San Francisco Business Times articles from April 1999

San Francisco Business Times archives from April 1999

Chevron to ax 350 employees.(layoffs at oil firm's human resources group)
April 30, 1999... Human resources group to take hit as oil giant seeks to save $80M Chevron is cutting its 750-strong human resources group by nearly half as the slumping San Francisco-based oil company's global problems hit home. An internal memo...

UCSF vs. Genentech in $400M patent suit.(University of California at San Francisco)
April 30, 1999... After nine years of legal haggling, UCSF and Genentech are squaring off before a jury over ownership of a patent worth $400 million or more. The first days of a trial that opened two weeks ago have produced no shortage of compelling...

Winemaker improves taste with $240M deal.(Canandaigua Brands acquires Franciscan Estates)
April 30, 1999... The maker of Wild Irish Rose, Almaden and other inexpensive jug wines has taken a bold step into the California premium wine market with its $240 million acquisition of Napa's fast-growing Franciscan Estates. The deal gives New York...

Juicy growth deals have Jamba ready to peel out.(Jamba Juice Inc.)
April 30, 1999... Jamba Juice Inc. is signing up large franchise partners as it squeezes extra resources to take the fruit juice chain national. It has signed up a successful operator of Chili's restaurants and Great Clips hair cutters to develop 50...

Blue Shield making bid to expand into Colorado.(Blue Shield of California allowed to make acquisition bid on Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Colorado)
April 30, 1999... Blue Shield of California is hoping to jump back into bidding for its Colorado sister, in the nonprofit's potential first move outside California. Colorado's attorney general is considering reopening a bidding process that resulted in a...

Real Restaurants seeks investors to feed its growth.(to issue $5 million private stock offering)
April 30, 1999... Real American Restaurants Inc. is inviting institutional investors to the table for the first time, cooking up a $5 million private stock offering to advance two expanding restaurant chains. The Sausalito-based restaurant company is...

Spieker snaps up prime Peninsula site for $36M.(Spieker Properties acquires 14-acre lot in Redwood Shores, CA)
April 30, 1999... Spieker Properties Inc. is paying close to $36 million for a prime piece of Peninsula property more than a year after it first made an unsolicited bid for the site. Owned by Electronic Arts and located in Redwood Shores, the 14-acre...

Tom Mantor.(president of Bank of Walnut Creek)
April 30, 1999... Name: Tom Mantor. Title: President Company: Bank of Walnut Creek. The Walnut Creek-based community bank, with $290 million in assets, has other branch offices in Orinda, San Ramon, Danville, Pleasanton, Fremont and Livermore. ...

X-ray vision.(InVision Technologies Inc.)(Company Profile)
April 30, 1999... InVision's explosive-detection system turned out to be the right product at the right time It is often said that timing is everything. The axiom seems especially apt for InVision Technologies Inc. The Newark-based explosive-detection...

Thriving plant purveyor watches its garden grow.(U.S. Home and Garden Inc.)(Company Profile)
April 30, 1999... The consolidation of the lawn and garden products industry has helped San Francisco-based U.S. Home & Garden Inc. achieve phenomenal growth, with revenue up 72 percent in the last six months of 1998. "Generally we're growing because of...

Inhale hopes drug device becomes a financial cure.(Inhale Therapeutic Systems)
April 30, 1999... Nobody likes insulin injections, but many diabetics need them to stay alive. If Inhale Therapeutic Systems can make those painful shots obsolete, the company could have a long life. Inhale, started in 1990, is focusing on the diabetes...

Savvy business strategy behind Bebe's sexy image.(Bebe Inc.)(Company Profile)
April 30, 1999... Sex sells, but Bebe Inc. is more than just a pouty face. The Brisbane based vamp-wear retailer gained its reputation by dressing Melrose Place's vixens in the 1980s. Its ongoing poster campaign, featuring. shapely models, has furthered its...

German investors strike again.(German-firm controlled Bayeron Fonds)
April 23, 1999... Bavarian bank shells out $175M for Citicorp Center highrise Is this the German Gold Rush of '99? In yet another grab for a San Francisco landmark, Bayeron Fonds, a real estate investment fired controlled by Germany's Bayerische...

Online billing rips paper to shreds; Bank of America taps Internet to get clients clicking on their bills.
April 23, 1999... Forget about that annoying pile of paper bills, Bank of America is testing a system that will eventually allow consumers to view anti pay bills through the bank's online banking service. The pilot program kicked off in late March and will...

S.F. software maker helps finance firms boot up big savings.(San Francisco, California-based Just In Time Solutions Inc.)
April 23, 1999... Brian Valente pulls out some nifty numbers to explain how his soft ware startup, Just In Time Solutions Inc., is convincing some of the nation's largest billers and financial players to eliminate paper bills. It costs billers from 65...

Coming soon: 'Son of wine cooler.'.(wine coolers)
April 23, 1999... Wineries expect sweetened drinks to be summer chiller Just when you thought wine coolers could safely be relegated to '80s nostalgia, wine makers are putting their newest incarnation on store shelves. The fruit-flavored, wine-spiked...

Reviving Network Computer turns TVs on to Web.(World Wide Web)
April 23, 1999... Larry Ellison's underachieving spinoff, Network Computer Inc., is pushing ahead in its bid to give Americans interactive TV. After forming partnerships with key telecommunications companies abroad, Redwood City-based NCI has inked its...

Merger is beginning of growth curve for S.F. architects SMP/SHG.(San Francisco, California)
April 23, 1999... SMP/SHG Inc. is on the acquisition trail. The new firm was created through last year's acquisition of San Francisco architecture firm Stone Marraccini Patterson by Detroit's Smith Group, which merged SMP with its design arm, SHG Inc. ...

Billy Beane.(Executive Profile)(Oakland Athletics' general manager)
April 23, 1999... Name: Billy Beane. Title: General Manager. Company: Oakland A's, the Major League Baseball team. Education: Graduate, Mr. Carmel High School, San Diego; course work, University of California, San Diego. Background: Beane,...

Health care in a box: health-care companies are taking marketing lessons from McDonald's and Nordstrom.(The Final Frontier: Marketing Health Care to the Consumer)
April 23, 1999... Two years ago, Pleasanton's ValleyCare Health System was in bad shape. It had gone through a wave of consolidations as it grappled with the challenges of managed care. As a result, it had lost part of its identity, and with it, patients'...

Entrepreneur's dough rises; Noe Valley Bakery & Bread Co. doesn't mess with recipe for success.(Small Business Growth Strategies)
April 23, 1999... When a new venture takes off, many entrepreneurs move quickly to expand or diversify. Not Michael and Mary Gassen, husband and wife owners of Noe Valley Bakery & Bread Co. in San Francisco. Their 4-year-old business was successful from...

Brice Jones.(Entrepreneur Profile)(Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards founder and CEO)
April 23, 1999... Title: Founder and CEO. Company: Sonoma-Cutrer Vineyards, the Windsor-based winery. Employees: 75. Founded: Jones started in the vineyard business right after Harvard Business School in 1972. "We decided we were going to stay...

Gap's family affair: 400 more stores.(expansion of The Gap)(Company Profile)
April 16, 1999... The Gap is stepping up a store-building boom this year to add at least 400 new outlets, and it is likely to keep the construction work in the Fisher family. Fisher Development Inc., a company owned by Robert Fisher. brother of Gap...

E-commerce gets personal.(approaches of San Francisco-based online marketers)
April 16, 1999... Web marketers know your kid's birthday - but is that a bad thing? Armed with sophisticated marketing software, web sites are getting personal with customers in a drive to boost e-commerce revenues. The strategy is right out of any...

345 California entices buyer - $200M: German investment firm zeros in on 48-story San Francisco tower.
April 16, 1999... Capping a success fill turnaround effort, the owners of San Francisco's once-troubled California Center are close to selling the landmark office building to a German-backed investment company for the eye-popping sum of about $200 million. ...

Ferry force at odds over who will captain fleet.(Bay Area ferry service)
April 16, 1999... Weeks before a transit task force is scheduled to deliver a wide-ranging proposal for a billion-dollar Bay Area ferry service to state legislators, officials are bickering over one of the most basic points - who's going to run it. The...

Local stock surge sends Robertson to head of pack.(BancBoston Robertson Stephens tops San Francisco, California, investment banks in terms of new stock offering deals)
April 16, 1999... A swollen ride of new stock offerings lifted all boats in the San Francisco investment banking pool in the first quarter, but a resurgent BancBoston Robertson Stephens & Co. rose the highest. Robertson Stephens' six initial public...

Climbing oil prices fuel Chemoil's run toward IPO.(initial public offering)
April 16, 1999... With oil prices going up, Chemoil CEO Robert Chandran is stepping on the accelerator, cruising toward a public offering. Chandran, 48, also founder of the San Francisco-based fuel-oil supplier, has positioned the company to compete with...

Castle's rowhouses bring urban living back in style.(real estate developer Castle Group)
April 16, 1999... Castle Group is more than tripling its residential real estate developments this year with projects in Emeryville, Mountain View and San Jose. The San Mateo-based developer has 800 residential units planned, including Emery Village, a...

Online service offers up contractors you can trust.(ImproveNet; building contractors)
April 16, 1999... Home improvement contractors don't rank so high on the public trust-o-meter. Only car dealers and mechanics were hit with more consumer complaints in 1998, according to the Better Business Bureau. Homeowners' biggest problem is weeding...

Filling the funding gap: venture catalysts link entrepreneurs with 'angel' investors.(venture capitalists in the San Francisco Bay Area of California)
April 16, 1999... Venture catalyst Randy Haykin is an artful agent, pioneering a new breed of investors that marry "angels" with entrepreneurs. The growing pool of Internet entrepreneurs and the trend of larger, later rounds of venture capital financing...

More top firms choosing to call Silicon Valley home.
April 16, 1999... Silicon Valley is gaining ground as home to the most corporate headquarters in the Bay Area, while San Francisco's decline continues, according to this year's List of the Top 200 Largest Public Companies in the Bay Area. Santa Clara...

Borders founder starts cyber-food fight; distribution network to underpin national foray into groceries.(Louis Borders of Borders Books & Music)
April 9, 1999... Louis Borders, co-founder of the Borders Books & Music retail chain, is set to launch an ambitious national Internet grocery business from the Bay Area. Borders is keeping a very tight lid on his plans. But his company, Foster City-based...

Joe Boxer changes its underwear; Chief Underpants Officer Nick Graham revs up for women.
April 9, 1999... Silly Joe Boxer wants to take on sexy Victoria's Secret. New President Tom Fanoe has reorganized the company to get serious about women's intimate apparel and is breaking the company into women's and men's strategic units. Known for...

German cash pours in for real estate.
April 9, 1999... Spurred by changing tax laws a blitzkrieg of German money has hit San Francisco shores as investors target the city's stable and healthy real estate market. In recent weeks, buyers backed by German funds have tied up two downtown San...

What's up with Catellus' stock? CEO under pressure as big investors cash out - and in.(Catellus Development Corp.; Nelson Rising)
April 9, 1999... Frustrated shareholders are pressing Catellus Development Corp. CEO Nelson Rising to prop up the company's slumping stock, while other big investors smelling undervalued shares have piled in. With the San Francisco real estate company...

Oracle bulks up for a big battle in front office: squares off with Siebel in growth sector.(Siebel Systems)(Brief Article)
April 9, 1999... Flattening sales of database and back-office software has Oracle Corp. moving resources to a high-growth area - the front office. The Redwood Shores software company's front office division, formed about two years ago with 25 employees,...

Visa raises banks' interest in venture fund.(Visa International)
April 9, 1999... Visa International is opening its hugely successful venture capital program to its 20,000 member banks, hoping to raise as much as $200 million for a new fund. "We are still focusing on the specifics, but expect to launch it next month,...

Lifeguard dives into national health-care pool.(launching of countrywide network of local health maintenance organizations)(Brief Article)
April 9, 1999... Lifeguard Inc. is about to launch a countrywide network of local HMOs to offer its high-growth customers a national health plan. So far, 30 HMOs have agreed to participate in the network, called PlanLink, with about a dozen fully...

Children's Oakland hopes growth keeps it healthy.(Children's Hospital Oakland)
April 9, 1999... Children's Hospital Oakland is inking partnerships and expanding its boundaries to stave off pressures to merge. In the past year, the hospital has formed several new alliances to expand its base in the East Bay, especially in the...

Waterfront sports park moves closer to reality.(Port of San Francisco's plan for entertainment-recreation complex)(Brief Article)
April 9, 1999... The Port of San Francisco has passed the first hurdle in its plan to create a major recreation development on the northeast waterfront. The development, which could include everything from skating rinks to climbing walls to a small-boat...

SFO close to landing deal for daily flights to Milan.(contract between San Francisco International Airport and Alitalia; Milan, Italy)
April 9, 1999... San Francisco International Airport is close to landing Alitalia, Italy's national carrier. Negotiations on a landing time and gate assignment are ongoing, but those close to the discussions at SFO and the publicly traded Alitalia expect...

Louis 'Bob' Trinchero.(Executive Profile)(chairman and CEO of Sutter Home Winery Inc.)
April 9, 1999... Name: Louis "Bob" Trinchero. Title: Chairman and CEO. Company: Sutter Home Winery Inc., the St. Helena-based wine maker with $350 million in sales. Background: Family came to Napa Valley in 1948, buying a broken-down barn,...

Montgomery poaches New York talent.(NationsBanc Montgomery Securities)
April 2, 1999... San Francisco investment bank reinvigorates research - but balance shifts to Big Apple NationsBanc Montgomery Securities, hit by defections to former CEO Thomas Weisel's new firm, is charting a new course as it rebuilds its research arm...

Goodby goes gangbusters.(ad agency Goodby Silverstein and Partners)
April 2, 1999... Ad agency snags E-Trade, Discover to push billings over half a billion An unprecedented streak of new business for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners has pushed the ad agency above $500 million in billings for the first time. About $150...

Multimedia Gulch wins another prize.(area in San Francisco, CA, whose office market is booming)
April 2, 1999... Freshly infused with $60 million in cash, LookSmart Ltd. has signed a letter of intent for the old Southend Warehouse building at 625 Second St., the latest big deal fueling San Francisco's white-hot Multimedia Guleh office market. ...

Wearing your job.(merchandise carrying company logos that are worn by workers)
April 2, 1999... Workers are not just wearing company logos, they're paying for the privilege When the temperature dips below 50 degrees on the Peninsula, Joe Giarrusso doesn't reach for a North Face ski jacket or a Patagonia pullover - he proudly pulls...

Brain surgery could save the life of hospital services company.(American Shared Hospital Services)
April 2, 1999... American Shared reaches for 'Gamma Knife' Dr. Ernest Bates has taken a deep breath and is starting over. Once the lead operator of mobile medical scanners, his American Shared Hospital Services jettisoned 96 percent of its business,...

Heavy hitters.(baseball franchise San Francisco Giants' top management successfully builds privately funded baseball park)
April 2, 1999... The San Francisco Giants fielded an all-star executive team to make PacBell Park a reality Five years ago, the prospect of building the first privately financed baseball facility in 30 years seemed as improbable as a 70-home-run season....

A's hope baseball mania will travel across the bay.(professional baseball franchise Oakland Athletics; San Francisco, CA, Bay Area)
April 2, 1999... The San Francisco Giants, eagerly awaiting their new ballpark, are coming off two straight seasons in which the team was in the pennant race. Meanwhile in Oakland, the A's face at least three more years in the dated Coliseum and are...

Stars from the past pitch old teams to future fans.(Bay Area, CA, professional baseball team marketing)
April 2, 1999... Baseball teams are increasingly using star players - often "glory days" players from years past - in their marketing programs to bolster fan support. This year, the San Francisco Giants are hitting the nostalgia circuit hard. One of the...

Executive does windows.(residential window installation firm The Clear Choice)(Company Profile)
April 2, 1999... Pleasanton company thrives by taking the pain out of installation Bruce Duncan's The Clear Choice installs windows and front-door systems, but that's about all it has in common with the typical home-improvement operation. When he...