterson.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Chance Patterson wanted out of the minutiae of mergers, acquisitions and tax law. "I'm more of a big picture guy," Patterson said. "At the end of the day, I wanted to see the result of my work." So he hired a head hunter who found...

Keeping the faith.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Low stock price hobbles Christian Web portal Its Nasdaq symbol is a resounding "AMEN," but investors have certainly not given their blessing to Christian Web site Crosswalk.com. The stock has danced around in single-digit territory,...

Name change at e-Net accompanies new biz focus.(Zeroplus.com)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... What's in a name? Some tech startups will pay dearly for the right domain name -- up to six figures just to have a catchy dot-com. Other companies have been known to drop their old name in favor of hipper names that reflect the company's...

Internos edges toward IPO, building customer base.(ToyNetwork.com)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Internos, a company that builds online business communities, is venturing into toyland. The. Dulles-based company is building a Web site called ToyNetwork.com, a business-to-business hub for the toy industry. Internos builds...

Law firm merger mixes old and new.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Shaw Pittman Potts & Trowbridge, the legal minds behind the super IPO of WebMethods earlier this month, has announced the acquisition of Fisher, Wayland, Cooper, Leader & Zaragoza. Fisher Wayland's 35 lawyers will join the 330 at Shaw...

Network Access Solutions gets new president.(Nicholas Williams)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 25, 2000... Network Access Solutions keeps making moves to bolster its position in the world of broadband communications. First, it landed a $150 million investment from Texas telecom giant SBC Communications to build what could be the largest...

CynterCorp moves HQ to new Rockville site.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 25, 2000... CynterCorp, a Rockville-based technology services company that specializes in the hospitality and food service industry, has moved its headquarters. The new world headquarters for all of CynterCorp's. services will be on East Gude Drive...

General Dynamics unit buys Arlington company.(General Dynamics Information Systems, Interactive Television Co.)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... General Dynamics Information Systems bought Interactive Television Co., an Arlington-based company that specializes in information technology for the defense industry. Terms were not disclosed. The privately held ITC serves all...

AOL-Time Warner deal would boost AOL, study says.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... A new study indicates that the pending merger between America Online and Time Warner will extend AOL's market penetration considerably. The study by Cyber Dialogue, an Internet research firm, found AOL would gain direct access to 26.8...

AOL's Netscape names new VP for sales.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Netscape Communications, a subsidiary of Dulles-based America Online, announced the appointment of John Heins as vice president for sales and international operations. Hems will manage Netscape's relationship with AOL's business affairs...

Reston ISP buys German and Brazilian companies.(Via Net.Works)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Via Net.Works, a Reston-based company that went public in February, acquired Internet service providers in Germany and Brazil. Terms were not disclosed. The acquisitions were finalized shortly before the company's initial public...

USinternetworking forms alliance with AT&T.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... USinternetworking, an Annapolis firm that rents software through the Internet, signed on with AT&T to market the telephone company's business services over the Internet. Under the deal, USinternetworking will recommend AT&T services to...

Marketswitch gets $20M in mezzanine funding.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 25, 2000... Dulles-based Marketswitch, a developer of marketing optimization software, has secured $20 million in a mezzanine round of financing directed toward preparations to go public. Local investors include FBR Technology Venture Partners and...

MedImmune board OKs 3-for-1 stock split.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 25, 2000... Gaithersburg-based MedImmune's board declared a three-for-one split of the company's common stock, payable in the form of a 200-percent stock dividend. If approved, stockholders will receive two additional shares for every share they own...

European Commission to probe MCI-Sprint.(MCI WorldCom and Sprint to merge)(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... MCI WorldCom has received notice that the European Commission will continue its review of the pending MC WorldCom merger with Sprint. The companies remain confident that the commission will approve the transaction and expect it to be...

Scientific-Atlanta splits stock.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 25, 2000... Scientific-Atlanta (NYSE: SFA) will split its common stock two-for-one. The stock split will be payable to shareholders March 10. The company will distribute certificates representing additional shares on March 27. In addition,...

VSI to sell division.
February 25, 2000... VSI Enterprises of Norcross, Ga., plans to sell its network services division to PentaStar Communications, a communications services agent based in Denver. Terms of the deal include an initial cash consideration of $2.1 million,...

EarthLink gets Sprint's $77M.
February 25, 2000... Increasing its investment in EarthLink to 14.6 percent, Sprint purchased about 2.7 million shares of EarthLink's stock for $77 million. Apple Computer's $200 million investment in EarthLink reduced Sprint's ownership, spurring Sprint to...

PSW to develop remote.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Austin, Texas-based PSW Technologies has teamed with Interlink Electronics to develop an interactive remote control for digital set-top boxes that drive interactive TV services. The partnership will use Interlink's Interactive Remote...

PcOrder attracts PriceGrabber.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... PriceGrabber.com has teamed up with Austin, Texas-based pcOrder.com to give PriceGrabber users access to comprehensive product information databases for computer products and consumer electronics. Los Angeles-based Price Grabber.com...

Celarix acquires firm.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Boston-based Celarix, a provider of Web-based transportation procurement and logistics management services, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire New Jersey-based Management Dynamics, a developer of tariff and contract...

Staples.com files IPO.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Framingham, Mass.-based Staples, the No. 2 U.S. office-supplies chain, filed to raise as much as $250 million by selling stock that tracks the performance of its online retail business. Staples.com, as the online operation is known,...

Liberty to buy Ascent.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Denver-based Liberty Media Group, a division of AT&T, will pay $755 million for Ascent Entertainment Group, which owns the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche sports teams. That figure includes the assumption of $295 million in debt.

New CEO named.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Dan O'Brien is the new CEO of Denver-based High Speed Access. O'Brien has risen through the ranks since his arrival at the company in the fall as chief operating officer. He was named president in December.

MedicaLogic plans merger.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... MedicaLogic has agreed to merge with Medscape, and to acquire privately held Total eMed. The transactions bring together MedicaLogic, which claims to be the nation's leading provider of online health records; Medscape, a source of...

RedHat inks deal.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Red Hat, a Duhram, N.C.-based provider of Linux and open-source solutions, and RealNetworks, a media delivery company on the Internet, Feb. 22 announced the formation of a strategic alliance to create integrated media delivery. By...

Strategic buys Fla. firm.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Strategic Technologies, a Cary, N.C.-based IT professional services and e-business solutions provider, Feb. 22 acquired PathTech Software Solutions, a 50-person e-business and Web application development company based in Jacksonville, Fla....

Oracle forms future spinoff.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Oracle is creating a new company to bring easy access to the Internet over wireless devices. OracleMobile.com will be a wholly owned arm of Oracle, although CEO Larry Ellison said the new company would go public as soon as possible. ...

Trading resumes for Alysis.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Alysis Technologies will resume trading on the Nasdaq National Market after an exchange panel reversed a July decision to move the Emeryville, Calif.-based company to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market. Alysis sells electronic bill presentment...

SBC acquires Sterling.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Moving into the lucrative business-to-business e-commerce market, SBC Communications Feb. 22 said it plans to acquire Sterling Commerce in a cash deal valued at $3.9 billion. San Antonio-based SBC said its acquisition of the...

Axolotl announces deal.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Axolotl of Mountain View, Calif., maker of clinical messaging software, has struck a comarketing agreement with iPhysicianNet. Under the deal, the companies will promote each other's products and work together in providing a complete...

PathoGenesis suits dismissed.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... PathoGenesis of Seattle said a U.S. District Court judge dismissed all eight lawsuits filed in March and April against the biotechnology company and two officers. The suits, which sought class-action status, followed a drop in the...

Tegris completes round.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Bellevue, Wash.-based Tegris, a provider of Internet solutions to the residential real estate industry, has completed a $6.5 million round of financing. Banyan Private Equity Management and Spangler Financial Group, as well as local...

Portal takes unusual tack to raise healthy reserves.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Internet company md2patient.com is tapping into an unusual source of capital to raise the cash it needs to grow its fledgling business -- its, own customers. The Franklin, Tenn.-based firm is a new Internet portal designed to deliver...

DSL firm stocks up on celebs.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... A surge in business and residential demand for high-speed, digital subscriber lines is pushing Phoenix Networks to hire 500 people within 90 days. "We're in a desperate need for new employees," said Peter Roberts, who launched the St....

PacBell starts price war for DSL market.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Pacific Bell Internet Services is sparking a price war in broadband Internet services in an aggressive campaign to garner a large DSL customer base. The San Francisco-based phone company, owned by SBC Communications, has cut the price on...

Web legislation flurry heats up.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Talk about a dot-com headache: A proliferation of consumer-privacy bills in statehouses across the nation has alarmed the Internet industry, which is uneasy about dealing with different privacy regulations in every state. "This is all...

Now available in Washington: an online maitre d'.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The region's first online real-time reservations system is reaching out to D.C.-area residents. OpenTable.com, which is based in San Francisco and has operations in eight cities, was recently launched here. The company was founded by...

Pentagon City project is 75 percent leased.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Pentagon Row, a 300,000-square-foot mixed-use project with retail, restaurants and 500 luxury apartments, is about 75 percent leased. Harris Teeter, a Matthews, N.C., grocery store chain, was the first to announce its intentions for the...

Fare Minded.
February 25, 2000... The start date for Eve Zibart's review column in The Washington Post has been pushed back to March 3. The name of the column will be "Fare Minded."

House declines to help small firms fight agencies.
February 25, 2000... Prospects look bleak for legislation that would reimburse small businesses for their legal costs when they win cases brought against them by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration or the National Labor Relations Board. The...

Bush beats McCain even in telecom contributions.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... As chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. John McCain can make or break telecommunications legislation. So it's no surprise that telecommunications is McCain's "sweetest industry" for campaign contributions, said Larry Makinson,...

Lawyers ban 'pay-to-play' for government contracts.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The American Bar Association voted to prohibit lawyers from making campaign contributions to state and local officials in hopes of winning legal work from them. The vote ended three years of debate on "pay-to-play" by the ABA. It...

Va. state leaders snub Potomac Conference.
February 25, 2000... At this year's Potomac Conference in College Park, the flags of Maryland, Virginia and the District were on stage -- though it would have been just as easy to leave the Old Dominion's colors on the west side of the Potomac. The Greater...

State governments set aside funds for environment.
February 25, 2000... Virginia businesses and Maryland farmers with environmental concerns now can get additional financial help from their respective state governments. In Virginia, the state departments of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Business Assistance...

Montgomery Council pushes Norbeck extension.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... The slow-growth Montgomery County Council is moving fast to get its alternative to the Intercounty Connector highway moving. The council has given pro-ICC County Executive Doug Duncan the ability to condemn and take possession of private...

Teligent's Morris shakes up his career strategy.(Brief Article)
February 25, 2000... Teligent's Chief Financial Officer Abe Morris has assumed the title of senior strategist for the company. "Abe has played a critical role in the development of the company," said Teligent Chairman and CEO Alex Mandl. "Now that we've...