San Francisco Business Times articles from June 1996

San Francisco Business Times archives from June 1996

Currency cafe. (Sterling Bank & Trust's so-called cafe branches)
June 7, 1996... More outlets from Sterling Bank Sterling Bank & Trust is opening up four more of its so-called cafe branches that feature stock quote machines, CNBC telecasts, picture-phone service and three different kinds of coffee. Sterling's aggressive...

New HQ on tap at Pete's Brewing Co. (company's plans to build a new headquarters in Napa, CA)
June 7, 1996... Microbrewer's plans for $30M complex coming to a head Pete's Brewing Co., one of the biggest names in small brewers, is expected to soon announce plans to build a new $30 million headquarters, retail and production complex in Napa. A...

Cushman Realty makes its play for downtown Frisco. (Cushman Realty Corp. office)
June 7, 1996... Looking to boost its deal-making ability in downtown San Francisco, Cushman Realty Corp. is making the jump from Walnut Creek to open a second, full-service commercial real estate office in the financial district. The Los Angeles-based company...

Local surveyor to divide up former Soviet empire. (Trimble Navigation Ltd.'s contract to provide equipment and services for a World Bank project to implement Russia's national land reform)
June 7, 1996... A South Bay surveying company has signed a deal in Russia that will create the world's largest private-property registration project, affecting 11 million plots of land. Sunnyvale-based Trimble Navigation Ltd. has just agreed to provide...

Fair, Isaac stakes out new HQ site. (Fair, Isaac and Co.'s selection of a site for its new headquarters in San Rafael, CA)
June 7, 1996... Software maker picks San Rafael in major boon to downtown Fair, Isaac and Co. has chosen a 15-acre site in downtown San Rafael to build its new corporate headquarters, a deal that is expected to boost the city's redevelopment efforts. The...

Lens maker improves vision with two buys. (Sola International)
June 7, 1996... Deep-pocketed Sola International said it will pay $16 million to acquire a Florida-based plastic lens manufacturer, its second significant acquisition in less than a month. The Menlo Park-based eyeglass company will pay cash for Neolens Inc.,...

Rooms with a view of their market build a hotel empire. (Joie de Vivre Hotels Inc. founded by Chip Conley)
June 7, 1996... With Silicon Valley booming in its back yard and merger-mania sweeping the rest of corporate America, 1984 was a promising year to graduate from Stanford Business School. Most of the class of '84 set forth boldly on careers in investment...

Opportunity lurks under the hood. (Pennzoil 10 Minute Oil Change owned by Bill Nelson)
June 7, 1996... More than a decade ago, Bill Nelson took his car in for an oil change that changed his life, launching him as an entrepreneur and owner of Pennzoil 10 Minute Oil Change. In the mid-1980's Nelson had been working for about 10 years for Southern...

Kaiser takes managed care abroad: new subsidiary to consult foreign firms, governments. (Kaiser Permanente)
June 14, 1996... Kaiser Permanente is taking its management expertise overseas to advise international corporations and foreign governments on organizing health-care systems. Within the month, the Oakland-based HMO will announce a subsidiary to offer...

Building of the future. (repair of Ford Motor Co.'s automotive plant in Richmond, California)
June 14, 1996... The historic Ford auto plant, the linchpin of a 200-acre redevelopment zone, has become Richmond's... The city of Richmond within days expects a resolution to nearly a seven year fight to shake loose money from the Federal Emergency...

Juice Club given fresh cash, will pour into new markets. (Juice Club Inc.)
June 14, 1996... With a fresh $16 million from its latest round of venture financing, San Francisco-based Juice Club Inc. is about to begin an aggressive site acquisition and development plan. If the Juice Club hits its target, the 6-year-old company will...

Southern lights: South America brightens outlook for Clorox. (Clorox Co.)
June 14, 1996... Clorox Co. is moving to clean up in Latin America with a corporate reorganization designed to accelerate growth in the vast, booming market. By the end of the decade, the Oak-land-based company expects to see nearly 40 percent of its sales in...

BofA compounds interest in online banking services. (Bank of America)
June 14, 1996... Bank of America has tripled the number of visits to its Internet home page and quadrupled the time its customers spend at its America Online site by launching its HomeBanking service earlier this month. Customer reaction to the bank's expanded...

Sega win, high-carbo diet energizes startup ad shop. (Ingalls Moranville Advertising)
June 14, 1996... Tiny Ingalls Moranville Advertising has emerged as San Francisco's latest hot ad shop after snagging accounts from Sega of America and Monterey Pasta, work that could be worth $35 million a year. The 3-month-old agency emerged as dark horse...

Temporary phenomenon: tech staffing firms sell out. (temporary employment agencies)
June 14, 1996... Two of the Bay Area's largest computer temporary staffing firms are being acquired by East Coast counterparts. Systems Partners, an Orinda-based firm with about $33 million in revenues, is being bought by IMI, a subsidiary of the staffing firm...

Firm shores up system for ship-shape communications. (Globe Wireless)(Technology Quarterly)
June 14, 1996... Picture a ship's captain afloat on the great Sargasso Sea. The story of old was that in that windless stretch, a crew could die of thirst, cut off from the world. Now, the ship steams ahead as its crew logs on to e-mail to send letters home....

Some of Chiron's top researchers don't say much. (robots in pharmaceutical research)(Technology Quarterly)
June 14, 1996... Tucked inside a laboratory at Chiron Corp. headquarters in Emeryville, a $200,000 robot whirls tirelessly in the biochemical equivalent of the galloping gourmet. A pinch of protein, a chain of amino acids, maybe a few molecular chemical agents...

Software continues to program the Bay Area economy. (computer software industry)(Technology Quarterly)(Industry Overview)
June 14, 1996... Computer software continues to be the engine driving growth in the Bay Area economy. The boom is reflected on this year's List of the 25 largest software companies in the Bay Area (see page 10A). Overall, revenue for the 25 companies grew 12...

Building spree on tap for development titans. (real estate development in San Francisco Bay Area)
June 21, 1996... Trammell Crow, Lincoln Property have big national, Bay Area plans Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co. and Foster City-based Lincoln Property Co. are storming back into Bay Area development, working separately to build several hundred thousand square...

SciClone whirls east. (SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc.)
June 21, 1996... Philippines OK's biotech's hepatitis drugs; China next? SciClone Pharmaceuticals Inc., emerging as a surprise contender in the race to battle chronic hepatitis, has received a license to market an anti-hepatitis B drug in the Philippines and...

BofA answers telecom's call for $3000M loan. (Bank of America)
June 21, 1996... Bank of America has made the largest foreign loan ever to a Mexican telecommunications project in a step the bank hopes will open doors to that sector throughout Latin America. The San Francisco bank set up a $300 million bridge loan in...

Financial dealings probed at nonprofit health clinic. (Native American Health Center)
June 21, 1996... The board of a nonprofit health clinic in Alameda County is being investigated by the California Attorney General's Office over allegations of malfeasance and breach of fiduciary duty, sources familiar with the investigation said. The...

Company keeps its timber 'green.' (EcoTimber International)(Company Profile)
June 21, 1996... As a rain-forest activist, Jason Grant had worked for Rainforest Action Network and Greenpeace, but discovered that it is hard making a living as an activist. When attention to the problem of tropical deforestation mounted in the late 1980s,...

Financier buys time for project. (Burnham Pacific Properties Inc.'s partnership with MacFarland Urban Retail Co.)
June 28, 1996... The city of Oakland is expected to extend its exclusive negotiating agreement with Burnham Pacific Properties Inc. for downtown development, thanks in part to the developer cementing its relationship with the MacFarland Urban Retail Co. on the...

Freight giants bound for tip of S. America. (expansion of Emery Worldwide and CF Motor Freight to South America)
June 28, 1996... Two local freight carriers have just expanded into the Southern Cone of South America to capitalize on the surge of business in Brazil, Argentina and Chile. Emery Worldwide and CF MotorFreight, which are both subsidiaries of the Palo...

Trammel Crow swoops down on S.F. Fashion Center. (San Francisco, CA)
June 28, 1996... Real estate giant Trammell Crow has agreed in principle to acquire the troubled San Francisco Fashion Center as part of a bold move to build a national wholesale trade business, according to sources involved in the sale. Dallas-based Crow...

AirTouch goes Latin. (AirTouch Communications Inc.)
June 28, 1996... Takes satellite phone technology South of the Border AirTouch Communications has made its first foray into Latin America with a joint venture to offer satellite telephone service in Mexico. The San Francisco-based wireless telephone company...

Executive profile: Jackalyne Pfannenstiel. (Pacific Gas and Electric Co. VP of Corporate Planning)
June 28, 1996... PERSONAL INFORMATION Name: Jackalyne Pfannenstiel. Company: Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Title: Vice president of corporate planning. Education: Bachelor's degree in economics from Clark University; master's degree in economics from...

Video exec rewrites script after bad scene. (SF Video founder Steven Feinberg)(Small Business Growth Strategies)
June 28, 1996... Since Steven Feinberg launched SF Video in 1990, the company has grown by leaps and bounds, from $400,000 in sales the first year to at least $6 million this year. Along the way, Feinberg has applied philosophies forged in fire at a failed...

Nature Co. sale fertilizes Smith and Hawken expansion.
June 28, 1996... Pioneering garden equipment retailer Smith & Hawken of Mill Valley is plotting a new course of expansion now that its parent company has jettisoned the Nature Co., its loss-making Berkeley-based subsidiary. The sale of Nature Co. on June 6 by...

Despite economic boom, local job growth is a bust. (San Francisco Bay Area)
June 28, 1996... [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] Although the Bay Area economy has vastly improved in the last two years, both the San Francisco and Oakland metropolitan areas still lag most of the country in the key area of job growth. San Francisco barely avoided a...