San Francisco Business Times articles from February 1995

San Francisco Business Times archives from February 1995

Residential brokerages battle for the Peninsula. (residential real estate brokerage in San Francisco, California)
February 3, 1995... The battle to dominate the Bay Area's residential real estate scene is heating up. Coldwell Banker's acquisition of Fox & Carskadon, the Peninsula's largest brokerage, is triggering a counter move by Cornish & Carey, a Peninsula powerhouse in...

Kobe quake shakes up business, rattles nerves: seismic specialists weigh damage with Bay Area in mind.
February 3, 1995... When the earth rolls, so does EQE International. Within hours of the quake that devastated Kobe, Japan, Jan. 17, a dozen engineers from the earthquake risk assessment and prevention company's roster of 400 were converging on the port city from...

S.F. General inks groundbreaking managed care deal. (contract between San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center and PacifiCare of California)
February 3, 1995... San Francisco General Hospital has signed a Medi-Cal managed care contract with one of the state's largest HMOs that could move one in five of San Francisco's approximately 50,000 welfare recipients into the innovative program by early next year....

Electronic Arts' new game plan: buy talent.
February 3, 1995... Electronic Arts, the San Mateo-based entertainment software maker, is rolling forward with new acquisitions, after being jilted last year by Broderbund Software. As part of a long-term strategy to invest in top-notch creative talent, EA has...

East Bay hospital merger is dead on arrival. (between ValleyCare Health Systems and John Muir Medical Center)
February 3, 1995... A hospital merger expected to crystallize the future of health care in the East Bay's suburbanized eastern rim unexpectedly collapsed late last month. ValleyCare Health System's governing community-based Hospital Council vetoed a merger with...

Keying on new products: Schlage tries to pick its way into locks for custom homes. (Schlage Lock Co.)
February 3, 1995... The Schlage Lock Co. is trying to break into the better-home security market. The San Francisco-based company unveiled a line of premium-priced locks in late January aimed at capturing a big piece of the $120-million custom-home market....

Lawyers could get ally in wage fight: Teamsters.
February 3, 1995... San Francisco's 320 district attorneys, city attorneys and public defenders are considering joining the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in an attempt to get a raise. Forced by a new law to collectively bargain with the city for the...

Earnings not enough to make stockholders smile. (San Francisco, California, companies)
February 3, 1995... Several Bay Area companies reporting strong earnings growth are finding something that they might not have expected: disappointed shareholders. The trend, which has particularly hurt technology companies that have fallen the least bit short of...

Giants tussle in wireless race. (competition between Pacific Telesis Group and Craig McCaw for wireless communication market)
February 3, 1995... After two months of high-stakes bidding for wireless communications frequencies covering California and Nevada, Pacific Telesis Group is leading the chase but facing serious competition from cellular pioneer Craig McCaw. The point of...

Travel groups hope two can live almost as cheaply as one. (plan to merge Oakland Convention Center and the Oakland Convention & Visitors Bureau)
February 3, 1995... Two travel and convention agencies representing the City of Oakland have unveiled a preliminary proposal to consolidate their functions as a single organization. The planned merger of the Oakland Convention Center and the Oakland Convention &...

TAB Products Co. (proxy report excerpts) (Company Profile)
February 3, 1995... ASE: TBP 1400 Page Mill Road Palo Alto, CA 94304 (415) 852-2400 UPDATE TAB Products Co. manufactures and markets general office filing and furniture systems which are sold worldwide. While revenues in the second quarter of fiscal year 1995...

Insurance pull-out puts home sales on shaky foundation. (Insurance & Employee Benefits)
February 3, 1995... California's homeowners' insurance crunch is starting to squeeze home buyers and sellers, and no end is in sight. As the availability of coverage shrinks drastically, insurance companies and brokers are losing millions of dollars in premiums...

Insuring physical assets gives companies leg up: specialty 'body part' insurance not just for athletes and entertainers anymore. (Insurance & Employee Benefits)
February 3, 1995... On Dreyer's Ice Cream's list of vital corporate assets, John Harrison's taste buds rank near the top. CEOs may come and go, but in the sweet and rarefied world of ice-cream making, the skills of taster Harrison can be a key competitive weapon....

Troubles cloud premium year for insurance brokers. (Insurance & Employee Benefits)
February 3, 1995... The Bay Area's top insurance brokerages posted an overall gain of 19.5 percent in premium volume last year, as the total for the region's Top 25 firms leaped from $3.63 billion in 1993 to an impressive $4.34 billion in 1994. Even so, it was a...

High-priced doctors given the boot by medical group. (Hill Physicians Medical Group Inc.)
February 10, 1995... In a dramatic surgical strike likely to be repeated by other Bay Area medical groups, Hill Physicians Medical Group has axed close to 200 medical specialists in recent weeks, including at least 54 in the East Bay. The cuts - designed to reduce...

PacBell's info highway plan hits the skids. (Pacific Bell)
February 10, 1995... Stymied by opposition from the cable television industry, consumer groups, state regulators and businesses, Pacific Bell has fallen a year behind in its plans to launch a $16 billion statewide communications superhighway. Construction of the...

Hotel chain sought for Pacific Center. (Ahmanson Developments Inc. to sell the old building in San Francisco, California)
February 10, 1995... Stepping up its quiet efforts to sell the Pacific Center, Ahmanson Development has hired brokers Whitney Cressman to find a hotel chain to buy it. Whitney Cressman will seek a major international hotel operator to purchase the...

Safeway investing $400M in new stores, renovations. (Safeway Inc.)
February 10, 1995... Oakland-based Safeway Inc. is planning to spend more than $400 million to open new grocery stores and renovate many of its existing ones in 1995. Safeway, which tallied record earnings of $239.7 million in 1994, will open 25 new stores and...

Insurance break for banks could imperil S&Ls; disparity in premiums would put thrifts at disadvantage.
February 10, 1995... California's savings and loan industry is warning legislators that proposed disparities in the insurance premium banks and S&Ls must pay on deposits threatens to imperil the thrift industry. "It's not fair," said Roger Gordon, chairman of San...

It's best in the West; Pacific Gateway prepares to splurge in California. (Pacific Gateway Properties Inc.)
February 10, 1995... Pacific Gateway Properties is unloading its holdings outside the state in preparation for an office-buying binge in the Bay Area, Sacramento and Southern California. The sell-off will involve at least five of the eight properties in its...

Baby docs robbed from cradle - or were they fired?
February 10, 1995... Summit Medical Center, which looked like a goner three years ago, has recruited a premier perinatal medical group away from arch-rival Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley in what the Oakland hospital is characterizing as a "major coup." Alta...

H-P, IBM win patent derby; Bay Area top 10 register 1,499 bright ideas. (San Francisco Bay Area)
February 10, 1995... Bringing a surge of new ideas and inventions to the marketplace, Bay Area companies and universities last year picked up new patents at a furious pace. Leading the local pack: Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard Co., which was awarded 437 patents...

Profits show trucking firm rolled right through strike. (Consolidated Freightways Inc.)
February 10, 1995... Consolidated Freightways of Palo Alto posted record revenues for 1994, despite losing $42 million during a monthlong Teamsters strike at its long-haul truck division, and a dramatic restructuring has positioned the company for a strong 1995....

Asia final funding frontier for cash-strapped biotechs.
February 10, 1995... With capital harder for biotechs to come by during 1994, nearly two dozen cash-hungry companies have headed to the Far East in search of fresh infusions. Palo Alto-based Inhale Therapeutic Systems and Redwood City-based Genelabs Technologies...

Deal of the year: Roche Syntex. (Roche Holding Ltd.'s acquisition of Syntex Corp.)
February 10, 1995... $5.3-billion buy boosts giant Swiss pharmaceutical Roche Holding Ltd.'s $5.3 billion acquisition of Syntex Corp. was not only the biggest Bay Area deal in a year marked by robust merger and acquisition activity, it is also believed to be the...

Williams-Sonoma gets ready to cook. (Williams-Sonoma Inc.)
February 17, 1995... Williams-Sonoma Inc. isn't worried about too many cooks spoiling the broth. The San Francisco-based kitchenware retailer is expanding its top management ranks in a move designed to keep the half-billion-dollar company cooking along at the...

Financial rebound stirs uncertainty at Grubb & Ellis. (Grubb & Ellis Co.)
February 17, 1995... Despite operating without a chief executive officer for most of 1994, Grubb & Ellis Co. posted an annual profit for the first time since 1989. But getting back into the black is unlikely to resolve the uncertainty hanging over the company's...

KQED's D.C. defense: survival of the fittest. (broadcasting station KQED)
February 17, 1995... Shed no tears for public broadcasting station KQED. Despite tough talk from Republican congressmen who want to chop public broadcasting from the federal budget, San Francisco-based KQED Channel 9 - the Bay Area's largest public television...

Pasta chain grows by using its noodle. (Monterey Pasta Co.)
February 17, 1995... Big franchise deal to give Monterey Pasta 75 new outlets In a bid to spice up its expansion, Monterey Pasta Co. has enlisted a major partner to open 75 of its fast-food pasta shops in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. In its first...

Arcade's reigning royalty. (Lazer-Tron Corp.; royalties for its ticket redemption system)
February 17, 1995... Lazer-Tron patent makes competitors pay licensing fees Arcade-game maker Lazer-Tron Corp. has been granted a patent it believes will secure its lock on the fastest-growing segment of the coin-operated games market. Approval for the second of...

Wireless signal: PacBell leads in network bidding. (Pacific Bell)
February 17, 1995... Knee-deep in a bidding war, Pacific Bell has established beachheads to build a wireless network throughout California in anticipation of winning coveted territories in a federal auction of air waves. As of Feb. 15, the San Francisco-based...

Sybase could be coming soon to a sports arena near you. (Sybase Inc.)
February 17, 1995... In a bid to boost public awareness of its name and products, Sybase Inc. is sponsoring major sporting events, and the effort appears to be paying off. Although the Emeryville-based relational database software company is on track to become a...

Suddenly, interest is swirling around Pacific Bank. (Pacific Bank N.A.)
February 24, 1995... Key shareholder increases stake, other banks show interest in buyout deal Pacific Bank's planned sale to Western Bank for $55 million has sparked the interest of other possible suitors. Singapore investor Cheong Swee Kheng last week raised...

Area code a call to arms for telcos. (Los Angeles, California; telephone companies)
February 24, 1995... Pacific Bell is engaged in a feud with its wireless offspring AirTouch Communications, long distance carrier MCI and an assortment of other would-be local phone service providers over how a new area code for the Los Angeles area should be...

GOP plan for Hetch Hetchy all wet. (Republican Party-led Congress; Hetch Hetchy Reservoir)
February 24, 1995... Business brass marches on Washington The Committee on Jobs has mobilized some of San Francisco's leading corporate figures to fight plans by the Republican-led Congress to nationalize the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power Project, a move that could...

O'Leary wires a half-billion in energy pacts. (Dept. of Energy Sec. Hazel R. O'Leary; energy contracts between San Francisco, California, and Indian companies)
February 24, 1995... Executives from Bechtel, Chevron and Kenetech Corp. are among a plane load of business people firming up multimillion dollar energy contracts as they accompany U.S. Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary across Asia. O'Leary snagged more than $500...

Health-care providers wheezing from HMO cuts. (San Francisco, California; health maintenance organizations' rate reductions)
February 24, 1995... The success of the giant California Public Employees' Retirement System in negotiating steep HMO rate reductions will translate into even more drastic surgery at Bay Area hospitals and medical groups, according to rattled health-care executives...

Kaiser shrinks Richmond facility to fit strategy. (Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.; Richmond, California hospital)
February 24, 1995... Kaiser Permanente, which indicated last year that it might curtail operations at some of its 15 Bay Area hospitals, is downgrading its Richmond hospital this fall from a traditional acute-care facility to a mini hospital that Kaiser is...

Port tries to make spot hot again. (Port of San Francisco; Mission Rock Resort restaurant and dive bar)
February 24, 1995... The Port of San Francisco will sign a lease next month it hopes will pave the way for a massive renovation of the dilapidated Mission Rock Resort, a popular dive bar and restaurant near Pier 64 that has fallen into disrepair over the years....

Electronic Arts scores new HQ on the Peninsula. (Electronic Arts Inc.; headquarters; office building)
February 24, 1995... Ending its quest for space, Electronic Arts will build its new corporate headquarters at Shores Center in Redwood Shores, as the anchor tenant in a new 885,000-square-foot office complex. By early 1998, the creator of computer and video games...

UCSF dips toe in managed-care water with Sutter Health deal. (University of California, San Francisco; Sutter Health System)
February 24, 1995... UC San Francisco has signed a managed-care contract with Sacramento's Sutter Health that is expected to funnel significant numbers of patients needing high-end specialty care to its UC Medical Center. The two health-care giants characterized...

Juice maker's expansion strategy is bearing fruit. (Odwalla Inc.)
February 24, 1995... South San Francisco and Davenport-based Odwalla Inc. has squeezed into another lucrative regional market for its fruit and vegetable juices with a $2.5-million acquisition of a Denver company. The acquisition is another step by the $20-million...

Walker Interactive Systems. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
February 24, 1995... NASDAQ: WALK 303 Second Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 (415) 495-8811 UPDATE Walker Interactive Systems is a provider of business and financial applications software. For the third quarter 1994, the company reported an increase in revenue...

Montgomery places winning bet at the mutual window. (Montgomery Asset Management L.P.; mutual funds) (Banking & Finance Quarterly)
February 24, 1995... Turning its fund managers loose creates $4.5-billion mutual-fund powerhouse You might say Montgomery Asset Management makes a strong argument for market timing. That's not to comment on the firm's ability to discern when to buy and sell...

IPO drought in '94 dries up liquidity for young companies. (San Francisco, California businesses; initial public offerings; 1994) (Banking & Finance Quarterly)
February 24, 1995... It is no coincidence that only two of the Bay Area's 15 largest initial public offerings in 1994 took place in the second half of the year. Investors and underwriters came into the year with strong momentum from a market that produced a record...