Baltimore Business Journal articles from April 1998

Baltimore Business Journal archives from April 1998

Unions push benefits hike. (Maryland weekly unemployment benefit)
April 3, 1998... Maryland business leaders are seeing red over a proposal that would hike the state's maximum weekly unemployment benefit by 130 percent. Under a bill introduced by Del. Hattie Harrison, D-Baltimore, and strongly backed by organized labor,...

Medicaid bottleneck sparks audit.
April 3, 1998... Responding to complaints the system is too slow to pay for services, a top Maryland legislator has requested an audit of managed care's administration of the state's Medicaid program. Doctors and hospitals have been clamoring for Medicaid bills...

Wire maker leads trade fight. (Maryland Specialty Wire Inc)
April 3, 1998... Foreign competition has forced Maryland Specialty Wire Inc. to buy new equipment, reduce costs, enter new markets and lay off 20 employees. Despite these gambits, the Cockeysville company is still having trouble keeping up with the competition....

Living for the fight. (banker Edwin F Hale Sr)
April 3, 1998... Ed Hale torments yet another board There's probably only one thing Edwin F. Hale Sr. enjoys more than winning a good fight, and that's the fight itself. "I love to compete," Hale said. "I don't care what it is." If that's true - and...

Committee moves on electric competition. (Maryland Senate Finance Committee)
April 3, 1998... Marylanders may be able to choose their electricity company by July 2000 if the state legislature approves key amendments to a controversial bill. The Maryland Senate Finance Committee last week voted to bring electricity competition to all...

Profit slide continues for region's hospitals.
April 3, 1998... Profits at Maryland hospitals continued to plunge during the last three months of 1997, landing $44.2 million below the previous year's mark. "We're seeing a pretty precipitous drop, and it's getting worse," said Nancy Fiedler, senior vice...

McCormick & Co. Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpt)(Company Profile)
April 3, 1998... Corporate Profile McCormick & Co. Inc. underwent a major transformation in 1997, firmly establishing its new base for future growth. The company won a major battle against its largest consumer competitor which at the end of the year withdrew...

Stations fuel Wendy's chain. (contract between restaurant franchisee DavCo Acquisition Holding Inc. and Exxon Corp.)
April 10, 1998... The largest franchisee of Wendy's restaurants has tapped into the multimillion dollar gas station industry for potential growth. DavCo Acquisition Holding Inc. - fresh off the heels of a $138 million merger that brought the company private - is...

Investor is rolling up sock firms. (J.P. Bolduc's plan to merge Foothills Hosiery Inc. with Lookout Knitwear)
April 10, 1998... JPB Enterprises, a Columbia merchant banking firm led by financier J.P. Bolduc, expanded its growing empire last week with the acquisition of a North Carolina hosiery company. Bolduc, the former chief executive of chemical giant W.R. Grace &...

View from the top: TrizecHahn plans to cast a long shadow. (TrizecHahn Corp.)
April 10, 1998... Pick a landmark property in any American city Chances are, TrizecHahn Corp. holds the deed. Some examples: The Watergate office complex in Washington, the Sears Tower in Chicago, the CN Tower in Toronto and the W.R. Grace Building on 42nd...

Banks unite for thrifty advertising campaign.
April 10, 1998... Hoping to spark new business, eight small community thrifts have launched a joint advertising campaign that bashes their larger out-of-state competitors for treating customers "like a number." Using the slogan, "We are local, committed and...

Marriott plans expansion into senior living market. (Marriott International Inc.)(Special Report: Health Care)
April 10, 1998... Last Thursday, Marriott International Inc. held a reception to mark the opening of its new senior living center called Brighton Gardens in Bethesda. If Marriott follows through with its aggressive expansion plans, this scene will be repeated...

Martek Biosciences Corp. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
April 10, 1998... Corporate profile Columbia-based Martek Biosciences Corp. researches, develops and manufactures nutritional supplements, diagnostics and pharmaceuticals from microalgae. Fiscal year 1997 had mixed results for the company. Sales and new...

First National eyeing Virginia. (First Maryland Bancorp's planned expansion)
April 17, 1998... First Maryland Bancorp's top executive said this week that the company is on the hunt for a deal that will boost its toehold in Northern Virginia. "I can say we're not happy with our presence there and would love to be able to make an...

Columbia seeing spec office boom. (Columbia, Maryland)
April 17, 1998... A wave of new office buildings is washing over Columbia. More than 1 million square feet of space in more than a dozen new office buildings is planned for completion over the next 18 months in the edge city between Baltimore and Washington....

Lawyers defend Angelos fee. (Baltimore, Maryland lawyer Peter G. Angelos)
April 17, 1998... High-profile members of Baltimore's legal community say Peter G. Angelos should get what he deserves - even if it means reaping a big chunk of the state's potential spoils in its multibillion dollar tobacco lawsuit. Most local attorneys...

A really big weekend: in mid-May, tourism industry out in front.
April 17, 1998... Beer, baseball and the races. These are a few of Baltimore's favorite things. And much to the delight of economic development and tourism officials, they are all converging in Charm City on one weekend in May. In one three-day stretch - May...

Local banks show moxie after round of mergers. (Maryland's banking industry)(Industry Overview)
April 17, 1998... NationsBank Corp.'s $60 billion acquisition of BankAmerica Corp. and other recent megamergers are stirring speculation over whether Baltimore's remaining big banks will get caught up in the swell. Chief executives of the three banks - First...

Some question viability of doctor-run HMO. (Maryland Medical Group LLC; health maintenance organization)
April 17, 1998... Some local physicians question whether a proposed doctor-run health maintenance organization can compete with insurers that are worth billions of dollars. A Baltimore-area surgeon and urologist are taking a second stab at starting Maryland...

First Mariner Bancorp. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
April 17, 1998... Corporate profile In the three years since Edwin F. Hale Sr. started First Mariner Bancorp it has continued to expand at a rapid pace. First Mariner has 16 branches, with plans to add six more this year. As of year-end 1997, First Mariner has...

Megamall to be downsized. (Mills Corp. reduces size of planned mall in Arundel County)
April 24, 1998... Developers of a massive discount mall in Anne Arundel County have taken 40 percent off the project because of environmental and competitive concerns. The Mills Corp. in Virginia has dramatically scaled back its plans to develop a 1.4...

Baltimore CEOs enjoy big bonuses.
April 24, 1998... George A. Roche's salary probably isn't much more than a typical successful stockbroker's. In fact, Roche, chief executive of T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., one of Baltimore's biggest public companies, hasn't gotten a bump in his relatively...

Hospitals near deal; abortion differences resolved for merger. (merger between Greater Baltimore Medical Center and St. Joseph Medical Center)
April 24, 1998... The arduous merger negotiations between the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and St. Joseph Medical Center have highlighted how difficult it is to merge Catholic and secular hospitals. As the Baltimore-area hospital market consolidates,...

Mutual thrift decline will likely continue. (Patapsco Bank)(Company Profile)
April 24, 1998... The Patapsco Bank, a $91 million-asset bank in Dundalk, converted from mutual savings and loan status to stock two years ago after more than two years of study, said President Joseph J. Bouffard. "It has helped the bank increase its earnings...

Annapolis florist takes on New Jersey rival. (Gateway Florist vs. out-of-state florist Thomas Meola)
April 24, 1998... For Gail Coe, owning an independent flower shop in Annapolis is no bed of roses these days. While running Gateway Florist, Coe also has been spending much of her time in legislative hearings lobbying state lawmakers and defending her company...

State hospitals ask Insurance Commission to audit insurers. (Maryland Hospital Association seeks audit of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland and Mid-Atlantic Medical Services Inc.)
April 24, 1998... Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland refused to pay $29.6 million in hospital bills last year - nearly double the amount denied by Maryland's six other largest insurers, according to a study released this week by the Maryland Hospital...

Most Maryland banks have good first quarter.
April 24, 1998... Spurred by significant increases in fee income, most area banks ended this year's first quarter on a high note. But analysts caution that when the fees, drawn mostly from a healthy mortgage and lending business, start to decline, the outlook...

Internet ads can be tricky. (marketing on the Internet)
April 24, 1998... Whether they'll admit it or not, the Madison Avenue crowd must be a little ticked off these days. Throughout the century, that in-your-face art form called advertising was evolving in an orderly, predictable fashion. Print ads begat, radio...

Catch of the day. Employers, headhunters are angling for the big fish: qualified tech workers.(Industry Overview)
April 24, 1998... It's the kind of story that makes liberal arts majors dress all in black and write bitter poetry. Priya Ramakrishnan, 21, hasn't even graduated yet, but she already has a $50,000-a-year job lined up with an employer ,which also has promised to...