San Francisco Business Times articles from September 2000

San Francisco Business Times archives from September 2000

Web firms to buyers: Eat me.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Cash-starved dot-coms ripe for plucking as VCs lose appetite The motto for Bay Area Internet companies is about to change. Forget the vaunted "path to profitability." This fall, there's a new movie showing in dot-com land: "Eat or be...

Robertson Stephens digs in.(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Investment banking chief lighting firm's fuse for 'explosion of opportunities' With a turbulent recent past including three rapid-fire ownership changes, the departure of its founder and a CEO switch, investment bank Robertson Stephens is...

Millbrae businesses unmoved by buyout.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... City struggles to fit 50 pieces into transit-center development puzzle Dan Thurston is sitting on what some say is a gold mine. The majority owner of Millbrae Lumber owns 70,000 square feet of land just west of a future BART/CalTrain...

S.F. startup opts to grow in Oakland.(MimEcom.com)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... San Francisco's space crunch has squeezed Internet startup MimEcom.com to Oakland, where it has signed a letter of intent to occupy 95,000 square feet at 1945 Broadway. According to brokers familiar with the deal, the company will occupy...

Wireless venture rings up another $40M.(Telephia Inc.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Investors answer call to roll out Telephia network into 50 metro markets A market research firm that pulls its data out of thin air just completed a $40 million round of venture funding that will allow it to fuel a major expansion of its...

Stock Answers.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Semiconductors give analyst a pleasant shock Applied Micro Circuits' recent $4.5 billion announced acquisition of MMC Networks Inc. says a lot about what's going on in the semiconductor industry today: It's consolidating fast and anything...

Ballpark plan sinks in Mudville.(Stockton, California)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... There is no joy in Mudville. Not yet, anyway. At a time when cities across America are embracing the minor league baseball boom and building exciting new stadiums, perhaps the most famous venue of them all could be sitting idle. ...

Timely hit sets clockmaker un for bie score at ballpark.(Timely hit sets clockmaker up for big score at ballpark.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... It all started with lifelong San Francisco Giants fan Stephen Kowalski sending a thank-you gift to team President Peter Magowan. You could say it turned into a home run. Now variations on clock creations of Kowalski's Timeworks Inc. are on...

Rise & Fall.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... A barometer of the region's movers, shakers and fakers Ray Lane Oracle refugee has a great new role at uber-VC Kleiner Perkins and more time to spend with his family. Did we mention he's still sifting on almost $2 billion in Oracle...

IGeneration goes back to school with $15M in funds.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Internet veteran Toby Corey is the latest entrepreneur to elbow his way into the online schoolroom with a virtual training program that aims to deliver tech-savvy youth to talent-hungry firms. Backed by $15 million in C-round funding from...

Wind River Systems sets sights on smooth sailing.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Already dominating its core market, Wind River Systems Inc. is leveraging its strength to write software for "smart devices" ranging from cell phones to digital music players. In fact, the Alameda firm has spent the last several months...

CORRECTIONS.(Correction Notice)
September 1, 2000... In article in the August 25-31 issue "Rocketing real estate posts big profits for seller," the group mentioned as advising German investors in the purchase 1 Sansome was incorrect. RREEF Funds was the advisor, not CB Richard Ellis Investors....

CHW signs pact with union.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... A preliminary, non-financial agreement between Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) and 1,700 hospital workers at three San Francisco hospitals has been reached. The two sides agreed Aug.25 on a new provision that will allow caregivers to...

Joint venture offers better access to patient data.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... One of the Bay Area's largest independent groups of physicians is seeking to market a software application for doctors offices nationwide through a joint venture with a Virginia technology company. Pacific Partners Management Services Inc....

Dot-coms won't play, avoiding ads during Games.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Call it the dot-com hangover. After an advertising binge that secured pricey ad placements in broadcasts of the Super Bowl and other high-profile events earlier this year, most Internet companies in the Bay Area and elsewhere are swearing...

MLB pitches Mail.com to save email.(Major League Baseball)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Major League Baseball's new Internet company recently doused a fire that threatened the team-named email accounts of the more avid fans of four clubs: the San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Anaheim Angels. Ifan, the...

E-Trade ads probed.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Federal regulators began investigating the marketing practices of Menlo Park's E-Trade Group. A probe by the regulation arm of the National Association of Securities Dealers and the Securities and Exchange Commission is forcing the online...

Former Oracle exec loins VC firm.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Ray Lane, former Oracle Corp. president and chief operating officer, joined Menlo Park-based Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers as general partner. The move is seen as a coup for the legendary venture firm that helped finance many industry...

Inktomi partners with AOL, Adero.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Inktomi Corp. announced it made a deal with America Online Inc. and Adero Inc. to help Internet users receive information faster. The venture, christened Content Bridge, will allow web-hosting firms to improve service by increasing speed and...

Grocer taps McGraw-Hill exec.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Safeway Inc. of Pleasanton said it has named McGraw-Hill Cos. executive Vasant Prabhu chief financial officer. Prabhu replaces David Weed, who is stepping down to spend more time with family. Prabhu has been president of McGraw-Hill's...

Millennium Bank bought.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... First Banks America Inc. said it will buy San Francisco-based Millennium Bank--its fourth acquisition of a Bay Area small-business bank over the past 18 months -- in a cash deal valued at $20.7 million. St. Louis-based First Banks will pay...

SF ad agency lays off 15.(GMO/Hill Holliday)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... San Francisco ad shop GMO/Hill Holliday announced it laid off 15 of its 200 employees, citing a drop in retail-oriented clients, such as Dell Computer Corp. and Kia Motors Corp. GMO President Nancy Hill said the agency's billings remain in the...

PlanetRx.com prescribes relocation.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... South San Francisco-based PlanetRx.com announced that it will move its headquarters to its Memphis, Tenn., 175,000-square-foot distribution center. The relocation will be complete by the year's end. The company says that the move will cut its...

Medical group goes under.(San Mateo Individual Physician Association)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... San Mateo Individual Physician Association (SMIPA), the oldest managed care medical group operating in San Mateo County, announced that it will cease operations as of Aug. 31. The association, based in San Bruno, was formed in 1978 by local...

Napa winery goes down under.(Beringer Wine Estates Holdings Inc.)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Australia's Foster's Brewing Group Ltd. agreed to buy Napa-based Beringer Wine Estates Holdings Inc. in a deal worth $1.14 billion. The acquisition gives Foster's direct access to the U.S. wine market and is part of a strategy to diversify...

BofA to redesign branches.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Bank of America announced plans to redesign its branches to better serve customers who prefer to do their banking and investments in one location. The Charlotte, N.C.-based bank hopes the redesign will increase sales of stocks, bonds and other...

Ex-CEO pleads guilty.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The U.S Attorney's office said that the former chief executive of Media Vision Technology in Fremont pled guilty to defrauding investors of millions of dollars. Paul Jain admitted to creating bogus inventory and hiding millions in product...

Rapt Inc. closes $25 million.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... San Francisco-based Rapt Inc., which provides analytic tools for e-commerce, snared $25 million in funding from a consortium of investors led by Summit Accelerator Fund. Follow-on investors included Accel Partners and Chase H&Q. Octane Capital,...

SFO terminal proves costly.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... San Francisco International Airport officials said delays on the new international terminal could reach $10 million. The San Francisco Airport Commission this week voted to pay out $4.5 million to retailers such as the San Francisco Museum of...

Robert Sockolov.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Name: Robert Sockolov. Title: President. Company: Rochester Big & Tall, the men's clothing retailer, with $60 million in annual sales. Education: Bachelor of arts degree in general studies from the University of California,...

Angels find S.F. a haven for socially aware investing.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Menlo Park area. may be the epicenter of venture capital, but angel investors, especially those investing with a social conscience, may find San Francisco closer to heaven. Investors' Circle, one of the region's more active angel...

Stanford exec on new journey with Voyager.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Voyager Capital, an early-stage venture firm based in Seattle, has opened a Palo Alto office,, headed by Curtis Feeny, who was previously executive vice president of Stanford Management Co. Feeny spent the last seven years as the No.2...

Buyout firm to keep its focus amid winning IPO.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... On the heels of its successful public offering of WJ Communications Inc., Foster City-based Fox Paine & Co. LLC said it's closing its second buyout fund with about $900 million and will keep focusing on what's worked well so far for the...

Architects leave Kaplan, quietly design own firm.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Two top Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz architects have left the design giant to start their own firm. Mark Miller and Steve Kelley quietly opened Miller Kelley Architects Inc. in March in San Francisco and are currently sharing space with landscape...

Oakland lofts ready to go.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Lalanne Volckmann of San Francisco received approval July 25 from the Oakland City Council to go forward with Preservation Park, 92-unit, 3-story lofts. The $18 million project will break ground in early 2001 and be completed in 2002....

USF spruces up building.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Dome Construction just completed an unusual renovation on behalf of the University of San Francisco. The company renovated a former nurses' dormitory for 116 units of student housing. The 21,200-square-foot building, owned by Kaiser Permanente,...

Benziger vintners put on new face, opening Imagery winery.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The vintners known for their namesake estate Benziger Family Winery have opened a new, Glen Ellen-based winery touting both fine art and a cache of artisan wines. Joe Benziger, who will run the 20-acre Imagery Estate Winery, said the...

Winery toasts to expansion.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... In another part of California's wine country, Cosentino Winery in Yountville recently purchased 20 acres of 70-year-old head-trained Zinfandel vines east of Lockford. Vintage Grapevine Inc., Cosentino's holding company, also has plans to...

Emeril will promote Fetzer.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Emeril Lagasse, the chef whose exuberant Food Network television personality has earned him cult-like recognition, has signed a three-year marketing deal to promote Fetzer Vineyards through point-of-sale materials and radio spots. Under...

Kaiser creates new post, names ex-Bally's HR exec.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Add a wild card to the Kaiser Permanente management hand. Darren Oliver joined Kaiser in a newly created position, senior vice president of people. Oakland-based Kaiser is no doubt glad to add a seasoned poker face whose last. position, oddly...

Healthcenter tightens partnership with Lucent.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Ben Verwaayen, vice chairman of Lucent Technologies, was elected director of San Francisco-based HealthCenter Internet Services Inc., parent company of healthcenter.com, an applications service provider (ASP) aimed at health-care providers and...

Bay Area firm relocates data center to Sacramento.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... California Casualty Management Co., a San Mateo-based insurance carrier, is joining the list of Bay Area companies drawn to Sacramento. The insurer isn't moving a whole office park full of employees to the capital region, but the company is...

IronPlanet digs in market with heavy venture funding.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... EBay, the online auction giant, gets a lot of things right. But it was what eBay got wrong that excited journalist-turned-venture-capitalist Reza Bundy. Why, Bundy wondered, is eBay's average sale only $45? What could encourage online buyers to...

Quokka Sports deal makes market blink.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... NBC's offer to buy warrants last week for the purchase of 10 million shares of stock in online sports site Quokka Sports Inc. had predictable results: It lifted Quokka stock to over $8. NBC's mostly symbolic gesture wasn't enough to put any...

E-tailers still missing the Middle America mark.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... A recently released study by Media Metrix on web usage patterns based upon income held few surprises. Lower income folks lag behind those making loads of money in Internet use. Less than 20 percent of households earning $45,000 or less are...

Wireless, infrastructure firms rake in big bucks.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Wireless and infrastructure firms continue to rake in the cash. * Asera Inc., the latest e-business venture from Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, raised $115 million in a third round of venture capital financing. Founded in 1999,...

Ringing in a new era.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... AT&T Labs shifts from old-fashioned bells and whistles to new voice, data and video lines When the finals of the Sand Hill Challenge -- that quirky soapbox derby race that Silicon Valley venture capital and technology companies seem to...

Zhone sharpens high-tech sword for networking arena.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Mory Ejabat is getting used to taking on the bigboys. The CEO and co-founder of Oakland's Zhone Technologies made a name for himself selling networking tools to the nation's biggest telecom providers, a market previously considered untouchable...

Pilot pulls out of financial spiral to land telecom deal.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Marketta Silvera fancies herself as a virtual Joe Friday who will always get her man, or, in her case, her hacker. Silvera, founder and chairwoman and CEO of Pilot Network Services Inc., is taking a bite out of cybercrime. Her weapon of...

Open access door is slamming shut for Oakland.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Shivering in the chilly shadow of a recent court decision in Portland, Ore., Oakland officials have abandoned dreams of obtaining "open access" in cable negotiations with AT&T for. the more mundane issue of "equal access." Since about...

Wireless technology helps new dot-com Sonic boom.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Beaming data to and from the Internet with "fixed wireless" microwave antennas is a technology starting to take hold in the region's telecommunications service mix. And San Francisco-based sports web site company Quokka Sports is certainly...

New PUC chief levels field.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... A law professor once told Loretta Lynch that all regulation was doomed to fail because industries would change by the time new regulations were put in place. As the newly appointed president of the California Public Utility Commission,...

Estate tax 'stunt' fails to impress the White House.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Montana rancher Lynn Cornwell traveled by tractor from the Capitol to the White House to deliver legislation to phase out the estate tax over the next 10 years. "Mr. President, don't veto this bill!" said 97-year-old Sen. Strom ...

Quick and nimble.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Sisters keep web design business in top shape by steady growth Around the dawn of the first millennium AD., the Egyptian goddess Isis inspired a popular cult that rivaled a new faith on the block, Christianity. An Oakland-based web design...

ENTREPRENEUR PROFILE: William Napoli.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Big Picture Reason for starting the business: I began as a sole proprietor on the Pacific Stock Exchange options trading floor in 1983.1 saw tremendous opportunities in the options floor and in the PSE itself. I felt we could compete with...

Keep the future sound with new Net sales rules.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Sales blessing or sales curse, the Net is a choice. The worldwide web is not only here to stay, it gets bigger and stronger every second. And every salesperson in the world needs to reevaluate his or her web position right now. Some...

Out with the old, in with the new: It's a matter of survival.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Success in business today requires uprooting old ideas and planting fresh, workable ideas. The uprooting is usually painful and often resisted. It was difficult 20 years ago when the typewriter was displaced with that newfangled word processor....

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... ADVERTISING/DESIGN Ronda Dunn was named art director at advertising firm Hoffman/Lewis. Carla Hardaway joined the firm as associate creative director. The San Francisco agency named Anne Lewis copywriter and Jim Mooney management...

Congress plays waiting game with workers' futures.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Waiting for the U.S. Congress to see the light on technology immigration is like "Waiting for Godot": It's lengthy, difficult to understand, and the wait in question seems always to be a futile one. Earlier this year, it looked probable...

GOP 'welfare czars' eat free lunch.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Democrats and Republicans both love welfare. Liberal Democrats support personal welfare. They believe taxpayers owe a living to those Americans who have lost out "in life's lottery," as Gephardt puts it. Conservative Republicans, on the...

Tech worship turns a tool into a theology.(Brief Article)(Column)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... When Air France Flight 4590 crashed moments after takeoff on Aug. 1, we were reminded of the startling fact that the world's highest-performance commercial airliner is obsolete. The plane has been out of production for decades, so spare parts...

Coke or Pepsi for Oakland schools? Keep it in the can.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... While many people are taking issue with the prospect of a huge sole-source contract between Pepsi and Oakland schools, and think Coke should have its chance, that is not the central issue. Others are concerned that Pepsi advertising will...

LETTERS.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Streetwise reader recommends trying another avenue As a member of the board of directors of the Union Square Association, I was most' impressed by and grateful for your coverage of the Union Square area in the Aug. 4-10 issue. However, I...

Inside Traders.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

Largest Transit Agencies in the Bay Area.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

Most Widely-Read Newspapers in the Bay Area.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... [TABLE HAS BEEN CLIPPED]

HMO insurance rates blast off.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... Businesses will swallow increases of up to 14 percent; a bitter pill? Northern California's largest HMOs are preparing to unveil rate hikes of up to 14 percent for 2001, on top of the big price increases most imposed this year. The...

Sports recruiter makes the cut.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... But LevelEdge.com faces intense competition for high-school athletes Big-time college athletics nearly left soccer player Lisa Henderson on the sidelines. But LevelEdge.com CEO Henderson -- thanks to financial backing from the likes...

Wells Fargo to prune 29 store branches.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... Wells Fargo & Co. is closing 29 "partial service" supermarket branches, a move it says speaks more to a broadening array of products than a substantial shift in its grocery-store strategy. The move nonetheless is part of a wider play by the...

Development supporters cry, 'Where's Willie?'.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... S.F. real estate leaders fume as ballot drive to ease growth cap gets stuck in neutral All is quiet on the Prop. K front After introducing a ballot measure to ease San Francisco's 14-year-old building restrictions on Aug. 9, Mayor...

Shorenstein looks east for new exec.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... Shorenstein Co. has named a new president; freeing up CEO and Chairman Doug Shorenstein to focus on the company's growing investment fund activities. Shorenstein promoted Glenn Shannon, the managing partner of the company's New York office...

Online lenders trying to regain lost interest.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... Eyebrows arched when interest-rate convulsions forced online mortgage lender FiNet.com to change its strategy earlier this year. The San Ramon-based company decided to refocus from consumer mortgage origination to funding loans for mortgage...

Investor relations pay off.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... Institutional investors help Venture Strategy to bulk up new fund Venture Strategy Group has stepped into venture capital's -- big leagues, raising $200 million for a new fund -- nearly 10 times the size of its previous fund. The...

Stock Answers.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... New fund places Bay Area at center of the universe There's nothing new about geographically-oriented mutual funds. Investors have long been able to own a fund that buys stocks only in one country or continent. But in a shrinking world...

Dot-com death site builds a more constructive attitude.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... The dot-com deathwatch site which let viewers vote on which of the more than 240 construction-related e-commerce companies were most likely to fail has claimed an early casualty: Itself. Deciding to make love and not war, Cyberplaces.com...

Tuning in to the Internet.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... You can't accuse Tim Mertz of thinking small. The CEO of San Francisco-based FMcities.com has launched radio stations in 12 metropolitan markets -- 600 stations to be exact Not that Mertz is busy snatching up call letters or springing up...

Rise & Fall.(Briefs.)(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... A barometer of the region's movers, shakers and fakers Dean Singleton Ambitious publisher is adding Mann's Independent-Journal to his expanding Bay Area stable. That's good news for him -- but it's causing depression at the I-J, where...

Downtown building deals prove market still soaring.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... Downtown building prices continue to push upward as investors plan to buy three downtown office towers for about $400 per square foot. * Interland Corp. of San Mateo plans to buy 343 Sansome from Hines for $102.8 million, or $411 per square...

High-tech staffers tap into India's talent trove.(DSS Software)(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... An Oakland high-tech staffing firm which taps into India's talent pool for Bay Area employers has seen revenue grow 350 percent in the past year and believes it will more than double again in 2001. DSS Software, which has placed 200...

CORRECTIONS.(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
September 15, 2000... DPR Construction has an annual revenue total of $1.7 billion. That amount was incorrectly stated in a Sept. 8 story. The Entrepreneur Profile in the Sept. 8-14 issue misspelled the name of Structure Consulting Group CEO David Hallam. A...

Pleasanton development to run on power of the sun.(Real Energy builds solar powered industrial buildings)(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... As energy prices soar and rolling brownouts become reality, Kevin Best believes the time has come for commercial buildings that generate their own power. Best, CEO of Sacramento's Real Energy, has chosen the Tri-Valley to build Pleasanton...

Bowman Capital first tenant at Bay Meadows.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... San Mateo-based Bowman Capital is the first to sign a lease at The Center at Bay Meadows, the 320,000-square-foot mixed-use project under construction in San Mateo. Bowman Capital has signed a 10-year lease on 64,000 square feet in a...

Nurses' strike causes $43M in losses.(Stanford University Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital post losses.)(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... Stanford University Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital posted an estimated $43 million loss over June and July, the result of a nurses' strike from June 7 through Aug. 2. The walkout forced Stanford to spend $24 million...

NorthPoint buoyed by Verizon.(Brief Article)
September 15, 2000... San Francisco-based NorthPoint Communications Group Inc. announced it received a $150 million cash investment from Verizon Communications, the country's largest wireless service provider. The investment is part of Verizon's plan to acquire a 55...