Boston Business Journal articles from March 1992

Boston Business Journal archives from March 1992

Colleges cut '92 tuition hikes in half.
March 2, 1992... Private School Increases 1991 School Tuition % Change Boston College $13,690 6.5 Boston University $15,950 4.0...

WCVB turns Studio 5 into money maker. (WCVB-TV; Studio 5 Productions)
March 2, 1992... When taping of the new late-night syndicated talk show "Nighttalk" begins at the WCVB-TV studio in Needham this month, it will be a milestone not so much in television programming as in business savvy. The new show, hosted by former...

Federal court to put clamps on civil suits: judge hopes new restrictions, budgets save time and money.
March 2, 1992... Attorneys in civil suits will be forced to sharply limit the discovery process and to provide detailed projections to their clients of the costs of going to trial under a court reform plan likely to go into effect in September in U.S. District...

Wedgestone shareholders rebel at auto deal. (Wedgestone Financial's proposed merger with St. James Automotive under bankruptcy plan)
March 2, 1992... A group of shareholders in Wedgestone Financial announced last week that it has come up with a counterproposal that may scuttle management's plan to merge the bankrupt REIT with an automotive parts company. The chairman of Wedgestone's equity...

Gamma's bingo numbers hinge on patent fight. (Gamma International's Lightning Bingo distribution contract; patent suit against manufacturer PBN filed by FortuNet)
March 2, 1992... Gamma International, a supplier of high-stakes bingo games and equipment, is putting yet another twist in the 200-year-old game. The Billerica-based company's latest gimmick is video bingo, where two or more players at connected computers in a...

MIT spinoff brings home movies to the Macintosh. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Digital Video Applications' new multimedia VideoShop software for movie editing; Apple Computer's workstation)
March 2, 1992... In a converted Cambridge twine factory, a dozen or so software programmers -- some of them MIT students--spent many a 19-hour workday last month making silly computer movies such as "Nice Breast" and "Decent Fellow." They were working out the...

New buyout rumors involve Mass. banks. (Massacusetts)
March 2, 1992... News that the Massachusetts economy has bottomed out and is experiencing slight gains has rippled west, perking up the ears of the mega-regional banks always on the lookout for new purchases. But are the signals meaningful enough to renew in...

Peter D. Kinder: financially correct.
March 2, 1992... Peter Kinder remembers the time his brother, a Vermonter with an uncompromising set of morals, went looking for a farm tractor. Because all the tractors he looked at were made by companies involved with defense contracts, he finally decided to...

Hub teams learn not to depend on the networks. (professional sports teams; television networks) (Focus: Professional Sports)
March 2, 1992... A storm is brewing in TV land. Major network broadcast revenue for professional sporting events is maxed out, industry observers agree, and that could mean a financial blow to local professional sports organizations. Professional teams depend...

Marathon man designs his own career course. (Dave McGillvray of Dave McGillvray Sports Enterprises) (Focus: Professional Sports)
March 2, 1992... Dave McGillvray, founder and president of Dave McGillvray Sports Enterprises (DMSE), one of New England's largest sports marketing firms, first burst into public view a week after his 24th birthday in 1978, when he completed a cross-country...

Putting Boston back into the sporting game. (Focus: Professional Sports)
March 2, 1992... Today's sports pages often contain as much financial news as sports. The emphasis on player salaries and other financial dealings brings up a point that has not been fully appreciated: Professional sports is a business--a big business. Yet...

Galileo Electro-Optics Corp. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
March 2, 1992... Headquarters: Sturbridge Stock Symbol: GAEO Market: NASDAQ Annual Revenue: $35,968,000 Net Income: ($2,579,000)...

Boston Co. is taking off the gloves. (plans series of cost cutting measures)
March 9, 1992... The Boston Co.'s recent loss of custody of the $65 billion California Public Employees Retirement System to its rival across the financial district, State Street Bank, signals the first round of what may prove to be a bruising battle between the...

Harvard Med $4M in red: 40 upper-level administrators to be trimmed. (Harvard Medical School)
March 9, 1992... Harvard Medical School officials are planning to eliminate 40 upper-level administrative positions over the next two years in an effort to retire a deficit that is estimated at $4.3 million and growing. Harvard is alone among the three major...

Customers bitter about barter exchanges. (alleged improprieties of barter service companies) (Industry Overview)
March 9, 1992... A growing number of trade exchange members are complaining that they are losing thousands of dollars from dealing with what they assert are mismanaged barter companies, and at least one small-business owner said he is suing over alleged...

Alpha won't solve all of Digital's problems. (new computer chip product; Digital Equipment Corp.'s financial troubles)
March 9, 1992... With a code name like Alpha, Digital Equipment Corp. must be starting from scratch. Alpha is, after all, twice as fast as any other company chip in the world so far. That means Alpha will bring back profits, beat back Digital's California...

Labor feels snubbed by group studying safety rules. (labor unions; Labor and Industries' advisory group)
March 9, 1992... A Department of Labor and Industries (DLI) effort to modernize the state's industrial safety rules has gotten off on the wrong foot, with a massive cut in the department's budget and confusion about union representation on the project's advisory...

Massport cruising for a fight with New York. (Massachusetts Port Authority's bid to service cruise line embarkations over that of New York City Passenger Ship Terminal)
March 9, 1992... Massachusetts Port Authority officials reported last week that 1992 visits to Boston by cruise ships will not match 1991's record levels. In 1991, which opened with an overseas war and skittish American travelers deciding to stay closer to...

Change at Symbolics must be deep-rooted. (need for massive reorganization for financial liability)
March 9, 1992... Symbolics, pioneer of the artificial intelligence corridor in Cambridge, would have run out of cash last month if not for the half-million dollar sale of its graphics business. "If we didn't make radical change, we were going to be in big...

Jane Glancy: directory assistance. (Greater Boston Women's Yellow Pages publisher) (Personnel File)
March 9, 1992... Position: Publisher, Greater Boston Women's Yellow Pages Education: A.B., Salve Regina College, 1969 Age: 44 Jane Glancy lugged a pile of canary yellow paperbacks--her first feminist literary work--to last month's meeting of the Greater...

Making a living is not always full-time work. (part-time employment trend) (Focus: Recruitment and Personnel)
March 9, 1992... More U.S. businesses are operating like farmers since the days of the Roman Empire, according to career consultant Cliff Hakim. Just as farmers hire apple pickers only when the trees have apples, some companies hire professionals only as needed....

Search firms try to put a spin on the recession. (Focus: Recruitment and Personnel) (Industry Overview)
March 9, 1992... For local executive search firms, the recession has been the best of times and the worst of times, depending on the perspective and job description of the person asked. Search firms say the business is booming, but industry analysts say it is...

CML Group. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
March 9, 1992... THE BUSINESS Headquarters: Acton Stock Symbol: CML Market: NYSE Annual Revenue: $338,854,000...

Blue Cross contract garners few takers among area hospitals. (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts)
March 16, 1992... Skittish institutions tell insurer that its proposal needs work Almost three months after Gov. William Weld and the state Legislature gave Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts sweeping new power to negotiate individual contracts with the...

Competition to follow auto reform. (deregulation of automobile insurance industry)(includes related article on verbal-threshold plan)
March 16, 1992... If accepted by the Legislature, Gov. William Weld's proposed automobile insurance reform, now being hotly contested by the state bar association, could make possible competitive pricing in auto coverage as early as next year. The...

Biotech start-ups ask big brothers for cash. (partnership between small and large biotechnology companies)(includes related article on six start-ups) (Industry Overview)
March 16, 1992... The Reagan administration's trickle-down theory may not have worked for the nation's poor in the '80s, but it's becoming a boon to fledgling biotechnology labs. The biotech stock bonanza that filled local coffers with $630 million in public...

Children's Orchard seeds nation with its franchises. (reseller of children's clothes) (Company Profile)
March 16, 1992... Karen Lynch had a real estate parcel that was not selling, a new baby who was quickly outgrowing her expensive clothes and a maternity leave from her airline stewardess job that was drawing to an end. It didn't take Lynch long to realize the...

Stocks in local gas utilities catch on fire.
March 16, 1992... Lower interest rates and growing demand for their product have driven stock prices of many of the area's gas utilities to new highs recently. Lowell's Colonial Gas traded for $28 a share as of last week, $1 off its 52-week high. Bay State Gas...

Biotech execs: old laws hurting new companies. (biotechnology industry executives ask for reforms)
March 16, 1992... Top biotech executives met with the new president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Garen Bohlin, last Thursday to draft a list of specific regulatory reform demands to be presented to Gov. William Weld. Weld is likely to view their...

Child-care chain has a sunny future in Japan. (Bright Horizons Children's Centers) (Company Profile)
March 16, 1992... While some Americans are taking sledgehammers to Hondas in protest of what they perceive as Japan's restrictive trade policies, there is at least one product the government and residents of that island nation are anxiously trying to import from...

Malden officials say rebirth starts with Stop & Shop. (Stop and Shop Companies Inc.)(includes related article on Malden Redevelopment Authority)
March 16, 1992... Score one for the urban downtown. After more than a decade of losing stores and shoppers to nearby suburban malls, the city of Malden has won a key victory in the fight to turn its retail district around. Next week, the Stop & Shop Cos. will...

Francois-Laurent Nivaud: the perfect host. (president of Massachusetts Lodging Association and managing director of Boston Harbor Hotel)
March 16, 1992... Eight dollars returned for every dollar invested. That's the mantra of the tourism industry and, as president of the newly launched Massachusetts Lodging Association, Francois-Laurent Nivaud wants to make sure everyone hears it at least once....

Review board seen as threat to new emissions rules. (Focus: Environment and Business) (Industry Overview)
March 16, 1992... A study commission created in January to review the state's new vehicle emissions standards has drawn continued opposition from environmental officials and activists, but the Executive Office of Economic Affairs maintains support for it....

Waste recovery plant pitched to Wrentham. (Environmental Recovery Systems) (Focus: Environment and Business)
March 16, 1992... Two brothers from Denver want to build the nation's largest solid-waste recycling and composting facility in Wrentham, and they claim up to 90 percent of household waste is recoverable. Soon the state must decide if the patented process is fool's...

Envirotech firms clean up south of the border. (environmental services companies; Mexico) (Focus: Environment and Business)
March 16, 1992... Under pressure from its environmentally conscious president, Mexico is looking for help to clean up its environment in a big hurry. Mexican government officials and businesses have come to Massachusetts (as well as California, Japan and Europe)...

Wellfleet Communications. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
March 16, 1992... Headquarters: Bedford Stock Symbol: WFLT Market: NASDAQ Annual Revenue: $35,880,677 Net Income: ...

Gund sells Lewis Wharf. (Graham Gund of Gunwyn Co.; hotel and condominium complex)(includes related article on Boston inns)
March 23, 1992... Financing stymies Wharf, Custom House plans After an unsuccessful search for a financial backer, architectural giant Graham Gund has quietly walked away as developer of the stalled Lewis Wharf hotel and condominium complex in the city's North...

Designs, T.J. Maxx ponder Lafayette. (plan to redevelop Lafayette Place mall)
March 23, 1992... A group of off-price retailers, possibly including Framingham-based T.J. Maxx and Chestnut Hill-based Designs Inc., is behind the latest proposal to redevelop the troubled Lafayette Place mall in Downtown Crossing. Lafayette Place's new owners...

Boston Bar Association warns of costs in sentencing reform.
March 23, 1992... Corrections spending is already a budget buster for the state Members of the Boston Bar Association's task force on justice have come out against Gov. William Weld's recent sentencing reform bill. After a decade of expensive prison...

Fidelity lets clients Xpress themselves. (Fidelity On-Line Xpress, computer trading system of Fidelity Investments)
March 23, 1992... Fidelity Investments' newest gadget to put power in the hands of individual investors is a software package that allows investors to trade stocks and mutual funds from their PCs. The new system, called Fidelity On-Line Xpress, is a...

Protests shake up election at Digital credit union. (Digital Equipment Corp.)
March 23, 1992... Nine middle managers and engineers at Digital Equipment Corp. wallpapered about 16 company cafeterias across the country last week to urge members of the state's largest credit union to oust its board of directors. The band of rebels, calling...

Hospitals blast claims review process as chaotic. (Massachusetts Hospital Association; utilization review industry)
March 23, 1992... In yet another clash between medical cost containment and patient care concerns, the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA) is leading a charge to regulate the burgeoning utilization review industry, the system under which insurers decide...

Designs finds its focus working in a recession. (Designs Inc.) (Company Profile)
March 23, 1992... Designs Inc., the Chestnut Hill-based purveyor of Levi's clothing and accessories, has seen its stock hit record highs recently as it announced double-digit sales increases for the first two months of 1992. For February, Designs (NASDAQ: DESI)...

Plastics industry gears up for recycling fight. (Industry Overview)
March 23, 1992... When Nypro began to recycle corrugated cardboard, plastic scraps and paper last year, it cut its landfill-bound trash by one third--200 tons a year. The Clinton-based maker of plastic medical devices reuses the oil and anti-freeze guzzled by...

Joseph E. Mullaney: strength in numbers. (chairman, Boston Research Bureau)
March 23, 1992... When the Boston Municipal Research Bureau was founded 60 years ago, its official charge was pretty much the same as it is now--to serve as a watchdog over issues affecting the city of Boston's fiscal, management and administrative practices. But...

Perception Technology. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
March 23, 1992... THE BUSINESS Headquarters: Canton Stock Symbol: PCEP Market: NASDAQ Annual Revenue: $16,796,000 Net...

Insurers lobby to stall reform of small-biz coverage. (law on health insurance for small businesses in Boston)
March 30, 1992... State refuses; new regulations to take hold April 1 Reforms to make health insurance more available for small businesses will go into effect April 1, despite calls for delay by commercial insurance companies. The changes in small-group...

Manufacturing asks what more it can do. (part 1) (Industry Overview)
March 30, 1992... First of a three-part series At Avery Dennison's paper coating and printing facilities in Framingham, emissions of air pollutants have dropped 92 percent in the past 13 years. Since 1974, four years after the nation's Clean Air Act was...

Olmsted sells bonds; Brigham still cool. (Olmsted Plaza biomedical research project developer JMB/Urban Development Co.; Brigham and Women's Hospital)
March 30, 1992... Developers of the troubled Olmsted Plaza biomedical research project said last week they have secured financing for the venture and could begin construction within three weeks if Brigham & Women's Hospital signs back on to the lease it walked...

Hub property values challenged. (requests for property tax abatements questioned)
March 30, 1992... For the first time since the enactment of Proposition 2 1/2 in 1981, more than 10,000 property tax abatement applications have been filed with the city of Boston, assessing commissioner Thaddeus Jankowski said last week. The 10,800 requests...

TJX brings no-frills style to houseware stores. (TJX Companies Inc.; HomeGoods)
March 30, 1992... Framingham-based TJX Cos., which owns off-price apparel retailers, is opening a division that sells discounted home fashions in an attempt to capitalize on the newfound domestic instincts of baby boomers. Called HomeGoods, the warehouse-like,...

Few ad shops chance a bid for Lottery account. (advertising agencies; Massachusetts State Lottery)
March 30, 1992... Competition for the Massachusetts State Lottery advertising account is shaping up as a battle of the titans, with the daunting review process proving too costly for all but the largest Boston-area agencies. Among those planning to make a pitch...

Planets are aligned for environmental retailers. (Blue Planet and Green Planet stores selling environmentally friendly products)
March 30, 1992... In the 1960s, Boston retailer Larry Murray had a job many of his customers today wouldn't approve of: selling products that would never make it onto the shelves of his own store. "I'm doing my penance now to redeem myself," laughed Murray from...

Exporters feel pinch from Japanese recession. (Massuchusetts' manufacturers exporting to Japan)
March 30, 1992... What passes for recession in Japan would probably translate into an economic boom in Massachusetts, but it is stinging local companies that depend upon Japan as the state's No. 2 export market. Japanese consumers are buying fewer...

Iris blossoms in high-end color printing market. (Iris Graphics Inc.) (Company Profile)
March 30, 1992... Riding a boom in color graphics in industries ranging from publishing to textiles, Bedford-based Iris Graphics is making a name for itself and profits for its parent company of two years, Scitex of Israel. Iris' newest color printer, the...

Ryka vaults to $8M in its lightweight sneaks. (Ryka Inc.) (Company Profile)
March 30, 1992... Sheri Poe would like to thumb her nose at Wall Street and the staid East Coast investment bankers who laughed out loud when she asked them for capital to start a women's sneaker company five years ago. First they wanted to know how a woman with...

B&Bs snag travelers by undercutting hotels. (Bed and Breakfast Agency of Boston) (Company Profile)
March 30, 1992... In a market that has felled much larger hotels, Massachusetts bed-and-breakfast establishments are serving up lower costs and traditional charm to attract recession-weary travelers. "We have a lot of corporate people who are looking for...

Priscilla Kidder: first by design.
March 30, 1992... It is hard to imagine that this small, rickety Charlestown manufacturing shop feeds the country with dazzling wedding gowns. It is also hard to imagine how the 74-year-old Priscilla Kidder, her hands practically crippled by arthritis, has held...

Local firms seek first crack at FDIC business. (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.)
March 30, 1992... As federal regulators push to unload billions of dollars in assets taken over during the 1980s real estate crash, efforts are being stepped up locally to make sure Massachusetts firms get a piece of the action, either in purchasing properties...

Bankruptcy trustees deal with thankless cases. (Focus: Banking and Finance) (Industry Overview)
March 30, 1992... Bankruptcies are messy and chaotic. The reason--or result--of a financial collapse can be as minor as the invoices stuffed in a shoebox or as major as having no complete record of what is owed. Courts are no place to sort out messes like these....

Women financial planners go beyond networking. (Focus: Banking and Finance)
March 30, 1992... When founded in 1990, the Consortium was designed to be a support group for independent women financial planners, offering a chance to share ideas and pose questions with other women in a profession traditionally dominated by men. Two years...

Life insurers see secure future in mutual funds. (Focus: Banking and Finance) (Industry Overview)
March 30, 1992... Two leading Boston-based life insurance companies see mutual funds as the way to grow in the 21st century. The New England and the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Co. say they plan to aggressively expand the assets of their mutual fund...

Boston is at the cutting edge of bank tech. (bank automation) (Focus: Banking and Finance) (Industry Overview)
March 30, 1992... According to an analyst who tracks the use of technology for the national consulting firm Ernst & Young, five local financial institutions--BayBanks, Bank of Boston, Fidelity Investments, Battery-march Financial Management and State Street...

Artel Communications Corp. (Proxy Report Excerpts) (Company Profile)
March 30, 1992... THE BUSINESS Headquarters: Hudson Stock Symbol: AXXX Market: NASDAQ Annual Revenue: $4,863,000 Net...

Hub hopes for wake of Ocean State business. (Rhode Island Convention Center; Rhode Island State) (Meetings & Conventions)
March 30, 1992... Both Providence and Boston stand to gain when the Rhode Island Convention Center comes on line in December 1993, representatives of both cities' meetings industry say. The consensus seems to be that in this economy, any business that benefits one...

System suggested to track no-shows. (Professional Convention Management Association suggests convention bureaus control hotel room inventory) (Meetings & Conventions)
March 30, 1992... When conventions come into town, there is never any guarantee that the turnout will be as large as expected. That poses a problem for hotels, since they usually must bear the brunt of the losses. It is also a concern for those organizing the...

Hotels are receptive to intimate meetings. (smaller business meetings; includes related article) (Meetings & Conventions)
March 30, 1992... Companies are looking at small meetings--under 30 people--as a way of bringing together important staffers without blowing the corporate budget on blockbuster conventions and big travel expenses. And while hotels of all sizes are aggressively...

The Ritz gets by: luxury hotels work hard to hold their own. (Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.) (Meetings & Conventions) (Company Profile)
March 30, 1992... After a dismal 1991, some segments of the area's hospitality industry limped into 1992, but Boston's luxury hotels leaped into the year on solid footing. Strong fourth quarters for the high-end hotels helped salvage a year that started slowly,...

Hospitality leaders plot to sell the city. (Meetings & Conventions)
March 30, 1992... Boston is being marketed as a convention and tourist destination more aggressively than ever before, according to many sources in the hospitality industry. What's new? The thrust relies on partnerships between public and private organizations....

Fewer hotel jobs but greater cooperation. (hotel management-worker relations) (Meetings & Conventions)
March 30, 1992... Times were tough for Boston area hotel workers in 1991. Despite upbeat talk by some hoteliers, state figures show more than a 10 percent layoff rate for industry workers, both blue- and white-collar employees, during the past year. During 1989...

Family appeal paying off for hospitality biz. (family-oriented attractions at the World Trade Center, Boston, Massachusetts; includes related article) (Meetings & Conventions)
March 30, 1992... Corporate travelers are packing more than a briefcase and garment bag to out-of-town meetings. Today they often pack up the whole family, mixing business with pleasure because of time constraints imposed by demanding work schedules. In the...