San Francisco Business Times articles from February 1999

San Francisco Business Times archives from February 1999

Multimedia spurs building: developers' $80M project to ease housing, office crunch.
February 26, 1999... A local development company backed by out-of-town money is planning an $80 million mixed-use project on the old Gallo Salame factory site south of Market Street. The developers, San Francisco-based Mariposa Management Co. and Miami-based...

Toodle-oo to Yahoo! Rise of business portals to give employees everything they need.
February 26, 1999... The popularity of consumer Internet portals like Yahoo! is spurring large companies to develop their own customized web gateways that give employees access to important corporate information as well as the latest news, sports scores and stock...

San Bruno: Navy ships out, developers to sail in.(San Bruno, CA; US Navy gives up property)(Brief Article)
February 26, 1999... Choice 20-acre site near future BART station could sell for up to $30 million The U.S. Navy will sell its 20-acre facility in San Bruno, opening up a prime piece of development land on the Peninsula. The Navy site is at the...

Whole new card game: credit-card titan Providian shuffles its pack and starts dealing on the Web.(Providian Financial Corp.)
February 26, 1999... San Francisco's Providian Financial Corp. is setting up an e-commerce division to create an aggressive online channel to market credit cards and other financial products to consumers. The city's second-largest bank posted record earnings...

Layoffs, exec moves hit CrossWorlds.(CrossWorlds Software Inc.)
February 26, 1999... CrossWorlds Software Inc., the Burlingame-based company which has basked in the notoriety of glamorous CEO Katrina Garnett, has laid off almost 10 percent of its work force and lost at least three senior executives. In spite of what...

Pact with ad giant puts S.F. shop in big leagues.(Ogilvey and Mather North America; Grant, Scott and Hurley)(Brief Article)
February 26, 1999... San Francisco's Grant, Scott & Hurley is one of seven independent ad shops from around the country that has inked an unusual partnership with ad giant Ogilvy & Mather North America. The new alliance, dubbed the Syndicate, allows O&M to...

PowerBar makes big play for sports-drink business.(Brief Article)
February 26, 1999... The war for energy-bar supremacy has moved from land to sea - or, more specifically, to liquid. Market leader PowerBar Inc. of Berkeley is launching a new drink dubbed Perform that it hopes will take off like its bevy of bars and gels....

Cashing out: the exodus of some of S.F.'s financial giants marks the dawning of a new age of finance.(San Francisco, CA)
February 26, 1999... No one is outfitting the Wells Fargo stagecoach with snow tires, executives at Transamerica aren't clopping down the hallways of the "Aegon Pyramid" in wooden shoes and the tellers at Bank of America aren't ending transactions by telling...

As investment banks sell out, new players cash in.(California)
February 26, 1999... Silicon Valley's investment bankers were once as scrappy and entrepreneurial as the startups they funded. But in an era of corporate buyouts and rapid consolidation, the upstarts have become the establishment, leaving an opening for new...

Loans to help small biz squash their Y2K bugs.(Year 2000 computer date problem)
February 26, 1999... Just when you thought you'd heard everything about the Year 2000 computer problem, there's more news to consider. First, there's still time to fix your company's computer problems. What's more, there's money - from both local and...

Bankers help Valley execs manage wealth windfalls.(Silicon Valley, CA)(Brief Article)
February 26, 1999... Wealth management solutions are critical for executives and entrepreneurs living and working in Silicon Valley, a market where new wealth creation is both phenomenal and frequent. "Our decision to establish a base in Silicon Valley is a...

AMB extends real estate grab.(AMB Property Corp.)
February 19, 1999... S.F. property company lassoes western portfolio in $120M deal AMB Property Corp., continuing its recent buying binge, is close to picking off a major western portfolio for $120 million. The industrial package, known by the acronym...

Butterfield & Butterfield going, going, gone to Street.(Butterfield and Butterfield Auctioneers Corp. to undertake a $16 million initial public offering)
February 19, 1999... After 134 years as an independent company, San Francisco's Butterfield & Butterfield Auctioneers Corp. is undertaking a $16 million initial public offering for an ambitious program of online expansion. The venerable San Francisco auction...

Bernard Osher: man behind the auction house.(Butterfield and Butterfield Auctioneers Corp.)
February 19, 1999... Real estate, banking and the auction business have made Bernard Osher a very wealthy man, but most of his energies these days are spent giving that fortune away through two charitable foundations. Osher, 71, is an intensely private San...

Sweater weather: Hong Kong magnate Lee propels Mendocino line.(Herbert Lee)
February 19, 1999... San Francisco Sales' Mendocino sweater line is revving up to be the next big apparel name to come out of San Francisco. Owned by Hong Kong sweater magnate Herbert Lee, Mendocino expanded its operation in January with a new $3.25 million...

Coulter cures its ills.(Coulter Pharmaceutical Inc.'s first profit)
February 19, 1999... New HQ, first profit herald breakthrough year for biotech Coulter Pharmaceutical Inc. is expanding into custom-built facilities in South San Francisco as it grows into its new role selling cancer drugs. The biotech had been renting...

New boss has growth recipe for cafe chain.(California Cafe Restaurant President Hazem Ouf)
February 19, 1999... Corte Madera-based California Cafe Restaurant Corp. and new President Hazem Ouf are upping the stakes on a 25 percent-a-year expansion program, looking for acquisitions to catapult the company past 8100 million in sales. The 26-unit...

Bay View trades in its thrift moniker for bank status.(Bay View Capital Corp.)
February 19, 1999... Bay View Capital Corp. will convert from a savings and loan to a national bank on March 1, a big step in its strategy to become a more business-focused community bank. The Palo Alto-based holding company for Bay View Bank received a new...

Bay Area recruiting: interview is free, tour is extra.(employment agencies)
February 19, 1999... When a large Bay Area software firm wanted to recruit a promising graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they flew him out from Boston for an all-expense-paid weekend. He learned a lot about the company during a day of...

Common sense sales: don't ask clients questions, give them something they can use.(Eder Marketing Group founder Roy Eder's marketing strategy)(Company Profile)
February 19, 1999... When it comes to keeping his customers happy, Roy Eder knows three things: They all sell something; their sales people essentially do the same job; and they don't really care how good Eder and his company are it's what he can do for them. ...

Clorox expansion drives changes at top: First Brands acquisition spur shuffle, creates second-in-command.
February 12, 1999... First Brands acquisition spurs shuffle, creates second-in-command Clorox has anointed an heir-apparent to CEO G. Craig Sullivan, naming Gerald Johnston president and chief operating officer in a management reshuffle. Clorox has not...

Spunkmeyer in the dough: cookie company makes sweet deal to help nourish its growth.(Otis Spunkmeyer Inc. sells controlling interest to First Atlantic Capital)
February 12, 1999... San Leandro's Otis Spunkmeyer Inc. has sold a controlling interest to a buyout firm, building an expansion kitty for the fast-growing cookie company. New York-based First Atlantic Capital purchased 60 percent of the company from founder...

Gap marries Net, catalog businesses.(clothing store firm expands its Internet and catalog business)
February 12, 1999... Gap Inc. is moving to expand its Internet and catalog businesses. The San Francisco-based clothing company has formed a new division to consolidate its Internet and catalog operations as it prepares to hunch its next assault on mailboxes...

Del Monte rips lid off strategy.(Del Monte Foods Co.'s expansion plans)
February 12, 1999... Return to Wall Street opens door to potential buying binge Del Monte Foods Co., flush with $250 million raised in its public offering, will trim its massive debt load and launch the largest expansion bid in its history, according to...

Docs say malpractice policy is botched operation: UCSF used to pay doctors' insurance premiums, but new system could reach into their pockets instead.(UCSF Stanford Health Care)
February 12, 1999... UCSF used to pay doctors' insurance premiums, but new system could reach into their pockets instead Doctors at UCSF Stanford Health Care are up in arms over a proposal that the 3,000 physicians fear will force them to pay for malpractice...

Addis finds tech partner to aid e-commerce push.(Addis Group agrees to an alliance with Scient)
February 12, 1999... Berkeley design firm Addis Group has inked an alliance with e-business consulting firm Scient in a major expansion of its high-tech branding business. The non-exclusive partnership will focus on building the next generation of e-commerce...

Emeryville rescues firms weary of soaring rents.
February 12, 1999... Emeryville, once a sleepy suburb, is quietly becoming a destination point for business in the East Bay as companies flee from San Francisco's exorbitant rents. Already home to such well-known firms as Peet's Coffee, Pixar Studios and...

Steve McDermott.(Executive Profile)(CEO of Hill Physicians Medical Group)
February 12, 1999... Name: Steve McDermott. Title: CEO. Company: Hill Physicians Medical Group, the San Ramon-based doctors group. He is also chairman and president of PriMed Management Services and a director of the Integrated Healthcare Association....

One-stop web shop: USWeb/CKS' Robert Shaw is at the helm of a new giant in the world of Internet services.(Internet Strategies)
February 12, 1999... USWeb/CKS' Robert Shaw is at the helm of a new giant in the world of Internet services Robert Shaw is an anomaly in the world of Internet CEOs. For starters, the newly minted chief executive of USWeb/CKS is 51, ancient in an industry...

Net lets small firms run faster without an IT team.(Internet Strategies)(information technology; Oracle Corp. leases its application software )
February 12, 1999... The Internet is leveling the playing field for small- and mid-sized businesses who haven't been able to afford software to simplify and automate their human resource, accounting, distribution and manufacturing processes. Oracle Corp. and...

Just the fax: new service swaps machine for e-mail.(eFax.com's new free service)
February 12, 1999... Receiving a fax will soon no longer require a fax machine, if eFax.com has its way. The Menlo Park company, formerly known as JetFax, has changed its name to eFax.com and launched a new free service that allows users to retrieve faxes...

Biotech CEO to unleash cancer drugs.(Joseph Rubinfeld's SuperGen Inc.)
February 5, 1999... Biotech veteran Joseph Rubinfeld is out to give Chiron a run for its money, and he expects to prove it this year. With three cancer products on the market and many more in the pipeline, Rubinfeld's SuperGen Inc. has bolstered its cancer...

Real estate troika digs in to Marin; Larkspur Landing hotel and office project pegged at $75M.(Campus Management Co., Cornerstone Properties Inc. and Joie de Vivre Hotels of San Francisco; Larkspur Landing Circle in Marin County, California)
February 5, 1999... A team of real estate and hotel players has been tapped to turn a choice parcel of Marin County land into a new hotel and office complex. The troika - developer Campus Management Co. of San Rafael, financial backer Cornerstone Properties...

Macy's has the taste for a slice of cheesecake.(Cheesecake Factory negotiates for restaurant atop Macy's Union Square)
February 5, 1999... Chain in lead for new top-floor restaurant; local big-name chefs weren't interested The Cheesecake Factory is looking to fatten up on San Francisco. The restaurant and wholesale bakery chain is close to an agreement that would place...

Home on the range: CEO rides out to run company from Colorado ranch.(Primal Lite CEO Sue Scott)
February 5, 1999... Who hasn't idly dreamed of living in their version of paradise - in a beach hut on Bora Bora, by a mountain stream in Montana, on the ski slopes of Squaw Valley - and still conducting business by cell phone, e-mail and fax? Six months...

Prop shop seals its latest deal with chocolate kiss.(special effects company M5 Industries makes four-inch high Hershey's Kisses models in latest project)
February 5, 1999... Jamie Hyneman is the guy to have around if you're ever stuck on a desert island. Give him a coconut, a seashell and a couple pounds of sand and he'll build you a short-wave radio and a boat to sail home on. A habitual tinkerer with all...

Grubb's back in the ring: San Francisco's sleeping real estate giant is clawing its way back to No. 1.(Real Estate Quarterly)(Grubb and Ellis)
February 5, 1999... Three years ago, Grubb & Ellis was a lightweight competing among the region's heavyweight companies. Though one of the nation's largest real estate services firms - on a par with the likes of CB Richard Ellis and Cushman & Wakefield -...

Dreams of the Presidio: building on perfection.(real estate developers make offers for former Army base Presidio)
February 5, 1999... Sitting astride the Golden Gate Bridge, with views of the Bay and Marin headlands, the Presidio is one of the most spectacular properties in the western United States, a dream parcel for anyone interested in commercial development. And...

Opposites attract in Cornerstone-Wilson marriage.(Real Estate Quarterly)(William Wilson and Associates; Cornerstone Properties Inc.)
February 5, 1999... Can a freewheeling California builder dance the two-step with the white-shoes of Wall Street? With its $1.8 billion merger history, that's the question many are asking as William Wilson & Associates - founded by prominent Peninsula...

Downtown Oakland gets nod from private buyer.(Peter Sullivan Associates Inc. purchases Latham building in City Hall Plaza)
February 5, 1999... Downtown Oakland has enjoyed several years of massive construction and reconstruction, but the projects tended to have one thing in common: They were backed by public money. That's what makes Peter Sullivan Associates Inc.'s recent...

Collenette: brash broker inspires fans and foes.(Alan Collenette)
February 5, 1999... When Grubb & Ellis' Alan Collenette brashly predicted in early 1998 that average Class A office rents in San Francisco could reach $65 per square foot, it raised more than a few eyebrows. Some brokers laughed, others dismissed it as folly...

Local advisers reap the spoils of CalPERS' wealth.(Real Estate Quarterly)(San Francisco, California real estate managers; California Public Employees Retirement System)
February 5, 1999... San Francisco real estate managers are profiting from CalPERS' decision to restructure its $6.2 billion real estate portfolio. Three of seven investment advisers chosen by the nation's largest public pension fund to oversee its real...