San Francisco Business Times articles from April 1995

San Francisco Business Times archives from April 1995

Booming PeopleSoft on the move in East Bay. (PeopleSoft Inc. hires more personnel as it moves to bigger Pleasanton, CA, head office) (Company Profile)
April 7, 1995... Software maker hiring hundreds, heads to Pleasanton to host growth PeopleSoft, the Walnut Creek developer of sophisticated software to streamline businesses and government, is moving to a larger headquarters in Pleasanton to accommodate several...

Patelco brass feuding over investigation. (Patelco Credit Union)
April 7, 1995... The board of Patelco Credit Union has exchanged lawsuits with its own supervisory committee as the failure of what would have been the nation's largest credit union merger degenerates into a family feud. A San Francisco Superior Court judge...

Williams-Sonoma bets its future on Pottery Barn. (Williams-Sonoma Inc.; Pottery Barn Inc.) (Company Profile)
April 7, 1995... Fueled by a new generation of stores offering complete home design packages, Williams-Sonoma Inc.'s Pottery Barn division is set to rival or exceed the company's flagship stores in expansion this year. Company executives said they also believe...

Wells Fargo Nikko put up for sale. (Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors)
April 7, 1995... Report: $160 billion money management firm is being shopped Wells Fargo Nikko Investment Advisors, the $160 billion money management firm, is quietly looking for a buyer, according to a report in an industry newsletter. Investment Management...

Where there's smoke: restaurants firing up business by combining food, wine and stogies.
April 7, 1995... A fast-growing number of Bay Area restaurants are rolling out the red carpet for cigar fanciers in hopes of firing up revenues from a market segment that has grown quite cold. From the lavish Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Nob Hill, to the somewhat...

Challenged, Kaiser may combine California units. (Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.)
April 7, 1995... Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest HMO, is considering combining its giant Northern and Southern California units to better compete with other emerging behemoths, like the merging Health Systems International and Wellpoint Health Networks....

Monterey Pasta puts solo plan on back burner. (Monterey Pasta Co. sticks to franchising)
April 7, 1995... Monterey Pasta Co. has largely abandoned plans to open restaurants of its own, relying instead on franchisees to expand the number of company outlets. The once high-flying Danville-based company had ambitions to launch 80 restaurants this...

Shareholders' stock answer to market movements: sue; down: Sybase's $800 million fall draws legal fire within hours. (Sybase Inc.)
April 7, 1995... The plummeting fortunes of Sybase Inc., whose stock plunged 40 percent April 4 knocking $800 million off the company's market value, has drawn the attention of William Lerach, the king of shareholder class action suits. Within hours of the...

Up: Chiron investors win big, but suit says not big enough. (Shareholders' stock answer to market movements: sue)(Chiron Corp.)
April 7, 1995... Already enriched by a deal they set out to contest, shareholders suing Chiron Corp. are expecting to settle for less. Chiron shareholders, who filed class action lawsuits against the directors of the Emeryville-based biotech over plans to sell...

Hiring binge as litigation remains firm's strong suit. (Sedgwick, Detert, Moran and Arnold law firm to increase hiring)
April 7, 1995... Defying the many woes afflicting the legal business, one of San Francisco's largest law firms has embarked on a hiring spree to handle a rising tide of commercial litigation. Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold, the 12th largest law firm in the...

Real estate market's road to recovery takes a detour. (commercial real estate industry's recovery stalls)
April 7, 1995... San Francisco commercial real estate market, touted as on the road to recovery, has stalled. For the second consecutive quarter, vacancy rates climbed and more new space hit the market than was leased. Most brokerages are reporting negative...

Record wet winter rains on housing market's parade. (residential real estate brokerages)
April 7, 1995... After a dismal first quarter, the worst for some Bay Area brokerages since 1990, residential realtors are expecting improvement in the housing market this spring. The problem: Record-setting rainfall convinced would-be homebuyers to hole-up...

Fat fees lure bevy of brokers to troubled trophy building. (Prudential Realty Group invites real estate brokers to sell 580 California St. building)
April 7, 1995... Prudential Realty Group, preparing to unload 580 California St., is interviewing six brokerages to help sell the troubled trophy building. Prudential's disposition officer, Mike Jameson, held interviews with brokerages March 31. The San...

Big Silicon Valley buy for S.F. realty group. (AMB Institutional Realty Advisiors; San Francisco, CA)
April 7, 1995... AMB Institutional Realty Advisors has acquired a 1 million-square-foot portfolio consisting mainly of three Silicon Valley business and industrial parks. The acquisition - the San Francisco-based real estate investment trust's largest on a...

More on the floor: Schwab adds positions at exchange. (Charles Schwab and Company Inc.; Pacific Stock Exchange)
April 7, 1995... Charles Schwab & Co., the nation's leading discount brokerage firm, has acquired four more specialist posts on the San Francisco floor of the Pacific Stock Exchange, making it the largest specialist firm at the PSE. The rapid rise of Schwab on...

S.F. ad agency hires to boost national clout. (Goldberg Moser O'Neill Advertising names Bob Grossman new vice president and general manager)
April 7, 1995... Seeking to land more national advertising accounts, Goldberg Moser O'Neill has named a new executive vice president and general manager. Bob Grossman will leave Venice-based ad industry powerhouse Chiat/Day to join GMO, where he will have an...

Patelco's next test: banking via personal computers. (Patelco Credit Union)
April 7, 1995... Patelco Credit Union this month will launch a test of a PC-based home banking system as it seeks to bring its members the type of products its failed merger with First Technology Credit Union was suppose to usher in. In fact, Patelco will be...

Hospitals: is the outlook terminal? (downsizing of hospitals could lead to closure) (Health Care Quarterly: Hospitals in Crisis)
April 7, 1995... 'We are bracing for failures, and they will be profound' Kaiser Permanente's new Fremont hospital rises from the middle of its sprawling 25-acre medical campus, a gleaming beige-and-maroon emblem of a $4 billion expansion the health-care giant...

Top S.F. hospital has fallen: can it get up? (California Pacific Medical Center) (Health Care Quarterly)
April 7, 1995... If Bay Area hospitals are becoming an endangered species, San Francisco's California Pacific Medical Center has emerged as a prime example of how the sudden shifts caused by managed care can push even a premier hospital into danger of extinction....

S.F. General seeks ways to better its welfare. (San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center, San Francisco, CA) (Health Care Quarterly: Hospitals in Crisis)
April 7, 1995... When San Francisco General Hospital signed a managed-care contract with one of the state's largest HMOs in February, it was one of the first public hospitals anywhere to enter into a "capitated" or "at-risk" deal. The plan is to move about...

Kaiser still unchallenged hospital ruler. (Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.) (Health Care Quarterly: Hospitals in Crisis)
April 7, 1995... Despite building hospitals in Fremont and Roseville they can't find an immediate use for, Kaiser Permanente executives believe their restructuring efforts will keep the region's largest medical organization well ahead of its challengers. They...

PSE and BofA help launch pollution exchange on 'net. (Pacific Stock Exchange; Bank of America)
April 14, 1995... A group of economists from the California Institute of Technology have teamed with the Pacific Stock Exchange and Bank of America to launch the first fully-automated market for pollution credits. The creation of the marketplace promises to make...

Largest U.S. hospital chain targets Bay Area. (Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp; California)
April 14, 1995... Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp., the world's largest for-profit hospital company, is hunting for acquisitions in the Bay Area, where it intends to become a "significant player." Speaking for the Nashville-based corporation, San Leandro Hospital...

Granny Goose about to buy the farm. (Granny Goose Inc.)
April 14, 1995... Snack food maker will close unless a buyer agrees to bite Oakland's Granny Goose Inc. will press its last potato chip in 60 days unless a last-minute buyer is found, throwing 600 employees out of work and shuttering a plant that has been an...

Growth by acquisition. (Harper Group)
April 14, 1995... Harper Group wants to buy its way to the top After two years of trimming corporate fat while its competitors expanded, the Harper Group is hitting the acquisition trail in hopes of spurring renewed growth. "Over the last two years the focus...

Thrift rift over insurance fund causing split in banks' ranks.
April 14, 1995... The California Bankers Association is preparing to break ranks with the American Bankers Association in an effort to forge a compromise to a widening financial industry rift over the separate insurance funds that protect depositors in banks and...

City hall: small still beautiful for business group. (Small Business Advisory Commission, San Francisco, California)
April 14, 1995... San Francisco's Board of Supervisors is emerging as a victor in a three-year battle to prevent big business from taking on a formal advisory role to the mayor. Thanks to the board's staunch resistance, the Mayors Small Business Advisory...

Cargo pays the freight. (EVA Air services to Asia)
April 14, 1995... Surging Asian trade lands EVA's all-freight flights at SFO EVA Air, the airline division of giant Taiwanese company Evergreen Group, brought its first all-cargo airplanes into San Francisco International Airport on April 6, one of three U.S....

PacBell makes connections for new data link. (Pacific Bell)
April 14, 1995... Pacific Bell is negotiating with leading technology companies to greatly expand the availability of a little-used technology that could speed up data communications and reduce the cost of on-line services, videoconferencing and telecommuting....

Pacific Bank merger sunk by investor's stock play.
April 14, 1995... Pacific Bank and Western Bank have called off their planned merger in the face of aggressive stock purchases from a Singapore investor. Western Bank, a $718 million community bank in Medford, Ore., had signed a letter of intent to purchase the...

Chiron plans $50M investment in Ohio gene-therapy company. (Chiron Corp.; Progenitor Inc.)
April 14, 1995... Chiron Corp. plans to commit up to $50 million in a product development agreement with a Columbus, Ohio-based gene therapy company. The Emeryville biotech's deal with Progenitor Inc., a subsidiary of Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc.,...

Oracle plans second campus in Fremont. (Oracle Corp.; Fremont, California)
April 14, 1995... Anticipating that its meteoric growth will continue, Oracle Corp. is expected to acquire 67 acres in Fremont to build its second corporate campus near the turn of the century. The $2 billion manufacturer of relational database software programs...

Rising tide of tech buoys Bay Area public companies. (California)
April 14, 1995... A surge in sales at high-tech companies helped push revenues at the Bay Area's 200 largest publicly traded companies up a composite 8.3 percent in 1994. That's an impressive performance by the region's top corporate tier, considering that the...

Oracle inks deal to establish training institute in Egypt.
April 14, 1995... Oracle Corp. will establish a technology training institute in Egypt in partnership with the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek, in a experimental program the company may use as a model for similar centers elsewhere around the globe....

Hambrecht & Quist builds bridge to VC community. (venture capital companies)
April 14, 1995... With the acquisition of a key senior executive from rival Robertson, Stephens & Co., San Francisco's Hambrecht & Quist is launching an aggressive bid to expand its services to the venture capital community. Paul Denning, who recently had...

MoFo rising: rocked legal beagles begin to roll again. (Morrison & Foerster)
April 14, 1995... Ending two years of cutbacks, Morrison & Foerster, the fifth-largest law firm based in San Francisco, is feeling confident enough about its future to hire more lawyers. Morrison had long lured attorneys with benefits such as free time for...

Visa to banks: put small biz loans on credit cards. (Visa International; small business)
April 21, 1995... Visa International has introduced a new credit card for small business that it hopes will radically transform the way banks approach small business lending. The new program, targeted at businesses with sales of up to $2 million, represents an...

BofA zeros in on Donaldson, Lufkin. (BankAmerica Corp.; Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette Inc.)
April 21, 1995... Said to be lead bidder for stake in investment bank BankAmerica Corp. is reportedly the leading contender in negotiations to buy an equity stake in the investment banking firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, according to an industry newsletter....

5 suits down for PG&E, one more to go. (Pacific Gas and Electric Co.)
April 21, 1995... Pacific Gas & Electric has emerged unscathed from five out of six lawsuits which claimed that electromagnetic fields created by the utility's power lines were causing health problems. In its latest break, 33 plaintiffs who claimed PG&E lines...

Sony Signatures wins World Cup rights. (Sony Signatures Inc.; worldwide licensing rights for retail goods for World Cup 1998)
April 21, 1995... San Francisco-based Sony Signatures Inc. has scored a major coup in the fast-growing sports licensing industry, snagging exclusive worldwide licensing and merchandising rights for retail goods for World Cup 1998. The entertainment licensing...

Party over for tenants in Peninsula property market. (San Francisco Bay Area commercial real estate market)(Peninsula Economic Report)
April 21, 1995... Cities have their sounds. In San Francisco, cable cars clang. In Oakland, diesel engines roar on the ships and trucks moving goods in and out of the port. But on the Peninsula there is a sound that largely remains unfamiliar to other Bay Area...

TRI's founder indicted. (TRI Commercial Brokerage co-founder and CEO William Rosetti)
April 21, 1995... CEO Rosetti charged with stealing $700M William Rosetti, co-founder and CEO of TRI Commercial Realty, has been indicted on 11 counts of grand theft by a San Francisco grand jury. Rosetti is charged with stealing more than $700,000 from his...

San Francisco's ship comes in - without 300 jobs. (Astoria Metals Corp.)
April 21, 1995... One year after San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan and the U.S. Navy hailed the entry of Astoria Metals Corp. into the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, the labor unions and community residents are still wondering when the 300 jobs promised will...

Tax plan has business pay for service. (San Francisco, California)
April 21, 1995... San Francisco neighborhoods, fighting an onslaught of spending cuts, are asking the city to let them set up their own private business-tax coffers to run services they feel the city has failed to deliver. The Board of Supervisors will vote...

United Airlines flying high, but workers may be grounded. (United Airlines Inc.; San Francisco, California)(Peninsula Economic Report)
April 21, 1995... Even as much of the airline industry lurches in a financial tailspin, United Airlines is soaring at San Francisco International Airport. Passenger volume is taking off, with daily numbers of passengers flying in and out of SFO on United nudging...

New regulation sheds more light on City Hall's lobbies. (San Francisco, California)
April 21, 1995... Corporations paid in-house and outside lobbyists more than $155,000 over the past four months to lobby San Francisco city officials, according to reports lobbyists were required to submit by April 17. That was the first deadline for new...

Think Inc.: research institutes give edge to Peninsula in international mind games. (San Francisco Bay Area)(Peninsula Economic Report)
April 21, 1995... Call it Wonkville, USA. Call it Think Inc. Whatever name it bears, the Peninsula has emerged as a world-class brain trust where governments from the U.S. to Indonesia and companies from Scandinavia to Japan go for answers to tough economic and...

Education venture brings ex-Apple exec to teachers. (Tenth Planet Explorations; Apple Computer Inc. former-executive Cheryl Vedoe)
April 21, 1995... Cheryl Vedoe, the executive who built Apple Computer's educational division into a billion-dollar operation, has launched her own business to market software to schools. Tenth Planet Explorations will employ the same techniques Vedoe used at...

Brokers head south as property market heads north. (San Mateo County, California commercial property market)(Peninsula Economic Report)
April 21, 1995... Nowhere is Bay Area commercial real estate tighter than in San Mateo County. And more brokers are chasing fewer listings, as evidenced by a 9 percent increase in the number of licensed real brokers appearing on The List of San Mateo's 10...

North Bay cheese maker turning goats into heroes. (Chevre)
April 21, 1995... Laura Chenel's Chevre, the largest goat cheese producer in North America, is expanding its North Bay facility in a move that will raise annual production of the piquant gourmet cheese to nearly half a million pounds. Expansion of the company's...

Small towns get dressing down from famous clothier. (Northern California communities; Wilkes Bashford Ltd.)
April 21, 1995... In yet another sign of the dressing down of America, elegant San Francisco clothier Wilkes Bashford Co. has turned bullish on sportswear, and is opening outposts in remote but well heeled Northern California communities. Wilkes Bashford shook...

Desk of concierge-for-hire stretches nationwide. (LesConcierges)(Small Business Enterpreneurs)(Company Profile)
April 21, 1995... When Jane Winter was a consultant at Laventhol & Horwath, she noticed secretaries and assistants seeking advice on choosing a restaurant, staging a high-level meeting or booking a special event for the partners. With her background in the hotel...

Fashion designer breaks with pattern. (Cut Loose Inc.)(Small Business Enterpreneurs)(Company Profile)
April 21, 1995... Caroline Phillips gives new meaning to the concept of starting a business on a shoestring. Cut Loose Inc., her clothing design and manufacturing firm, was barely more than a hobby 20 years ago. In fact, in the mid-1970s, Phillips was street...

Clorox Co. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
April 21, 1995... NYSE/PSE: CLX 1221 Broadway Oakland, CA 94612-1888 (510) 271-7000 UPDATE Clorox Co. develops, manufactures and markets consumer products, including household cleaners and various food products, sold primarily in grocery stores and other...

Don't panic: some CEOs are worth a fortune. (executive compensation)
April 21, 1995... Compensation is an emotional issue at any level of corporate hierarchy. But at the top, it can border on hysteria. Astronomical earnings by top executives evoke a full range of emotions - from hero worship, to disgust and moral outrage - from...

Big fund for small business: statewide coalition has $50 million to lend. (California Economic Development Lending Initiative)
April 28, 1995... An unusual initiative from a group of banks and community groups has given birth to a $50 million statewide small business loan fund that is unprecedented in its size and scope. Called the California Economic Development Lending Initiative, or...

Merger talks initiated between CHS and Sutter. (California Healthcare System; Sutter Health)
April 28, 1995... The CEOs of San Francisco-based California Healthcare System and Sacramento's Sutter Health, two of Northern California's Sutter Health, two of Northern California's largest hospital networks, have opened preliminary merger talks, according to...

Chevron Corp.'s ungodly mess. (religious groups pressure Chevron to improve safety record)
April 28, 1995... Chevron Corp. is bracing for a fight at its May 2 shareholders meeting from an unlikely adversary - the devoted flock of no less than the Christian church. A group of 12 shareholders that includes the Immaculate Heart Missions and the...

Oakland redevelopment plan languishing for lack of cash: city raids fund to pay for municipal services.
April 28, 1995... Oakland's downtown redevelopment drive may soon skid to a halt unless the renewal agency comes up with new funding or dips into its reserves. The city's once cash-rich fund has been steadily raided to pay for basic services. In May 1993, there...

Tech companies play mating game: search for innovation, new products touchesoff tech merger mania. (San Francisco Bay Area's high-technology companies)(Fast Track Quarterly)
April 28, 1995... Hip, young Californians jump into bed with each other with alarming frequency. Seeking only personal gain, total strangers seduce one another into partnership while trying to remain invulnerable to the other's treachery. Melrose Place? No,...

Marathon hopes fourth time a charm in big property sale. (Marathon Realty Company Ltd.'s real estate portfolio in San Francisco, California)
April 28, 1995... In the on-again off-again sale of Marathon Realty's San Francisco portfolio, Equitable Real Estate Investment Inc. has emerged as the latest buyer. Equitable has signed a letter of intent on the properties - the fourth time the portfolio has...

Trophy hunters' big game. (office buildings in San Francisco, California)
April 28, 1995... Two premier San Francisco office towers have been officially placed on the market. The Shaklee Corp. headquarters building at 444 Market St. and the highrise formerly owned by developer Gerald Hines at 580 California St. are expected to...

Gas analyzing firm sniffing around for leveraged buyout or takeover. (AndrosInc.)
April 28, 1995... Andros Inc. has retained investment banking firm Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in what some believe is the first step in a leveraged buyout or a sale of the firm to a foreign competitor. The Berkeley-based manufacturer of environmental and...

$10M in federal funds give banks lending loophole. (San Francisco, California)
April 28, 1995... The San Francisco Mayor's Office is inviting banks to help market $10 million in government funded small business loans - a move that could allow some banks to sidestep a federal law requiring them to lend money in poor neighborhoods. Under...

New cut-rate airline taxis into Oakland International. (regional airline Sierra Expressway of Oakland)
April 28, 1995... A new low-fare regional airline will take flight out of Oakland International Airport this summer, pending approval from the Federal Aviation Administration. Headed by former American Eagle executive Mike Forster and two business partners, Dan...

APL container venture aims to lighten loads. (American President Lines Inc.)
April 28, 1995... American President Lines is forming a new joint venture company to design and build a revolutionary lightweight container to hold ocean-bound freight. The new company, called Ultralite Container Corp., will be based in San Francisco. It is a...

S.F. General's psychiatric problem: new unit lacks license. (San Francisco General Hospital)
April 28, 1995... The fate of a $29 million psychiatric facility at San Francisco General Hospital has become mired in uncertainty because of the city government's inability to get the new facility licensed. Construction of the San Francisco Mental Health...

Lucky, Safeway have Bay Area superstores in the bag. (Lucky Stores Inc.; Safeway Inc.; San Francisco Bay Area)
April 28, 1995... Lucky and Safeway, Northern California's two largest grocers, are rushing to open superstores in the Bay Area. Lucky Stores Inc. has bought 13 acres near Communication Hill in San Jose to develop a 60,000-square-foot store. The size of an...

Boardroom remains boys' club at most Bay Area firms. (San Francisco Bay Area)(Greater Bay Area: Women in Business)
April 28, 1995... Last month, chairmen of some of the Bay Area's largest companies received a letter from local business women asking a simple question: Why are there no women on your board of directors? The letters were part of a national campaign orchestrated...