San Francisco Business Times articles from December 1996

San Francisco Business Times archives from December 1996

Wells Fargo jumps on ATM-fee bandwagon. (Wells Fargo Bank N.A.'s plan to charge fees for non-customers; automated teller machines)
December 6, 1996... Wells Fargo Bank is planning to follow Bank of America's lead in charging non-customers to use their ATMs. "We'll be implementing the fee during December," said Wells Fargo spokeswoman Lorna Doubet. The bank, with 4,300 ATMs, will charge...

H-P, Microsoft join SBA in small business venture. (Hewlett-Packard Co; Microsoft Corp.; Small Business Administration)
December 6, 1996... Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp. have entered a sponsorship deal with the local chapter of the Small Business Administration to open an entrepreneurial training center. The innovative deal enables the SBA to open a facility it could not...

Computer retailers arming for battle. (opening of computer stores in San Francisco Bay Area despite stiff competition)
December 6, 1996... Major computer retailers are coming back to the Bay Area for more. Despite heavy competition and razor-thin margins that are squeezing consumer electronics retailers nationwide, CompUSA, Computer City, Egghead Software and Computown all have...

Local merchants stepping up attempts to shake off chains. (local businesses versus fast food chains)
December 6, 1996... Whether you are hankering for a pizza in Potrero Hill or a Big Mac in Montreal, it is a fact of modern life that you can rely on chain retailers to be there for you. But increasingly, community business groups and neighborhood activists are...

Circuit City plugs into Livermore for expansion: electronics retailer to build area's largest distribution hub. (Circuit City Stores Inc. plans to expand to Livermore, California)
December 6, 1996... Circuit City is planning a massive expansion of its Livermore distribution center. The Richmond, Va.-based electronics retailer wants to build a nearly 1-million-square-foot facility - doubling the size of its 450,000-square-foot distribution...

Kopp on top: director of S.F. medical group turns back latest attempt to seize power. (BayCare Medical Group Inc. executive director and founder Walter Kopp)
December 6, 1996... Walter Kopp has survived the second attempt in two years to carve him out of the picture at the San Francisco medical group he founded. Kopp, executive director and founder of BayCare Medical Group Inc. and a well-known name in Northern...

BankAmerica nips, tucks for major restructuring. (BankAmerica Corp.'s reorganization policies)
December 6, 1996... Short-term costs go under the knife; Wall Street likes bank's new look BankAmerica Corp. has launched a long-term restructuring to rein in expenses, but its corporate cost-cutters aren't waiting the two to three years it will take to complete....

Young brokers can break the bank, or end up broke. (real estate brokers' on-the-job training)
December 6, 1996... Real estate brokers are made, not born, and the recipe hasn't changed much over the years. At most brokerages, young trainees are brought into the business the same way they have been for decades, with a training process that's equal parts...

Kaiser shuffles its pack of executives in Bay Area. (Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.)
December 6, 1996... Executives are playing musical chairs again at Kaiser Permanente. Two high-level local honchos, including East Bay operations head Don Oxley, are shifting to new positions and a top South Bay official is retiring. Oxley, Kaiser's vice...

In S.F. investment kingdom, all roads lead to one place. (Cushman and Wakefield Inc. dominates San Francisco, California's real estate business)
December 6, 1996... When it comes to buying and selling buildings in San Francisco, Jeff Congdon and Russ Sherman own the city. With the sale of the $100-million-plus One Maritime Plaza later this month, the Cushman & Wakefield brokers will close the banks on a...

Vietnam sees how to put B in B-school. (Vietnam's National Economics University representatives tour US business schools)
December 6, 1996... A team from Vietnam's only university to offer a Western-style MBA program toured area business schools last week, hoping to learn how to better interact with the business world. Representatives of National Economics University in Hanoi,...

Developers turned managers will keep their new identity. (combined functions of real estate developers and property managers)
December 6, 1996... The lines used to be clear. Developers bought property and constructed buildings, reaping huge fees. Property managers supervised the daily maintenance of the building, ensuring that everything was running smoothly. Then there were the...

Bay Area development takes wing as cranes soar again. (San Francisco Bay Area real estate development)
December 6, 1996... Twelve strong months of real estate activity has pumped new blood into the lives of Bay Area developers. With the exception of downtown San Francisco, construction cranes are a common sight once again. More than 3 million square feet of...

Clif ascent: flavor fuels energy bar's climb. (Clif Bar of Kali's SportNaturals Inc.)(Small Business Growth Strategies)
December 6, 1996... Gary Erickson was on a 175-mile bicycle trek in 1989 when the inspiration for Kali's SportNaturals Inc. hit him right in the gut. After downing several energy bars to maintain his stamina, Erickson couldn't stomach one more bite. "I wanted a...

Software slump creates open space in Marin job figures. (shrinking workforce of Marin County, California software companies)
December 6, 1996... Software companies and other high-tech enterprises, seen as Marin County's best chance to create new jobs, haven't filled the savior role very well. Several high-tech angels - including San Rafael's Autodesk Inc. and electronic publisher CCH...

Airport food survey flies in the face of San Jose. (San Jose airport's food service)(Editorial)
December 6, 1996... San Jose is feeling terminal envy. The city discovered it was snubbed in a recent study of airport cuisine. San Francisco International Airport was included. So was Oakland. Even Cleveland - to its misfortune. Armed with nutritional charts,...

Worker safety rules face a perilous future. (occupational health and safety)(Column)
December 6, 1996... Shirley Smith is a single mother who took a job at a poultry processing factory a couple of years ago. Moving at a blistering pace, she used a knife to cut through the flesh and bone of chicken breasts. She did this eight to nine hours a day,...

PSE finds new home south of market. (Pacific Stock Exchange)
December 13, 1996... After a year-long process to find a new home, the Pacific Stock Exchange has zeroed in on an unexpected site: a property on Folsom Street between Second and Third streets, owned by its current landlord. The PSE's board voted unanimously to...

Kaiser will doctor physicians' pay. (reduce pay for Kaiser Permanente doctors)
December 13, 1996... Managed care is about to squeeze doctors at Kaiser Permanente in a highly personal manner. Pay for some senior Kaiser doctors in Northern California will dip 9.1 percent Jan. 1, according to internal Kaiser documents obtained by the Business...

Ellison cleans house at nCube. (downsizing by nCube Corp. CEO Larry Ellison)
December 13, 1996... Larry Ellison has pulled in the reins at nCube Corp., eliminating senior management, cutting jobs and downsizing the media server maker's mission into a service unit for Oracle Corp. The fiery Oracle CEO owns more than 90 percent of nCube and...

Foreign nations to U.S. firms: leave your mess at home. (increased environmental standards for US firms)
December 13, 1996... The 1984 gas explosion that killed 2,500 people in Bhopal, India, and reduced Union Carbide's name to ignominy also left a more uplifting legacy: U.S. companies venturing abroad are now expected to tug along the same state-of-the-art...

Satellite mapping company revolves around hot-button environmental controversies. (Pacific Meridian Resources)
December 13, 1996... Kass Green is equally comfortable with foresters who chop redwoods and tree-huggers who want to save the spotted owl. She has to be: Both are her clients at Pacific Meridian Resources. As land use issues become political hot potatoes, from the...

Solano County plan to reuse the sediment from bay dredging is strictly for the birds. (Levine-Fricke Recon CEO Jim Levine's plan to create a wetland using San Francisco Bay sludge)
December 13, 1996... On remote Solano County scrub land where cattle have munched for a century, Jim Levine has other ideas. Levine envisions a fully restored tidal marsh where clapper rails nest in the tulles, river otters forage in the bulrush - and the property...

Contracts from military are missing in action in Bosnia. (decline of San Francisco environmental consulting industry)
December 13, 1996... The "Bosnia effect" is dragging down the Bay Area's environmental consulting industry. It's not that anybody is doing or expecting arty work in the war-torn Balkan nation. Rather, the "Bosnia effect" is industry shorthand for what's happened...

Karate kid's latest match: TV. ('Adventures with Kanga Roddy' children's television show)
December 13, 1996... At the age of 19, George Chung opened a little karate studio in Los Gatos. Fifteen years later, he has a string of 11 studios, a steady gig as karate-meister to the San Francisco 49ers and a children's television show about to air on PBS. Not...

Small business pushes bid to regulate regulators. (efforts to reduce small business regulation)
December 13, 1996... Excessive regulation remains a big burden for small and midsize businesses. Typically, the annual cost of red tape from governmental regulations is twice as much for smaller-sized businesses twice as it is for their larger counterparts. For...

Chicken chain here to roost; 25 outlets sought by Koo Koo Roo.
December 20, 1996... Whimsically-named Los Angeles restaurant chain Koo Koo Roo Inc. has targeted the Bay Area for a well-financed expansion of its gourmet fast-food concept. Backed by high-profile investors, Koo Koo Roo is aggressively seeking 20 to 25 Bay Area...

Sex a divisive issue at the Gap; Gap Inc. tests separate stores for men, women.
December 20, 1996... Gap Inc. may have found a way to double the number of its flagship stores in existing markets. The San Francisco-based retailer has begun testing separate men's and women's Gap stores as a way of segmenting its market. It is also looking at...

Mother's Cookies finds its buyer. (Mother's Cake and Cookie Co.; President Enterprises Corp.)
December 20, 1996... Specialty Foods Inc., parent of Mother's Cake and Cookies, said it has reached terms to sell the bakery to President Enterprises Corp. for $130 million. The agreement is seen as good news in Oakland. Observers feared that the sale of the...

Packaging company plans to get into China for peanuts. (FP International)
December 20, 1996... Redwood City-based FP International is bringing plastic peanut packaging to China. FP is opening a small factory in Shanghai's Pudong free trade zone in January to serve the export market. China's cheap labor has attracted foreign companies...

Entrepreneur sees digital photo op. (Alexis Gerard)(Small Business Growth Strategies)
December 20, 1996... When digital photo-imaging caught on in the early '90s, Alexis Gerard saw an opportunity in the convergence of two fields where he had knowledge and experience. "What I brought to the party," Gerard said, "was the perspective of photography...

Chevron, Shorenstein lead soft-money pack. (Walter Shorenstein; political contributions)
December 27, 1996... 1995-96 soft money donors Largest Bay Area contributors Contributor Dollar amount Chevron Corp. $352,900 Yogesh Gandhi 325,000 Walter Shorenstein ...

United Airlines grounds its service. (airline to implement new ground service at San Francisco International Airport)
December 27, 1996... Will stress helping passengers in airports United Airlines is aiming to bring the so-called friendly skies down to earth in an effort to control the last source of customer loss: on-the-ground aggravation. Over the next few months, the...

GST Telecom lays groundwork for competition. (bypass carrier in the final phase of completing its underground fiber-optic network to serve eastern part of San Francisco Bay Area)
December 27, 1996... Telecom company challenges Pacific Bell in East Bay Spurred by deregulation, advanced technology and new competitive conditions, local access provider GST Telecom is laying the fiber-optic foundation to dial up in Pacific Bell's backyard. In...

Ken Sletten. (chief executive officer of Rudolph and Sletten Inc.)
December 27, 1996... PERSONAL INFORMATION Name: Ken Sletten. Company: Rudolph & Sletten Inc., the Foster City-based construction company. Title: CEO. Education: Bachelors degree in civil engineering from University of Colorado; masters in business...

Web businesses become interwoven. (Electronic Pen join forces with Professional Business Solutions to form CommerceWave Inc.)(Company Profile)
December 27, 1996... "I know how to network, I know how to negotiate and I know how to bring people together," said Sandy Dhuyvetter. Dhuyvetter used all those skills to forge an alliance that gave her web content development business, the Electronic Pen, access to...

Booming East Bay economy offsets military job losses. (employment levels in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, California)(Industry Overview)
December 27, 1996... The public sector in the East Bay has long been a major employer, a point that is clear from this year's San Francisco Business Times List of the 25 largest employers in the East Bay (see page 18). What isn't clear, though, is the shrinking...