Philadelphia Business Journal articles from April 1998

Philadelphia Business Journal archives from April 1998

Rooting for the right Rx: a start-up searches for new ways to extract from plants compounds for new drugs. (Photosynthetic Harvest Inc)
April 24, 1998... A start-up searches for new ways to extract from plants compounds for new drugs WILLINGBORO, N.J. - You don't need to kill the cow to get the milk. That's the thinking behind Photosynthetic Harvest Inc., a new biotechnology firm...

Court deals blow to huge money manager. (court orders Wellington Capital Management not to interfere in business relationship between former partner and Frank Russell Co)
April 24, 1998... A federal judge has ruled that a Boston money management giant can't keep clients from doing business with a local investment star who left the firm. U.S. District Senior Judge John P. Fullam ordered Boston-based Wellington Capital...

Pepper Hamilton on a hiring tear. (adds 40 lawyers)
April 24, 1998... Pepper Hamilton, moving to shore up its position after several stinging defections, has added 40 lawyers to its ranks since the beginning of the year while continuing to suffer a few losses of its own. The firm has been absorbing lawyers and...

Hyatt to assume risk for equity. (to provide financial backing to development of Hyatt Regency Hotel in Penn's Landing, Pennsylvania)
April 24, 1998... Hyatt Corp., assuming a bigger role in the development of a proposed 350-room hotel at Penn's Landing, is now planning to provide financial backing and guarantees for the project. The riverfront Hyatt Regency Hotel site is still just a plot...

Bucks hopes to redevelop one-time Naval center. (Federal Lands Reuse Authority of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, bids for development of former Naval Air Warfare Center)
April 24, 1998... WARMINSTER - A Bucks County economic development group has submitted a formal bid to purchase 300 acres of the former Naval Air Warfare Center here. The proposal includes a 15-year job-creation plan that predicts more than 5,000 permanent...

Colliers Lanard goes on buying binge. (real estate brokerage acquires competitors)
April 24, 1998... It picks up 2 area competitors and is talking to 4 more The Philadelphia real estate brokerage of Colliers Lanard & Axilbund is in the midst of an acquisition spree, picking up area market share by going after commercial real estate...

DRPA is under budget. (Delaware River Port Authority)
April 24, 1998... The Delaware River Port Authority recorded both the highest revenues and biggest spending cuts in its history last year. According to its just-released annual repert, the port authority reduced its budget by a record 8.4 percent last year and...

Online travel marketer to move to Moorestown. (Atlas Travel Technologies Inc relocates from Rockville, Maryland, to Moorestown, New Jersey)
April 24, 1998... Atlas Travel Technologies Inc., a company that markets and sells leisure travel over the Internet, is doing some traveling of its own: Effective April 27, the company will shift its North American headquarters from Rockville, Md., to...

Out and about. (Staffing Solutions Group Inc)
April 24, 1998... Consulting in the recruitment field: More than just a body in a chair MALVERN - When you think recruitment, you think placement service, right? Harry Griendling doesn't. The founder and chief executive officer of Staffing Solutions Group...

PGW turns up the heat on deadbeats. (outstanding receivables of Philadelphia Gas Works)
April 17, 1998... It's owed a total of $199 million Philadelphia Gas Works, gearing up to compete in a soon-to-be deregulated retail gas market, is taking its most aggressive approach yet to clean up $199 million in outstanding receivables. The utility's...

DuPont rails over shipping holdups. (lawsuit filed by DuPont Co. against Union Pacific Railroad Co.)
April 17, 1998... DuPont Co. has filed a breach of contract lawsuit against Union Pacific Railroad alleging the railroad's poor performance has cost the chemical company millions in lost business. Specifically, Wilmington-based DuPont claimed in its suit that...

Provident American's stock rises. (Provident American Corp.)
April 17, 1998... NORRISTOWN - For a stock fighting to keep its listing on the Nasdaq, Provident American Corp. saw some healthy trading this week. The managed-care marketing company credits new attention being paid to its deal with America OnLine Inc. for the...

They're off to the mall. (shuttle service from hotels to retail stores in Philadelphia and King of Prussia, PA)
April 17, 1998... KING OF PRUSSIA - The huge mall here, hoping to lure a brand of customer that dramatically outspends its typical shopper, is gearing up to shuttle tourists to and from four hotels in Center City Philadelphia. Retailers have discovered that...

Who's impaired? Pa. will rely on AMA guidelines to rate workers' health status. (Pennsylvania; American Medical Association)
April 17, 1998... Pennsylvania employers and their workers' compensation insurers will soon have a new tool to determine whether workers are permanently injured. Advocates for injured workers, however, believe it will make it virtually impossible for anybody...

Pa. workers' compensation reforms lead to drop in premiums. (Pennsylvania)
April 17, 1998... Employers in Pennsylvania are enjoying an average 6.57 percent reduction in workers' compensation premiums, translating into roughly $100 million in savings. In fact, those premiums, the amount employers pay insurers to cover the wages and...

Two rounds of reform change system. (workers' compensation in Pennsylvania)
April 17, 1998... It took two governors and two major pieces of legislation to change Pennsylvania's workers' compensation system. Since 1912, employers in Pennsylvania have been required to reimburse workers injured on the job for medical costs and lost pay....

Court strikes down part of Act 44 reform. (decision of an appeals court on amendments to Pennsylvania's Workers' Compensation Act of 1993)
April 17, 1998... Workers' compensation insurers are up in arms over a federal appeals panel decision ordering them to stop shutting off medical benefits without notice during the review of contested claims. Ruling in a case brought by School District of...

Fraud fighters try to get the upper hand. (insurance fraud prevention through Pennsylvania's reform of workers' compensation)
April 17, 1998... Outright fraud, claim exaggeration and claimant malingering have become more difficult and dangerous enterprises for would-be perpetrators following Pennsylvania's reform of the workers' compensation system, according to government officials...

Bank to raise $109 million in IPO. (Roxborough-Manayunk Federal Savings Bank plans initial public offering of stocks)
April 10, 1998... Roxborough-Manayunk Federal Savings Bank hopes to raise up to $119 million in the first new bank stock offering in years. Since 1992, the eight-branch Philadelphia bank has been stuck halfway out of mutual form - owned mostly by a mutual...

SAP had weighed lease at Navy yard. (SAP America Inc; Philadelphia Naval Business Center)
April 10, 1998... Philadelphia landed a big fish when it signed up Norwegian shipbuilder Kvaerner ASA to occupy a large portion of the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. But it had potentially hooked a bigger catch that it couldn't reel in. SAP America Inc.,...

Provident Mutual sued by policyholders. (Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co)
April 10, 1998... BERWYN - Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co. has been sued by policyholders alleging that management's reorganization plans are designed to mask a strategy to go public and leave them out in the cold. According to their complaint, filed in...

Waking a new market. (OBA America Inc's plan to create national network of office-based anesthesiologists)
April 10, 1998... OBA America is shopping the idea of a nationwide network of office-based anesthesiologists. NEWTOWN SQUARE - OBA America Inc., looking to capitalize on the growing shift of surgical procedures to less costly settings, wants to create the...

Surprise! Bank says it didn't know about suit. (First Union Corp)
April 10, 1998... First Union Corp. came close last week to a defeat by default in a local discrimination lawsuit brought by a former employee. Had the federal judge presiding over the case not taken it upon herself to pick up the phone "to alert the bank that...

Commerce Dept. audit finds $10M error. (failure of Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp to report transactions to Philadelphia Finance Dept)
April 10, 1998... An audit of the Philadelphia Commerce Department has revealed poor record-keeping that led to a $10.3 million overstatement in an inventory of city-owned properties targeted for industrial and commercial development. The audit by the City...

Raising hotel tax 1% has support in industry. (proposal of Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell to raise hotel taxes)
April 10, 1998... HOTEL TAXES IN OTHER MARKETS City Average Total room rate tax Washington, D.C. $100.03 15.60% New York ...

You will be able to sit and Eat at Joe's. (Eat at Joe's plan to open branches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
April 10, 1998... Eat At Joe's, a small New York-based '50s theme restaurant chain, plans to open its first sit-down eateries in the region. There already are two Eat at Joe's in the area: in the food court at the Shoppes at Penn on the University of...

Global agreement could bring $50M to Centocor. (Centocor Inc's international licensing deal with Schering-Plough Corp)(includes related article on Crohn's disease)
April 10, 1998... MALVERN - Centocor Inc. could see its revenue grow by more than $50 million under a new international licensing deal signed this week for its drug under development to treat Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Under the terms of the...

HMO, hospitals on collision course? (Healthcare Management Alternatives Inc. to initiate use of 'hospitalists')
April 3, 1998... In what would be an industry first in the region, a Philadelphia-based Medicaid HMO has proposed placing its own physicians in local hospitals to manage the care of its members admitted for treatment. Healthcare Management Alternatives Inc....

Wholesaler: keep out the grass. (Grass family of Rite Aid Pharmacy to take over Global Motorsports Group Inc.)
April 3, 1998... The Grass family of Rite Aid Pharmacy fame and fortune has started a heavy metal battle for control of a California Harley Davidson motorcycle accessory company. Now in full swing, the takeover grab mounted by Rite Aid founder Alex Grass and...

Peco executive fortunes now tied to shareholders. (Peco Energy Co. implements executive compensation program)
April 3, 1998... Peco Energy Co., catching up to corporate America, has implemented an executive compensation program designed to more closely align its management's financial interests with those of its shareholders. The move represents a significant shift...

Tel-Save dumps shares of US WATS. (Tel-Save Holdings Inc.; US WATS Inc.)
April 3, 1998... NEW HOPE - Tel-Save Holdings Inc. has in recent weeks dumped more than 2 million shares of a small, troubled telecommunication rival's stock for under the going price. The ditching of US WATS Inc.'s stock came at a time when Tel-Save was...

Affinity for small business. (Pennsylvania Society of American Entrepreneurs services small businesses for better buying power)
April 3, 1998... Pennsylvania's Small Business Development Centers plan to form a network of companies they've helped over the years to give small businesses the sort of buying power enjoyed by larger corporations. The Philadelphia-based network, tentatively...

Oxford cuts staff by third. (Oxford Health Plans Inc.)(Company Profile)
April 3, 1998... Oxford Health Plans Inc., the struggling Connecticut-based managed- care company, has laid off 110 employees, or one-third, of its Philadelphia work force. Forty of the displaced - all of whom worked for Oxford's Pennsylvania Medicaid...

N.J. cardiac-care plans has hospitals seeing red. (limits to expansion of open-heart programs in hospitals spoil plans of Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center and Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center)
April 3, 1998... NEW JERSEY OPEN-HEART SURGERY PROGRAMS The breakdown of coronary artery bypass graft surgery patients by hospital for 1994 and 1995: Hospital Location Patients Morristown Memorial...

Court: CHOP payment suit can proceed. (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia wins case against Health Partners Inc.)
April 3, 1998... A U.S. District Court judge has denied a Philadelphia managed-care company's bid to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a city hospital over disputed payments for emergency treatment. The case spotlights the imbalance between a hospital's obligation...

Powering up: Zeks Air Drier goes for brand identity. (Zeks Air Drier Corp.)(Company Profile)
April 3, 1998... MALVERN - Bob Roseman wants his company's name to be no less known in its industry than Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Ambitious as that sounds, judging by his company's performance over the last several years, his dream goal may someday become reality...