Puget Sound Business Journal articles from August 1998

Puget Sound Business Journal archives from August 1998

Guarding the Net: companies alert to Internet stock chat. (spread of rumors about public companies on the Internet)
August 28, 1998... Gossip has new meaning for Glenn Welstad, chairman of Labor Ready Inc. On Aug. 19, rumors that apparently started on the Internet drove down the company's share price by 26 percent. The Tacoma company hurriedly called a nationwide telephone...

PacifiCare stabilizes. (PacifiCare of Washington Inc)
August 28, 1998... Following last year's dreadful financial results, health insurer PacifiCare of Washington is marching up the comeback trail. The managed-care company last year posted a whopping net loss of $100 million, by far the worst loss of any health...

Valley braces for Boeing vacancies: moves could create space glut. (Kent Valley, Washington)
August 28, 1998... Just when the Kent Valley real estate market has recovered from The Boeing Co.'s last downturn, it's bracing for another possible Boeing shock. An Aug. 13 memo from the head of Boeing's Information & Communications Systems division says the...

Seattle stations stars of Entercom's IPO. (Entercom Communications Corp's initial public offering)
August 28, 1998... As Seattle's radio market goes, so goes Entercom Communications Corp. So when investors look into Philadelphia-based Entercom's $242 million initial public offering, they'll be taking a hard look at how the eight stations it owns here are...

Wright Runstad office park lures big tenants. (Wright Runstad & Co)
August 28, 1998... New projects heating up I-90 corridor Two big leases inked by Wright Runstad & Co. attest to the feverish office-space market along the Eastside's Interstate 90 corridor. Wright Runstad has signed fast-growing Onyx Software to a...

Data Dimensions acquires ST Labs.
August 28, 1998... Purchase will allow firm to expand beyond Y2K market ST Labs Inc. and Data Dimensions Inc. are looking beyond the year 2000. Bellevue-based Data Dimensions, a leader in providing solutions for the so-called Y2K computer problem, has just...

Cash course. (Microserve Inc)
August 28, 1998... Jerry Ryles righted Microserv Inc. by tightening cash controls and finding new customers It's an old story, told hundreds of times over: Good idea catches on like wildfire and entrepreneurial firm drowns in its own success. That's the...

Alzheimer's care fills a growing need: no fewer than three facilities will open next week. (Bellevue, Washington)
August 28, 1998... The statistics are unnerving. According to the Illinois-based Alzheimer's Association, approximately 4 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease, 83,000 of them in Washington. Unless a cure or prevention is found, the number of people...

Active Voice Corp. (Proxy Report Excerpts)(Company Profile)
August 28, 1998... 2901 Third Ave., Suite 500, Seattle WA 98121, 206-441-4700 Active Voice Corp. makes voice processing systems and PC-based computer telephony integration solutions. The company's software and servers help people manage information and...

Providence out of Basic Health. (Providence Health Care; Basic Health Plan)
August 21, 1998... Insurer hit by losses on state programs Providence Health Care has abruptly derided not to contract next year with state health-care insurance programs that serve poor and low-income Washington residents. The big insurer has lost millions...

Child care dilemma: cost poses hurdle for the working poor.
August 21, 1998... Single mother Angela Mealing quit her job at a department store, spent her 401(k) retirement plan and ran up her debts, all because she couldn't afford child care for her son. "When I was paying $600 a month by myself, I was worried about it...

Zell poised to buy B'vue office tower. (Equity Office Properties Trust owner Sam Zell; Bellevue, Washington)
August 21, 1998... Sam Zell's Equity Office Properties Trust has become the lone finalist in bidding to buy the 442,000-square-foot City Center building in Bellevue, said sources close to the deal. Equity also remains a leading contender for another major...

Primus pumps another $12M into its coffers. (Primus Knowledge Solutions Inc.)
August 21, 1998... Primus Knowledge Solutions Inc. has quickly raised another $12.25 million in venture capital to fuel the company's rapid growth. The latest round of funding brings the Seattle software company's venture financing to a total of $32 million and...

Cinnabon will get dough to grow. (acquisition of Cinnabon International Inc.)
August 21, 1998... Franchise expansion, overseas outlets seen under new ownership Cinnabon International Inc. may be about to rise again. The Seattle-based chain of cinnamon roll outlets was purchased this week by AFC Enterprises Inc. of Atlanta, for what...

AmEx and others target the gay, lesbian market. (American Express Financial Advisors Inc.)
August 21, 1998... American Express Financial Advisors is carefully cultivating a large group of urban, middle-class consumers in Seattle, and the company's national competitors are nowhere in sight. The group: gay and lesbian investors. "There is no...

Magic Dragon's fast Chinese food a hit. (Magic Dragon Inc.)
August 21, 1998... Chain plans quick national expansion Magic Dragon Inc., the quick-serve Chinese restaurant operation, has struck a chord with consumers looking for an alternative to burgers and burritos. Magic Dragon's owners, pleased with the concept's...

AEI piping music to retailers via the Net. (AEI Music Network Inc.)
August 21, 1998... AEI Music Network Inc. is taking to the Internet, creating a new digital pipeline to replace the music tapes and CDs it now supplies to tens of thousands of retailers. The new service, now in testing with some customers, is expected to roll...

Get fresh with them: Backyard Inc.'s personal care products are homemade with natural ingredients.(Small Business Weekly)
August 21, 1998... Backyard Inc.'s personal care products are homemade with natural ingredients Cynthia Wuu and Janet Jeng liken their business to baking - they blend artistry and invention with a soupcon of science. The young founders of Seattle-based...

Surgisoft aims software at medical specialists.
August 21, 1998... Surgisoft, a small Seattle software company, has begun carving out a place for itself in the rapidly growing industry of health-care information technology. Formed in late 1995 by two young physicians, Dr. Mitchell Gold and Dr. Edward Boyle...

Bauer hits the recovery trail. (Eddie Bauer Inc.)
August 14, 1998... Rick Fersch has heard the criticism, and does not duck it. Fersch, president and chief executive of Eddie Bauer Inc., bluntly acknowledges that the Redmond-based retailer has struggled year-long to recover from the merchandising mistakes of...

Sabey's next move. (real estate developer David Sabey)
August 14, 1998... As Nordstrom readies to move into the old Frederick & Nelson building in one of downtown Seattle's biggest events of the year, the man who bought F&N and rode it into bankruptcy six years ago has staged a bit of a comeback himself. David...

Dairy farmers being squeezed out. (Washington state)
August 14, 1998... Variety of factors changing the industry Vern Anderson milks about 560 Holsteins, a popular breed of dairy cow, but he considers himself a member of a dying breed: Washington dairy farmers. Six dairies near Anderson's farm outside of...

Exporters eye Europe as Asian markets lag. (businesses in Puget Sound, Washington)
August 14, 1998... Disappointed in Singapore, Jim Kern is courting Spain. Kern, president of Kirkland-based International Market Brands Inc., is one of many business people in the Puget Sound area who are altering their world views in response to the Asian...

Everett doctor group cuts ties to Blue Cross. (Everett Clinic; Premera Blue Cross)
August 14, 1998... Premera Blue Cross and the 170-physician Everett Clinic have parted ways after failing to agree on fees, highlighting the rising contract tensions between health insurers and physician groups. The Everett Clinic and three smaller clinics...

Biotech firm moving here. (Dendreon Corp)
August 7, 1998... Chris Henney, co-founder of this area's two most prominent biotechnology companies, will move the California biotech company he now heads to Seattle by year-end. Dendreon Corp. has leased most of the former Bristol-Myers Squibb complex in...

Pinnacle Realty accelerates buying. (Pinnacle Realty Management Co)
August 7, 1998... Property manager getting even bigger Seattle-based Pinnacle Realty Management Co., which has grown into a huge manager of apartments across the United States, is now moving rapidly toward doing the same in commercial property management....

Acquisition extends Frontier to Pierce Cty. (Frontier Financial Corp's acquisition of Valley Bancorp)
August 7, 1998... Everett bank adds Valley Bancorp to fold Frontier Financial Corp. had been planning to push south from Everett toward Pierce County, but not this fast. Last week, the 19-branch Everett banking company announced a definitive agreement to...

Banks adding investment banking prowess. (KeyCorp's acquisition of Carleton McCreary)
August 7, 1998... KeyCorp the latest to expand by acquisition KeyCorp plans to expand its year-old investment banking operation in Seattle after the planned acquisition of a second securities firm. Cleveland-based Key expects to boost its local investment...

Hospital-data supplier makes cuts in work force. (HBS International Inc)
August 7, 1998... HBS International Inc., a provider of comparative health-care data, has been on a steep growth climb. Now it's evidently concentrating on becoming more efficient. The 7-year-old Bellevue company recently laid off 20 of its roughly 220...

Freebie central. (FreeShop International Inc)
August 7, 1998... Tiny Seattle-based FreeShop International Inc. has a new partner in CNet, one of the Internet's best-known technology news Web sites. In its race to add features and become one of the most popular Internet beginning points, CNet has taken a...

Something old, something new. (renovation of the Frederick and Nelson building)(Nordstrom Opening)
August 7, 1998... Nordstrom's $100 million renovation of the venerable F&N building is a fusion of familiar historic flourishes and flashy '90s retailing Throughout the epic restoration of the Frederick & Nelson building, M.J. Munsell and Patrick Burns...

Nordstrom-F&N deal took luck, persistence. (Nordstrom Inc; Frederick and Nelson building)
August 7, 1998... What seems like a natural fit now was a long shot in 1992; then came left Rhodes Bob Watt and Norm Rice got their "fannies politely kicked" each time they asked Nordstrom Inc. to move its downtown Seattle store into the bigger, more stately...