Philadelphia Business Journal articles from April 1999

Philadelphia Business Journal archives from April 1999

Sunoco in dividend tussle.
April 30, 1999... Four years after they parted, Sunoco and its former Canadian subsidiary are struggling over millions of dollars in dividends from an off-shore insurance company. Suncor Energy, which was divested by the Philadelphia oil giant in 1995, is...

Measuring up.(promoting entrepreneurship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
April 30, 1999... Editor's note: This the fourth in a series aimed at examining the state of enterpreneurship in the Philadelphia region. Philadelphia promotes itself to tourists as "The place that loves you back." But if the area doesn't demonstrate to...

Dailies' copy sales declining.(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania newspapers)
April 30, 1999... A sudden plunge in circulation of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News has dealt a blow to their effort to avoid a national slump in newspaper sales. Average circulation of the Sunday Inquirer declined by almost 70,000...

Children's Hospital CEO is resigning.(Edmond F. Notebaert)
April 30, 1999... No definite plans for CEO who led oldest pediatric facility in the U.S. After more than a decade at the helm of Philadelphia's largest children's hospital, Edmond F. Notebaert is stepping down. "This is a voluntary decision on my...

It's been a while but REITs are up.(real estate investment trusts)
April 30, 1999... Just a month ago, real estate investment trust watchers were shaking their heads, wondering when share prices would move up to where they thought REITs belonged. They were wondering aloud, and it appears that all of the talk of...

Orthovita to test spinal treatment.
April 30, 1999... MALVERN - Orthovita Inc. has gone to France to test a cement that may offer relief to back-injury patients. The product, Orthocomp, will be injected as part of an experimental treatment for people who suffer spinal compression fractures...

Kvaerner Construction planning area office.(Kvaerner Construction Group)
April 30, 1999... Despite parent's goal to sell ship business Kvaerner Construction Group, a company with its U.S. headquarters in Tampa, Fla. - and larger in scope than its parent company's shipbuilding enterprise - is planning a permanent office in the...

CEO portrait: Gloria Zankowski.(Girard Medical Center CEO and senior vice president)
April 30, 1999... Personal information Name: Gloria Zankowski Title: Senior vice president/CEO Organization: Girard Medical Center Type of organization: Nonprofit specialty hospital providing long-term acute care, skilled nursing and...

Survey shows employees favor voluntary benefits.
April 30, 1999... Workers used to know exactly what to expect from their employers in the way of benefits: medical coverage for when they or their family got sick, and a pension when they retired. It's a lot different now, with companies offering every...

Expanding insurers go on hiring spree.
April 30, 1999... Hundreds of area jobs are being created The insurance industry hiring forecast in the Philadelphia area looks fairly bright, but there are some clouds on the horizon coming from a reorganization and merger at Cigna Corp., the area's...

Lincoln Nat'l execs reap rewards of restructuring.
April 30, 1999... Led by nouveau CEO Jon A. Boscia, executives of Lincoln National Corp. will hold their company's annual meeting in their new hometown of Philadelphia for the first time next month. In keeping with Center City corporate style, the former...

Report: biotech in need of cash.(biotechnology industry)
April 23, 1999... The Industry is growing fast in the Philadelphia area but money for research is scarce. The region's emerging biotechnology industry may never fulfill its potential unless cash-starved biotech firms are permitted to sen tax credits and...

Law firms report short supply of legal secretaries.
April 23, 1999... A shortage of legal secretaries is frustrating Philadelphia law firms and prompting a call for major changes in the structure of their operations. Law firm administrators report that positions that once took weeks to fill remain open for...

SCT testing new online service for U.S. Students.(Systems and Computer Technology)
April 23, 1999... MALVERN - Systems and Computer Technology Corp. and two partners have begun testing what could become the online service of choice for millions of college students, employees and alumni. A combination Internet service provider and portal,...

Cyber-banking seesaw.(electronic banking service)
April 23, 1999... Jay S. Sidhu was baffled, maybe even a little angry, to find himself leading a parade of Internet banking gurus down Wall Street last week. Not that the CEO of Sovereign Bancorp. Inc. minds the roar of the crowd - he has stepped up to...

E-com hopes high at Provident American.(electronic commerce; Provident American Corp.'s electronic commerce insurance marketing subsidiary)
April 23, 1999... Provident American Corp. is about a month away from spelling out its plans for its electronic-commerce insurance marketing subsidiary, HealthAxis.com. A spinoff could be in the works, or a split, or a merger. But somehow, some way,...

Integrion's partners order restructuring.(Integrion Financial Network)
April 23, 1999... Integrion Financial Network has been abandoned by two of its owner-banks and taken over by three others in a quiet restructuring. The action took place in the week before the cyberspace banking field that the company was established to...

Kennedy keys on senior care.(Kennedy Health System)
April 23, 1999... VOORHEES, N.J. - Richard E. Murray wants his health-care system to be the leading provider of senior health care in South Jersey. So far, the president and chief executive officer of Kennedy Health System has spent more than $8 million...

SiteLine is broadening Internet access service.
April 23, 1999... A local company that allows hotel and office-building managers to offer their guests or tenants high-speed Internet access is poised to begin offering its service nationally. SiteLine LP will enter the New York, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago,...

Lofty goals.(plans of Philadelphia International Airport head Alfred Testa Jr.)
April 23, 1999... How new airport head Alfred Testa Jr. plans to take Philadelphia International to new heights Alfred Testa Jr. - Fred, he insists to anyone in the conversation - had been in town one day before he discovered the Famous 4th Street Deli....

Wine: helping bottle profits: Phila. restaurants finally capitalize on rising popularity.(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
April 23, 1999... Two events tell the story of wine in present-day Philadelphia. Story No. 1: Five years ago, 24-year-old Marnie Old, in addition to washing dishes, sweeping floors and waiting tables at Chanterelles, also bought wine for that establishment, an...

ActiMed keeping it low.(ActiMed Laboratories Inc.)
April 23, 1999... BURLINGTON CITY, N.J. - Several years ago, one of the nation's Largest consumer-products companies began marketing a device that allowed people to monitor their cholesterol levels at home. At the time, ActiMed Laboratories Inc. in South...

Buy unravels, fight ensues.(Roxborough Memorial Hospital sues Primary Health Systems Inc.)
April 16, 1999... Roxborough Memorial Hospital is in a fight to collect $7 million it alleges it is owed from Primary Health Systems Inc., a hospital management company that filed for bankruptcy last month. Wayne-based Primary planned to pay $22.5 million...

Date with destiny?(online calendar company eCal Corp.)
April 16, 1999... An online calendar business that has signed a succession of deals with Web site operators and portals is quickly establishing itself as a player in the Internet community. If Richard Rasansky's instincts are right, his 2-year-old online...

Tower acquired; may fly Marriott flag.(One East Penn Square; Marriott International Corp.)
April 16, 1999... One East Penn square, a 25-story Art Deco building across the street from City Hall, has been bought for $8 minion by a New York developer with plans to convert it to an extended-stay Marriott. The empty building, featuring a colorful...

Local 274 makes its presence felt.(Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union)
April 16, 1999... With 4,000 hotel rooms coming, the union wants to be sure it gets to represent workers Two newly opened Philadelphia hotels and two hotels that are under construction have more in common than just a splashy entry into the region's hot...

Rental projects can't fill demand.(apartment buildings)
April 16, 1999... At least five major apartment buildings in Center City are undergoing renovation or have been recently rehabbed, while a handful of other, smaller conversion projects also are either coming on the market or about to. Yet these new...

Small business cut takes a hit; sector's share of federal prime contracting declined about $3 billion last year.
April 16, 1999... Thousands of small businesses in the Philadelphia region and elsewhere in the nation are quickly finding out that military skirmishes over foreign skies and a strengthened arsenal is not good for business. For the first time in recent...

Penn Med's Web site is growing a business.(University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine)
April 16, 1999... What started four years ago as an initiative to revamp the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's curriculum has sparked an idea for a new business designed to capitalize on the Internet frenzy. Dr. Gail Morrison, Penn's vice...

Graham equity fund nets 1st deal.(Graham Partners Investments LP)
April 16, 1999... Wisc. plastic and metal products fabricator will be acquired by partners WAYNE - A private equity fund based in Chesterbrook has negotiated its first deal and boosted the amount of capital it's seeking to raise to $200 million. ...

QVC will go to trial in theft-of-idea case.(QVC Inc.)
April 16, 1999... A federal judge has ordered a trial in a lawsuit alleging that QVC Inc. of West Chester stole the concept for its popular "Quest For America's Best" television series. The suit, scheduled to go before a jury in Philadelphia later this...

Apartment Source says it's being blocked out.(Apartment Source sues Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.)
April 16, 1999... Philadelphia Newspapers Inc. has been accused in federal court of cultivating an illegal monopoly for a subsidiary by keeping a competitor from advertising in the Inquirer and Daily News. During a bench trial last week in U.S. District...

A new player enters the fray.(Summit Bancorp ventures into Philadelphia, PA, area)
April 16, 1999... First Union absorbs CoreStates. Jefferson Bank buys Regent Bank. Sovereign Bank buys Main Line Bank and takes over CoreStates branches. Everywhere you look, bank consolidation is at full tilt. Riding the consolidation wave,...

Venture capital funds take varying approaches.
April 16, 1999... While many private investors are flocking to Internet and other information technology companies, two West Conshohocken venture capital firms are sticking with the biotechnology sector - albeit with decidedly different approaches. S.R....

Liberty Place towers up for sale: landmark buildings changed the face of Phila.'s skyline.
April 9, 1999... One Liberty Place is up for sale, as apparently is its gleaming sister building, Two Liberty Place. The owners of One Liberty Place, perhaps Philadelphia's most recognized office building, confirmed that the building is on the selling...

Walnut St. seeks 'right' mix of retailers.(Philadelphia, PA)
April 9, 1999... The "malling" of America may upset shoppers who hope to preserve some level of serendipity in the experience. But Walnut Street retailers say malls have the right idea, at least where some planning issues are concerned. Rittenhouse Row,...

DSL on upswing; phone companies pushing bandwidth.(Digital Subscriber Line)
April 9, 1999... The battle to bring bandwidth to Philadelphia businesses and consumers is heating up with new deployment of a relatively old technology. Bell Atlantic Corp. and at least three competitors have begun offering Digital Subscriber Line...

Wills may sell hospital.(Wills Eye Hospital's medical center building)
April 9, 1999... Wills Eye Hospital, which has invested more than $30 million developing a network of ambulatory surgical centers in the region, now may sell its Center City medical center building. D. McWilliams Kessler, president of Wills Eye, said the...

Investor moves against UGI deal.(Snyder Capital Management; merger between UGI Corp. and Unisource Worldwide)
April 9, 1999... VALLEY FORGE - The largest shareholder in UGI Corp. has formally signaled its misgivings about the company's proposed merger with paper distributor Unisource Worldwide. Snyder Capital Management, in a filing with the Securities and...

Bank primed for attack; Summit makes camp at 15th and Walnut streets.(Summit Bank)
April 9, 1999... New Jersey's Summit Bank will stage its assault on the Center City commercial banking market from the coveted corner of 15th and Walnut streets. The former headquarters of Regent Bank, the building had attracted a number of bankers...

Mortgage holder seeks Barclay foreclosure.(Independent Mortgage Co.; Barclay Hotel)
April 9, 1999... A mortgage company that funded the 1997 purchase of the former Barclay Hotel is seeking to foreclose on the loan and force a sale of the venerable property. Independent Mortgage Co. alleges that Claybar Development failed to comply with...

For 1st Republic execs, Sun Bank looks hot.(First Republic Bank)
April 9, 1999... Collectively, the four former First Republic Bank bigwigs have more than 100 years of contacts in the Philadelphia area. They'll take over at the new Pennsylvania Sun operations. Some of First Republic Bank's top-producing lenders have...

Ex-hospital execs sued in Allegheny matter.(Graduate Health System)
April 9, 1999... Three former Graduate Health System executives have been accused of racketeering in a federal lawsuit alleging that they contributed to the demise of the Allegheny health system. The lawsuit, filed March 16 in U.S. District Court in...

Outside investors take liking to Philadelphia.(Real Estate Quarterly)
April 9, 1999... Out-of-town real estate developers and investors have seemingly fallen in love with Center City. A raft of private and public real estate firms from New York, Washington, Boston, Chicago and elsewhere have been snapping up not just one...

Aetna sued in payment dispute.(Aetna U.S. Healthcare)
April 2, 1999... The fraud case is believed to be a first filed against an HMO by a physician An area plastic surgeon has filed a lawsuit against Aetna U.S. Healhtcare accusing it of routinely failing to make timely reimbursements and refusing to pay for...

Software maker accused of deception.(Industri-Matematik International Corp.)
April 2, 1999... EVESHAM, N.J. - Industri-Matematik International Corp., a Swedish software maker with U.S. headquarters here, has been sued for allegedly issuing misleading statements to inflate its stock price, providing select shareholders the opportunity...

Phila.'s booming meat market.(Philadelphia's steak houses)(Industry Overview)
April 2, 1999... When Marsha Brown opened Ruth's Chris Steak House at Broad and Spruce streets in 1988, Broad seemed little more than a bleak stretch of pipe dreams and scant pedestrian traffic. Fast-forward to 1999 and the upscale steak trade is living...

Howard Lawson, Summit team up.(Howard, Lawson & Co.; Summit Bancorp Inc.)
April 2, 1999... Summit Bancorp Inc. has joined forces with Philadelphia investment bankers Howard, Lawson & Co. to tackle the middle-company market for corporate advisory services. The pact between the Princeton-based bank holding company and the Center...

Peco vies to hold onto trade secrets.(Peco Energy Co.)
April 2, 1999... Under orders to reveal to competitors what had been confidential details of wholesale energy deals, Peco Energy Co. is fighting back. At stake a part of its business that the Philadelphia utility is counting on to provide an even bigger...

New game plan for teams.(professional sports teams pitch stadiums as business meeting venues)
April 2, 1999... Philadelphia's professional sports teams are increasingly pitching their stadiums and arenas as places to hold full-blown business meetings, rather than just venues where clients can be entertained. Comcast-Spectacor, owner of the...

Harbor dredging bill would shift burden.(Support the Harbor Investment Program Act)
April 2, 1999... The Delaware River Port Authority's multimillion-dollar worries over harbor maintenance funding could end under a bill before Congress that would pass the fiscal burden to the federal government. In introducing the Support the Harbor...

CHI expanding its home health-care services.(Catholic Health Initiatives)
April 2, 1999... Catholic Health Initiatives, one of the country's largest Roman Catholic healthcare organizations, is gearing up to expand its presence in Philadelphia's home health-care market. CHI will offer its home health-care services out of its...

On the 'Net, doing e-business to e-business.(Marketing & the Internet)(the Internet, electronic business)
April 2, 1999... Despite their best efforts, retailers and manufacturers sometimes find themselves saddled with merchandise that's unsalable or unwanted. When that happens, they need a liquidation jobber, known in the business as a salvor. As of the...

Hog heaven.(Growth Strategies)(Harley-Davidson-themed entertainment complex in New Castle, Delaware)
April 2, 1999... Northern Delaware is home to new $8 million Harley-Davidson entertainment complex NEW CASTLE, Del. - Burning highway. For Harley-Davidson owners, it's the fever and the cure. And Mike Schwartz hopes to capitalize on it. In December,...