San Francisco Business Times articles from May 1999

San Francisco Business Times archives from May 1999

Safeway wheeling its cart onto Internet.(supermarket giant testing online grocery shopping service)
May 7, 1999... Grocery giant quietly testing waters for online grocery business Safeway is secretly testing online grocery shopping for a possible national rollout of an Internet food-buying service. The Pleasanton-based supermarket giant has set up a...

H-P takes online strategy to bank.(Hewlett-Packard Co.)
May 7, 1999... Tech giant's goal: Big slice of Internet banking market Like the famous robber Willie Sutton, Hewlett-Packard is focusing much of its Internet strategy on banks - because that's where the money is. "We are helping to empower banks to...

Electronic Arts plans power move into Internet gaming.
May 7, 1999... Spurred by the cult following of its first online game, Electronic Arts is aiming to grow its Internet business from around $10 million to more than $200 million in the next three years. The Redwood City-based video game company claims that...

Net giant USWeb/CKS making big push into Europe.(acquires Case Consult)
May 7, 1999... USWeb/CKS is bolstering its European operations while looking for expansion opportunities in Latin America and Asia later this year. At the same time, the Santa Clara-based Internet services firm named a head of global business development...

Broadview Capital fund follows trend targeting technology firm buyouts.
May 7, 1999... Technology investment banker Broadview Associates is moving from adviser to owner, joining a growing pool of investment funds aimed at buying mature technology companies. Foster City-based Broadview Capital Partners has had a first close...

E-book maker hopes deal can open a new chapter.(Softbook Press signs contract with Central News Inc.)
May 7, 1999... Electronic book maker Softbook Press has inked a deal with a newspaper chain that promises to jumpstart sales of its portable books. Central News Inc., parent of the Arizona Republic, will begin using the Menlo Park-based company's...

REITs battle stock slump with buy-back strategy.(Real Estate Quarterly)(San Francisco Bay Area real estate investment trusts)(Industry Overview)
May 7, 1999... [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] Real Estate investment trust are buying back their own shares to breathe some life into moribund stock prices. In normal times, REITs sell stock to buy property, but these are not normal times for REITs, which...

Bob Lurie trades Giants for new real estate lineup.(Real Estate Quarterly)(CEO of Lurie and Co.)(Industry Overview)
May 7, 1999... Six years after Bob Lurie's painfully public ordeal of owning the San Francisco Giants ended, the real estate magnate's company is once again making noise - even if he's not. For most of the last two decades, the Lurie Co. stood pat, in...

Financier leaps back into fray: real estate ace Ethan Penner wants to take teeth out of tax bites.(includes related articles on 1031 exchange and how it works)
May 14, 1999... Ethan Penner, the rock 'n' roll real estate banker, is taking his act from Wall Street to Main Street. Eight months after he bailed out of the bleeding and now-defunct Capital Company of America, the 38-year-old financier is launching...

S.F. Net shops deal shatters price record.(San Francisco, California)
May 14, 1999... In a deal that has the web design world buzzing, e-business consultant Sapient Corp. has paid a whopping $50 million for Adjacency, a small San Francisco-based builder of Internet and e-commerce systems. The value of the all-stock deal has...

Discovery roams the earth: splashy Sony Metreon store signals new era for educational retailer.
May 14, 1999... Discovery Channel Store has tuned in to expansion. The Berkeley-based educational retailer will open 18 new stores this year. In addition, it will convert 31 of the Nature Company units its parent company acquired in 1996. The...

Swig scion check into new hotel: ex-Fairmont exec seeks to manage Peninsula property.(Robert Swig)
May 14, 1999... Not all of the Swigs are through with the hotel business. Though the prominent San Francisco hotel and real estate family sold its interest in the Fairmont chain and no longer runs the Swig Co., one member is trying to break back into the...

Del Monte plans to roll out more than cans.(Del Monte Foods Co.)
May 14, 1999... San Francisco's Del Monte Foods Co. is preparing to reintroduce its century-old canned goods to consumers after more than a decade of virtual silence. The $1.5 billion company is working with the San Francisco office of advertising giant...

You've got mail: marketing firm helps stores turn e-mailing into e-tailing.(Digital Impact)
May 14, 1999... A San Mateo direct e-mail marketing startup is helping leading retailers and e-tailers - names like the Gap, Tower Records, FogDog Sports and eToys - boost customer loyalty, and, in some cases, double their online sales. Digital Impact is...

VC unleashes pet project: new venture fund takes pulse of animal health.(venture capitalist Stephen Burrill)
May 14, 1999... Venture capitalist Stephen Burrill believes biotechnology is going to the dogs. Burrill & Co., the San Francisco merchant banking firm, has formed a new $50 million venture capital fund to target an obscure but growing market niche: animal...

Visa charging ahead in small-biz market.(Visa International)
May 14, 1999... Foster City-based Visa International has nearly doubled its share of the market for small-business credit cards in a year, just as the market begins to explode with Internet commerce. A study by the Tampa-based credit industry research firm...

Crafting his own success: industrial designer engineers devices, and business, the right way.(Doug Hiemstra)
May 14, 1999... Doug Hiemstra has a single guiding principle: quality. "You're only as good as your last product," said Hiemstra, founder of San Francisco-based Hiemstra Product Development LLC. And Hiemstra's focus on quality doesn't stop at designing...

United ready for takeoff at SFO; airline makes high-flying investment to help land global travelers.(United Air Lines Inc. invests in San Francisco International Airport)
May 21, 1999... United Airlines is raising its stake at San Francisco International Airport, investing $40 million to ensure it remains the dominant presence when the new international terminal opens in 2000. Much of the money is being pumped into new ways...

Microsoft boosts telecom; NorthPoint connects with $30M infusion.(Microsoft Corp. invests in NorthPoint Communications Inc.)(Company Profile)
May 21, 1999... Microsoft Corp. has invested $30 million in fast-growing NorthPoint Communications Inc., with a commitment to eventually co-brand services nationwide. The investment makes Microsoft the largest investor in San Francisco-based NorthPoint, a...

NextCard's new charge.(online credit card issuer signs endorsement deals)(Company Profile)
May 21, 1999... How about Dilbert - in plastic? Online consumer finance pioneer NextCard Inc. has zeroed in on heavy-spending technosophisticates and new parents, inking deals for cartoon character Dilbert and online children's goods retailer...

E-Trade gets bullish with venture fund.(E-Trade Group)
May 21, 1999... E-Trade Group has launched a $150 million strategic investment fund, turning the online broker into a major player in the emerging area of corporate venture capital. The Palo Alto-based Internet securities trading company already has...

Shipping rates make rough sailing for importers.(rate increases for cargo from Asia)(Industry Overview)
May 21, 1999... Ocean shipping rates have jumped up to 40 percent this month on cargo from Asia, hitting major importers like Gap Inc., Esprit de Corp. and the region's many trading companies. The new rates went into effect May 1 and are costing importers...

By their accents shall you know them.(voice coach Carol Fleming provides instruction to people who want to improve their communication skills)
May 21, 1999... Members of an increasingly diverse work force need help talking to - and understanding - each other Carol Fleming's office has a corner full of sound equipment, video recorders and volume meters. On the credenza is a black-and-white photo...

Tech startup makes its bid to ride online auction wave.(Moai Technologies)(Company Profile)
May 21, 1999... The raging popularity of online auction services like eBay is prompting businesses and their trading partners to throw electronic gavels into their own plans. San Francisco startup Moai Technologies is selling business-to-business auction...

Retailer plucks florist Calyx & Corolla.(Gerald Stevens Inc. acquires Internet and phone flower delivery specialist)(Company Profile)
May 21, 1999... Calyx & Corolla, which this year blossomed to more than $20 million in sales as the leader in Internet and phone flower delivery, has sold out to an equally fast-growing upstart in the retail floral business. The 10-year-old San Francisco...

Owner gives online rental service new lease on life.(Cendant Corp. to retain RentNet Inc.)(Company Profile)
May 21, 1999... In a reversal of strategy, Cendant Corp. has decided to hold on to its San Francisco-based apartment rental service, RentNet Inc., after putting it on the selling block earlier this year. The decision ups the ante in the race to become the...

H-P has new sales strategy: giving the stuff away.(Hewlett-Packard Co.'s marketing strategy for Internet-related businesses)
May 21, 1999... In a move to jumpstart its Internet-related business among small- and medium-sized businesses, Hewlett-Packard Co. is giving away hardware and software. It's part of a program to entice small businesses to e-commerce, a potentially $14...

D.C. firm has designs on San Francisco or L.A.(Greenwell Goetz Architects)(Company Profile)
May 21, 1999... A Washington, D.C., interior design firm will open an office in San Francisco or Los Angeles as early as this summer. Greenwell Goetz Architects, a 65-person company that does high-end corporate offices, wants to either acquire a small shop...

Giants become players in complex game of finance.(San Francisco Giants completes interest-rate swap)
May 21, 1999... The San Francisco Giants recently completed a swap, but it wasn't a player trade with another club. Instead, the team completed an interest-rate swap with another company. The Giants had been paying a fixed interest rate on $170 million of...

Trip Hawkins grabs for space: re-energized 3DO pushes to triple size with new Peninsula digs.
May 28, 1999... Three years removed from its corporate deathbed, 3DO Co. is negotiating to more than triple its space for its now growing ranks in Redwood City. The recast entertainment software developer has signed a letter of intent to occupy all...

Hollywood goes Bay Area: video chain challenges Blockbuster.(Hollywood Video)
May 28, 1999... Video chain challenges Blockbuster Hollywood Video is putting its marquee on nine new stores along the East Bay's I-880 corridor this summer and fall as it steps up its Bay Area battle with Blockbuster Entertainment. The East Bay...

Homes clash with industry in East Bay.(housing crowding industrial spaces in San Francisco Bay Area)
May 28, 1999... As Bay Area demand for single-family homes surges, East Bay cities are facing pressure from developers to convert vacant industrial parcels to land for homes. Developers are offering large sums of money to buy industrial properties for...

Last piece of S.F. ship empire sails to Oakland.(GE Capital Container Finance Corp. moving from San Francisco to Oakland)
May 28, 1999... The former financial arm of Genstar Container Corp., the giant container lessor absorbed in a merger last year, is leaving its San Francisco mooring for a cheaper berth in Oakland. GE Capital Container Finance Corp., which provides shipping...

Classroom struggle: day-care centers face eviction as space-starved school districts rush to reopen old facilities.
May 28, 1999... Sofie Maa was desperate. Her daughter was being kicked out of school - at 19 months. Maa's daughter, Julia, had been going to day care at Knoll Elementary, a school San Mateo closed two decades ago. But next fall, San Mateo Unified School...

Web firms create national home-search network; S.F.'s SpringStreet joins RealSelect in suddenly crowded battle to dominate web market for home listings.
May 28, 1999... S.F.'s SpringStreet joins RealSelect in suddenly crowded battle to dominate web market for home listings San Francisco-based online apartment-rental web site SpringStreet Inc. is merging with RealSelect Inc., operator of Realtor.com, one of...

Buyout boom: move aside New York, the Bay Area is attracting its share of deal-hungry buyout firms.
May 28, 1999... Long the center of the venture capital universe, the Bay Area is rapidly also becoming a magnet for a generation of new funds focused on mergers and buyouts. Of the top 25 buyout firms listed in Galante's Venture Capital & Private Equity...

Discover web brokerage led by full-service broker.(Discover Brokerage of Tom O'Connell)
May 28, 1999... Tom O'Connell is not the kind of person you'd expect to see leading an Internet brokerage business. Not only is he 54, but his resume reads like a recruiting poster for the traditional, full-service retail brokerage industry. O'connell has...

Visa chief soothing rifts with big bank, merchants.(Visa USA President and CEO Carl Pascarella)
May 28, 1999... Carl Pascarella, president and CEO of Visa USA, has helped propel Visa into a ubiquitous brand, capturing a 53 percent share of the credit card market. But rather than relax and relish his success, Pascarella seems frenetic - and perhaps with...

Chan builds $100M bank with door-to-door hustle.(Eddy Chan, president and founder of Trans Pacific National Bank)
May 28, 1999... When Eddy Chan was 3, he and his stepmother stowed away on a cargo boat and fled China for Macau. They hid inside a vegetable crate, barely avoiding detection by the probing sticks of communist inspectors. Today, Chan is president and...