Philadelphia Business Journal articles from July 1999

Philadelphia Business Journal archives from July 1999

EPB restructuring, power shifts.(advertising agency Earl Palmer Brown Cos.)
July 30, 1999... Earle Palmer Brown has restructured its collection of advertising agencies in a move that shifts financial oversight of its struggling Philadelphia operations to company headquarters. The marketing communications firm has combined its...

Conflict alleged by insurer.(Jackson National Life Insurance Co. sues law firm Duane Morris and Heckscher for malpractice)
July 30, 1999... Are there grounds for malpractice, as alleged, and what, if anything, does a law firm's opening of a Chicago office have to do with the litigation? Days after a giant Chicago insurer sued it in a $61.5 million malpractice case here,...

Fun, games and even profits at Net firm.(includes related article on WGC's future)(World Gaming Corp.)(Company Profile)
July 30, 1999... What's the secret to making money on the Internet? Perhaps simply showing the folks who visit your Web sites a good time. World Gaming Corp. has been doing that since last October. As a result, it's now profitable and being courted...

Aetna in fight over contract.(Aetna US Healthcare Inc.)
July 30, 1999... BLUE BELL - Aetna U.S. Healthcare has become embroiled in a contract dispute with a Denver company that was supposed to coordinate home-care services for more than 2 million Aetna members. As a result of the dispute, Aetna was forced last...

Dailies adopt new promos to drive circulation.(The Philadelphia Inquirer; The Philadelphia News)
July 30, 1999... The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News are broadening their marketing and promotional efforts in an attempt to revive slumping newspaper sales. Philadelphia Newspapers Inc., publisher of the papers, is pursuing several...

ICT calling up record profits.(ICT Group Inc.)
July 30, 1999... LANGHORNE - Call center operator ICT Group Inc. is ringing up record earnings and revenues and a 52-week high in the price of its stock ICT, whose staffers perform telemarketing and other so-called teleservice functions, reported net...

Tasty's recovery too slow for some.(Tasty Baking Co.)(Company Profile)
July 30, 1999... Maybe nobody bakes a cake as tasty as a Tastykake, but Tasty Baking Co, will have to do more than that if it wants to fatten up its slow-growing financials. The good news: second-quarter net income rose a nickel to 18 cents per share,...

Peco in pickle between a nuke buy and taxes.(Peco Energy Co.)
July 30, 1999... A Peco Energy Co. venture's planned purchase of the Three Mile Island Unit 1 power plant has been complicated by the uncertain fate of the reactor's $320 million nuclear decommissioning fund. AmerGen, the joint venture of the Philadelphia...

Temple, Tenet may meld peds.(Temple University Health System and Tenet Healthcare Corp. consider combining their pediatric services)
July 30, 1999... Temple University Health System and Tenet Healthcare Corp. are considering combining their pediatrics programs, according to industry sources. Such a union would combine the resources of North Philadelphia's two children's hospitals: the...

Tood P. Leff.(president of Cottman Transmission Systems Inc.)(Interview)
July 30, 1999... Personal information Name: Todd P. Leff Title: President Company: Cottman Transmission Systems Inc. Type of company: Fort Washington, Montgomery County-based chain of automotive repair centers Education: BA, political...

Hooked on DataEdge.(Company Profile)
July 30, 1999... A drug research firm helps clients save millions FORT WASHINGTON - It's one thing to convince someone to buy your product, it's another to ask a company to supply confidential data in order to do so. Harold Glass and the two other...

Carpenters report a surge in work.(Philadelphia Metropolitan Area)(Statistical Data Included)
July 23, 1999... Thanks to a construction boom, the Philadelphia region's carpenters are logging more work than they have for most of the 1990s. For the first time since November 1991, unionized carpenters in the area recorded 1 million hours of work last...

Extracting herbs, profits: already a leader in botanical products, Folexco cooks up ambitious growth plants.(Folexco/East Earth Herb)
July 23, 1999... MONTGOMERYVILLE - Just months after completing a deal that made his company North America's leading maker of botanical extract products, David N. Wilson is thinking globally. Wilson, the chief executive officer of Folexco/East Earth Herb,...

Trade secrets clause is upheld.(employment contract between Campbell Soup Co. and its former advertising executive Robert L. Destanick)
July 23, 1999... CAMDEN - Citing the need to protect trade secrets, a federal judge has sided with Campbell Soup Co. in its battle against a former advertising executive who sought a top marketing job with one of its biggest rivals. U.S. District Judge...

Another chance for Unidyne.($10 million credit line from Congress Financial Corp.)
July 23, 1999... EXTON - Unidyne Corp., buffeted by a string of losses and the suspension of trading in its stock, has obtained a three-year, $10 million credit line. A manufacturer of dynamometers, emissions testing equipment and specialized electric...

Windsor remapping its strategy.(Hotel Windsor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
July 23, 1999... Recently renovated and ready for its official unveiling, the Hotel Windsor has switched gears - again. About $5 million in upgrades were undertaken last year at the 318-room Windsor as part of plans to debut a half-hotel,...

Bluestonee seeks $46M.(Bluestone Software Inc.)
July 23, 1999... MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - Less than a month after receiving $25 million in financing from almost 20 venture firms, Bluestone Software Inc. has filed plans to raise up to $46 million in an initial public offering. Founded by its chairman Mel...

Visiting Nurse Service closing its Phila. office.(Visiting Nurse System Inc. and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
July 23, 1999... New Jersey home health-care agency says Balanced Budget Act affected Pa. profitability Five years after expanding into the Philadelphia market, a South Jersey home health-care agency is shutting down its Pennsylvania operations. ...

Alliance Group links with CRESA Partners.(Alliance Group International)(Statistical Data Included)
July 23, 1999... Don't call us tenant reps, call us corporate advisers. That's the creed of a real estate group called CRESA Partners, of which Conshohocken-based Alliance Group International is now a part. Alliance, joining nine other real estate...

Municipal finance vets hop to Hopper Soliday.
July 23, 1999... More municipal finance professionals have defected to Hopper Soliday in recent weeks. The underwriter's most recent additions came in Pittsburgh, where PNC Bank Corp. public finance chief Tal Heppenstall led the way in late May. After...

CEO portrait: Stephen W. Holt.(Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia Pres. and CEO Stephen W. Holt)
July 23, 1999... Personal information Name: Stephen W. Holt Title: President and CEO Company: The Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia Type of business: Voluntary nonprofit provider of healthcare services to homebound patients...

Cannon's telecom calling.(Growth Strategies)(Cannon Group)
July 23, 1999... SPRINGHOUSE - High technology and entrepreneurs seem to go hand-in-hand nowadays. Many start-ups begin in the home of a former employee of a large company. The Cannon Group of Montgomery County is no different. Yet what makes this...

Mortgage banker files for Ch. 11.(Fidelity Bond and Mortgage files for bankruptcy)
July 16, 1999... A mortgage banking operation that Republic First Bancorp Inc. bought into in May 1998 and wrote off as a loss within months has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Fidelity Bond & Mortgage of Blue Bell claimed assets and debts...

Tourism slow to embrace regionalism; surrounding counties like the notion but contribute little.(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
July 16, 1999... What's so great about "Greater Philadelphia"?2 To tourism and hospitality sector promoters, the term connotes an essential part of a regional marketing strategy and has become the defining mission of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism...

Putting the cork on their party.(Tourism Slow to Embrace Regionalism; Surrounding Counties Like the Notion but Contribute Little)
July 16, 1999... To a budget-minded reveler, Georges Perrier's planned $2,000-a-head New Year's Eve bash at Le Bec-Fin may seem a crime. Turns out, Perrier will be breaking the law. In fact, any hotel or restaurant in the state will be violating...

Deregulation attracting few competitors in N.J.(includes related article)(electric utilities)
July 16, 1999... The debut of electricity deregulation is just a few weeks away in New Jersey, but energy suppliers are showing minimal interest in tackling a market they believe could yield limited returns. As of late last week, a total of 15 suppliers...

An incubator hatching.(Senator Vincent Fumo's proposal to turn an old building as a start-up place for high-technology companies)
July 16, 1999... State Sen. Vincent Fumo is organizing an effort to turn a building at 2nd and Spring Garden streets into an incubator for high-tech companies. The incubator would provide high-tech start-ups with low rent, proximity to similarly situated...

Sunoco bidding out its ad account.
July 16, 1999... Philadelphia oil giant Sunoco Inc. has put its estimated $5 million regional advertising account up for grabs, with two local agencies attempting to wrest the business from the incumbent. Sunoco has chosen three finalists - Tierney &...

Peco and subsidiary divided over ruling.(Peco Energy Co. and Exelon Energy)
July 16, 1999... Like sibling rivals, Peco Energy Co. and its unregulated unit have taken opposing positions in a dispute that has put the company in one of the stranger predicaments of the deregulated era. The Philadelphia utility's regulated division...

Children's Hospital intensifies HMO wars.(launching of new advertising campaign; health maintenance organizations)
July 16, 1999... Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, seeking recruits in its battle against managed care, is launching a new campaign aimed at arming parents with a better understanding of their rights in dealing with HMOs. "The families who come to our...

Doylestown Hospital expanding cardiology.
July 16, 1999... DOYLESTOWN - Doylestown Hospital is getting ready to enter the open-heart surgery market, the third Bucks County medical center to do so. Richard Reif, the 196-bed hospital's president and chief executive officer, said the cost of...

N.J. company aims at managing asthma care.(Asthma Disease Management Inc.)
July 16, 1999... BERLIN BOROUGH, N.J. - Asthma Disease Management Inc., specialists in coordinating the care of asthma patients, is now targeting Medicaid HMO plans. Each year an estimated $15 billion is spent in the United States treating asthma and...

Liberty Place sale up in air after fallout.
July 16, 1999... The sale of the Liberty Place complex, comprised of the two marquee, chevron-capped office buildings in Center City and the attached Shops At Liberty Place mall, is taking a new direction. Although the two towers are owned separately, it...

RAF: in it for the long term.(RAF Industries Inc.)
July 16, 1999... JENKINTOWN - Buyout and venture capital firms usually take a stake in a company because they think they can sell it a few years later for a large profit. Not RAF Industries Inc. Since Robert A. Fox founded the company in 1979, it has...

Milestone finds equity in novelty 'tschochkes.'.(Milestone Partners' code word for its investment in a manufacturer of novelty items)
July 16, 1999... MEDIA - Milestone Partners hit a milestone of its own last week when it added a California- and Texas-based manufacturer of wooden window blinds to its portfolio of industrial and consumer companies. Travis Group came the sixth company in...

HSBC brings big-bank muscle to Chinatown.(Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd.)
July 16, 1999... An international banking Goliath has come to Chinatown. London-based HSBC Group, with nearly half-a-trillion dollars in assets, celebrated its Chinatown branch opening this spring with a spirited Chins line dance: A huge, papier-mache...

Silicon, hot off the presses.
July 16, 1999... Montco company finds niche in high-tech sector Humble beginnings have not stopped Maintech Inc. from finding a lucrative niche in the computer manufacturing business. Securely in the black, Huntingdon Valley-based Maintech expects to...

Thousand of hospital jobs are gone.(results of hospital survey conducted in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the fall of 1998)
July 9, 1999... The Philadelphia region has lost more than 10,000 hospital jobs in the past five years, and more layoffs are looming, according to a new study by the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council. The study, initiated last fall, looks at data...

Relocation regrets.(the move by law firm Morgan, Lewis and Bockius to its new headquarters at Six Penn center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
July 9, 1999... Law firm runs into trouble in moving to its new office space Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, one of Philadelphia's more prestigious law firms, has found itself in one of the city's messier real estate deals. Center stage for the drama: the...

Will Smith arts project moves ahead.(actor Will Smith's planned music and film production soundstage project at City Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
July 9, 1999... Actor and Philadelphia native Will Smith has indicated that he wants to move forward on his latest hometown project - a two-acre music and film production soundstage on the southern stretch of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City. A...

Neose works to advance use of engineered drugs.(Horsham, Pennsylvania-based biopharmaceutical firm Neose Technologies Inc.'s plan to hasten the development of glycoprotein remodeling technology)
July 9, 1999... HORSHAM - Neose Technologies Inc. has raised $14.25 million in a private stock placement and plans to use some of the money to speed up the development of a promising technology it recently acquired. The Montgomery County...

Redone Warwick to chase conferences.(the renovated Warwick Hotel and Towers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
July 9, 1999... But will its location and the size of its meeting rooms be adequate? Stephen Gorse navigates through the cluttered construction site of Circles off the square, the restaurant being built in the made-over Warwick Hotel and Towers, with...

Motion to dismiss suit by ProtoComm nixed.(US federal court decision to allow ProtoComm Corp. of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, to proceed with its lawsuit against some of the biggest software firms in the country)
July 9, 1999... A federal judge has allowed a Bryn Mawr software company to proceed with a lawsuit alleging that some of the biggest names in the computer business thwarted its efforts to collect a $12.5 million jury verdict. ProtoComm Corp., which won...

Peco: Green Mountain not living up to its ads.(comment by Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Peco Energy Co. on the alleged purchase by Vermont-based competitor Green Mountain Energy of nuclear-generated electric power)
July 9, 1999... Peco Energy Go., questioning the veracity of one of its largest new competitors, says Green Mountain Energy Resources has been dealing in nuclear power despite the contrary promise of its advertising. In an assertion denied by the...

Once rivals, now partners.(Real Estate Quarterly)(profile on real estate investment trust partners Ira Lubert and Dean Adler)
July 9, 1999... Capital from two REIT funds helping Lubert-Adler make a mark in Center City If there's anyone in Philadelphia's real estate market having more fun than Dean Adler and Ira Lubert, please raise your hand. Adler and his venture capital...

Mortgage insurer sees strength in mergers.(Real Estate Quarterly)(profile on Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based Radian Group Inc.'s president and CEO, Frank P. Filipps)
July 9, 1999... In the last two years, CMAC Investment Corp. President and CEO Frank P. Filipps has spent a lot of his time trying to merge his company with another mortgage insurance company. In early June, Philadelphia-based CMAC finalized its union...

Real estate developer moves to his own beat.(Real Estate Quarterly)(Jeffrey M. Brown, founder of real estate development firm Jeffrey M. Brown Associates Inc.)
July 9, 1999... Jeffrey M. Brown could have been a lawyer. With a philosophy degree, he could even have ended up as a teacher. Instead, he followed a path that led to real estate. Apparently, he couldn't have chosen better: Jeffrey M. Brown...

Competition heats up, albeit slowly, in deregulated market.(Pennsylvania's electricity generation industry)
July 2, 1999... Six months after Pennsylvania tossed out the old rules of the electricity business, competition is thriving in the state like nowhere else in the nation. Energy service providers have entered the market in force, particularly in the...

Comcast: not just cable anymore.(Comcast Interactive Capital, Comcast Corp.'s new venture capital fund)
July 2, 1999... Its first venture capital fund may soon be replicated Comcast Corp.'s own new venture fund has been such a success in its first few months that the Center City-based cable operator is already thinking of starting a second fund using...

Bank teams up with 'payday' lender.(Crusader Bank; National Cash Advance)
July 2, 1999... Crusader Bank has hooked up with a Tennessee-based firm that recently settled allegations that it deceived consumers in making ultra-high-interest loans. Dubbed "payday loans," the transactions that brought Pennsylvania regulators down...

Brewer hops for the best.(Independence Brewing Co.)
July 2, 1999... Independence Brewing Co. recently managed to snag a piece of the city's Welcome America business, setting up tents to sell its brews to thirsty celebrants in the Fourth of July extravaganza. But it will take more than a special event to...

Fiberlink inks a big customer.(Fiberlink Communications Corp.)
July 2, 1999... BLUE BELL - A local company that gives corporate computer users dial-up Internet access to their employer from almost anywhere on the globe has landed another big customer on what it hopes is an 18-month march to going public. Fiberlink...

Peco venture eyes 3 more nuclear plants.(AmerGen)
July 2, 1999... AmerGen, the Peco Energy Co. venture that last week announced it was buying a controlling stake in two New York nuclear plants, has signaled its interest in buying three other plants in the New England area. The joint venture of the...

CEO portrait: Robert I. Toll.(Chairman/CEO of Toll Brothers Inc.)
July 2, 1999... Robert I. Toll Personal information Name: Robert I. Toll Title: Chairman/CEO Company: Toll Brothers Inc. Type of business: Luxury-home builder Education: BA, political science and history, Cornell University; law...