St. Louis Business Journal articles from May 1998

St. Louis Business Journal archives from May 1998

Brooks building cable empire. (Brooks Fiber Properties co-founder allies with three businessmen to form Millenium Digital Media LLC)
May 4, 1998... Four top local cable television executives have spent more than $100 million to put the first piece of a new cable empire into place. The team includes John Brooks, who helped found Brooks Fiber Properties, as well as Kelvin Westbrook and...

Pulitzer deal near. (St. Louis, MO-based Huntleigh Securities stands to make $12 million if Pulitzer Publishing Co. proceeds with deal to sell broadcasting properties to Hicks Muse Tate and Furst)
May 4, 1998... Huntleigh's cut: up to $12 million Pulitzer Publishing Co., which sources say is on the verge of announcing the sale of its broadcasting properties to buyout giant Hicks Muse Tate & Furst, will pay Huntleigh Securities up to $12 million if the...

Spinzig to get $1.15 million in Public Service bank sale. (St. Louis, MO-based Public Service Bank CEO Robert Spinzig to receive payout when Southside Bancshares Corp. acquires his bank)
May 4, 1998... Deal with Southside pending Robert Spinzig, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Public Service Bank, is in line for $1.15 million in cash and stock after the bank is bought by Southside Bancshares Corp. Seven other Public...

123 share $125,000 in back wages from Casino Queen. (St. Louis, MO-based riverboat gaming operator settles case with federal Labor Dept and agrees to pay overdue overtime pay to 123 employees)
May 4, 1998... The Casino Queen in East St. Louis has paid $125,000 in back wages to 123 employees who were denied overtime pay in 1996, a U.S. Labor Department official said. The payout marks the end of an investigation that began in February, said Dean...

Belleville bank lets you see teller, products on screen. (Missouri-based Southwest Bank of St. Louis to install video monitors for customers at its drive-up windows)
May 4, 1998... Southwest Bank in Belleville has a new vision for the future of drive-up banking, and it's on a video screen. The bank plans to install video monitors at its drive-up windows, allowing customers to have a two-way conversation with tellers while...

Monsanto begins NutraSweet campaign.
May 4, 1998... Monsanto Co.'s NutraSweet operation is seeing more competition for artificial table sweeteners - but the company still holds close to half the U.S. market. Among the latest competitors to enter the field is Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Specialty...

McGwire bat expected to be a smash hit with Rawlings. (baseball star Mark McGwire cuts deal with St. Louis, MO-based Rawlings Sporting Goods to endorse the latter's aluminum baseball bats)
May 4, 1998... Double-digit growth of aluminum bats foreseen Mark McGwire is going to bat for St. Louis-based Rawlings Sporting Goods in a new endorsement deal. McGwire, who has kept an unusually low profile in product endorsements, is lending his name to...

Denver firm takes a shine to Starnet, pays $3.5 million. (St. Louis, MO-based Starnet acquired by Verio Inc.)
May 4, 1998... Area's largest Internet provider sold Starnet - St. Louis' largest Internet service provider - is the latest company gobbled up by the rapidly expanding Verio Inc. of suburban Denver. Verio paid $3.5 million in cash April 14 for Starnet,...

SSE reorganizes, names Kuhlmann president, COO. (Systems Service Enterprises Inc. reorganizes; F. Mark Kuhlmann)
May 4, 1998... After more than 30 years in business, Systems Service Enterprises Inc. (SSE) has reorganized, adding management and consolidating business units. Susan Elliott, chairman and chief executive, streamlined eight units into three divisions and...

Recipes for success: Precision Foods mixes up $43 million in revenue.(Company Profile)
May 4, 1998... Business activity: Precision Foods Inc. may not be a household name, but most consumers have probably tasted at least a few of the company's products. The dry blending and packaging food company provides finished products for customers in the...

Savvis raises $30 million through private placement. (Savvis Communications Corp)
May 11, 1998... Martin "Sam" Sanderson, president and chief executive of Savvis Communications Corp., can remember selling some of the last phone switching systems with mechanical parts, just 20-odd years ago. Now, he oversees an operation where more than $10...

Unity, SSM advanced in tackling Year 2000 problem. (Unity Health; SSM Health Businesses)
May 11, 1998... With businesses worldwide working frantically on computer problems associated with the year 2000, health-care systems also are racing to update because of potentially life-threatening consequences. Health-care systems say priorities include...

Contractors go out of town to increase revenue in '97.
May 11, 1998... Revenue for many general contractors in the St. Louis region increased dramatically from the end of 1996 to the end of 1997 largely because of projects they are doing outside the St. Louis area. Sixty-four percent of firms that are members of...

Savvis founder launches digital network. (Savvis Communications Corp's Tim Roberts)
May 11, 1998... Four telecommunications executives led by 28-year-old Tim Roberts, a co-founder of Internet service provider Savvis Communications Corp., are building a new high-speed telephone and computer networking company. The quartet has raised more than...

Emergency personnel get history of patients via fax.
May 11, 1998... Emergency doctors now are able to get a patient's medical history by fax thanks to MediSERVE, a new service offered by St. Louis-based Med-InterLink LLC. MediSERVE was introduced in December 1997 as a subscription membership service....

Mobile Application Servers gives interns stock options.
May 11, 1998... Mobile Application Servers Inc. is giving summer interns a lot more than work experience. Starting this summer, five interns each will be given 250 stock options on top of an hourly wage of $10. Rod Zimmerman, president and founder of...

Genelco launches Internet service for insurance agents.
May 11, 1998... Genelco Inc. is launching a suite of Internet products and services to help insurance and financial services companies conduct commerce over the Internet. Genelco introduced the new product group, called WebHarbor, at the Life Office...

Stifel Financial Corp. (proxy report excerpts)(Company Profile)
May 11, 1998... Ronald J. Kruszewski President and chief executive officer Stifel Financial Corp. provides securities brokerage, investment banking, trading, investment advisory and related financial services through its wholly owned subsidiaries, primarily...

Venture's victims. (Venture Stores' liquidation hurts countless individuals)
May 18, 1998... Family-owned U-T-M closes; manufacturers' reps hit again While the liquidation of Venture Stores means hundreds of employees in St. Louis have lost their jobs, countless other victims are not so apparent, including a wholesale distributor that...

New voice at KMOX. (St. Louis, MO-based radio station has new general manager)
May 18, 1998... When Karen Carroll recently assumed the position of general manager at CBS Radio-owned KMOX, it was taken by some as a coronation. "Here's one note. 'You have finally ascended to the throne of radio as the undisputed queen,'" said Carroll, with...

$50 million expansion for Citicorp. (Citicorp Mortgage Inc. expands Missouri headquarters)
May 18, 1998... New headquarters will house all employees Citicorp Mortgage is planning a $50 million expansion of its headquarters to bring all of its St. Louis employees to one location. The project includes a new 320,000-square-foot building adjacent to...

Drury call center checks in guests who check out city. (Drury Inns' new reservation center)
May 18, 1998... Drury Inns is making the most of its knowledge of St. Louis with a new reservation center that deals exclusively with its 15 hotels in the metropolitan area. The center began operating May 1 with a staff of 20 in offices in the Witte Building...

NationsBank's business valuation unit reorganized. (NationsBank Corp. relocates St. Louis, MO-based Business Advisory and Valuation Services to Dallas)
May 18, 1998... A consolidation by NationsBank is shaking up the business valuation services industry. NationsBank is moving the administrative and back-office processing functions of its Business Advisory & Valuation Services (BAVS) offices in St. Louis to...

Sachs buys headquarters of former Roosevelt Bank.
May 18, 1998... Sachs Properties Inc. has purchased the former headquarters of Roosevelt Bank in Chesterfield for $13.7 million. Sachs developed the property and sold it to Roosevelt in the early 1980s. Roosevelt moved out of the property after being acquired...

IBM forges Internet link in state purchasing chain. (Missouri state allies with computer firm to create Internet site for the state's procurement needs)
May 18, 1998... IBM is set to put Missouri state government's purchasing online. The project will cover only a small part of the state's purchasing initially. But the computer giant hopes the Missouri project - one of the first of its kind - will give it a...

TWA moves 200 from N.Y., union official not pleased. (Trans World Airlines Inc. relocates workers to TWA Training Center near Lambert-St.Louis International Airport, MO)
May 18, 1998... Trans World Airlines has moved more than 200 jobs from New York to St. Louis the past few months. While the new jobs might be good for the area, the airline's largest union isn't pleased. Officials of the International Association of...

Knapp goes to Esse Group. (Gateway Physicians Network Inc. pres Stephen Knapp resigns to join independent physician practice Esse Health)
May 18, 1998... Gateway network loses its president Dr. Stephen Knapp has exited Gateway Physicians Network Inc. and entered Esse Health. Esse is the largest independent physician practice in the St. Louis area. Knapp was president of Gateway Physicians...

Sticking to it: Magnet pulls in $42 million, hopes to draw $100 million. (Magnet LLC)(Company Profile)
May 18, 1998... Business activity: Magnet LLC is stuck on growth. The Washington, Mo.-based company was the 21st-largest supplier to the nearly $10 billion advertising specialty industry in 1997, according to the Advertising Specialty Institute. Its recent...

Paper chase: Post-Dispatch, Journals try to dress up circulation. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Suburban Newspapers of Greater St. Louis)(includes related article on Post-Dispatch's new sports show)
May 25, 1998... Post-Dispatch, Journals try to dress up circulation Makeover magic apparently has failed to do the trick for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Despite a nationwide trend toward higher readership of daily newspapers. the Post-Dispatch continues to...

Novelly plans office tower in Clayton. (Apex Oil CEO Tony Novelly)
May 25, 1998... The hot Clayton office market is prompting yet another office building. A real estate partnership headed by Apex Oil Co.'s chief executive, Tony Novelly, is building a 236,000-square-foot, speculative office tower neat the southeast corner of...

$60 million project. (MB Properties' sports and retail development in St. Charles, Missouri)
May 25, 1998... MB Properties is developing a $60 million sports and retail complex adjacent to its Fountain Lakes Commerce Center office and industrial park in St. Charles. The 74-acre site, just east of the $210 million, 260-acre Fountain Lakes development...

Fabel, Olson, Hemmer exit Magna: exercise stock options ranging from $950,000 to $700,000. (Magna Group Inc. senior executives Linda Fabel, Robert Olson, Jr. and Gary Hemmer)(includes related article on Fabel's retirement)
May 25, 1998... Exercise stock options ranging from $950,000 to $700,000 Linda Fabel, one of the top-ranking women bankers in the St. Louis area, is among three senior executives at Magna Group Inc. leaving the bank after it is purchased by Union Planters...

The Sheldon to unveil $5 million first-class addition. (The Sheldon Concert Hall)
May 25, 1998... The Sheldon Concert Hall, known nationally for its world-class accoustics, is on the brink of a new era. In September, the Sheldon will open a $5 million, 32,000-square-foot addition. In the meantime, programming continues to expand at the...

City asks out-of-towners to identify us; architects, planners hear four themes for revitalizing downtown. (St. Louis, Missouri)
May 25, 1998... Architects, planners hear four themes for revitalizing downtown St. Louis has undergone another session of psychoanalysis. In the City's latest effort to search for an identity, a group of a dozen out-of-town architects and city planners...

DePaul's new life support - collaborations. (SSM DePaul Health Center)
May 25, 1998... SSM DePaul Health Center has cleaned up the red ink after reporting its first profitable quarter in two years. The hospital posted $238,000 in operating income for the three months that ended March 31, President Robert Porter said. Although...

Tenet, SLU, Deaconess may share $22 million from Medicaid ruling.
May 25, 1998... Tenet Health System-St. Louis, Saint Louis University and the Deaconess Foundation could be in for a nearly $22 million windfall after a state commission ruled in their favor in a dispute over Medicaid reimbursements. The Missouri...

Tripos Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
May 25, 1998... John P. McAlister III President and chief executive officer Tripos Inc. is a discovery research company with expertise in molecular informatics. Tripos supplies software, research services and compound libraries to the pharmaceutical,...