Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal articles from January 2001

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal archives from January 2001

RDA, county in tiff over tax revenue.
January 5, 2001... Hair salon owner Wendy Nguyen is hoping that a redevelopment project will restore the glory of the Fruitdale Avenue shopping center and attract more customers to her 24K Hair & Nails. "I think it would be great," she says. "It would bring...

Summit delayed.
January 5, 2001... Mayor wants more time for insight into energy crisis San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales is pushing back his proposed regional energy summit from January to March in order to gain perspective on the crisis gripping the state, his aides say. ...

Dot-coma hasn't hurt hiring rush.
January 5, 2001... Hiring freeze. Layoffs. Downsizing. Cutbacks. No such discouraging words were heard from headhunters stalking the Silicon Valley Recruiters Association's year-end meeting. Instead, a herd of headhunters paraded to the podium to plead for...

'Quakes still kicking.
January 5, 2001... The rumored demise of the San Jose Earthquakes has been greatly exaggerated, team officials say. The soccer team is selling season tickets and preparing for the 2001 season scheduled to begin in March. "Everything I've been told by [Major...

Downtown cinema may need independents.
January 5, 2001... While major mainstream movie theater chains show no interest in building a multiplex movie theater in downtown San Jose, smaller independent operators see an opportunity. Expansion of late has been difficult for the major movie theater...

New City Council members appear to be 'mayor-friendly'.
January 5, 2001... The San Jose City Council, which meets for the first time this year on Jan. 9, is unlikely to make major policy changes or seriously challenge Mayor Ron Gonzales. But several new members may push the city to look for new power plant sites...

Court ruling could clear path for more condos.
January 5, 2001... The number of condominiums and townhomes being built in Silicon Valley has dropped steadily throughout the past decade, but a December decision by the state Supreme Court could gradually reverse that trend. The court decision upholds the...

9 area stores among those to close in Wards shutdown.
January 5, 2001... When the nine Bay Area Wards stores will close has not been spelled out by their parent company, which announced three days after Christmas that it was going out of business 128 years after Aaron Montgomery Ward took in his first dollar. ...

Los Altos Hills man nominated as UC regent.
January 5, 2001... Peninsula real estate broker George Marcus has been nominated to fill a seat on the University of California Board of Regents, according to the office of Gov. Gray Davis. Mr. Marcus has been on the Board of Trustees of the California State...

Happy New Year, you're fired.
January 5, 2001... The number of chief executive officers who left their companies "to pursue other interests" in December is the third-highest of any month last year, according to outplacement company Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. In December, 113 CEOs...

Freeway patrol expands.
January 5, 2001... In response to growing traffic congestion on Interstate 680 between Pleasanton and San Jose, the Freeway Service Patrol roving tow truck service has lengthened the hours it roves that portion of I-680, also known as the Sunol Grade. With...

Home prices, sales up again.
January 5, 2001... Sales of existing homes in California in November posted a 6.2 percent increase, and the median home price rose 15.2 percent from the same period a year ago, the California Association of Realtors says. "Strong demand continued to propel...

State gains congressional seat.
January 5, 2001... All 33,871,648 of us jamming into California have created one new job: California's 53rd member of Congress. Thanks to population growth between 1990 and 2000, California will get another representative in Congress, according to figures...

Correction.
January 5, 2001... One of two charts comparing exports to Mexico and Japan in the Dec. 29 TechBiz section was incorrectly worded. The chart is reproduced below with the correct wording. [Graph omitted]

Net privacy standards will cost health-care industry plenty.
January 5, 2001... Lifeguard, a San Jose-based HMO, installed technology on its newly launched Web site last month to ensure that patient medical records are kept confidential when claims are filed electronically. But Lifeguard may have to do some costly...

CalPERS invests $285M in five biotechnology organizations.
January 5, 2001... The California Public Employees' Retirement System has approved five organizations for investments totaling $285 million. The investments are part of CalPERS' $500 million California Biotechnology Program. The remaining $215 million is to...

Manufacturers group applauds Mineta appointment.
January 5, 2001... A Silicon Valley business leader applauds the appointment by president-elect George W Bush of Norman Mineta as his transportation secretary. "He is incredibly well respected by people on both sides of the aisle," says Carl Guardino,...

Offices, entertainment venues added to Sunnyvale landscape.
January 5, 2001... Several projects under way in Sunnyvale are part of a building boom that city officials hope will revitalize downtown. Officials broke ground Dec. 15 on three office buildings that will total 450,000 square feet. The 5.9-acre site at...

Mountain View OKs mixed-use project.
January 5, 2001... Downtown Mountain View continues to attract new development, and the latest is a 65,000-square-foot mixed-use building on El Camino Real. Redwood City-based Prometheus Real Estate Group announced it has received city approval for the...

Architects move to San Jose.
January 5, 2001... AAi, an interior architectural design firm, is relocating its Mountain View office to San Jose. The firm will nearly double its space in new offices on The Alameda. AAi currently is designing a corporate campus for Redback Networks,...

Refinancing for Almaden Plaza.
January 5, 2001... Brothers International Holding Co. has secured $48.3 million to refinance its Almaden Plaza in San Jose. The 40-acre shopping center at Highway 85 and Almaden Expressway will be refinanced through New York City real estate investment bank...

Affordable apartments in Los Gatos.
January 5, 2001... Community Developers Local Development Co. Inc. will open a 12-unit apartment building in February that will bring affordable apartments near downtown Los Gatos. The apartments on Miles Avenue are studios and will be available only to...

E-tailers feel the pressure.
January 5, 2001... But still manage to meet holiday delivery needs E-tailers scrambled more than ever to sell products, fill orders and deliver the goods on time during the just-completed holiday season. Part of the problem, according to analyses by...

Lots of gizmos in Vegas, but who will buy?
January 5, 2001... The year 2001 might not offer the jet-cars and floating cities envisioned decades ago by science fiction writers, but exhibitors at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas are brandishing futuristic gizmos that would make even George...

Cyras buy gives Ciena stronger hand in optical competition.
January 5, 2001... With the $2 billion acquisition of Cyras Corp. of Fremont, upstart Ciena Corp. emerges a much more serious threat to dominant optical networking player Nortel Corp. It also makes its already sizable Bay Area offices a major part of its...

Liquid Audio joint venture hopes to make music in China.
January 5, 2001... Liquid Audio, the Redwood City online music pioneer, is getting a boost in its efforts to cash in on the emerging Asian market from an overseas partner. Hoping to get an early foothold in the Chinese music industry, Liquid Audio has...

XML looms as critical standard despite competing versions.
January 5, 2001... The curse of Babel strikes again. Even as software developers hail Extensible Markup Language as an emerging lingua franca for exchanging data, the language is quickly disintegrating into opposing standards pushed by Silicon Valley...

Covad sends another 400 workers packing in 'restructuring'.
January 5, 2001... Covad Communications is laying off another 400 people as part of a restructuring of its business solutions division. That brings to 800 the number of employees shown the door since late November. The company says the layoffs and other...

Smithsonian gets Bay Area clock.
January 5, 2001... Precision fanatics who want their watches to be as accurate as possible should visit the "On Time" exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., and set their watches to the time told by a clock built...

Area Internet job cuts top 2,000.
January 5, 2001... More than 2,300 people lost their jobs at Bay Area Internet startups in December, according to figures compiled by Valleyjobs.com, a Palo Alto employment service. The firm says more than 20 companies in the area announced shutdowns or...

What, me worry?
January 5, 2001... Nope. At least that's what most chief information officers are saying in a survey. Despite recent publicity about computer security breaches, most CIOs believe their companies are relatively safe from internal and external security...

Smaller figures for Nanometrics.
January 5, 2001... Nanometrics Inc. says it expects to report lower-than-anticipated revenue for its fourth quarter ended Dec. 31. Management previously estimated that fourth-quarter revenue would increase by 8 percent to 10 percent over third-quarter revenue...

Funding for ActiveSky announced.
January 5, 2001... ActiveSky says it has secured $21.8 million in finding from investors led by U.S.-based JK&B Capital. The money will allow the company to further commercialize its technology used for wireless delivery of video and multimedia images to...

Blue Martini signs global pact with Intel.
January 5, 2001... Blue Martini Software Inc. of San Mateo has signed an agreement with Intel Corp. to collaborate on engineering, marketing and sales activities. The companies will work together at Intel Solutions Centers to optimize the Java-based Blue...

NorthPoint sells a 'point'.
January 5, 2001... NorthPoint Communications says it's selling its 50 percent share of Versa-Point to VersaTel Telecom International NV, which has owned the other half. NorthPoint Communications is divesting its interest in VersaPoint as it continues to...

Some shoppers are lured by ease of 'e-wallet' transactions.
January 5, 2001... Another measure of the success of the e-shopping holiday season in 2000 may be the number of shoppers who paid for their gifts with "e-wallets." These in essence are online credit cards that let shoppers enter their name, shipping address,...

Techies taking over the show.
January 5, 2001... The annual Consumer Electronics Show began in 1967 as a showplace for television and radio manufacturers. But this year's show, opening in Las Vegas on Jan. 6, is full of New Economy companies. In addition to old standbys such as...

AHEAD BY A MILE: Solectron concludes year with impressive flourish.
January 5, 2001... THE BUSINESS JOURNAL TECH 25 is a market capitalization-based index set to a value of 1000 as of Dec. 28, 1997. The index tracks the performance of Silicon Valley's largest publicly traded tech companies (as ranked by 1999 revenue). Those with...

iCommerce, Earthlink collaborate.
January 5, 2001... Commerce of San Jose, a provider of electronic business sooftware for small and midsize businesses, has announced that EarthLink will add of InfoPortal and ServiceBuilder applications to its TotalCommerce Entrepreneur packages. With these...

Nvidia to acquire 3dfx Interactive.
January 5, 2001... Nvidia Corp. of Santa Clara, a global provider of graphics and multimedia processing technology, has signed an agreement to acquire certain graphics-related assets of 3dfx Interactive. These graphics-related assets include patents, pending...

Cable TV cooperative selects Com21.
January 5, 2001... Com21 has announced that the National Cable Television Cooperative Inc., an organizaton of independent cable television companies serving more than 10 million subscribers, has selected Com21 as a preferred vendor. This will allow Com21 to sell...

3do Co.
January 5, 2001... H.W. Jesse, director, purchased 1000 shares of common at S3 each on Nov. 14 and now directly holds 31,000. Kathleen R. Mcelwee, chief financial officer, purchased 5,000 shares of common at $1.91 each on Nov. 30 and new directly holds 5,000....

Actel Corp.
January 5, 2001... Dennis G. Kish, vice president, exercised an option for 15,000 shares of common at $20.38 each on Nov. 14 and sold 15,000 shares at $30.63 each en Nov. 14 and now directly holds zero. Esmat Z. Hamdy, vice president exercised an opion for...

Catalytica Inc.
January 5, 2001... James A. Cusumano, chairman, sold 10,000 shares of common at $13.19 each on Oct 25 and now directly and Indirectly holds 668,510. John A. Urquhart, director, exercised an option for 20,000 shares of common at $8.13 each on Nov. 30 and sold...

Genentech Inc.
January 5, 2001... Arthur D. Levinson, chairman, exercised an option for 40,000 shares of class NEW common at $17.09 each from Nov. 7 to Band said 40,000 shares between $88 and $90.06 each from Nov. 7 to 8 and now directly and indirectly holds 1,726. Daniel...

Network Appliance Inc.
January 5, 2001... David Hitz, vice president exercised an option for 300,000 shares of common at 69 cents each an Nov. 30 and now directly holds 9,134,050. Jeffry R. Allen, chief financial officer, exercised an option] for 6.750 shares of common at $2.32...

Protein Design Labs Inc.
January 5, 2001... David S. Geyer, vice president, exercised an option far 6,423 shares of common between $8.50 and $13.28 each on Nov. 27 and sold 6,423 shares between $96 and S96.88 each an Nov. 27 and now directly holds 342. Max E Link, director,...

Symmetricom Inc.
January 5, 2001... Murli M. Thirumale, divisional officer, purchased 12,500 shares of common at $12.69 each on Nov. 28 and now directly holds 16,325. Thomas W. Steipp, chief executive officer, purchased 5,000 shares of common at $10.50 each on Nov. 30 and now...

Xicor Inc.
January 5, 2001... J.D. Mccranie, chairman, purchased 20,000 shares of common between $5.50 and $7 each from Nov. 27 to 29 and now directly holds 20,000. Klaus G. Hendig, vice president sold 5,000 shares of common at $7.25 each on Nov. 15 and now directly...

The Asian connection.
January 5, 2001... In relating the adage "good things come in small packages" to Silicon Valley's signature industry semiconductor manufacturing, it's Dennis McKenna's company that makes those packages. Mr. McKenna is president and CEO of ChipPac, whose...

Video game prodigy graduates from early pitches to Atari.
January 5, 2001... It took two parents and some Atari executives to steer Ken Soohoo through his education. Mr. Soohoo, now chief executive of Planetweb Inc., loved creating video games. He first called on the pioneer video game manufacturer at age 14. At...

Here's a little truth behind the fiction that is out there.
January 5, 2001... If you consider yourself Internet-savvy high-tech knowledgeable and corporate culture chic, you might have stumbled across www.e-com-con.com and thought to yourself: "Why haven't I heard of this company with valley connections before?" ...

Light on its feet, luxury Audi A6 a fine fit on any dance card.
January 5, 2001... The Audi A6 is a beautifully designed and crafted automobile that should be ranked in the top echelon of luxury sports sedans. In the high-performance 2.7T version, the A6 is a reminder of Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire -- unmatched taste and style...

'You must first understand the local culture and adapt to it'.
January 5, 2001... When building a company it is critical to be aware of cultural differences of both the members of your team and the people with whom you are planning to do business. MATRA and MATRAnet are known brand names in Europe. On the other hand,...

Opportunities abound to contribute 'money, muscle or mind'.
January 5, 2001... When Shomiti Systems Inc. set up its Christmas tree last month, it added more than a string of lights and a box of ornaments. A variety of names also hung on the tree, many of them scribbled with wishes for new clothes and toys. It took...

People.
January 5, 2001... Banking Heritage Commerce Corp. of San Jose has named May Wong senior VP and controller. Ms. Wong has an extensive financial background and has been with Heritage since August 1998 serving as VP. Consulting EORM of Sunnyvale has...

Ask the exec: What makes an ideal executive?
January 5, 2001... William Chang CTO Sentius Palo Alto An ideal executive is one who is able to make good decisions quickly enough and stick to them. A manager should make those decisions in the context of information that is available. But the...

Workers wooed with training benefits.
January 5, 2001... Robin Higashi liked the job offer Dionex Corp. made a few months ago. But she was taking classes in sign language, which posed schedule conflicts. She didn't want to give the classes up. So she played her bargaining chip: In order to take...

How do you measure success? Assess investment in people.
January 5, 2001... One time, after my partner and I had completed our initial assessment and recommendations for staff-performance training at one particular company, we heard a typical response from the human resources manager: "Training costs too much. We don't...

Q & A.
January 5, 2001... What was the best job training you ever received? Goodwill of Santa Clara County's training program gave me hope. I learned to set goals and [realized] that I had choices. In five months of training I learned to get up early and get some...

Volatile marketplace makes employee training more vital.
January 5, 2001... Crippled by last year's tech-heavy Nasdaq's rise and fall - and rise again - some Silicon Valley startups and technology firms have had to confront some mistakes that have led to funding slashes, layoffs and company closures. While the...

Information technology know-how is most wanted skill in the valley.
January 5, 2001... Only five years ago, the letters "IT" meant very little to college students, workers and office managers. Today "information technology" has become such an industry backbone and buzzword that its abbreviation - and the skills that match it...

A lesson in self-defense for those working crazy hours.
January 5, 2001... Employees who travel to foreign lands on business, or those who work late hours, are more likely to become targets for crime. Some companies in the valley are addressing this problem by providing a special type of professional training:...

Groups squabble over crisis cause, solutions.
January 5, 2001... ANDREW F. HAMM Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison claim they must charge higher rates to pay for high-price electricity generated by mostly out-of-state power plants. Both utility companies say they face bankruptcy...

PG&E warns of higher gas bills this month.
January 5, 2001... If you turn down your thermostat to save on gas, you're still likely to get hot under the collar when you get your gas bill. That's the warning from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. It says January bills could be 60 percent higher than they...

Cameras could click big in UA building.
January 5, 2001... Can a movie theater make it in downtown San Jose? The answer is yes, but success may take some independent thinking. It would be easy to deride the idea of a flourishing downtown theater. A string of previous movie palaces are shuttered...

Hey dude, Beatles are still No. 1 hit.
January 5, 2001... It's crude to measure an artist by commercial achievement But 40 years after John Lennon and Paul McCartney formed a musical partnership that changed the world, the Beatles continue to compile numbers that astound. Since 1996, they have...

Slow down.
January 5, 2001... Remember the business cycle? If you haven't spent much time thinking about the cyclical nature of the economy during the past year, don't feel bad -- few did. Well, the business cycle is suddenly back in vogue. The economy's growth...

Another year bites the dust.
January 5, 2001... As momentous as the buildup to 2000 was, the year itself was something of a letdown. If you were hoping for a cataclysm of some kind, you were disappointed on the first day. No breakdowns occurred. Computers hummed, vehicles moved,...

2001: not a shutdown.
January 5, 2001... The economy isn't like the weather. Everyone talks about it -- and nearly everyone tries to do something about it. Business leaders, politicians, environmentalists, social-issues advocates, consumers, investors, academics -- from every...

Women-owned firms need a boost.
January 5, 2001... It's about time. Lenders finally are waking up to the growing number of women-owned businesses. But more work is needed to close the gap on financing and tap their potential for success. The most recent piece of good news: President Clinton...

Largest Employee Benefits Consultants/Administrators.
January 5, 2001... Largest Employee Benefits Consultants/Administrators Ranked by number of senior consultants in employee benefits division in Silicon Valley [*] Senior consultants in Company ...

One of your '01 resolutions should be to give more.
January 5, 2001... Most people's New Year's resolutions are about being a better person, a better manager, maybe even a better spouse. How about a better giver? But the holidays have just passed, you're thinking to yourself. And that's exactly my point. The...

Politechs.
January 12, 2001... Valley agenda grabs attention in D.C. On the eve of the presidential inauguration, Silicon Valley executives are gathering in Washington, D.C., to launch what they hope is a new era -- a convergence of technology and politics. In the...

Valley firms rally to save energy.
January 12, 2001... Striving to head off predicted rolling blackouts, members of the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group have agreed to work together to lower electricity usage during peak demand. Dubbed "Blackout Busters," these corporations intend to lower...

Hi, it's Bill. Who's calling?
January 12, 2001... It was near midnight on a snowy December evening in Washington, D.C., and at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. the president, the first lady and daughter Chelsea were relaxing with a couple of old friends in the solarium after a day of meetings and...

Kaiser a model of good health, says survey.
January 12, 2001... While no one type of health insurance plan is perfect, integrated models such as Kaiser Permanente tend to generate the least complaints from members, according to a recent survey of California insured adults. The independent study was...

Task force suggests downtown become bigger, 'walker-friendly'.
January 12, 2001... An important step has been taken along the path to a revitalized down-town San Jose, as a team of corporate and civic leaders completed a 180-page plan that would give the area a more urban feel while making it more pedestrian-friendly. ...

Incubators seek firms with strong formula.
January 12, 2001... Despite for-profits such as Divine InterVentures Inc. and CMGI Inc. turning "incubator" into a four-letter word, Valley-based incubators appear to have weathered drying pools of venture capital and frigid IPO markets. "I haven't heard of a...

Japanese investments are building valley alliances.
January 12, 2001... Kimihiko "Kimi" Iwamura has a simple philosophy of foreign investment: No more cherry picking. While his profession -- investing Japanese corporate funds into Silicon Valley -- may not be unique, he says the philosophy is. Mr. Iwamura...

Valley Med seeks to build psychiatric services.
January 12, 2001... The lack of housing for the mentally ill in Santa Clara County has prompted Valley Medical Center to ask the county for funds to expand its psychiatric services. In February the Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System plans to ask...

San Jose State University picks provost.
January 12, 2001... Marshall Goodman has been picked to serve as San Jose State University's new provost and vice president for academic affairs, the university has announced. Mr. Goodman currently serves as dean of the College of Letters and Science at the...

Election approved on Cisco's planned Coyote Valley campus.
January 12, 2001... San Jose voters will go to the polls to pass judgment on plans by Cisco Systems to build a 688-acre campus for 20,000 workers in the city's Coyote Valley. Elections officials say enough valid signatures were collected on petitions to put...

Hearings open on Calpine plant.
January 12, 2001... The California Energy Commission has begun a series of hearings into whether to override a San Jose City Council veto of a power plant proposed for the city's Coyote Valley. Calpine Corp.'s Metcalf Energy Center was rejected on a unanimous...