Boston Business Journal articles from April 2001, page 2

Boston Business Journal archives from April 2001

Astral Point reduces staff.(Brief Article)
April 27, 2001... Astral Point Communications Inc., a provider of optical networking equipment, said it has reduced the headcount by 45 people at its Chelmsford headquarters as the company focuses on honing its offerings to those products most needed by...

Be Free trims 20% of work force; takes charge to cut costs.
April 27, 2001... Marlborough-based Be Free Inc. said it cut 20 percent of its work force, or about 60 people, since March as it lost dot-com customers. The company took a related charge of $312,000 in the first quarter and said it anticipates a second-quarter...

Uno Restaurant inks merger pact; will be taken private.(Brief Article)
April 27, 2001... Boston-based Uno Restaurant Corp. said it has signed a merger agreement with a corporation formed by Uno Restaurant Corp.'s chairman and majority stockholder, Aaron D. Spencer, and four key executive officers. Under the agreement, the...

A Swift energy setback.
April 27, 2001... Who wants to be the next Gray Davis? The California governor has emerged as one of the most pitiable politicians in the nation, the scapegoat in an illdevised energy policy that has left the state groveling for megawatts. Although...

Why residential real estate is still hanging tough.
April 27, 2001... A spacious one-bedroom condo on the back side of Beacon Hill: asking $420,000. Delightful country cottage in Wellesley: $475,000. Indeed, a starter home in Wellesley can touch a half-a-million dollars. Less fancy neighborhood? In underrated...

Faith can be a foundation for affordable housing.
April 27, 2001... In what some might call a marriage made in heaven, the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization has brought together the members of religious congregations throughout the Boston area to crusade for affordable housing, and they are calling on...

THE TECH SETBACK.
April 27, 2001... In the wake of the Nasdaq tumble, the new economy now has a whole new set of survival rules Have an outside income. Don't give up your day job. Have an exit strategy. Have a solid business plan. Pay attention to costs. Know your market....

Tech monitor.(Brief Article)(Editorial)
April 27, 2001... As I write this, I'm thinking back to a conversation I had a ways back with a Boston-based money manager of some note. It was some time in 1999. Tech stocks were soaring to ear-popping heights. Venture capitalists were setting-- and, in short...

Travel agents hold their, own against the 'net threat.
April 27, 2001... But agents say they must embrace technologies of today to be here tomorrow As is often the case, the predictions were half-right. Early in the Internet age, some analysts foresaw the demise of the travel agent as travelers used the...

Insurance agents: Internet poses no threat--just yet.
April 27, 2001... In the heyday of the late 1990s' Internet boom, e-commercc seers predicted that companies not doing business online would not be doing business at all before very long. In particular, independent insurance agents seemed prime targets to...

The lessons from the business-to-business washout.(Tutorial)
April 27, 2001... Business-to-business exchanges, once so full of promise, have fallen on hard times. Some exchanges have seen their market value decline more than 99 percent, and the stocks of major industry players are down as much as 90 percent. It's...

Advertisers size up new formats for web campaigns.
April 27, 2001... When Walt Disney Co. decided earlier this year to shut down its Go.com portal, CEO Michael Eisner suggested that advertisers had "abandoned" the Internet. Kevin Ryan, CEO of online ad company DoubleClick Inc., used the word "brutal"...

Web sites adopt larger ads in gambit to survive.
April 27, 2001... Web sites struggling to survive in the face of declining ad revenue are turning over more of their online real estate to advertisers. They are quickly adopting larger ad sizes and making them more eye-catching--in some cases animating...

To get hits, advertisers must sharpen their aim.
April 27, 2001... The online advertising industry's latest moves to better target the ubiquitous banners and pop-ups will give ad buyers, ad sellers and even the consumer something they have longed for--accountability. Online advertising began as a...

In the new economy, it's agility, not size, that matters.
April 27, 2001... An entrepreneur is one who organizes, manages and assumes the risks of a business. For such a person, there are many opportunities today. America's small-business sector is responsible for much of today's prosperity. Entrepreneurs are taking...

A new-fangled version of the old boys' network.
April 27, 2001... Web-based outfit matches women with executive positions, mentoring Don't tell Amy Glynn about any glass ceilings that still hold women executives down. She's seen it first-hand during the decade she worked in financial services. "It...

Keeping the wolves at bay during 'gathering storm'.
April 27, 2001... The markets are reeling. Paper fortunes have evaporated, and real fortunes have been diminished across the board. Entre-preneurial managers whose net worth and compensation incentives were founded on their stock options are left (if they are...

Travelers use the Internet for flying start.
April 27, 2001... More than 59 million people in the United States used the Internet to help make travel plans in 2000. Some 25 million of them made reservations online--60 percent more than in 1999, according to the Travel Industry Association. The...

Internet sales will climb, but we'll still hit the malls.
April 27, 2001... The explosion of the Internet during the past five years has created extensive debate on the future of retail sales at neighborhood and community centers and, more specifically, regional malls. Although many were quick to predict that the...

On the move.
April 27, 2001... Personnel announcements compiled by Sean McFadden Tower Technology of Boston appointed Bill Berens vice president of alliance initiatives. GiantLoop Network Inc., a Waltham-based provider of enterprise optical networking services,...

Why the VCs ignore women.
April 27, 2001... The road to acquiring venture capital is not easy to travel, especially for women entrepreneurs and business owners. In spite of the fact that the pool of capital to support new ventures has increased dramatically since the early 1980s, the...

Hotel considers energy surcharge.(Charles Hotel, Cambridge, Massachusetts)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Following the lead of the lodging industry in California, where an energy crisis has resulted in corresponding rate hikes, a Cambridge hotel is considering the addition of a utility surcharge on its guests' checkout bills. The Charles...

Excess inventory.(Sycamore Networks Inc. backs out of real estate deal)
April 20, 2001... Space is building up, but brokers bank on second-half rebound Sycamore Networks Inc. was planning to move into 1 Executive Drive in Chelmsford, a 110,000square-foot building, in June. Now it's not. "We thought that was off the market...

Banking veteran Sidell leaves Capital Crossing.(Capital Crossing Bank)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... James V. "Jack" Sidell, a legendary mover and shaker in the Boston business community, may have done his last deal after leaving his position as director of relationship banking at Capital Crossing Bank, a post he held for less than a year....

MIT, claiming patent rights, files digital TV lawsuits.(Massachusetts Institute of Technology)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... CAMBRIDGE--Believing that digital television was born in its laboratories, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is turning to the federal court system to deliver a piece of the billion dollar market to its coffers. The university...

Today, even upscale diners want more palatable prices.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... For those people who thought the spate of layoffs and restructurings only affected the little guy, take heart. Apparently, it's tough all over. The well-to-do patrons of Restaurant Clio, the upscale eatery in the Eliot Hotel, may just be...

A salty tale from Chelsea.(Eastern Salt Co., consent agreement)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... The new administration in Washington seems to be taking a scholarly approach to a number of environmental problems, including climate change, the impact of logging roads, carbon-dioxide emissions--calling for further study of each of these...

Coming out of their shells.
April 20, 2001... She works for Nanogiant, as a project leader developing Office Wear, a software that will enable people to work anywhere. He is the chief executive officer of Tortoise Software, which is developing Shell-ware, a software to help workers...

CORRECTIONS.(Correction Notice)
April 20, 2001... * In the article, "Gracious host: USDataCenters lands $17 million in funding as web server operation continues growth," in the April 6-12 edition of the BBJ, USDataCenters client Brian Weir was incorrectly identified. He is the systems...

Polaroid Q1 loss widens as film sales decline.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 20, 2001... CAMBRIDGE--Polaroid Corp., the biggest instant-photography company, said its first-quarter loss widened because of declining sales of instant film and cameras. The company's loss widened to $90.9 million, or $1.98 a share, from $1.4 million,...

EMC Q1 profit growth slows to 20 percent.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 20, 2001... HOPKINTON--EMC Corp., a maker of corporate computer-data storage systems, said first-quarter profit rose 20 percent as slowing economic growth prompted customers to cut spending. Net income rose to $398.8 million, or 18 cents a share, from...

Peritus Software to be purchased by Rocket.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... WESTBOROUGH--Peritus Software Services Inc., a provider of software maintenance technology, has agreed to a purchase by software engineering company Rocket Software Inc., in a stock deal worth approximately $3.3 million. Natick-based Rocket,...

New nurses' group creates political split.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... A new trade group, the Massachusetts Association of Registered Nurses Inc., aims to become the voice for registered nurses in the Bay State--and to pick up an affiliation with the national American Nurses Association--should the existing...

Royal lineage.(the new general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Boston )
April 20, 2001... Running four palaces provided training for the new Ritz-Carlton general manager He has served 17 heads of state, so the task of managing two luxury hotels in Boston might not be as daunting as it sounds to the new general manager of the...

Hospitals fund their own accreditation organization.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Walk into a hospital and you're likely to see a framed certificate from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) prominently displayed in the lobby Though voluntary, nearly every hospital holds these...

Articulent Inc. acquired by Minneapolis-based CNT.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... A Hopkinton-based company that only last year was gearing up to go national and stage an initial public offering was bought two weeks ago by a Minneapolis company. The deal could eventually total $22 million. The sale of Articulent Inc....

OutStart Inc. to expand to Europe.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... NATICK--After getting started on its own, OutStart Inc. has taken its first outside investment. The Internet-technology startup, which is nearly 2 years old, has received $10 million from Sigma Partners, a venture capital firm with...

Branding: Touch masses to reach decision-makers.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Chances are, not many of the people who watched the Boston Marathon this past Monday, let alone ran in it, are going to run out and buy data storage equipment from EMC Corp. Nor are many of the riders of the Red Line putting Black Rocket...

Hotel group's green policy brings guests, greenbacks.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... While some local hotels only are beginning to assess energy conservation measures to combat escalating utility costs, a Boston-based lodging company has been at the forefront of energy conservation and environmentally friendly practices for...

Artificial Life seeks life support until funding kicks in.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... The chief executive officer of Artificial Life Inc. is making a last-ditch effort to raise money to keep the Boston company alive this week. Eberhard Schoneburg, president and CEO, even advanced the company $485,000 of his own money earlier...

Investors, customers like the sound Sonus Networks.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Networking switch maker's stock price recovers ahead of competition in still-volatile marketplace WESTFORD--Unlike its competitors, Sonus Networks Inc. has seen its stock price recover a bit in recent weeks. The improvement might offer...

ON THE FLY with Dana Callow.(Brief Article)(Interview)
April 20, 2001... A. Dana Callow Jr., a 20-year veteran of the venture capital trenches, is optimistic about opportunities for venture capitalists, even as the stock market swoons and private equity now comes with more strings attached--a path to profitability...

SouthCoast, Burlington and Chelsea make pitches.
April 20, 2001... A who's who list of developers has been invited to a Seaport Hotel luncheon Monday to discuss... Fall River? The reception will cost several thousand dollars, but it will be money well spent if local officials and business leaders can...

Market, fund raising lifts area college endowments.
April 20, 2001... Increases in cash reserves help ease universities' dependence on tuition The bull market of the past couple of years gave the endowments of the area's prestigious colleges and universities a major boost, but fund raising also played a...

IronBridge's IP, assets to be sold through Chap. 7.
April 20, 2001... The pulling apart of the former IronBridge Networks Inc. is moving along on two paths. The Lexington company, into which investors had pumped more than $100 million, shut down early this year after apparently running out of money. The...

'No offers on the table' after PinPoint files for bankruptcy.
April 20, 2001... Selling the assets of recently closed PinPoint Corp. has not proved to be an easy task. Trustee Tali Tomsic has been shopping the assets since the Billerica wireless technology company filed for Chapter 7 three weeks ago. Tomsic said...

Hub court hangs up on Cingular Wireless appeal.
April 20, 2001... A Worcester County town's federal court victory against Atlanta-based telecommunications giant Cingular Wireless earlier this month sets the stage for renewed debate on the siting of cell phone towers and antennas. The case--which was...

Nuvera signs fuel cell partnership.(Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc., Mitsui & Co. Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... CAMBRIDGE--Nuvera Fuel Cells Inc.'s search for a profitable fuel cell market is powering a joint venture with Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan. Last week, Nuvera and Mitsui announced a partnership that the firms hope will eventually lead to...

Manufacturers sue to block record-keeping regulation.(National Association of Manufacturers, United States. Occupational Health and Safety Administration)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... NAM says OSHA should not have authority to regulate injuries outside workplace The National Association of Manufacturers has sued the Department of Labor to block OSHA's new record-keeping regulation. The association contends the...

Suit: EPA ignored lead rule's impact on business.
April 20, 2001... Five years ago, Congress passed the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act to make sure that federal agencies consider the impact of their regulations on small businesses. The effectiveness of the law could be tested by a...

Small-business tax cuts set for minimum wage bill.
April 20, 2001... The Senate is expected to add tax cuts for small businesses to legislation raising the minimum wage when that bill reaches the floor, probably next month. Small businesses oppose a minimum wage increase, says Dan Danner, senior vice...

Small-business survey points to 'head snap,' not recession.(NFIB Education Foundation, research)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... The most recent monthly survey of small-business owners by the NFIB Education Foundation "suggests that there is no recession in the near-term outlook," says William C. Dunkelberg, the foundation's chief economist. But, he adds, the...

Builders want petroleum in brownfields reform bill.(contaminated waste site legislation)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... The National Association of Home Builders hopes to persuade the House to extend liability protection to petroleum-contaminated sites when it considers brownfields reform legislation. The Senate is expected to pass a brownfields bill...

DOT approves airlines' Orbitz travel service.(United States, Department of Transportation)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
April 20, 2001... The U.S. Department of Transportation cleared Orbitz for takeoff. The nation's five largest airlines are developing the online travel agency, which is scheduled to begin operations in June. Already, 25,000 consumers have booked...

Even optical startups find VC lifelines harder to find.(Convergent Networks Inc.)(Sitara Networks Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Lowell's Convergent Networks Inc. and Waltham's Sitara Networks Inc., the latest tech companies to pull out of the IPO derby, are hardly the only Massachusetts telecom equipment makers wondering where the good times went. Like those in...

High-Tech fund-raisers.(Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's High-Tech Interdisciplinary Research Fund)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... The fortunes being created in the technology industry have meant great things for nonprofit organizations in recent years. Now that tech economy has slowed, there is reason to wonder if donations to such groups might fall off. A group of...

US Genomics' Chan uses business plan as glass slipper.(Eugene Chan)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... These days, it's easy to become jaded about industry, with the stock market stumbling and venture capitalists posting "Need Not Apply" signs. CNBC's financial news is looking more like CNN's coverage of the Gulf War. So, it's high time...

Award-winning space.(Boston Biomedical Research Institute)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... When the Boston Biomedical Research Institute opened its doors last year on Grove Street in Watertown, officials were quick to show off their new digs to industry insiders and the press. Who would have thought a lab could be something to...

Lifeline Systems doesn't need one.(Lifeline Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... A company that helps people when they're down is anything but. Framingham-based Lifeline Systems Inc., which manufactures emergency response systems mostly for people with handicaps and the elderly (similar to the product in the...

Activists, developers, officials mingle at BHA's auction.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... As the weather (presumably) continues to improve, people will start taking more strolls down to the waterfront, go boating in the harbor and picnic on the Harbor Islands, all of which calls to mind the work of the Boston Harbor Association....

Area's Largest Commercial Developers.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 20, 2001... Area's Largest Commercial Developers (ranked by square feet developed in Mass. since company's founding) ...

Let it snow.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... SnowStation's Backyard Blizzard can make the white stuff at home NATICK--Charles Santry has a way to fool Mother Nature, and for about $3,000 you can, too. Santry used his expertise in industrial snow-making equipment to build the...

A new perspective for business seen through customers' eyes.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... We've received a lot of comments about our article, "During volatile times, remember: Everyone is a customer." (April 6-12). It's not surprising to us that we can divide the comments into two groups--those that agree and those that...

Area's Largest HMOs.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 20, 2001... Area's Largest HMOs (ranked by Mass. members) [*] Mass. Rank Company members [*] 1 Blue...

Hybrids could offer a new mode for first mortgages.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... I grew up in "real estate." Albeit, it was commercial real estate, but real estate all the same. I can still hear my father and his associates telling me, "Heather, real estate is the only investment. You can never get hurt in the dirt."...

CORPORATE ALBUM.(Company Profile)(Statistical Data Included)
April 20, 2001... John Hancock Financial Services THE BUSINESS John Hancock Financial Services Inc. provides insurance and investment products and services to retail and institutional customers, primarily in North America. Effective Feb. 1, 2000, John...

MASSACHUSETTS STOCK INDEX.(Statistical Data Included)
April 20, 2001... MASSACHUSETTS STOCK INDEX Ticker Close Pct. 52-week Company Symbol Price Chg. High A. D. Technologies Inc. ADTC ...

Paid volunteers.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Companies tout time-off-to-help programs as 'incremental' benefit Following a recent change in benefits, employees at Tufts Health Plan will get another day off. Well, sort of. The insurance company's 2,300 employees won't quite get...

HR experts see booming market for elder-care benefits.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 20, 2001... The talk these days tends to focus on the needs of working parents: how they need time to take their children to doctors' appointments, meet with caregivers and tend to crises. But another group of workers also needs time to tend to...

Q&A: Should companies add elder care to benefits mix?(Interview)
April 20, 2001... The aging of the US. Population--along with the phenomenon that more people are living longer and continuing to work well past traditional retirement age--is triggering a heightened awareness of elder care. Companies are mulling over whether...

Bridging the gap in sales and marketing communications.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Ask a room full of salespeople to describe what the marketing department does and, aside from some comments and jokes, you'll probably find that many of them have no real idea. On the flip side, ask a room full of marketers what the sales...

Right way, and wrong way, to approach the inevitable layoffs.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... The downward economic spiral that began in late 2000 continues into 2001. U.S. companies announced more than 142,000 planned layoffs in the month of January, a staggering number that breaks December's record number of more than 133,000,...

Put employees' creativity to work, and see your firm grow.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Creativity, in simple terms, consists of making new mental connections in order to come up with an original idea. Some call this "lateral thinking," and it is a capability we all possess. The fact that we all think this way at times...

Aligning workers post-merger: Convergence without collision.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Whether it takes the form of joint venture, merger or acquisition, corporate convergence is a wave of the present. As companies combine, employees of all levels, from CEOs to secretaries, must work with new, sometimes very different, people....

Helping workers with career goals boosts retention efforts.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... "Where do you see yourself in five years?" This $10,000 question, designed to reveal a candidate's ambitions and goals, has become standard in most job interviews. And yet, once the hiring process is completed, how many companies follow...

Turn your firm into a 'talent magnet,' not 'talent repellent'.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... It's no secret that the challenge of finding high-quality employees in today's labor market is on every manager's and business owner's mind. What does appear to be a secret--given the typical response to this challenge--is what to do about...

PERSONNEL FILE.
April 20, 2001... ADVERTISING/COMMUNICATIONS Christopher Thomas Inc. in Boston appointed Gary Elfstrom director of business development. Sam Bass, president of Fine Art Design of North Carolina, formed an alliance with Grant Inc., a Newton-based...

Lois Paul & Partners.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Lois Paul & Partners in Boston added two new companies to its roster of high-tech clients: Clinsoft Corp. of Lexington and Storability of Southborough.

Marenghi Public Relations.(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Westwood-based Marenghi Public Relations added Boston Communications Group Inc. of Woburn and Computerworld Inc. of Framingham to its client roster.

Inside Out Communications.(creates and launches trade show marketing strategy program for software developer Gold Wire Technology)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Inside Out Communications of Holliston created and launched a trade show marketing strategy program for Waltham-based software developer Gold Wire Technology.

Weber Group.(named agency of record by HighJump Software and Aravox Technologies)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Weber Group of Cambridge was named agency of record by HighJump Software of Eden Prairie, Minn., and Aravox Technologies of Arden Hills. Minn.

Agnew Carter/MS&L.(hired to offer special event management and media and community relations for Energy Star Homes program)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Agnew Carter/MS&L in Boston was hired by Conservation Services Group and Energy Star of Westborough to provide special event management and community and media relations for the regional Energy Star Homes program. The program is a national...

Brodeur Worldwide.(acquires majority interest in South Korea's InComm Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Brodeur Worldwide of Boston acquired a majority interest in Seoul-based InComm Ltd., Korea's largest public relations firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. It was revealed, however, that InComm will be rebranded as InComm Brodeur, and...

Plumb House Inc.(receives contract to build 80-unit building)(Brief Article)
April 20, 2001... Plumb House Inc., a North Attleborough-based general contractor, was selected to construct Walkover Commons, a new three-story, 80-unit building comprised of affordable apartments developed by Boston's Beacon Residential Properties, the...