Baltimore Business Journal articles from June 1997

Baltimore Business Journal archives from June 1997

Angelos buying his way into new games. (property owner Peter Angelos)
June 6, 1997... Friends say he's not trying to get a monopoly He has a slew of properties, the dice in his hands, a stack of money at his side, and he wants to build a hotel. But this is no Monopoly game. It's empire building, Peter Angelos style. The...

Wooing may win tech wiz for city. (Zoesis Inc.; Baltimore, Maryland)
June 6, 1997... A small but important technology company backed by Japanese computer giant Fujitsu Corp. is reconsidering a move to Boston after being courted by Baltimore business leaders. The founders of Zoesis Inc. - a year-old Pittsburgh company that...

Loss of trade program could strand Md. efforts. (Maryland)
June 6, 1997... Maryland exporters could be big losers if "corporate welfare" critics in Washington succeed in killing a federal export finance program. The Export-Import Bank, a 63-year-old federal agency that provides insurance and loans to exporters, is on...

Cashing out: Ravens might use smart cards. (Baltimore Ravens)
June 6, 1997... More than 68,000 fans show up on game day without any cash in their pockets. It's enough to make a team executive shudder. After all, each Ravens fan spent an average of $10 per game at Memorial Stadium last season, or more than $6.4 million....

All the news that hawkers can sell. (competition between The Baltimore Sun and The Washington Times)
June 6, 1997... Though The Washington Times and The Sun both say they're not in a newspaper war, you wouldn't know it standing on the corner of Fayette Street and Jones Fails Expressway weekday mornings. There, as rush hour traffic backs up, hawkers of both...

Hopkins tests potential of telemedicine. (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine)
June 6, 1997... By August, Johns Hopkins physicians will be using video, audio and data links to help treat intensive care patients in some of Maryland's rural hospitals. Johns Hopkins doctors hope the project will prove for the first time that a telemedicine...

Crud cutter hopes to clean up in China. (GP66 Chemical Corp.)
June 6, 1997... Jimmy Kaplanges is about to clean up, and he's ecstatic. "Man, I can't breathe right now thinking about it," Kaplanges said. "You're talking about some big, big, big figures." Kaplanges - inventor of a "miracle cleaner" and owner and...

Changes may protect Signet. (Signet Banking Corp.)
June 6, 1997... Banking analysts and company officials said this week's restructuring at Signet Banking Corp. doesn't portend a sale of the Richmond, Va., company. The changes, they say, should in fact help the $12 billion-asset bank stay independent. At...

Did you hear they're splitting up? (business partners)
June 6, 1997... Business partners can go separate ways- without strife Marvin Marks already has a title for his unwritten autobiography: "The World is Not Made for Partnerships." Marks, who owns a Baltimore medical supply company, almost lost his business...

Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
June 6, 1997... Corporate profile Hampstead-based clothing retailer and manufacturer Joe. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. spent the 1996 fiscal year focusing entirely on its men's business and new products. The company reported a $300,000 profit following a net loss...

Amex battles to grab more listings. (American Stock Exchange Inc.)
June 6, 1997... Underdog stock exchange touts its strengths When a corporate relations manger from the American Stock Exchange called Giant Food Inc. executives out of the blue about six months ago, they were a little concerned. Not to worry, said the...

ATMs: for risk-averse owners, they're cash machines.
June 6, 1997... David Hnat says he's making money doing nothing. The owner of the Caton Avenue Shell Station installed an ATM machine a few steps inside his shop and now makes about $600 a month charging customers for its use. "It's paying for itself,...

HMOs mull rate lawsuit. (Maryland; health maintenance organizations)
June 13, 1997... First strike in hospital fee feud Health maintenance organizations are drafting a lawsuit against the state's hospital rate-setting commission, a move that would be the first legal strike in a battle that pits affordable health care for...

Sun deal draws scrutiny. (Baltimore Sun Co.'s acquisitions)
June 13, 1997... Feds to pick apart merger Federal antitrust regulators will spend the next month picking over the Baltimore Sun Co.'s planned purchase of the area's largest group of weekly newspapers. The purchase, rumored for months and officially...

Nobody knows the trouble they've seen. (bankruptcies in Maryland)
June 13, 1997... Blame for bankruptcy surge runs the gamut Those who say it's easy to file for bankruptcy haven't seen the box of Kleenex in attorney Ronald J. Drescher's conference room - the one his clients reach for when a load of debt weighs on their...

For new fund, just forming was venturesome. (venture capital company MMG Ventures)
June 13, 1997... MMG Ventures is finally in business after a tumultuous uphill battle to establish itself as one of the few venture capital firms offering debt capital to growing minority-owned companies. It only took six years and changes in both state and...

Goliath wooing, not battling, David. (big and small businesses)
June 13, 1997... Corporate giants like Microsoft are now courting smaller firms Big business has a new niche - small business. Special Response Corp. of Towson, for instance, is a prime target. "When a client calls and immediately needs 80 or 90 of my...

Alex. Brown Inc. (proxy report excerpts)(Company Profile)
June 13, 1997... Corporate profile Alex. Brown continued to post record highs during 1996, a year filled with success on many fronts for the Baltimore-based firm. On the tail of Alex. Brown's best year ever, the nation's oldest investment firm announced plans...

Cemeteries get watchdog. (new Baltimore Office of Cemetery Oversight)
June 27, 1997... Maryland's multi-million dollar cemetery industry is about to come under the watchful eye of state regulators. A new law goes into effect July 1 that's designed to protect consumers from unscrupulous or neglectful cemetery operators, who have...

Aegon bidding battle begins. (Aegon USA Inc.'s headquarters)
June 27, 1997... The bidding war for Aegon USA Inc.'s headquarters is heating up, with city and state-officials putting together an economic incentive package to keep the insurer - and 800 jobs - in Baltimore. The incentives could be presented to Aegon...

State shoots for the stars. (Maryland Film Office's budget increase for 1997)
June 27, 1997... Film chief joins jet set in bid to reel in movies How much Hollywood schmoozing can you do with an extra $400,000? Michael Styer is about to find out. That's how much the Maryland Film Office's budget increased this year - to $669,000 - and...

Alexander & Alexander jobs hang on decision. (Aon Corp.'s acquisition of Alexander and Alexander Services Inc.)
June 27, 1997... Speculation continues to mount over the fate of Alexander & Alexander and its 400 Owings Mills employees. Chicago-based Aon Corp. bought Alexander & Alexander six months ago and sources in the real estate industry say privately that while the...

Pawnshops say future is in hock as Md. restrictions keep piling up. (Anne Arundel County, Maryland)
June 27, 1997... Anne Arundel joins area governments in searching for ways to control stores Anne Arundel County may follow the lead of its neighbors by slapping tougher restrictions on pawnshops as a way to control urban blight. In recent years, pawnshops...

Patapsco Valley steers into non-bank ventures. (Patapsco Valley Bancshares Inc.'s acquisition of Central Maryland Service Corp.)
June 27, 1997... Patapsco Valley Bancshares Inc. took over a very un-bank like business this month: data processing. The holding company of Ellicott City-based Commercial & Farmers Bank bought Central Maryland Service Corp. in early June. It probably won't be...

Gone, but not forgotten. (health care companies offer managed care services for retirees)
June 27, 1997... Health care choices important not just for retirees, but their former employers With retirees outnumbering current employees by more than three to one, Bethlehem Steel Corp. is looking to managed care to help cap its former employees' health...

Sylvan bets millions on grownup learning. (Sylvan Learning Systems)
June 27, 1997... Caliber offices to sprout in cities across U.S. Sylvan Learning Centers may be best known for tutoring school children, but the company itself is betting much of its future - and tens of millions of dollars - that grownups need to learn, too....

Easing Wall Street woes. (Ease Technologies Inc.'s Triad Financial System software which makes it easier to trade 500 million shares daily)(Special Report: Technology)
June 27, 1997... Software tries to make brokers' lives simpler Big days on Wall Street are also big days for Columbia's Charles J. Bubeck, but not because he's an investor. Bubeck, the president and chief executive officer of Ease Technologies Inc., knows...

Polk Audio Inc. (proxy report excerpts)(Company Profile)
June 27, 1997... Corporate profile In April high-end loudspeaker maker Polk Audio Inc. said its fourth quarter (March 31) sales declined by 27 percent, caused by margin and sales declines among the retailers that are the primary purchasers of its products....