San Francisco Business Times articles from April 2001

San Francisco Business Times archives from April 2001

Tech execs purge the urge to splurge.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... As expense accounts tighten, restaurants, hotels feel the pinch Cheap is chic again. With dot-coms heading for extinction and tech stalwarts slicing staff and revenue estimates, corporate spending cuts are rippling through San...

Mid-Market turns to skid market.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... TRI Commercial broker Gary Cohen eagerly shows off 273-275 Ninth St., former headquarters for a failed San Francisco dot-com. The offices, located across the street from a liquor store, include bean-bag chairs and a large box overflowing...

Ad shop FCB swings for the fences.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Meet "Matt, the Stall Guy," an overly enthusiastic baseball fan and the latest creation of ad wunderkinds FCB Worldwide San Francisco. The "Matt" ads -- a campaign for Fox Sports Net's Major League Baseball coverage -- were released this...

NorthPoint customers get unplugged.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Despite regulator's ruling, firm's network is shut down As NorthPoint Communications, the Internet service providers that resold its DSL service and the telecom giants that leased the bankrupt carrier its network all swap blame for...

Still seeking to restore its health.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Struggling retailer's latest move leads it to Williams-Sonoma exec Financially hobbled specialty retailer Restoration Hardware Inc. has tapped the No. 2 man at Williams-Sonoma to replace founder Stephen Gordon as CEO. Gary Friedman,...

Big East Bay firm falls into bankruptcy.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... An aggressive expansion effort has sent one of the East Bay's largest private employers into bankruptcy. ILogistix, a Fremont firm that provides services to help businesses manage their supply chains, has filed for Chapter 11 protection in...

Their karma may run over dead Pets.com's dogma.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Pets.com is gone, but its stink may linger like old kitty litter. That's the worry of the company moving into the infamous online pet supplier's old headquarters at 945 Bryant St. -- so much so that the new dot-com tenants are plunking down...

LENDING CREDIBILITY.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The name of the game in the land of dot-com excess was to load yourself down with stock options and grab as much cash as you could, even as your e-whatever went down the plug hole. In contrast, E-Loan Inc., chairman and CEO Chris Larsen has...

Rise & Fall.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... A barometer of the region's movers, shakers and fakers Barry Bonds Giants' surly slugger has a chip on his shoulder, but it looks as if his bat isn't going to stay there. Bonds -- who is coincidentally in the last year of his contract,...

E-Loan loses chairman, pursues financing deals.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... E-Loan Inc. co-founder Janina Pawlowski left the company to concentrate on her family -- 17 months after she moved from president to chairman -- as the online lender assembles a mishmash of corporate financing deals. But E-Loan officials...

City and nonprofit tussle over Oakland building.(Government Activity)(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... An Oakland-based nonprofit in default on $2.4 million in city loans is refusing to hand over the deed to its 42,000-square-foot downtown headquarters, a move the city said would provide more stability to other nonprofits who occupy the...

Corrections & Amplifications.(Correction Notice)
April 6, 2001... In March 23-29's Real Estate Deals of the Year pullout section, an architecture firm on the Mission Bay project was incorrectly listed as Ai International SOM. Ai is the correct name. SOM is a separate architecture firm also working on the...

Instill cuts itself a slice of tracking software pie.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Software maker Instill Corp. signed America's second-largest restaurant chain as a customer, edging the 8-year-old Redwood Shores company closer to its profitability goal by 2002. The recent deal with Unified Foodservice Purchasing Co-op...

Area investors lose big in alleged fund scam.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... A group of four Oakland-based investment funds that raised more than $300 million for a mortgage lending business has begun liquidation proceedings -- leaving more than 60 Bay Area investors facing potentially heavy losses. Adding to the...

Telecom vendor nabs vital license to sell in China.(Government Activity)(International Pages)(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Telecom vendor Clarent Corp. has won key regulatory approval in China that may enable it to bolster its thin market-share lead over Cisco Systems Inc. in the burgeoning Asia-Pacific region. Clarent makes equipment that allows voice calls to...

Executive Profile: JACK MYERS.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... RESUME Name: Jack Myers. Title: Chairman and CEO. Company: Myers Development Corp., based in San Francisco. The company's volume of work, expressed in actual cost, is about $600 million. Education: Degree in business...

Robertson Stephens subleases floor of BofA tower.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Joining a slew of local investment banks puffing office space back on the market, Robertson Stephens is subleasing the 36th floor in the Bank of America Building after announcing job cuts last month. The sublease is reported on the real...

Controversial Rosen report still rattles the Bay Area real estate industry.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Ken Rosen can't understand why his report by Rosen Consulting Group and Cushman & Wakefield's San Francisco office has caused such a stir. But one report's recession is another's "natural, corrective mechanism." Rosen's prediction that 80...

Emeryville struggles to contain soaring vacancy.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... It's a slight exaggeration to say there are tumbleweeds moving down the byways in Emeryville, the East Bay's tech-heavy alternative to San Francisco's South of Market. But only slight. Russ Taylor and Gary Breen, both vice presidents...

S.F. HOUSES HOLD STEADY.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The Real Estate Research Corp.'s first quarter San Francisco report predicts that the city's housing market will weather the storm with little damage -- and few bargains. For single-family homes, its report notes that the average time for...

REAL ESTATE VETERANS LOOK TO BUY.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Not every real estate professional is shedding tears over the recent market downturn. Bill Langelier and Rich Hake look at the downturn as an opportunity -- to invest. The real estate veterans have formed a new Venture called Kipling...

Trio of large funds close in tightening VC environment.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... Despite the third consecutive quarterly decline in venture capital investment, three firms have announced substantial new funds during the last three weeks. Walden International, with offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto and throughout...

Wells Fargo dives into murky world of instant online credit.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Wells Fargo & Co. has expanded its online credit approvals to auto loans, delving more deeply than many of its brick-and-mortar brethren into the land of instant credit via the Internet. The move -- on top of Wells' entry into instant...

Scudder Weisel demise dims outlook for others.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The sudden demise of Scudder Weisel Capital last week raises concerns about the viability of other startups that are targeting affluent investors for private equity investments. Topping that list is OffRoad Capital, the San Francisco-based...

CANAAN EXPANDS HEALTH CARE TEAM.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Venture firm Canaan Partners in Menlo Park has named Brent Ahrens a principal, working on the firm's health care investment team. Ahrens originally came to Canaan in 1999 through the Kaufman Fellows Program, which is designed to train...

WALDEN RAISES $1 BILLION TECH FUND.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Walden International, a San Francisco venture firm, closed a $1 billion fund to finance seed and early-stage investments in technology companies in the United States and Asia. The new fund, Pacven Walden Ventures V L.P., will focus on a...

TA ASSOCIATES SURE ABOUT ASURION.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... TA Associates hopped on the wireless band wagon this month with a $59 million investment in San Mateo-based Asurion. Wireless has been one of the few bright spots. Capital flowing into wireless companies reached $1.95 billion last year,...

Sports fans, pick a winner in the tech Final Four.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Hello, sports fans, this is "Dandy" Dan Levine, coming to you from high atop the San Francisco Business Times money center, with a complete wrap-up of the show down for the heart, mind and money of Joe Six-Pack. While the best college...

Local Olympic bid team holds its breath for 2012.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... So what happens after you submit a 700-page bid for the Summer Olympics? Anne Cribbs, executive director of the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee (BASOC), dances between administrative functions, fundraisers and a gazillion meetings dealing...

SPANISH-LANGUAGE MARKETER OFF AIR.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Hispanic Sports Marketing whose problems left Spanish-language broadcasts of San Francisco Giants' and Oakland A's games off the air much of last season, has ceased operations because of cash-flow problems. The San Diego-based company's...

PBGH to write HMO report card.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The State Department of Managed Health Care has contracted with San Francisco-based Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH) to provide a statewide HMO report card to purchasers and individuals. The department awarded PBGH a one-year...

BLUE SHIELD INKS EAST BAY CONTRACT.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Blue Shield of California and John Muir/Mt. Diablo Health System have renewed contracts, avoiding a last-minute cancellation of service. While nowhere near the size of the recent Blue Cross-Sutter flap earlier this year, nearly 25,000 Blue...

Retailers to stars see less twinkling these days.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... A veteran retailer to the well-heeled and the well-known, Wilkes Bashford says business is flat but thinks the press shares some blame for keeping consumers home. "The media plays a role," says Bashford. He notes of his still-affluent...

STOCK SLEUTH SAYS BUY.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Some of the best bargains at the Bay Area's leading retailers may be their stock, according to Bruce Raabe, chief investment officer for Collins & Co. and portfolio manager of the Golden Gate Fund. Raabe, who tracks some 300 Bay Area companies,...

LICENSING DEALS BECOMING NORM.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Howard Feller, a consultant with Marketing Management Group Inc. says the acquisition of local apparel-maker Joe Boxer follows a theme: brand that can no longer afford to go it alone are turning to similar licensing deals.

Swanky new hotel awaits Bay Area business travelers.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... A new business travelers hotel has landed three miles from the San Francisco International Airport. The Residence Inn-Oyster Point, South San Francisco is the latest Bay Area-based Marriott franchise to cater to visiting executives. ...

LUCK OF THE IRISH.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow has landed in Berkeley with the opening of a new Irish Pub in a newly-restored downtown historic building. Beckett's Irish Pub & Restaurant -- named after Irish playwright and novelist Samuel...

Gathering arms for wireless battle.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... BroadVision teams with wireless startup Brience to shore up its mobile product offerings BroadVision's got a new wireless weapon: Brience Inc. The Redwood City-based enterprise software company is teaming with the San Francisco wireless...

Slimming tech companies work to look healthy.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Who's afraid of a big bad number? Tech companies -- that's who. On the tail end of a bombshell report by Cushman & Wakefield and Rosen Consulting Group declaring 80 percent of dot-coms will be belly-up by year's end, a slew of tech...

EXECS PROFIT FROM FAILURE.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... While large tech companies pull back and lick their wounds a bit, some execs from failed dot-coms are stepping into the limelight Castro Valley-based Startupfailures.com -- "the place for bouncing back" -- launched a startup failure...

OAKLAND CALLS ALL ANGELS.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Money is also flowing into Oakland, if the city's tech boosters have their way. Communications Technology Cluster and Bay Venture Counsel LLP are hosting an angel funding event later this month to help startups in the incubator get first...

VC HAS INTENSITY FOR EXTENSITY.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byer's general partner Ted Schlein was out in force last week, supporting the firm's investment in Extensity. The Emeryville company threw an informal shindig at San Francisco's Chaya. The intimate cocktail and...

TECH EXECS MIGRATE.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... With the tech economy slowing down and the Bay Area at ground zero for potential recession, why take business to the East Coast? Last week's COMDEX in Chicago featured keynotes by CEO of VA Linux Systems Larry Augustin, National Semiconductor...

Intellectual property lawyer puts onus on the courts.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The intellectual property protections of copyrights, trademarks and patents existed long before the Internet, but the new medium raises fundamental questions about how to apply these rights in a digital age. Darin Snyder, partner in the San...

Winning the office space race.(Oakland's vacancy rate below San Francisco's)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... Oakland's vacancy rate dips below San Francisco's in wake of downturn When the real estate boom hit in 2000, Oakland looked with envy at its neighbor across the Bay. San Francisco tech tenants were gobbling up space and pushing rents...

Port of Oakland suffers empty-nest syndrome.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... The Port of Oakland has gotten so good at commercial real estate, it could someday work its way out of a job. The 15-member Commercial Real Estate division has built up a tidy $1.2 billion waterfront empire over the last few years. And with...

Oakland airport seeks new ways to land revenues.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... The word is out, the buzz is high and Oakland International Airport is taking off, having promoted itself successfully as the "Bay Area's Value Airport." The bottom line, however, is that business is business, and the airport must also...

Wizard of Emerald Fund performs housing magic.(Oz Erickson)(Brief Article)(Interview)
April 6, 2001... As president of Emerald Fund in San Francisco, Oz Erickson has built close to 3,000 condominims and apartment complexes in the city. Erickson and partners Alastair MacTaggart and Peter Bosma founded the Emerald Fund 22 years ago and will have...

Developers change the rules in the condo game.(condominium prices in San Francisco)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... At the height of last year's real estate boom, buyers madly scooped up luxury condos at One Embarcadero, shelling out more than $900,000 each for unfinished units at the high-rise near Pacific Bell Park. But now the game has changed. With...

Prentiss keeps building on its Oakland success.(Prentiss Properties Trust)(Brief Article)(Interview)
April 6, 2001... In Oakland, a triumvirate of early-bird developers -- Prentiss Properties Trust, Shorenstein and Ellis Partners LLC -- reigns supreme for building up new commercial properties and filling in niche markets for other developers to envy in the...

Tenant improvement funds crop up on Peninsula.(landlords more willing to make improvements)(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The downturn in the high-tech industry has increased the number of vacant offices and shifted the balance of power between businesses and landlords on the Peninsula. With the Peninsula's vacancy rate nearing 10 percent, once-stingy...

Construction dot-coms draw up new blueprints.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The blustery dot-com climate has rattled local web sites serving the construction industry, demolishing some wobbly companies and prompting others to brace themselves with partnerships or mergers. Hoping to avoid the fate of Red Ladder and...

Industrial real estate owners eye Equity space.(after merger of Equity Office Properties Trust and Spieker Properties)(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Large industrial property owners are sniffing around the 13.5 million square feet of industrial space expected to become available following the megamerger of Equity Office Properties Trust and Spieker Properties Inc. The space will become...

Bay Area's Largest Alarm Companies.(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... ADT Security Services and Bay Alarm top this year's List of the Largest Alarm Companies in the Bay Area. Altogether, the two heavyweights dominate the industry and monitor more than 100,000 alarm systems in the Bay Area. In case you're...

Bay Area's Top Environmental Firms.(Illustration)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... The battle for top environmental firm in the Bay Area has been close, and this year the top two firms have flip-flopped in rank again. URS Greiner Woodward Clyde edged out rival IT Corp. this year, with $96 million in gross billings to IT...

BayAreaPeople.(appointments and selections in area business)
April 6, 2001... ARCHITECTURE Sandy & Babcock International, based in San Francisco and Miami, hired Timothy Slattery as a designer in its San Francisco office. He worked for Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Cooper Robertson & Partners in New York....

Matter of interest: Businesses may soon cash in at the bank.(interest on business checking accounts may return)(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The Depression-era ban on banks offering interest on business checking accounts could soon be history. Legislation to repeal the prohibition cleared the House Financial Services Committee March 28 and was expected to be passed by the full...

GROUP CALLS FOR H-lB CUTS.(visas for foreign workers)(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... An anti-immigration group called for a reduction in the number of H-1B visas granted to foreign workers now that demand for high-tech professionals has slackened. FAIR wants the limits on H-lB visas rolled back to 115,000 a year, compared...

Delectable deliveries.(Vik Distributors Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... From basmati rice to tandoori ovens, Berkeley family distributes taste of India How long does it take to change the labels on 20,400 cans by hand? Vinod Chopra once found out, when he imported 850 cases of mango pulp from India and found...

EntrepreneurProfile: BRUCE CORBETT.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... RESUME Name: Bruce Corbett. Title: Chairman, chief financial officer. Company: Modular Information Systems, in San Ramon; support and source for computer hardware, software and networking applications. 2000 revenue: $2.2...

PG&E's unpaid bills may pull the plug on small power firms.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Cash-strapped small energy generators may not be able to produce electricity during the critical summer months because Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and other utilities say they cannot afford to reimburse them for power already used. A recent...

Move land out of the country and into suburbia.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... A five-acre pasture surrounded by housing subdivisions is not a pristine tract and shouldn't be treated as one just because someone wants to build on it That's why the Legislature should move quickly to pass a bill that would exempt...

Music maker jams with Warren Buffett.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Here's what I know about Warren Buffett: He lives in Nebraska, he plays bridge with Bill Gates, and he's worth about $28 billion. Thanks to Phil Schroeder, I'm learning more. For instance, I now know that Buffett plays the ukulele. ...

City schools need courageous leadership.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The leadership we're seeing from Superintendent Arlene Ackerman in the San Francisco Unified School District has been a long time in coming. There is nothing more important to the well being of our communities, to the vigor of our economy...

Bull, bear, sheep, pig: Fickle stock market can be total zoo.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... The stock markets have definitely moved from the bull pasture into the bear lair. The only debate now is over the question of whether it's a temporary teddy bear, an extended grizzly bear, or perhaps even more chilling, a permanent polar...

Letter To The Editor.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... San Francisco's decline bound to send companies packing for Albuquerque Just who do we think we are stealing the Gap away from the City by the Bay? When will New Mexico get the message that its proper place in the world is to be the focal...

DOT-COMS UNDER GUN.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Eighty percent of San Francisco's s remaining dot-com companies will fail in the next 12 months, according to a study by Berkeley-based Rosen Consulting Group. The result will be high vacancies and falling rents, it said.

MINORITY POPULATIONS RISE.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... Minority groups make up the majority of Californians, 53.3 percent, according to new census numbers. Whites make up 46.7 percent of the state's population.

COMMERCE ONE ISSUES WARNING.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... Pleasanton-based Commerce One Inc. revised first-quarter revenue forecasts to about 15 percent less than analysts' already lowered expectations. "I don't think price is necessarily the issue as we go forward," said Mark Hoffman, CEO of the...

THESTREET.COM CUTS STAFF.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... In an effort to cut costs by $15 million, New York-based TheStreet.com said it will lay off 20 percent of its staff -- or around 40 people -- sublease a portion of its principal office space and reduce discretionary spending. The news service...

SYBASE LOWERS EXPECTATIONS.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Emeryville -- based enterprise software company Sybase Inc. warned today that operating earnings and revenue for the first quarter would he lower than expected. "The fundamentals of the business remain strong, but despite our best efforts we...

ATESTO GETS $15 MILLION.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Atesto Technologies, an automated web testing company based in Fremont said it received $15 million in a second-round financing led by the Sprout Group.

E-LOAN SCORES LINE OF CREDIT.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Dublin-based online lender E-Loan Inc. secured a $25 million line of credit for its auto lending business from Bank One, and cofounder Chris Larsen provided up to $7.5 million in a general line of credit Neither line is in exchange for equity...

GAP INC. MAKES KEY PROMOTION.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Gap Inc. promoted merchandising executive Gary Muto to the position of president of Banana Republic, the latest in a spate of recent promotions at the San Francisco-based clothing company Muto, 41, will report to Gap Inc. President and CEO...

WEST'S ECONOMY SLOWING.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Employment in the West grew faster last year than originally thought according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. But the economic downturn seems to be hitting the West harder than other parts of the nation and is...

SANWA, TOKAI TO MERGE CA BANKS.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Sanwa Bank California and Tokai Bank of California -- both with branches in the Bay Area -- will merge under the name United California Bank, the banks said. The merger was expected after the banks' Japanese parent companies and the Toyo Trust...

VERSATA LAYS OFF STAFF.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Versata Inc., an Oakland-based developer of online business software, said it cut 30 percent of its staff. As part of an executive, shakeup, CEO John Hewitt Jr. left the company, and Executive Vice President Doug Roberts moved into his position...

BAY VIEW CAPITAL NAMES CEO.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Pennsylvania banker Robert Goldstein was named CEO of troubled San Mateo-based Bay View Capital, replacing Edward Sondker who resigned in February.

HELLMAN & FRIEDMAN BULLISH.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Hellman & Friedman, the San Francisco-based buyout firm headed by Warren Hellman, acquired a 9.8 stake in the Nasdaq Stock Market for $240 million.

STANFORD MED CENTER FACES CUTS.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... Stanford University Medical Center faces a spate of cost-cutting measures and may have to put itself on the block to stave off financial collapse. The facility is projecting a $40 million loss for the 12 months ending Aug. 31, with the...

ORGANIC PRUNES EMPLOYEES.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Qrganic Inc., a San Francisco-based provider of Internet services said it cut 300 jobs or 35 percent of its work force.

WELLS, BOFA TOP FEES.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 6, 2001... A consumer group's survey found that Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America tied for charging the highest ATM fees in California. Non-bank customers who use the two banks' ATMs are hit with a $3.50 charge, according to the California Public...

RITZ-CARLTON OPENS.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... Ritz-Carlton opened the doors to its new 261-room resort in Half Moon Bay, in a move expected boost tourism on the San Mateo County coast.

MOBILEFORCE NABBED FOR $30M.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2001... MobileForce Technologies Inc., a privately held Pleasanton software firm, said it will be acquired by C-Cor.net, a publicly traded company based in State College, Pa., that designs Internet access equipment.