San Francisco Business Times articles from August 1996

San Francisco Business Times archives from August 1996

Brewer launches Apollo. (Big Bang Brewery's launching of its Apollo beer)
August 2, 1996... Proving that craft beer and microbrews are no longer synonymous, San Francisco's Big Bang Brewery is set to make a big splashdown with its new Apollo beer. Launching the brand with a minimum commitment of 100,000 cases for retail distribution,...

After 3 years of full Moon, Blue shield hopes to shine. (Blue Shield of California and its CEO Wayne Moon)
August 2, 1996... Blue Shield of California has run out of excuses. It's been nearly three years since CEO Wayne Moon came on board to revitalize the San Francisco insurance giant and shed its well-deserved reputation for being uncompetitive, overstaffed and far...

Oakland ice rink owner slips on bond payment. (U.S. Ice Ventures' default on a bond payment to the city of Oakland, CA)
August 2, 1996... Less than two months after the grand opening of Oakland's new downtown ice skating rink, its owners have defaulted on a bond payment to the city. The rink is considered the catalyst in the city's redevelopment effort to bring people downtown...

Office designers show employees way out of cubicle hell.
August 2, 1996... Loathed by many employees for its lack of privacy, open-plan office design is now coming under fire from workspace experts who say the cookie-cutter cubicles thwart teamwork. Led by pioneers in knowledge industries, including high-tech concerns...

Training for the masses: PG&E's new program overthrows the class system. (Pacific Gas and Electric Co.)
August 2, 1996... The Pacific Gas & Electric supervisor's problem was serious: His workers kept burning up pumps at a power plant. Deciding they needed a crash course in how to read electrical blueprints, he contacted the utility's in-house Learning Center to...

Tech upstart taps help along the way. (Synergy Business Solutions)
August 2, 1996... A former political economist and self-taught computer expert, Janet Petrik was arguably an unlikely entrepreneur. But "my father was an entrepreneur," she said, "and I think I picked up a lot of his traits." Recognizing an opportunity created...

Bike company turns profit on rental rebellion. (EagleRider Motorcycle Rental)
August 2, 1996... "We're not renting bikes, we're renting dreams," said Chris McIntyre, president of EagleRider Motorcycle Rental. The Torrance-based company rents its fleet of about 130 Harley-Davidsons to clients in Southern California, San Francisco, Chicago...

Hardware makers' push into China is a hard drive. (Hewlett-Packard Co.)(International Trade Quarterly)
August 9, 1996... Back in 1979, David Packard was waiting for a Chinese delegation to arrive at his Big Sur home to discuss a possible Hewlett-Packard joint venture in China. Hoping a pleasant visit would make the talks easier, Packard had taken pains on every...

Coming out smoking: 2 Bay Area nicotine patch makers take gloves off in battle for $400M market. (Cygnus Inc.; Alza Corp.)
August 9, 1996... 2 Bay Area nicotine patch makers take gloves off in battle for $400M market Get set for a fiery marketing war over nicotine patches. Two nicotine patches from Bay Area rivals - Cygnus Inc.'s Nicotrol and Alza Corp.'s NicoDerm CQ - received...

Tech immigration boom passport to success for lawyers.(International Trade Quarterly)
August 9, 1996... Green cards haven't actually been green for about 20 years, but their color persists in the minds of both U.S. citizens and hopeful immigrants. The image of immigration law has remained equally dated, limited to gaining visas for low-skilled...

Port veteran gives berth to Bechtel's global hopes. (Walter Abernathy; Bechtel Enterprises Inc.)(International Trade Quarterly)
August 9, 1996... Some people view their lives against a graph of city streets, broken up by offices and gas stations. Others think of "home" as a map of the U.S.A., in which New York is simply another office. There are the rare few, though, with an inherently...

With $50 billion in chips on table, Europe ready to play. (semiconductor industry)(International Trade Quarterly)
August 9, 1996... The booming semiconductor industry has set off a chase by European nations to land more than $50 billion in new plants that could be built by the end of the century. That industry will need 40 semiconductor plants by 2000, at $1.3 billion...

Falafel fuels food maker's expansion. (Casbah Sahara Natural Foods Inc.)(Small Business Growth Strategies)(Company Profile)
August 9, 1996... Dimitri Cados is a man of many talents. He has a master's degree in mathematics and chemistry. He is fluent in six languages, including Hebrew and Greek. He plays the guitar and the dulcimer. And he has a natural aptitude for mechanics and...

Bulked-up retailers decide that bigger is indeed better. (retail stores)(Industry Overview)
August 9, 1996... All but two of the companies on this year's List of the largest retailers in the Bay Area boosted revenues during 1995 (see page 20). Most saw a boost in profits as well, but more than anything, the results show that retailers are putting a...

Shorenstein Co. closes in on Oakland City Center.
August 16, 1996... The Shorenstein Co. has emerged as the top bidder for Oakland's City Center with a $118 million offer. The San Francisco real estate company, which owns 12.5 million square feet of office space in the Bay Area, beat out eight other suitors for...

Adman to the rescue. (Anderson & Lembke)
August 16, 1996... Flagging Anderson & Lembke calls in its chief creative A 49-year-old Swede with a penchant for cheap plastic watches and funky eyewear has come to the rescue of the San Francisco office of Anderson & Lembke. Steve Trygg, the iconoclastic...

Sybase revival plan includes Microsoft connection.
August 16, 1996... Sybase CEO Mitchell Kertzman and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates are considering a joint marketing arrangement that could help provide new revenue for the faltering Emeryville software maker. Kertzman declined to provide details from a recent...

A bank is born. (Pacific Coast Bankers' Bank)
August 16, 1996... Small lenders join forces to meet their own needs California's wave of big-bank mergers is prompting community bankers to organize an institution that will provide correspondent banking services now offered by the state's larger banks....

Insurer inks $24M lease in 160 Spear. (Sedgwick James of California Inc.)
August 16, 1996... Sedgwick James of California is leaving the Transamerica pyramid for a new home across town. The Memphis, Tenn.-based insurance company has signed a lease to move its California headquarters to floors 10-15 at the 160 Spear St. office tower...

Lens firm launches magazine in visionary marketing move. (Sola International)
August 16, 1996... Sola International, a Menlo Park-based lens maker, is launching a magazine to focus its marketing efforts on potential eyeglass wearers. In an aggressive move to promote its brand in an industry with little brand identification, the company's...

Messenger service has pure motives. (Studebaker bike messenger service)(Small Business Growth Strategies)
August 16, 1996... An avid recreational cyclist who did a stint as a bike messenger on the streets of San Francisco, Michael Studebaker turned his love for two-wheeling into a "smog-free" messenger service that now has revenues approaching $1 million. After...

Skin and hair products firm saves clinic's hide. (AP Products Ltd. for Birthing Project)
August 16, 1996... Things were so bad in May that Kathryn Hall handed out layoff notices to her staff at the Sacramento-based Birthing Project. The nonprofit organization had run out of money for its national programs and local clinic. About the same time,...

Oracle plots massive expansion; new tower under construction, $70 million land buy in negotiations. (Oracle Corp.)
August 23, 1996... Oracle Corp. is launching a major office expansion to house a flood of new hires and is said to be in negotiations to plunk down $70 million to purchase another 85 acres of Peninsula real estate. The Redwood Shores-based database software giant...

Money manager lose $10M legal tangle. (Nancy Tengler's lawsuit against Spare, Kaplan, Bischel and Associates)
August 23, 1996... Money manager Nancy Tengler lost her $10 million lawsuit against her former partners at what is now Spare, Kaplan, Bischel & Associates. However, the Aug. 12 jury verdict could be just the end of round one in the legal tango that already has...

Housewares chain adds story with financing, new CEO. (Home Express Inc.; Walter Rossi)
August 23, 1996... In an effort to resolve its Chapter 11 bankruptcy and get its chain of home goods superstores back on its feet, Home Express Corp. has hired a new CEO and obtained interim financing. The company raised $50 million in asset-based debt financing...

Cured? Xoma back from death's door. (XOMA Corp.)
August 23, 1996... Xoma Corp., an apparent goner just a few years ago, has hit the comeback trail. One thing is certain: the Berkeley-based biotech has taken investors on a bumpy ride. From an April 1991 high of $32.50 a share, its stock slumped as low as $1.25...

Lab fears fallout from Congress' nuclear reaction. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
August 23, 1996... Lawrence Berkeley National Labs dream of tapping cheap, abundant energy from the same process that powers the sun may come to an abrupt ending. Legislation pending in Congress threatens to cut off funding for the lab's inertial fusion energy...

Wardrobe change has Lilli Ann dressed to thrill. (Lilli Ann Corp.'s launching of a new label)
August 23, 1996... Apparel maker Lilli Ann Corp. has launched a new label and plans to triple its San Francisco manufacturing operation. The moves come a little more than a year after the city of San Francisco helped save the company from going broke. The...

Jargon's paradigm shift created a win-win situation. (language of business)(1986-1996: A Decade in Bay Area Business)
August 23, 1996... Like science, law, academia and government bureaucracies, business has a language all its own. And like the nomenclature used by adherents of other institutions and disciplines, "corporatease" is often used to redefine, obfuscate or obliterate...

Bechtel bids to build world's longest bridge. (Bechtel Enterprises to construct 5-mile bridge linking Argentina with Uruguay)
August 30, 1996... Bechtel Enterprises is crafting a bid for a $1.3 billion project to construct the world's longest bridge - a 25-mile expanse that Argentines have dreamed of for nearly a century. The structure would span the mouth of the Rio de la Plata between...

High-tech Sega arcade eyes Oakland. (Sega Game Works plans to build 'interactive game center' on Jack London Square)
August 30, 1996... Sega GameWorks - the interactive entertainment joint venture between Sega Enterprises, Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks and MCA - has its eyes on Oakland's Jack London Square. Port of Oakland officials said it is premature to discuss the proposed...

Hong Kong realty kingpin on the move. (Pacific Eagle Corp. makes its presence felt on the California real estate industry)
August 30, 1996... Move over Sam Zell, real estate's latest buzz baron is Dr. Lo Ka-shui. In the last few months, the normally low-profile Hong Kong-based real estate group that Lo controls has emerged from its slumber and given chase to several high-profile...