San Francisco Business Times articles from March 1999

San Francisco Business Times archives from March 1999

Giants' game never ends: financial plan for new PacBell Park: year-round activity.(San Francisco Giants)
March 5, 1999... The San Francisco Giants want to field an off-season lineup of revenue programs at their new downtown stadium to boost their bottom line during the idle winter months. The plan for the China Basin ballpark, now in the preliminary stages,...

Real estate trusts throw out their aces.(many are making cuts to staff)
March 5, 1999... Real estate investment trusts, the industry fat cats until a few months ago, have been taking a scalpel to their acquisition staffs. Less than two weeks ago, San Francisco-based BRE Properties Inc. announced it was eliminating its entire...

Trouble in ad land: layoffs, defections grip agencies; Winkler talent packs up.(Winkler Advertising)
March 5, 1999... A rash of resignations at Winkler Advertising has weakened its account management department and imperiled the San Francisco agency's turnaround plans. Last month, partner and Chief Creative Director Pat Marcoccia quit over what he called...

Gap seeks $30M for sunken treasure.(lawsuit against APL Ltd. over cargo lost at sea)
March 5, 1999... Gap Inc. has filed a $30 million lawsuit against APL Ltd. after its Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy clothes were lost at sea. Gap's claim is the highest filed so far against APL, whose huge container ships lost cargo overboard and had...

Hong Kong buyer nabs $71M tower.(Pacific Eagle Holdings)
March 5, 1999... The Eagle has landed at 353 Sacramento St. Pacific Eagle Holdings, the San Ramon-based U.S. investment arm of Hong Kong real estate conglomerate Great Eagle, is paying $71 million for the 260,000-square-foot office building in downtown San...

CNet clicks on e-commerce; online shopping big story for techie news service.
March 5, 1999... Net Inc. is taking advantage of its position as an influential digital media company to build a potentially lucrative e-commerce platform. The San Francisco-based web publisher of technology and computer news is not looking to be the next...

Japan makes comeback as area's top trade partner.(San Francisco Bay Area)
March 5, 1999... Exports to Japan are making a comeback. The Port of Oakland started to see renewed growth in exports in December and January. Most go to Japan, which has been in the depths of a debilitating economic slump. "In the fourth quarter, and...

Lynn Luckow.(Executive Profile)(Jossey Bass Inc. president and CEO.)
March 5, 1999... Name: Lynn Luckow. Title: President and CEO. Company: Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers. The San Francisco-based company specializes in books for executives and professionals in business management, nonprofit and public management, health...

Wake up, smell the coffee: local brewer sneaks up on the big-game supermarket brands.(Small Business Growth Strategies)(Ryan Coffee Co.)(Company Profile)
March 5, 1999... Fresh-brewed coffee may be a national craze, but the Ryan Coffee Co. has built its success on instant joe. The San Leandro-based company makes Victorian House liquid concentrated coffee, a product that is successfully competing against the...

Sabrina Horn.(Entrepreneur Profile)(The Horn Group founder)
March 5, 1999... Title: Founder. Company: The Hem Group, a San Francisco-based high-tech public relations firm with a second office in Braintree, Mass. The firm has revenue of approximately $5.5 million. Key clients include Vantive Corp., Commerce One,...

Shorenstein to build highrise in Oakland; City Center project is city's biggest office development since 1990.(Shorenstein Co.)
March 12, 1999... Shorenstein Co. is negotiating with Oakland officials to develop a new 500,000-square-foot office tower downtown, adjacent to City Center, according to an Oakland city council member. It would be the first new highrise to be built in the...

Leona Helmsley's mean deal: billionaire to sell San Francisco's Parkmerced apartment complex for intimidating price: $330 million.
March 12, 1999... Leona Helmsley, the billionaire real estate heiress labeled the "Queen of Mean." is negotiating to sell the massive Parkmerced apartment complex in San Francisco for more than $300 million, according to people familiar with the deal. A San...

Kaiser sets turnaround in motion.(Kaiser Permanente)
March 12, 1999... Kaiser Permanente has launched a series of efforts to dig itself out of its financial hole, including pressing for payments from non-Kaiser patients - two-thirds of whom stiff the health plan. Less than two months after Kaiser formed an...

Giants tix to hit online auction block? Team in talks with eBay, others to keep season-ticket seats filled.(San Francisco Giants)
March 12, 1999... The San Francisco Giants are looking at ways to create "secondary markets" for their season tickets, allowing ticket holders to put them out to bid on online-auction companies like eBay Inc. The idea, according to Giants executives, would...

Cal Fed makes withdrawal at banks: executives; thrift wants to be more like a bank, so it raids Wells Fargo and BofA.(California Federal Bank; Bank of America)
March 12, 1999... California Federal Bank is scooping up former executives of San Francisco's financial giants as it attempts to transform itself from a savings and loan to a commercial banking powerhouse. Cal Fed, now the second-largest financial...

Internet grocer bags Safeway deal to go it alone; online food seemed like a no-brainer, but grocery customers have yet to bite.(Peapod Inc.)
March 12, 1999... Internet grocer Peapod Inc. is revamping its Bay Area service in a renewed attempt to woo shoppers away from the neighborhood grocery store. The Skokie, Ill.-based company is building a warehouse in Union City where it will store,...

Michael Tun Zan.(Executive Profile)(Pacific Bank president and CEO)
March 12, 1999... Name: Michael Tun Zan Title: President and CEO. Company: The Pacific Bank, based in San Francisco. Education: Bachelor of commerce, University of Rangoon, Burma; associate of the Institute of Bankers, London, England. ...

Port sets sail; new hotels, shops and tourist fare promise to wake up San Francisco's once-sleepy port.(Business Meetings & Hospitality)(Port of San Francisco)
March 12, 1999... In five years, San Francisco's waterfront will be virtually unrecognizable - crowds will mill about a promenade and open market outside the Ferry Building, while now-quiet piers will bustle with new hotels, a ballpark, cruise ships and...

Pier 39: tourist treasure gets trashed by locals.(Business Meetings & Hospitality)
March 12, 1999... It's easy to tell a real New Yorker: He's never been to the top of the Empire State Building. In the same way, a true San Franciscan would never go anywhere near Pier 39. After a faltering start in 1978, Pier 39 became a ground-breaking...

Jennifer Maxwell.(Entrepreneur Profile)(Power-Bar Inc. co-founder)
March 12, 1999... Title: Founder and director of nutritional training. Company: Berkeley-based PowerBar Inc., a maker of energy products for athletes. The $100 million company makes PowerBar Performance and PowerBar Harvest bars, PowerGel and PowerBar...

CalPERS to aim billions at real estate: state pension fund opens door to increased Bay Area investment.(San Francisco, California)
March 19, 1999... State pension fund opens door to increased Bay Area investment CalPERS, the country's largest public pension fund, is studying ways to invest up to $2 billion more in real estate. The California Public Employees' Retirement System's...

Ex-Pac Bell exec back as competition.(former Pacific Bell and US West executive Elizabeth Fetter's establishment of NorthPoint Communications)
March 19, 1999... Elizabeth Fetter, a former high-ranking officer at Pacific Bell and executive at Denver-based US West, has returned to San Francisco as president and chief operating officer for NorthPoint Communications. Fetter, who left Pacific Bell...

Giants, A's wind up for marketing pitch: "Baysball" 1999 has teams spending record amounts to snag fans.(baseball teams San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics')
March 19, 1999... The battle for San Francisco Bay Area baseball fans this season will be waged as much over the airwaves as on the field. For different reasons, the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's are spending record amounts on marketing and...

Robert Corrigan.(profile of San Francisco State University president)
March 19, 1999... Name: Robert Corrigan. Title: President. Institution: San Francisco State University. Education: Bachelor of arts degree in American civilization from Brown University; master's and Ph.D. in American civilization from University...

Date with disaster: a top-notch emergency response plan is often the best insurance a company can buy.(emergency services at Charles Schwab)
March 19, 1999... When the water main broke a few weeks ago at the Charles Schwab headquarters and flooded the electrical system, the company quickly kicked into reserve mode. Customers were sent to branch offices down the street. The computer and phone systems...

Ship disaster leaves APL lost in sea of legal woes.(lawsuits filed against shipping container APL Ltd.)
March 19, 1999... When shipping containers are lost at sea, another type of cargo usually arrives instead: litigation. Two huge maritime claim cases, involving APL Ltd., Fireman's Fund and Gap Inc., are now navigating their way through federal court in New...

Net focus takes insurer for a spin in the fast lane.(services offered by ABD Insurance Services)
March 19, 1999... Like most other industries, the insurance business is scrambling to profit from the Internet revolution. But the explosive growth of online sales and services conflicts with insurers' traditional, measured approach to product development....

Lassoing in your lifestyle.(profile of retailer of Spanish colonial, Mexican and California country furnishings Salsa Trading Co. Inc.)(Company Profile)
March 19, 1999... Finding time together is as easy (or difficult) as starting a business Everyone has an idea of what they might like to do one day - in their dreams, when they don't work for a corporate company anymore. Edna Hayes-Needleman and Bruce...

Jason Roberts.(profile of Pan Media division Learn2.com founder)
March 19, 1999... Title: Founder. Company: Sausalito-based Learn2.com, a web site that teaches visitors everything from how to tie a bow tie to the ins and outs of basketball's March Madness. Learn2.com also puts together instructional web sites for...

Mission Bay zeros in on retail partner: Catellus close to deals with Madison Marquette and AMC.(Catellus Development Corp; Madison Marquette Realty Services; AMC Entertainment Inc)
March 26, 1999... Catellus Development Corp. is in exclusive negotiations with a potential development partner for the retail-entertainment portion of its huge Mission Bay project. San Francisco-based Catellus entered into joint-venture talks with Madison...

New Internet battle: online drugstores.
March 26, 1999... Dot-com drugstores are gearing up for an expensive marketing war, with four startups aiming to steal customers from drug chains in much the same way that Amazon.com has grabbed market share from traditional book peddlers. Flush with...

S.F. online food firm sets table for next course.(San Francisco-based Food.com)
March 26, 1999... Cybermeals is tinkering with its recipe to create a more enticing Internet entree. The San Francisco-based online takeout/delivery service has changed its name to Food.com, gobbled up another $25 million in venture capital and is shifting...

Bayer's biotech prescription: German drug giant seeks to boost size of Berkeley campus.
March 26, 1999... The company that made its name in aspirin is aiming for the top tier in biotechnology. With a new drug on the market, six others in the pipeline and research alliances on the horizon, Bayer Corp. is now aiming to double both its revenue...

Buyout star Blum raises $640M fund.(Richard C. Blum & Associates)
March 26, 1999... Richard C. Blum & Associates has raised a hefty $640 million buyout fund to invest in small public companies. It's the first time the firm has assembled a dedicated fund in its more than 20 years in the buyout industry. Blum & Associates...

Brian O'Neill.(Goldberg Moser O'Neill president and chief creative officer)
March 26, 1999... Name: Brian O'Neill. Title: President and Chief Creative Officer. Company: Goldberg Moser O'Neill, the San Francisco-based advertising agency. Clients include Beringer Wine Estates, Coca-Cola Co., Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Kia Motors,...

Auto pilot: Carol Bartz's blend of toughness and sensitivity has fueled Autodesk's rise to success.(Autodesk chief executive officer)
March 26, 1999... A passion for math and computer science marked Carol Bartz out as a rare female "engineering geek" while she was in college in the late 1960s. Three decades later, Bartz, now 50 and CEO of Autodesk Inc., is still a minority voice, this...

Once-soaring PeopleSoft gets dose of hard reality.(software company)
March 26, 1999... After a decade of skyrocketing growth, Pleasanton-based software maker PeopleSoft Inc. has hit turbulence. It's been a jarring experience for a company as renowned for its relaxed and employee-friendly culture as for its business software....

Nuance makes right call in voice software market.(Nuance Communications)
March 26, 1999... Nuance Communications began as a small research project at the think tank SRI International in Menlo Park, back when verbal communication with a computer was still something out of science fiction. Still in Menlo Park, but figuratively...

PalmPilot team makes new run at handheld market.(3Com Corp)
March 26, 1999... When Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky and Ed Colligan departed 3Com Corp. last fall to start their company, the computing industry stood up own and took notice. After all, this wasn't just three restless technology veterans following the...

Online giants crushing neighborhood bookshops.(efforts to prevent Printers Inc's closure)
March 26, 1999... It isn't the books so much as a sense of community that keeps bringing Pia Graves back to Printers Inc., a 20-year-old bookstore with deep roots in Palo Alto. "I rarely go in there without bumping into someone I know," she said. So...