San Francisco Business Times articles from April 1996

San Francisco Business Times archives from April 1996

Electronic Arts, pilots' association on collision course. (Electronic Arts Inc.)
April 5, 1996... There's controversy in the air over Electronic Arts' proposal to build a new headquarters campus m Redwood Shores. Pilots at the sleepy San Carlos Airport claim the computer- and video-game maker's plan to erect a 10-story building on its...

Pacific Stock Exchange unveils Asian strategy.
April 5, 1996... The Pacific Stock Exchange is taking steps toward creating the only U.S. exchange with a trading board devoted solely to Asian companies. PSE officials believe the new board will position the exchange to capitalize on both strong business...

Blue Shield packing, moving. (Blue Shield of California plans to move to new building)
April 5, 1996... San Francisco health insurer is downtown bound Blue Shield of California, abandoning its longtime headquarters, has signed a letter of intent to take close to 200,000 square feet of new office space at the 50 Beale St. tower. The 10-year...

AT&T awaits starting gun. (aims to dominate telephone market in San Francisco, California)
April 5, 1996... Top exec predicts running away with 30 percent of the local phone market Seeing Pacific Bell as a slow-footed competitor in the coming local phone race, national giant AT&T aims to grab 30 percent of its market over the next five years....

Novato firm makes connections in Indian telecom market. (Harris Corp.)
April 5, 1996... Harris Corp. has signed four alliances throughout India in a move to garner an $800 million share of the mammoth nation's telecommunications market. Leading the move is Harris' DTS division, the former Novato-based Digital Telephone Systems,...

Software firm with friends in high places raises $3.4 million. (Vision Software Tools Inc.)
April 5, 1996... Vision Software Tools Inc. said it had raised $3.4 million from a consortium of institutional and individual investors, showing it not only knows the value of a dollar, but also the value of where it comes. The financing, which completed the...

Technology consultants climb to top Tier. (Tier Corp.)(Company Profile)
April 5, 1996... In 1990, Bill Barton was a management consultant working on a project at American Airlines with a team of experienced high-tech consultants tapped from several companies. Although they worked for different consulting firms, "we had one thing...

Levi initiates major push in S. America. (Levi Strauss & Co.)
April 19, 1996... Levi Strauss & Co. has scaled back a licensing agreement in Argentina and started its own operation in Buenos Aires as it begins a major push into South America. In the past few weeks, the San Francisco-based company has appointed a general...

Free speech on Internet has phone companies worried.
April 19, 1996... AT&T, Sprint and MCI have dozens of calling plans, but here's one they don't offer: Call anywhere, anytime, for free. Instead, it is available through a Fremont software company. For $130 in software and accessories, plus the $10 or so per...

Partnership to recharge city efforts on jobs. (San Francisco Partnership)
April 19, 1996... The Marketing San Francisco Partnership has shed its cumbersome name and reorganized as the San Francisco Partnership, with a new staff and renewed mission to attract and retain business in San Francisco. The group, headed by Gap Chairman Don...

Long-ridiculed ISDN finally makes a connection. (Integrated Services Digital Network)
April 19, 1996... After more than a decade of unfulfilled promise, ISDN is finally catching on. A combination of hardware, software and phone lines that transmits voice and data at lightning-fast speeds, ISDN, or Integrated Services Digital Network, has been...

Telecommunications Act of '96: new players, new rules, new ball game. (includes related articles on the law's economic impact)
April 19, 1996... In the new telecommunications game, a good defense will probably be as important as a good offense: While companies struggle to invade new turf, they have to keep one eye on protecting their own. The federal government changed the rules of the...

The Bay Area's biggest public companies just got bigger. (San Francisco Bay Area, CA)
April 19, 1996... Wall Street's love affair with technology stocks and world markets' thirst for technology products combined to give the Bay Area's Top 200 Public Companies a rosy hue in 1995. With electronics and software companies dominating The List,...

Internet providers not just mom and POP operations. (point of presence)
April 19, 1996... Internet pioneer BBN Planet tops the Business Times' first List of the 25 largest locally-based Internet service providers (see page 7A). Ranked by the number of POPs or points of presence (banks of equipment that allows local callers to be...

Fast-expanding bank outgrows its name. (Silicon Valley Bank)
April 19, 1996... Resurgent Silicon Valley Bank is again expanding to markets outside its namesake region. The Santa Clara-based bank, which primarily targets technology startup companies, will open three additional loan-production offices outside California...

Paper profits: printer plays environmental role. (Alonzo Printing Co.)
April 19, 1996... Alonzo Printing Co. started out as a three-man shop printing weekly newspapers. Twenty years later, Alonzo is a $9.5 million business with a full range of printing services and an environmental program that is rare for a printer its size. It's...

Oakland City Hall's hired gun. (Economic and Community Development Agency Director Kofi Bonner)
April 26, 1996... New director expected to put development plans into high gear The irresistible force that is Kofi Bonner is about to meet the immovable objects that are the plodding bureaucracy and fractious politics of Oakland. Bonner, a rising star in the...

Bud bellies up to the microbrews. (Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc.'s launching of American Originals craft beer)
April 26, 1996... Anheuser-Busch brings craft-brew recipes to the Bay Area Tired of watching microbrews drain a growing share of its market, brewing giant Anheuser-Busch will introduce its own line of craft beers, American Originals, in the Bay Area this week....

Trader maps strategy beyond Vietnam in Southeast Asia. (Connell Brothers Company Ltd.)
April 26, 1996... One of San Francisco's oldest trading companies is now the first of its kind here to enter Southeast Asia's latest bloomers: Burma, Laos and Cambodia. Connell Bros., which distributes U.S. and European consumer goods and chemicals throughout...