San Francisco Business Times articles from November 1996

San Francisco Business Times archives from November 1996

Lehman Bros. unloading Grand Hyatt Hotel.
November 1, 1996... San Francisco's Grand Hyatt Hotel is about to change hands for a record-breaking price. A Lehman Bros. limited partnership that owns the hotel and has been shopping it for years is under contract to sell the property to Singapore's City...

First volley in PacBell, AirTouch war. (Pacific Bell Mobile Services; AirTouch Communications Inc.)
November 1, 1996... Ex-siblings kick off rivalry on Nov. 1 Former corporate siblings turned enemies, digital wireless phone rivals Pacific Bell Mobile Services and AirTouch Communications, have taken their family feud to the marketplace. The first battleground...

Chocolatier on a mission for a new plant. (Joseph Schmidt Confections Inc.)
November 1, 1996... Life is about to get sweeter for gourmet chocolatier Joseph Schmidt - and for residents of San Francisco's. Mission District. Joseph Schmidt Confections Inc. says it plans to build a 95,000-square-foot chocolate factory in the Mission to boost...

3 hospital giants jump intp each others' beds. (Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc., Catholic Healthcare West and Sutter/CHS)
November 1, 1996... Kaiser Permanente and Northern California's other two largest hospital systems are discussing precedent-shattering deals that could help the three giant rivals fill empty beds and streamline their sprawling empires. Under the plans, still in...

Shedding light on workplace injuries. (Scientific Technologies Inc.)
November 1, 1996... Scientific Technologies brightens bottom line with safety devices Scientific Technologies would like to say it's curtains for workplace injuries - light curtains, that is. The heart of the Fremont-based company's business is making infrared...

Cable seller establishes connections. (Judy Wilson of Wilco Wire Technology Inc.)
November 1, 1996... From her start as the first female rep for a major wire company, Judy Wilson has bucked the tide to build Wilco Wire Technology Inc. into one of the fastest-growing firms in the Bay Area. In the mid 1970s, Wilson was selling wire and cable for...

Oakland books major hotel project; suitor steps up for sorely needed $65 million development.
November 8, 1996... Long dormant plans for a second major hotel in downtown Oakland have been revived with the signing of a negotiating agreement for the $65 million project. Unlike previous plans, though, the 150 to 200 room hotel would offer extended stay...

Software vet plots comeback. (Seymour Rubinstein)
November 8, 1996... MicroPro founder and WordStar creator Seymour Rubinstein is returning to the software wars at 62, hoping to regain his Midas touch. Rubinstein's latest brainchild is a new company called Prompt Software Inc., which makes WebSleuth, an Internet...

Web wars new battleground: the Bay Area. (World Wide Web)
November 8, 1996... The localization of the World Wide Web is under way - and the battle for the Bay Area is taking shape. A trio of media-style web sites containing everything from local news to guides for food and entertainment are intent on becoming the...

Pixar targets Emeryville for new headquarters.
November 8, 1996... Maker of 'Toy Story' less than animated about plans to move Pixar, the Academy Award-winning animation studio behind "Toy Story," has zeroed in on Emeryville as its top choice for the site of new headquarters, according to sources familiar with...

Latin accent. (BankAmerica Corp.)
November 8, 1996... BofA emerges as the region's top loan syndicator Latin America is finally paying off for BofA. After years of struggles with defaulting governments and economic instability, San Francisco's BankAmerica Corp. has repositioned itself as the...

HMO tries to muscle into Bay Area. (United HealthCare Corp.)
November 8, 1996... United HealthCare prepares to launch 'uphill fight' United HealthCare Corp., already one of the biggest HMOs in the country, is trying to make a name for itself in the tough Bay Area. The Minneapolis-based corporation and United HealthCare of...

Keeping a handle on the hotel industry's transformation. (Paul Handlery)
November 8, 1996... When Paul Handlery built the Handlery Motor Inn on Union Square in 1964, rooms rented for $9 a night. At the swank Clift Hotel down the street, rates averaged about $15. The city's entire hotel stock consisted of 3,300 rooms in the six Class A...

Two split from Vrolyk to put restaurants on VC menu. (former Vrolyk and Co. employees Joanna Gallanter and Steve Abbott form Venture Strategy Group; venture capital)
November 8, 1996... Two investment bankers have broken off from Vrolyk & Co. to form their own venture capital firm, and recently closed their first two deals. Joanna Gallanter and Steve Abbott launched Venture Strategy Group to concentrate on providing seed...

$26M hemorrhage puts hospital's finances on code red. (Sequoia Hospital)
November 8, 1996... Auditors at Sequoia Hospital uncovered something missing after reviewing last year's books: an extra $18 million in red ink. As a result, the struggling Redwood City hospital now says it lost $26 million in the fiscal year ended June 30 and is...

Sears opens 3 Bay Area stores, has catalog of other sites in mind.
November 8, 1996... Three new Bay Area Sears stores may be just the beginning of a local resurgence for the nations's largest retailer. After opening a trio of stores last week, Sears is looking for more sites in the region. Its major focus: Serving a San...

Chefs' taste for secrecy flavors signature dishes.
November 8, 1996... Helene An knows how to keep a secret. The head chef and owner of Crustacean restaurant in San Francisco spends most of her time in the kitchen tucked inside a small, windowless box of sheet metal. From inside this kitchen-within-a-kitchen, An and...

Big meetings in '97 will have Moscone packing them in. (Moscone Center)
November 8, 1996... With Moscone Center booked to capacity years in advance, San Francisco can't host any more major conventions than it already does. But it is hosting bigger ones. Next year's 281,100 expected attendees at the Bay Area's largest conventions...

United, Southwest stage air battle over Bay Area skies. (United Airlines; Southwest Airlines)
November 8, 1996... There's no doubt about it: The Bay Area travels a lot. The region's two major airports in Oakland and San Francisco have seen dramatic growth over the past few years, as both residents and tourists take flight along the West Coast and...

East Bay brew pub makes headway. (Buffalo Bill's Brew Pub)
November 8, 1996... A home-brewing enthusiast who had dreamed of starting his own brewery, Geoff Harries bought Buffalo Bill's Brew Pub when it was on the verge of going under and turned it into a thriving operation with about $1 million in revenue. The...

HMO premiums poised to rise in '97. (Northern California)
November 15, 1996... After enjoying declining HMO rates in recent years, the region's employers can expect to foot premium increases in the low single digits in 1997. That is the prediction of experts who follow HMO pricing patterns in Northern California. Fueling...

The NC's day has come. (Oracle Corp.'s network computer)
November 15, 1996... Oracle Corp. will debut the network computer with $100 million ad blitz Oracle Corp. is planning a television ad campaign of up to $100 million to support the launch early next year of its low-cost network computer, its first foray onto...

Apartment complexes selling at torrid clip. (San Francisco Bay Area)
November 15, 1996... Rising rents and plummeting vacancies are triggering a feeding frenzy among investors of Bay Area rental apartments. Sale records are falling like dominoes. Through the end of October, 30 Bay Area apartment communities have fetched close to...

The Gap and NBA team up for groundbreaking licensing deal. (Gap Inc.; National Basketball Association)
November 15, 1996... Gap Inc. is moving to "Gapisize" the National Basketball Association. In a first for both organizations, the Gap and the NBA have teamed to create a line of children's clothing featuring NBA logos. The NBA trails only the National Football...

When Harper chairman hit 70, he moved into fast lane. (former Harper Group Chmn. John Robinson)
November 15, 1996... Like many executives, John Robinson's retirement plans called for a lot of sitting around when he stepped down as chairman of Harper Group three years ago. And sure enough, he's been sitting on boards of some of the 15 companies he's invested...

Buyer closing in on $100M East Bay office complex. (Spieker Properties Inc.; Watergate Office Towers, Emeryville, California)
November 15, 1996... Spieker Properties Inc. is close to acquiring Watergate Office Towers, the largest and most prominent office complex in Emeryville. The Menlo Park-based real estate investment trust has been working for several months to purchase the property...

Ready to play. (Lewis Galoob Toys Inc.)
November 15, 1996... New equity, hot toys make a merry Christmas for soaring Galoob Toys Galoob Toys, on course for its best year ever, has unwrapped an early Christmas present: $54 million in new equity from Wall Street. Galoob's offering of 2.4 million shares...

Work force may have appetite for Mother's Cookies. (Mother's Cake and Cookie Co.)
November 15, 1996... The East Bay's Economic Development Alliance for Business is exploring the feasibility of an employee buyout of Mother's Cake and Cookies in the hopes of ensuring 500 jobs remain there once the company is sold. The Oakland-based maker of baked...

Informix to build $50 million headquarters in Santa Clara. (Informix Corp.; California)
November 15, 1996... Informix Corp. of Menlo Park, one of the Bay Area's largest database-software developers, plans to build a campus in Santa Clara totaling up to 1 million square feet. Brokers familiar with the transaction said the company is negotiating a...

Accessories dress up firm's sales. (Kensington Microware Ltd.)
November 15, 1996... Kensington Microware Ltd., a leader in the computer mouse market, has hit the acquisition trail in recent months to broaden the company's line of computer accessories. Since June 1995 San Mateo-based Kensington has acquired three companies,...

Paul Allen's Interval hatches 3 startups. (Interval Research Corp.)
November 15, 1996... Interval Research Corp., a technology think tank funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is in the midst of spawning a trio of new technology companies. Palo Alto-based Interval, which is devoted to studying how technology affects people...

Livermore lab engineer builds bridge to market. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory engineer Tom McEwan)
November 15, 1996... An engineer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who developed breakthrough low-cost radar has left the lab to help bring the technology to market. Tom McEwan, an engineer who developed the so called "micropower impulse radar," a radar...

S.F. hospital trio explores alliance. (San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center; St. Luke's Hospital; Davies Medical Center)
November 15, 1996... Mayor Willie Brown has asked San Francisco General Hospital to explore a city-run alliance to help rescue two struggling private hospitals, St. Luke's Hospital and Davies Medical Center, from potential financial disaster. S.F. General and the...

Pier pressure brings down Oakland dock. (Port of Oakland)
November 15, 1996... The Army Corps of Engineers has ended a three-year standoff in the Port of Oakland's dredging project by tearing down a private pier in Alameda. Invoking an obscure century-old law, the corps knocked down the 560-foot dock last month after the...

Firm's studies underpin opportunity. (Mason Tillman Associates Ltd.; affirmative action programs)
November 15, 1996... The passage of Proposition 209 hit close to home for Eleanor Mason Ramsey's business, Mason Tillman Associates Ltd. Mason Tillman conducts research on regulatory compliance and business affirmative action for public-and private-sector clients....

Robust year of sales gives wine makers a healthy glow. (San Francisco Bay Area)
November 15, 1996... Increased consumer demand and a relatively strong supply of fruit added up to a tasty year for Bay Area wine makers in 1995. Eight of the wineries on The List (see page 31) increased production by more than 20 percent, and 15 boosted it by at...

Trade boom helps freight forwarders deliver the goods. (San Francisco Bay Area)
November 15, 1996... Riding the brisk international trade winds, freight forwarders are becoming a major force in the Bay Area economy. Of the companies on this year's List of the Largest Freight Forwarders in the Bay Area, 14 are based here, including seven of the...

BofA tries to take the money and run. (Bank of America)(Editorial)
November 15, 1996... It's not uncommon for people withdrawing money from automated teller machines to think about the possibility of being mugged. Few, however, would ever envision the perpetrator of such an assault to be a bank. Bank of America has the dubious...

Telecommunications rep calls for no new taxes. (California)
November 15, 1996... Consumers and investors take note: Telecommunications services are bearing an increasing and substantial burden of unequal and regressive taxes. Why should you care? California's market represents the potential for substantial continued...

Ex-Sybase CEO joins startups. (Mark Hoffman joins DistriVision and Intraware)
November 22, 1996... Still stinging from his ouster as CEO of Sybase Inc. in July Mark Hoffman has chosen two software companies as vehicles for a comeback. Hoffman hopes to build the ventures, Concord-based DistriVision and Orinda's Intraware, into software...

CHW makes mammoth acquisition. (Catholic Healthcare West buys Samaritan Health System)
November 22, 1996... San Francisco's Catholic Healthcare West has agreed to acquire a $1.2 billion Arizona health system, a move that will boost its size by nearly 40 percent. The $3.1 billion hospital system signed a mid-November letter of intent to merge...

Heads roll at San Francisco's Clift Hotel.
November 22, 1996... Property's new management would likely cater to celebrities Owners of San Francisco's Clift Hotel have fired the property's management company of two years and will reportedly replace it with a glitzy operator of hotels catering to the...

Oakland downtown redevelopment going for broke.
November 22, 1996... 'We have more projects on the books than we have money' Oakland's Redevelopment Agency, looking at a slate of projects that promise to revitalize its downtown core, will have to make tough choices because its financial condition is worse than...

Show and sell. (Informix to launch 30 demonstration centers worldwide)
November 22, 1996... Taking a page from arch-rival Oracle Corp.'s marketing playbook, Informix plans to open 30 demonstration centers around the globe in a worldwide bid to take business from its larger competitor. Oracle pioneered the use of demonstration centers...

Austree Inc. reaches new heights.(Company Profile)
November 22, 1996... Neil Curry was a blueberry farmer in Australia in 1980 when he visited some farms in New Zealand and stumbled on a new business idea. The New Zealanders had planted windbreaks with a remarkable tree - an extremely hardy hybrid willow that grows...

Real estate broker hit by exodus. (CB Commercial Real Estate Services Group)
November 29, 1996... Brokers are fleeing CB Commercial Real Estate Services Group. Over the past 12 months, more than two dozen real estate brokers have left the company's offices in San Francisco, San Mateo, Oakland, Walnut Creek and San Jose, according to a...

Fidelity brings the fight to Schwab. (Fidelity Investments; Charles Schwab Corp.)
November 29, 1996... Fidelity Investments is preparing to pick a fight with archrival Charles Schwab Corp. in its own backyard. Boston-based Fidelity is beefing up its presence in San Francisco to grab a greater share of the mutual fund and discount brokerage...

H-P calls in Goodby, Silverstein to revamp image. (Hewlett-Packard Co.; Goodby, Silverstein & Partners)
November 29, 1996... Ad agency asked to de-nerd tech giant Hewlett-Packard Co., seeking visibility and a "humanized" advertising image, is launching its first television commercials created by superstar advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. H-P will...

State braces for new wave of banking immigration. (California)
November 29, 1996... California is regaining its luster within the nation's banking community. Buoyed by its rising economy - and the winnowing down of the state's large banking ranks to just two - analysts and banking observers are expecting a fresh wave of banks...

Schwab's new strategy: discount brokerage, premium advice. (Charles Schwab Corp.)
November 29, 1996... Pursuit of well-heeled baby boomers could also lead it into banking Baby boomers are growing old, and Charles Schwab Corp. plans to mature right along with them. The company that pioneered bare-bones discount brokerage is moving in the...

Walnut Creek mutual fund company plans to take its focus on financial stocks to the bank in 1997. (Selected Investment in Financial Equities Trust Fund)
November 29, 1996... With the banking industry's balance sheets strong, interest rates low and costs under continuing assault from technology, banking stocks have in recent years been something investors could, well, bank on. Among those riding the boom in bank...

Utility players: Indus, PeopleSoft team up. (Indus Group)
November 29, 1996... Seeking to gain an edge in supplying software to the utilities industry, Indus Group has forged a key alliance with PeopleSoft. The Bay Area companies have already closed three new joint accounts and are negotiating a fourth in the Pacific...

Maternity-wear maker comes of age. (Japanese Weekend Inc. founder Barbie White)
November 29, 1996... In the late 1970s Barbie White tried to start a business making silk-screened fabric, but her venture was underfinanced, and the only space she could afford was so small she was limited to printing five yards at a time. With her original plan...