Baltimore Business Journal articles from July 1999

Baltimore Business Journal archives from July 1999

Joining the club.(Mammoth Sports Group opens superstore in Jessup, MD)
July 2, 1999... Bill Albright goes for the green with his golf venture The golf industry stands littered with money-losing and bankrupt companies that attempted to break into the business. And investors, while still throwing cash at almost every Internet...

CareFirst slashing Medicare.(CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield to discontinue its Medicare HMO)
July 2, 1999... CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, losing millions treating Medicare patients, said it will discontinue its Medicare HMO in 17 Maryland counties and charge a premium for those customers in the rest of the state. The state's largest insurer...

Geppi venture irks comic retailers.(Stephen Geppi, owner of Diamond Comic Distributors Inc.)
July 2, 1999... Baltimore businessman Stephen A. Geppi's recent forays into online retailing has upset many in the insular comic book industry and, some say, put him into competition with his own customers. Geppi's main business, Timonium-based Diamond...

Premier settles into a seat-making niche.(Premier Seating Co.)(Company Profile)
July 2, 1999... You could say the folks behind Premier Seating Co. backed into the manufacturing business. The Baltimore-based firm was founded in 1994 and began carving out a niche restoring fixed seating in movie theaters, auditoriums, arenas, churches,...

Brokerage provides trading on the run.(discount securities brokerage Peremel and Co.)
July 2, 1999... A local discount brokerage is luring customers into the modern age of investing with a 10 percent discount for investors who buy and sell stocks with a new electronic device. Peremel & Co. Inc., a Pikesville firm, recently introduced the...

Driving solo: area car dealers stand their ground in consolidation era.(Baltimore, MD)(Industry Overview)
July 2, 1999... National companies continue to gobble up independent automobile dealerships and set up sprawling used-car superstores - in Baltimore as well as throughout the country. But don't expect the retail automobile industry to go the way of...

A conversation ... with Gary M. Edwards.(president of KKD of Maryland Inc. and Burgers of Baltimore)(Interview)
July 2, 1999... President, KKD of Maryland LLC and President, Burgers of Baltimore Anyone who doesn't know that the Krispy Kreme doughnut - the little glazed pastry that has been delighting southerners for years - has arrived in Baltimore must be living...

For telemarketing firm, high-tech breeds high profits.(Protocall Communications)(Company Profile)
July 2, 1999... If the conversation goes well, the sale is nearly a done deal. The owners of Protocall Communications make sure that their employees keep this mindset. With this strategy in mind, the four partners of the Laurel-based company have managed...

RWD Technologies Inc.(Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
July 2, 1999... A weekly analysis of Baltimore-area public companies 10480 Little Patuxent Parkway / Columbia, 21044 / (410) 730-4377 / www.rwd.com Corporate Profile Columbia-based RWD Technologies Inc provides integrated solutions designed to...

NY firm buys Haas Tailoring.(New York-based Individualized Apparel Group)
July 9, 1999... The Haas family, owners of the venerable Baltimore clothier to presidents and sports stars, sold Haas Tailoring Co. late last month in a last-ditch effort to keep the company afloat. Haas officials said the 102-year-old company, which...

Keeping it cool; Berliner Bros. love that you love them.(Guy and Mitch Berliner of Berliner Specialty Distributors Inc.; ice cream products)
July 9, 1999... Every Good Humor Eclair and Popsicle you salivated over in your grocer's freezer over the long, hot holiday weekend came from Guy Berliner's warehouse. Indeed, every ice cream section, every roadside frozen treat vending machine and every...

Merger bulking up DMA; marketer's sale makes for local behemoth.(Direct Marketing Associates Inc.'s sale to Harte-Hanks Inc.)
July 9, 1999... By selling his home-grown direct-marketing company to Harte-Hanks Inc., Ken Boone has helped the San Antonio-based company grab a piece of the huge financial-service markets in Delaware and Philadelphia. Boone, who founded Direct Marketing...

Small, independent ISPs join the big leagues.(Maryland's Internet service providers)
July 9, 1999... Erik Monti once said that there would always be a place for small Internet service providers. At the time, it made perfect sense for the owner of Baltimore-based CharmNet Inc. to believe that there would be a place in the competitive world...

Utilities go beyond power for revenues.(Baltimore, MD's electric utilities)
July 9, 1999... Potomac Electric Power Co., once a willing merger partner of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., is now preparing to take on the powerful local utility on its home turf. Bell Atlantic and America Online might want to watch their backs as well. ...

Hospitals want more time to consider rates.(CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield's alternative to Maryland's rate-setting structure)
July 9, 1999... The Maryland Hospital Association failed to convince state health-care regulators that they should impose a moratorium on CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield's plan to create an alternative to the state's rate-setting structure. CareFirst, the...

AOL home to battle of online doctors.(America Online; drkoop.com; AmericasDoctor.com)
July 9, 1999... A Texas-based online health-care advice service struck an expensive blow at the very core of a competing local service this week. drkoop.com, the Internet medical information company chaired by former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop,...

Mattress king sells off franchise to its parent.(Adam Kidan's sale of Atlantic & Pacific Mattress Co. to Dial-A-Mattress International Inc.)
July 9, 1999... After years of making his own radio commercials featuring a distinctive Brooklyn accent - "Leave off the last 'S,' that's the 'S' for savings!" - Adam Kidan is getting out of the mattress business. Kidan, 34, will sell his Dial-A-Mattress...

Montgomery wage bill backed by labor.(Montgomery County, MD)
July 9, 1999... Montgomery County may be a far cry from blue-collar hotbeds like Baltimore, Detroit or Pittsburgh. But labor groups are playing a significant role in the bitter debate over whether companies that contract with the county should be required...

Wall Street blues: for food companies, going private proves a tasty option.
July 9, 1999... Companies of various stripes may be lining up to make initial public offerings in these bullish times, but one industry is taking a detour around Wall Street. A growing list of restaurant and other food-service companies - once the...

Ciena Corp.(Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
July 9, 1999... 1201 Winterson Road / Linthicum 21090 / (410) 865-8500 / www.ciena.com Corporate profile After a tough year in 1998 - highlighted by the failed merger with Lisle, Ill.-based Tellabs Inc. - Ciena Corp. is slowly gaining ground with...

Banking on it.(lawyer Frank Bonaventure)
July 16, 1999... Frank Bonaventure rides new-bank wave If you want to start a new bank in Maryland, at some point you'll likely pay a visit to Frank C. Bonaventure Jr. Over the past decade, the 48-year-old lawyer has helped launch at least eight...

As industry slides, Sun spotting new markets.(Times Mirror's 'The Baltimore Sun')
July 16, 1999... The Baltimore Sun can't rest on its laurels or its fierce reader loyalty if it is going to buck the newspaper industry's troubling decline in circulation. The fear of losing more readers - and the revenue they bring - is driving the daily...

Economic czar shakes up DBED.(Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Sec Richard C. Mike Lewin)
July 16, 1999... The head of Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development fired five staffers last week in an effort to dramatically refocus the agency. Secretary Richard C. Mike Lewin, appointed by Gov. Parris N. Glendening seven months ago,...

Brown's Wharf bought.(United Properties Group's acquisition of waterfront office complex)
July 16, 1999... A New Jersey real estate company acquired Brown's Wharf, a waterfront office complex in historic Fells Point, as part of an $11.9 million deal last month. United Properties Group, a subsidiary of United Water Resources Inc. in Harrington...

E-commerce not just for Internet retailers.
July 16, 1999... Retailers aren't the only companies realizing the potential for profits in the world of electronic commerce. The firms behind the retailers - primarily e-commerce consultant groups - are cashing in as well. By combining retail knowledge...

AmericasDoctor hires former Quark COO.(former chief operating officer Charles R. Bland as AmericasDoctor.com Inc. pres)
July 16, 1999... Dr. Scott M. Rifkin has found some help to run his fledgling AmericasDoctor.com Inc. Rifkin, CEO and chairman of the medical advice website, and the rest of the Owings Mills-based company's board named Charles R. Bland president of the...

Consumer awareness will ease panic Dec. 31.(utilities' public relations campaign on year 2000 computer problem)
July 16, 1999... When the lights go out at New Year's Eve parties this year, utility companies hope party goers will check the fuse box before accusing the Y2K bug. To make sure you remember that, Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. and other utilities have begun...

A conversation with ... Joseph Haskins Jr.(Harbor Bankshares Corp. pres)(Interview)
July 16, 1999... president and chief executive officer, Harbor Bankshares Corp. Joseph Haskins Jr. is often described as a visionary in Baltimore's banking community. The soft-spoken president and CEO of Harbor Bankshares Corp., one of Baltimore's...

Website makes right.(founders Scott and John Ferber of Teknosurf.com)
July 16, 1999... Brothers link ads with the right site Maybe it was a match made in heaven. Last year, a guy with a direct marketing background decided to team up with a guy who was developing Internet technologies, and one of Baltimore's...

Dynamic duo.(Bill and Mari Baxter of Wine Mates LLC)
July 16, 1999... Wine importers get boost from Jim Rouse fund The crucial moment came when a positive review in a major national magazine turned Giesen Sauvignon Blanc into a hot-selling wine. Orders shot up from 300 cases in five months to over 1,000 cases...

Bank in works in Arundel.(Anne Arundel County Economic Development Corp. head Richard J. Morgan's joining of CommerceFirst Bancorp Inc.)
July 23, 1999... Former economic development chief will be at the helm The former chief executive of Annapolis National Bank will be taking on his former institution and the rest of Anne Arundel County's lenders with a new community bank. After...

Sweat equity.(physical fitness business Metropolitan Health and Fitness)
July 23, 1999... Two lawyers try out the fitness business When Ron Miller and Joe Dever walked into an ornate bank branch on East Redwood Street, former home of the infamous Old Court Savings and Loan, they found what they had been looking for: A place...

Texas investor ropes 20% of Magellan.(Texas Pacific Group; Magellan Health Services Inc.)
July 23, 1999... Dr. Henry T. Harbin wanted a financial sponsor knowledgeable about the health-care industry to help his company, Magellan Health Services Inc., continue its gritty growth strategy. Meanwhile, David Bonderman was on the prowl for turnaround...

Military contracts lift small tech firms.
July 23, 1999... The folks at Interactive Communications Solutions Group don't mind working for the military. It's not like they have to put on uniforms and salute their superiors while they are busy designing CD-ROMs or touch-screen kiosks for the Air Force...

Concentra embarks on travel health care.(Concentra Medical Center in Columbia, Maryland)
July 23, 1999... An empty wall inside Columbia's Concentra Medical Center awaits the snapshots of patients in exotic locales. Concentra opened its Travel Medicine Program on April 1 as part of a growing specialty of catering to world travelers. The health...

CareFirst wages war of words.(CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield)
July 30, 1999... CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield is waging a war of words with the Maryland Hospital Association - and the battleground is the General Assembly's mailboxes. The state's largest health insurer this month blanketed the state legislature and...

Seeing green.(Plantastic Ltd. acquires Greening of America)
July 30, 1999... Dimitri Psoras won't die on the vine While Dimitri Psoras's business is blooming, his one-time competitor Greening of America has withered. Psoras's Plantastic Ltd. acquired the assets and client list of Greening of America, a company...

Condor soars on e-commerce boom.(Condor Technology Solutions Inc.)
July 30, 1999... When Annapolis-based Condor Technology Solutions Inc. held its initial public offering in February 1998, it put president Dan Roche on top of one of the fastest-growing Internet services firms in the country overnight. But the stock...

Powerize.com seeks more Web exposure.
July 30, 1999... Edward R. Addison wants you to think of Powerize.com first when looking for business and financial information on the World Wide Web. In order to goad Internet surfers to think of Powerize instead of Bloomberg, InsitePro or Hoovers when...

Mediator is ready to settle.(Clarence E. Goetz, founder of U.S. Settlement Corp.)
July 30, 1999... Former judge launches cheap mediation service on Web A retired federal judge is trying to make resolving financial disputes easier by making it cheaper - on the Internet. Clarence E. Goetz, founder of Baltimore-based U.S. Settlement...