San Francisco Business Times articles from December 1999

San Francisco Business Times archives from December 1999

Bay Area business takes a ride on a dot-corn rocket.
December 31, 1999... It was the year.com. In 1999, you were either online -- or out of it The Internet was the all-consuming buzz as the Bay Area solidified its position as ground-zero of the e-business revolution, throwing out new companies, new fortunes...

Dealmaker of the Year: Doerr leads VC pack.
December 31, 1999... This last year of the millennium was the year of the venture capitalist. Every measure -- from the amount of money poured into new partnerships, to the amount invested in new companies, to the average deal size -- shattered previous records...

Mergers, IPOs, buyouts are dealmaker's currency.
December 31, 1999... Banking: DAVID KALKBRENNER The sheer number of deals -- not one particular agreement -- earned Greater Bay Bancorp President and CEO David Kalkbrenner a spot as a dealmaker to watch. Within a highly charged atmosphere for bank deals,...

Have a two-hanky cry for the busted deals of 1999.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... For the Bay Area, 1999 was a year marked by mergers, acquisitions and partnerships. From e-commerce to banking, from biotechs to law firms, the entire economy has seemed blessed with the glowing handshake. That is, everything but health...

Can 1999's year-long party extend into 2000?(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... So how long can this party continue? As the clock turns from the second millennium to the third, the economic surge that took hold of the Bay Area in the middle of the 1990s shows no sign of abating. It's no longer a boom. It's more like...

Banking.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... While the big boys try to digest what's on their merger plates, smaller banks continue to load up on new services and play to customers' discontent with big-bank deals. Yet as decades-old regulatory walls crumble, technology concerns rise and...

Biotech.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Partnerships were the name of the game in biotechnology in 1999, with Bay Area companies signing some of the largest deals ever. Most of those were attempts to combine the varied elements of this fragmented industry, as classic drug companies...

Finance.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... The last year of the millennium blew away records for both venture capital investment and public market offerings, and Bay Area companies and financiers led the charge. In funding the New Economy, San Francisco investment banks are...

Health Care.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... If health care experts thought the Bay Area industry was in disarray in the past, it's a mess now. Hospitals continue to close and physician groups to founder, with ongoing shakeups in their top ranks. Added to that are further...

Internet.
December 31, 1999... Will dot-corn fever ever break? Not by the look of things, at least in the short run. VC firms are drowning in cash, with many raising record billion-dollar plus investment funds. The pace of Internet entrepreneurship hasn't slowed a...

Marketing.
December 31, 1999... The biggest story in advertising in 1999 was dot-com mania. These brash upstarts dominated the marketing landscape, pouring more than $1.3 billion into traditional ad spending through the first nine months of the year. You couldn't watch TV,...

Professional Services.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Professional service firms, from lawyers and accountants to headhunters, have found themselves in a scramble to keep up with the frenzied pace of e-commerce and emerging technology. companies. Most firms are improving compensation for...

Real Estate.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... It didn't seem possible, but 1999 once again marked a stellar year for the Bay Area real estate market -- its fourth running. With pension funds and foreign investors, most notably the Germans, buying up every office building in sight,...

Retail.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Retail in San Francisco has been riding a wave of increased interest, most notably from international retailers looking to establish a presence in Union Square. SoMa will continue to be a hotbed of activity for shopping, as Pacific Bell...

Sports & Entertainment.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... The past 12 months were punctuated by ownership tumult for some of the Bay Area's most storied sports franchises. Eddie DeBartolo was firmly displaced from the San Francisco 49ers, leaving control with his sister Denise DeBartolo-York and...

FAVORITE QUOTES.
December 31, 1999... Name: George Bell. Title: CEO. Company: Excite@Home, the Redwood City-based Internet media company. Favorite quote: "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has...

Bay Area billionaires of 1999.
December 31, 1999... No. 1: Gordon Moore Worth: $15B Age: 70 Residence: Woodside Source: Intel Corp. No. 2: Lawrence Ellison Worth: $13B Age: 55 Residence: Atherton Source: Oracle Corp. No. 3: Charles Schwab ...

Abbott Laboratories.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... But alas, government regulators stepped in and poured cold water on the party. The merger was called off in December after the Federal Trade Commission voiced concerns about antitrust implications of the merger. In a year flush with huge...

Pacific Exchange.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... In early January, the Pacific Exchange was shocked when its merger partner, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, pulled the plug on the deal. CBOE's unexpected and sudden decision was a huge blow to the Pacific Exchange, which was...

Benchmark Capital.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... When Benchmark Capital said in April that it would invest $10 million and its e-commerce expertise to Toys "R" Us to set up an online toy store, observers wondered why a well-known Silicon Valley VC firm was dancing with a brick-and-mortar...

Graham and James.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... As competition for associates and even partners went wild this year, one Bay Area firm did what lawyers do best: It sued a former suitor. Graham and James had been in talks for St. Paul, Minn-based Oppenheimer Wolff & Delaney to take...

Oakland Coliseum.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... When the Oakland A's current ownership decided not to exercise its lease at the Oakland Coliseum in 2001, triggering a possible sale, two groups emerged as potential buyers. Both vowed to keep the club in Oakland, but a local group led by...

AirTouch Communications.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... AirTouch Communications snubbed Bell Atlantic early in 1999 when it was close to finalizing a merger with the East Coast telephone company. Within days of the blessed event, AirTouch made an about-face and merged with Britain's Vodafone Group...

Rise & Fall.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... A barometer of the year's movers, shakers and fakers Carly Fiorina Hewlett-Packard may have gotten more than it bargained for. It got the buzz for hiring the first woman to lead a major tech company. It also got a leader who has...

Oracle gobbles up web names.
December 24, 1999... Tech giant stockpiles 25 addresses for expected e-commerce blitz Oracle Corp. has purchased 25 Internet domain names recently to accelerate and fortify its plans to create industry-specific online trading marketplaces. These...

Executive of the Year.
December 24, 1999... Second time around, Weisel builds a powerhouse in less than a year In the busiest year in investment banking history, San Francisco's Thomas Weisel wasn't the biggest fish, but he made the biggest splash. His new firm, Thomas Weisel...

Adland hunt bags big game.
December 24, 1999... Citron lures dot-com guru for big web push Matt Hofherr, new business savant at local ad shop Gardner, Geary, Coll & Young, has left to join rival agency Citron Haligman Bedecarre. Hofherr's expected arrival Jan. 3 marks a further...

Exec sues GGC&Y.
December 24, 1999... Advertising executive Karen Young, whose name remains on the door of Gardner, Geary, Coll & Young, is suing the San Francisco agency for more than $1 million after being quietly fired four months ago. A lawsuit filed by Young in San...

Catellus takes poison pill to ward off takeover.
December 24, 1999... Catellus Development Corp., its stock price so depressed that suitors are apparently licking their chops, has adopted a "poison pill" plan to fend off hostile takeover bids. The San Francisco-based real estate development company enacted...

Stuffed shorts.
December 24, 1999... Underwear king Joe Boxer expands with new licensing deals San Francisco's Joe Boxer Corp. is charging into the new millennium with its pants down, planning to take its "underwear revolution" into new categories of apparel and accessories,...

Record price inked for San Mateo property.
December 24, 1999... A Redwood City-based investment company is paying a record price for a Peninsula office building, underscoring the continuing torrid pace of real estate activity. Executives at the Matteson Cos. confirmed that it is buying San Mateo...

Stock Answers.
December 24, 1999... Investors breathe life into laggard biotech stocks Despite all the brilliant science underlying the biotechnology sector, many of the stocks resemble that poor old woman seen in late-night TV commercials: They've fallen and can't get up....

Embarcadero Center owner will be reaching for the sky.
December 24, 1999... In San Francisco's turbo-charged real estate market, it qualifies as a no-brainer. Who better to occupy some of the city's loftiest space, with breathtaking views: Bored tourists at $7 a pop? Or well-heeled tenants at $70 a square foot? ...

Deface value.
December 24, 1999... Earlier this year, the developer of a new 23-story office tower at 150 California St. erected a catchy construction barricade to draw attention to the downtown project. Boy, did it ever. The full-color overlay spanned 138 feet along...

Christmas came late.
December 24, 1999... There's a sparkling new digital video disk (DVD) machine under the tree for Brisbane-based Good Guys this year, but it arrived too late for long-suffering CEO Bob Gunst to enjoy it. Good Guys thrived through the '70s and '80s as Walkmans,...

Divorced Vivid heads back to the altar.
December 24, 1999... San Francisco-based e-business builder Vivid has been purchased by Net advertising firm Modem Media Poppe Tyson Inc. in a stock and cash deal totaling about $64 million. The sale of closely held Vivid comes less than six months after the...

Siebel puts its spin on web sales.
December 24, 1999... Siebel Systems has put its sales-automation software onto the Internet, spinning off a site it hopes to turn into the web's premier portal for sales personnel. Sales.com was launched this month with $27 million in venture funding from...

Poor start lets air out of Warriors' ticket rebound.
December 24, 1999... A third into its 1999-2000 season, the Golden State Warriors are drawing no more fans than last year's tepid pace -- a sign that the team may be in for another tough year at the box office. Through 12 of its 41 home dates, the Warriors'...

S.F. faces tax revolt.
December 24, 1999... Chevron, Bechtel and Levi Strauss & Co. are among 68 companies who claim they were overcharged $92 million in taxes by San Francisco. If the claim is granted, it would have a major impact on city revenues. The tax revolt stems from a...

Wells Fargo's Alaska deal.
December 24, 1999... By acquiring National Bancorp of Alaska Inc. for $907 million in stock, Wells Fargo & Co. is adding its 22nd state. National is Alaska's biggest bank with 54 branches and $3 billion in assets. The deal gives Wells 6,000 branches.

Macy's names new CEO.
December 24, 1999... Jeremiah Sullivan will succeed Michael Steinberg as CEO of Macy's West effective Jan. 3. Sullivan has been president and Robert Mettler, a Sears executive, will step into that role. Steinberg, 71, came out of retirement to lead Macy's West...

McKesson's $2 billion deal.
December 24, 1999... San Francisco's McKesson Corp. has inked a six-year contract with drug wholesaler, Phar-Mor Inc. McKesson will supply Phar-Mor with pharmaceuticals and could result in sales worth $2 billion for McKesson.

FTC kills Alza merger.
December 24, 1999... The merger between Alza and Abbott Laboratories fizzled after Federal Trade Commission investigators voiced antitrust concerns. Palo Alto-based Alza will take a $10 million to $15 million charge for the unconsummated deal. Alza is known for...

OnDisplay goes public.
December 24, 1999... San Ramon-based OnDisplay Inc. raised $98 million on its first trading day. The Internet business-to-business software maker's market value zoomed to nearly $1.5 billion. The company lost over $9 million during its last nine months on...

Ask Jeeves' holiday suit.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... A pair of MIT researchers have slapped Emeryville's Ask Jeeves with a patent suit. The suit, filed in Boston, claims Ask Jeeves uses natural language systems that were patented five years ago by artificial intelligence researchers Boris Katz...

EA's stock dives.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Electronic Arts' stock took a 26 percent one-day plunge when it reported its second quarter may be adversely effected by lower-than-expected sales of software for Nintendo's N64 console system. The company's stock had soared earlier in the...

Oakland lofts on hold.
December 24, 1999... Developer Embarcadero Pacific Co.'s plan for 105 loft units in Jack London Square was shot down by an Alamed Superior Court judge, who overruled Oal?land City Council's green light for the pro?ect. Neighbors protested the plan's parkin and...

Old Navy sails north.
December 24, 1999... Old Navy is going international, expanding into Canada. Gap Inc., Old Navy's parent company, acquired a 738,000 square-foot warehouse on a 58- acre site outside Toronto to serve as its distribution center for new stores planned in 2001. Gap...

AltaVista going public.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Palo Alto-based search engine AltaVista filed for a $300 million initial public offering. The site is the fifth most popular Internet search engine behind leaders like Yahoo and Excite@Home. The IPO filing comes four months after CMGI...

VeriSign to buy Signio.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... VeriSign is acquiring Signio Inc. for about $840 million in stock. Signio is a Redwood Shores company that develops e-commerce software used in online transactions. VeriSign is a leader in Internet security technology based in Mountain View.

Schwab goes down under.
December 24, 1999... Charles Schwab & Co. is taking a 50 percent stake in Australia's largest online services company, Ecorp Ltd. Kerry Packer, among Australia's most affluent businessmen, owns Ecorp. Schwab will offer financial services on the service. Terms of...

Kaiser hikes emergency fees.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Kaiser Permanente is more than doubling its co-payment fees for visits to its emergency rooms. The new $35 fee begins in January and is up from fees that ranged from $5 to $15. Kaiser said employers who pay premiums requested the higher fees.

Cell Genesys gets cold feet.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Foster City's Cell Genesys is trying to wriggle out of its sale to Genzyme Corp. for $350 million. Cell Genesys' board has advised shareholders to vote down the deal after it failed to get a higher price for the company. Cell Genesys'...

Oracle, Boeing talking.
December 24, 1999... Oracle Corp. is negotiating with Boeing Co. to create an online aerospace marketplace. Oracle, which has a similar arrangement with Ford Motor Co., would link Boeing to its 31,000 suppliers who sell the aerospace giant over 3 million jet...

SFO's $400 million overrun.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... The expansion to San Francisco International Airport will run $400 million over its original $2.4 billion budget, published reports said. The biggest addition is a $200 million project to run BART to the airport. The city has issued $2.6...

Kari Novatney.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Name: Kari Novatney. Title: General Manager. Company: Metreon, the San Francisco retail Entertainment center. Metreon is owned by Sony development, a division of Sony Corporation of America. Education: Bachelor of science degree...

Providian polishes its plastic act, but still needs work.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... When Providian Financial Corp.'s mailing came through the slot, I snatched it from my wife's clutches. An application for a Providian credit card -- a chance for a banking reporter to take an unadulterated look at consumer activists'...

Wells scores with Sun, but will bank punt?(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Wells Fargo & Co. is reviewing its Sun Bowl name-sponsorship agreement as the gun sounds on its current pact But it certainly didn't hurt the Dec. 31 game to nab two football teams this year from strong Wells territories: Minnesota and...

Kelmscott devours its fi regional printer since July.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... San Francisco's Kelinscott Communications, a printing industry rollup setup in July by the local buyout firm Duff, Ackerman & Goodrich, has bought its fifth regional printing company, snagging Maximum Graphics Inc. of Chaska, Minn. ...

Redpoint lands $600M.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Redpoint Ventures, the spinoff firm resulting from the breakup of Brentwood Venture Capital and Institutional Venture Partners, has snagged $600 million for a first-time Internet and information technology fund. Redpoint Ventures I...

Homegrown architecture fr wins top national honors.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... San Francisco-based Genlser Architecture, Design and Planning Worldwide was chosen as the 2000 firm of the year by the American Institute of Architects. In winning the award, Gensler joins a pantheon of all-time great designers and past...

Graphic designer helps architects land jobs.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... When she was running a graphic design temporary agency, Sally Newson kept hearing from architecture firms hoping she could find them temporary project managers, draftspeople and the like. Pretty soon Newson realized she was on to...

Huntsman Group working over the holidays.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... President Daniel Huntsman of Huntsman Architectural Group thought the year would finally slow down as everyone stopped to recover from holiday parties, including his firm's. But five major deals, all driven by e-commerce and the venture...

One more trophy for Bay Area's Hensel Phelps.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... A team led by Hensel Phelps Construction Co.'s San Jose office received the Design-Building Institute of America's excellence award for their work on both the new and retrofitted city administration buildings in Oakland. Team members...

New SOMA e-business incubator swaps aid for equity.
December 24, 1999... A new private incubator has opened in San Francisco's SOMA district to nurture and mentor e-business startups...with a twist. Dubbed campsix Inc., the incubator has a venture capital element, in which in addition to providing the space...

Autodesk CFO goes gourmet with Tavalo.
December 24, 1999... Christine Tsingos, former treasurer for Autodesk Inc., left the San Rafael-based software company this month to join Tavalo, an online retailer of gourmet cooking, entertaining and gift products. Tavolo, formerly known as Digital Chef,...

Niku Corp.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Niku Corp., the Redwood City software company which manages professional services, completed a $40 million round of financing. New investors include Amerindo Investment Advisors, Charter Growth Capital, Essex Investment Management, and...

MVX.com.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... MVX.com of Novato secured second-round funding of $18.5 million from Mayfield Fund and executives of Texas Pacific Group. MVX has also secured an additional $1.5 million in funding from other private investors, raising the total to about $10...

Quadrant Technology Ventures.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Acteva, the San Francisco-based provider of transaction services where consumers can purchase tickets or make payments, completed an $8 million round of private funding from investors including Jafco American Ventures, the Rosewood Stone...

Inside Traders.
December 24, 1999... A look at buying and selling of shares by Bay Area executives Chades Schwab Corp. Donald Fisher Chairman Gap...

New e-accounts sweeten the pot at BBDO West.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Two newly launched Internet businesses, eCandy.com and Headlight.com, have opted to make BBDO West their advertising agency, bringing with them a projected $30 million in new business. BBDO West President and CEO Tom Hollerbach credited...

FCB adds online business.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Foote, Cone & Belding San Francisco has landed the business of financial news web site CBSMarketWatch.com. FCB will take charge of CBSMarketWatch.com's strategic and creative development for print, television and radio advertising, with...

N.Y. ad guru moves to S.F.
December 24, 1999... McCann-Erickson/A&L announced the appointment of a new chairman, Barrie Hedge, to run the San Francisco office. Previously, Hedge, 52, was founder and long-time president of New York agency Angotti, Thomas, Hedge. ATH earned a reputation...

Got staff?(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Citron, Haligman, Bedecarre has set aside a $250,000 kitty for employees who snag live bodies. Employees get $3,000 per new hire, CHB President Tom Bedecarre reports.

Odiorne gets a $5M order.(Brief Article)
December 24, 1999... Opentable.com, a web-based restaurant reservation service, has selected Odiorne Wilde Narraway & Partners as its agency of record. Account budget: about $5 million.

Duty-free retailer lands in N.Y., charts new course for Miami.
December 24, 1999... Duty-free retailer DFS Group Ltd. is one airport location away from completing a positioning strategy to locate stores inside four key international airports in the United States. San Francisco-based DFS said last week that it has secured...

Gazoontite ingests $26.5M.
December 24, 1999... Clicks and mortar retailer Gazoontite.com's mission of bringing clean air to everyone received a boost of support -- $26.5 million in venture capital funding. Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Oak Investment Partners anchored the...

Labor shortages hit small firms: Pay up or else.
December 24, 1999... The labor crunch is dramatically affecting those who can least afford it--small business. In a study, the SBA found that about half the nation's small businesses can't find enough workers and over 60 percent of small firms are...

[UPSIDE DOWN EXCLAMATION POINT]Viva direct mail!(Company Profile)
December 24, 1999... Head Quarters Advertising rides SBC expansion Most small businesses are lucky if they can capitalize on one big trend. Horacio Gomes' HeadQuarters Advertising, Inc. was blessed with two and is making the most of it. The Hispanic...

Bruce Skrien.(Interview)
December 24, 1999... Title: Principal Company: Process is a San Francisco-based provider of corporate interiors whose services include contract furnishings and design consultation. Founded: 1998. Employees: One. I outsource as much as possible. ...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.
December 24, 1999... ADVERTISING/PR InterActive Public Relations Inc., the San Francisco-based public relations agency, has named Susan Hook to senior account executive. Prior to joining InterActive, Hook worked at ZD Events in Boston on its Internet.inc...

Van Kasper joint venture to play equity matchmaker.
December 24, 1999... Investment bank First Security Van Kasper has teamed up with online investment source Direct Stock Market Inc. in a bid to put together wealthy investors with small companies needing funding. San Francisco-based First Security will...

Net beauty site Reflect.com taps Hasbro exec for CEO post.
December 24, 1999... Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble has hired a former Hasbro toy executive to run its new San Franciscobased online beauty products store, Reflect.com. Virginia "Ginger" Kent, the former president of Hasbro's U.S. toy unit, was...

Online insurance firms pour money into ads.
December 24, 1999... As the tide of online insurance competitors rises, relatively established, well-capitalized players like InsWeb Corp. are betting high-profile ad campaigns will drown out newcomers. But some market watchers say the spate of money spent on...