Philadelphia Business Journal articles from February 1996

Philadelphia Business Journal archives from February 1996

New CEO a foot soldier for Oxford Health Plans. (Oxford health Plans Pennsylvania CEO Michael Gaffney)
February 23, 1996... Michael Gaffney has been pounding Philadelphia's pavement for nearly two months trying to win business the old-fashioned way. But Gaffney, the recently named president and chief executive officer of Oxford Health Plans Pennsylvania, says he...

Atlantic Electric won't turn down the heat. (Atlantic Electric Co. Inc.'s planned relocation)
February 23, 1996... PLEASANTVILLE, N.J. - The brash advertising campaign Atlantic Electric initiated two years ago to entice Philadelphia-area businesses to relocate to South Jersey is about to get fine-tuned. Don't confuse that with softened. The utility is...

Buying, selling in cellular world is proving profitable for Bachow. (Bachow and Associates Inc.)
February 23, 1996... BALA CYNWYD - Cellular telephone owners in Fargo, N.D., may not know it, but every time they make a call, they're using a system built from scratch by Bachow & Associates Inc. Similarly, cellular callers in parts of Tennessee, Kansas, Indiana...

RCM Technologies Inc. bets on corporate austerity.(South Jersey Business Journal)
February 23, 1996... PENNSAUKEN - A staffing company, expanding through acquisitions yet still not big enough to attract coverage by financial analysts, has managed to catch the eye of two prominent international investment groups. This week, RCM Technologies...

Strip centers are Metro's primary trade. (Metro Commercial Real Estate Inc.)(South Jersey Business Journal)
February 23, 1996... MOUNT LAUREL - Daniel J. Hughes knows the average drive for a basic food run is about five minutes. "People want trips to the supermarket to be short and quick," Hughes said. If people are looking for furniture, then Hughes estimates they...

Biotech company is marketing its first products. (Recombinant BioCatalysis Inc.)
February 23, 1996... SHARON HILL - Recombinant BioCatalysis Inc., a biotechnology firm started with $10 million in venture capital in December 1994, has released its initial products and will roll out several more over the next few weeks. In addition, the...

Today's Man's Feld remains optimistic despite Chapter 11. (Today's Man Inc. founder David Feld)
February 23, 1996... MOORESTOWN, N.J. - It's been a rough month for Today's Man Inc. The Burlington County-based menswear company filed for bankruptcy protection, pulled the plug on seven stores and the stock price has bottomed out, down 87 percent from its peak in...

Neose Technologies offering stock; seeks $28 million for R&D. (Neose Technologies Inc.)
February 23, 1996... HORSHAM - Neose Technologies Inc., a developer of complex carbohydrates for nutritional and pharmaceutical uses, announced an initial public offering of 2.25 million shares of common stock in an effort to raise $28.13 million to its expand...

Rooter Rattle is making noise with sports fans. (Rooter Rattle Ltd.)
February 23, 1996... WAYNE - Like many small businesses, Rooter Rattle Ltd. got off to a shaky start. Umberto Degli Esposti and his brother-in-law, James Onufrak, started the company four years ago with a single product: a novelty item that was part pompon and...

Peters is doing what he does best - starting banks. (1st Main Line Bank owner F.C. Peters II)
February 23, 1996... ST. DAVIDS - It's too early to call it a success, but F.C. "Ted" Peters II's return to community banking is shaping up to be a reincarnation of his first start-up effort. Peters' 1st Main Line Bank, which opened for business in May in Paoli,...

The Cigna split: what will be the fallout? (corporate restructuring plan)
February 16, 1996... Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court decided on Tuesday not to grant a stay of Philadelphia-based Cigna Corp.'s restructuring plan, allowing the insurer to separate its property and casualty unit into two holding companies, one to write new business...

Realen takes on the Windy City while still seeking to go public. (Realen Homes to open three new communities in Chicago, IL)
February 16, 1996... AMBLER - One of the region's largest home builders is expanding into the Chicago market with an aim toward better positioning itself to make a second run at going public. Next month Ambler-based Realen Homes will open three new communities...

Craft brewer seeks expansion funds through IPO. (initial public offering of stocks by Independence Brewing Co.)
February 16, 1996... Soon, local beer aficionados may be able to have their beer and invest in it too. Independence Brewing Co. announced an initial public offering of 250,000 shares of common stock in an effort to raise $750,000 to expand its product line and...

Big deal for Brokerage Concepts. (Brokerage Concepts Inc.'s acquisition of Sedgwick Noble Lownds' benefits administration division)
February 9, 1996... KING OF PRUSSIA - Brokerage Concepts Inc. became the nation's largest privately held third-party administrator of employee health benefits Wednesday when it acquired the benefits administration division of Sedgwick Noble Lowndes in a deal...

Microsoft cancels contract with Unisys.
February 9, 1996... Microsoft Corp. has canceled a Windows95 help-desk contract with Unisys Corp., claiming that the Blue Bell company was not living up to its end of the agreement. "They basically were not meeting the terms of the contract," said Jenny Moede,...

Intelligent Electronics suspends dividend payments. (Intelligent Electronics Inc.)
February 9, 1996... EXTON - Intelligent Electronics Inc. has announced that it will suspend payment of quarterly cash dividends to its shareholders, citing a need to reinvest money in the company's operations. Though analysts concede that the move is not a...

All in the family for Granor Price builders. (Granor Price Homes)
February 9, 1996... Almost without fail the seven partners who own Granor Price Homes meet Tuesday afternoons in their Horsham headquarters. The weekly meetings are designed to quell concerns before they bubble up into problems that interrupt the daily grind of...

CoreStates denies possible sale; creates execs' severance plan. (CoreStates Financial Corp.)
February 9, 1996... CoreStates Financial Corp for the first time has created termination agreements that will be offered to about two dozen executive officers. Some bankers in the market view the agreements as CoreStates' first step in putting itself up for...

Fannie Mae claim against Peoples going to court. (Federal National Mortgage Association; Peoples Mortgage Co.)
February 9, 1996... The long-running feud between a now-defunct Bala Cynwyd mortgage banker and the nation's largest mortgage provider, Federal National Mortgage Association, is finally going to be played out before a jury. However, the jury won't hear all that...

Office building bears the scars of '91 fatal fire. (One Meridian Plaza)(Real Estate Focus)
February 9, 1996... The fifth anniversary of Philadelphia's most deadly high-rise fire will pass this month with many hopes but no promises that the remains of One Meridian Plaza will took any different anytime soon. Concrete barriers still block the entrance to...

Central Sprinkler has a hot year as sales and profits hit records. (Central Sprinkler Corp.)(Real Estate Focus)(Company Profile)
February 9, 1996... LANSDALE - Central Sprinkler Corp. is in the business of putting out fires, yet in the last two years it has set the sprinkler industry ablaze with new products and services. The result? The public company reported a 37 percent increase in...

Feds push for sale of Metrobank. (Metrobank of Philadelphia)
February 2, 1996... The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. held a meeting last week with area bankers to solicit bidders for the assets of Metrobank of Philadelphia, a strong indicator that a takeover of the bank is likely, sources said. Should Metrobank be shut...

Providing high-tech help for some nonprofits. (Arts and Business Council's Computer Consortium)
February 2, 1996... Margo Bloom had a problem. As director of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, she was charged with upgrading its computer systems. But because the museum is a nonprofit agency, she did not have much money to go...

Shipyard offered for Strawbridge warehouse. (Strawbridge and Clothier; Philadelphia, former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard)
February 2, 1996... If the city has its way, there may be an unusually stylish tenant rubbing elbows with the more industrial inhabitants of Philadelphia's former naval shipyard. The Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. is working to convince Strawbridge &...

Westinghouse Electric seeks more space in shipyard. (former Philadephia Naval Shipyard)
February 2, 1996... Westinghouse Electric Corp. is scheduled to meet with officials from the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp. Tuesday to discuss leasing additional space in the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. "It's really a first step in our effort...

Nation's first video dial-tone network starts. (FutureVision's cable TV network)
February 2, 1996... TOMS RIVER, N.J. - The nation's first video dial-tone network went commercial here this week as FutureVision, the West Conshohocken company that is the network's initial content provider, began sending digital interactive television signals to...

Mercy Health is building its network in West Phila. (Mercy Health Network; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
February 2, 1996... Providing health care in Philadelphia's poorest and neediest neighborhoods has always been a daunting task. Images of war are often used to describe an environment where health professionals administer triage care to a desperately needy...

Proposal: turn hospital rooms into hotel rooms.
February 2, 1996... A Huntingdon Valley entrepreneur has joined the ranks of developers seeking to transform vacant or underused Center City buildings into hotels. This time the property is the former Franklin Square Hospital at Eighth and Race streets and the...

Integrated Circuit Systems banking on new product lines. (Integrated Circuit Systems Inc.)
February 2, 1996... VALLEY FORGE - Though an analyst has downgraded Integrated Circuit Systems Inc.'s stock from "buy" to "hold," and the company has announced a stock repurchase plan, both the analyst and the company's fourth-quarter earnings indicate that its...

More counties use software to print ballots. (United States Elections Corp.'s software)
February 2, 1996... WEST CHESTER - If you plan to vote this year, there is a good chance that software developed by United States Elections Corp. is being used to prepare your ballot. The 10-year-old company was originally started as a printing distributor and...

Biotech industry wants a friend in Pennsylvania.
February 2, 1996... Pennsylvania, long a supporter of traditional manufacturing industries within its borders, is beginning to reach out to biotechnology companies. As the neighboring states of New Jersey and Maryland sweeten the economic development pie with...

Survey shows health benefit costs increased by 2.9%.
February 2, 1996... The mass movement toward managed-care health plans offered by employers continued apace in the Philadelphia region in 1995, keeping total health-care costs in line and giving confidence to employers struggling to contain benefits costs,...