Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal articles from May 2001

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal archives from May 2001

San Jose rising.
May 4, 2001... Downtown gaining stature as top developers arrive The arrival of a blue-chip developer in downtown San Jose is the latest sign the market is gaining stature in national and even international circles. San Jose long has been perceived...

Cisco talking compromise on Metcalf.
May 4, 2001... The three major parties in the dispute over the Metcalf Energy Center have been quietly hashing out a possible compromise that would allow the 600-megawatt plant to be built. "There are talks going on," says Darrell Dearborn, senior deputy...

Who you gonna believe?
May 4, 2001... Republicans are claiming that a new poll they commissioned shows Gov. Davis is in trouble over the energy crisis. But Democrats are circulating a poll conducted for the Service Employees International Union and the California Teachers...

Jude Barry sets up shop.
May 4, 2001... Things are looking up for a former government official. Jude Barry served as chief of staff to Mayor Ron Gonzales from 1999 until this past December, and he was chief of staff for Mr. Gonzales while he served as a Santa Clara County supervisor...

Mouse genome: clue to humans.
May 4, 2001... The more we know about the mouse, the more we know about ourselves. That's the bottom-line reality of this week's announcement that the mouse genome has been mapped. Celera Genomics, which earlier had mapped the human genome, announced...

CyberRays: Can new soccer team continue to score with fans?
May 4, 2001... OK, the Bay Area CyberRays made their debut before 10,010 fans at Spartan Stadium on April 29. Now what? Unlike the barnstorming U.S. Women's National Team that regularly plays to large audiences throughout the country, the Bay Area...

Arts groups packing houses as corporate donors cut back.
May 4, 2001... Depending on the statistic, Silicon Valley's economy is gaining traction or further slipping into a recession. Similarly, there's good news and bad news among the city's major arts groups. The good news is that valley residents' appetite for...

SEC report details who's at helm of Webvan's sinking ship.
May 4, 2001... Investors got more insight into troubled and taciturn online grocer Webvan on April 30 when the Foster-city based company filed its annual proxy report with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing illuminated which venture...

Warm weather, fall in market prices bring cheaper gas bills.
May 4, 2001... Customers of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. will see a decrease in the rates they pay for natural gas, the utility says. PG&E says that due to a decrease in the market price for natural gas and a decline in usage, the average residential gas...

Dairymen to get more for milk.
May 4, 2001... California's dairy farmers are getting 6 cents more per gallon for the milk their farms produce, according to the dairy industry's Sacramento lobby. The adjustment of 6 cents per gallon raises California's price paid to farmers to $1.38,...

Pepsi bottler acquired.
May 4, 2001... The Pepsi Bottling Group Inc. of Somers, N.Y., has completed the purchase of the general partner interest in Pepsi-Cola Bottling of Northern California, a bottler based in Redding. PBG also has acquired the limited-partner interest in the...

Tough year ahead, says bank's forecast.
May 4, 2001... This year will prove difficult for both the national and California economies, according to a quarterly outlook from California Federal Bank, one of the state's largest banking chains. The longer-term outlook still looks bright, the report...

New company fundings decline.
May 4, 2001... There were 325 significant fundings of new companies in April, according to Facts Online, a San Diego research company. The 325 represent a decrease from April 2000, which reported 487 newly funded companies, but were close to the monthly...

California snags top spots on smog list.
May 4, 2001... Four of California's metropolitan areas occupy the top spots on a new list from the American Lung Association noting the nation's 25 smoggiest cities. Los Angeles ranks as worst, followed by Bakersfield, Fresno and the Visalia-Porterville...

State settles hazardous waste suits.
May 4, 2001... California has reached a $114.5 million agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency involving the Stringfellow and Casmalia hazardous waste sites in Southern California. "This settlement with the federal government is an...

Higher fuel standards urged by senator.
May 4, 2001... Sport utility vehicles would have to squeeze as much mileage out of a gallon of gasoline as passenger cars under a proposal by US. Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Olympia Snowe of Maine. The bill would gradually phase in stricter...

Let's cut CEOs some slack on financial forecasts.
May 4, 2001... One after another, even tech stalwarts such as Intel, Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, Sun and Dell are announcing sharply lower earnings expectations for the coming months. Top executives at these and other companies use words like...

CFOs lose jobs faster than their bosses.
May 4, 2001... Weak earnings reports may be taking an increasingly heavy toll on chief financial officers, whose 71 departures in April outpaced that of CEOs, according to a study by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Departures of chief...

Coastal Commission unconstitutional, Superior Court judge rules.
May 4, 2001... The agency that controls development along California's 1,100 mile coastline is unconstitutional, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge has ruled. Judge Charles Kobayashi says the commission's structure is unconstitutional because it...

Navy could help power California.
May 4, 2001... Here's something to do with those nuclear-powered warships when they're not protecting the country: Have them provide power to California. Three Nimitz-class aircraft carriers now on the West Coast produce 194 megawatts each, the...

Sequoias fall to oaks.
May 4, 2001... The "national tree" will not be the mighty giant sequoia of California. It will likely be the ordinary oak, following voting sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation. The giant sequoia, some of which are said to be the largest living...

This week's energy highlights.
May 4, 2001... May 2 Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., parent company of Pacific Gas & Electric Co., reported a net loss of $951 million for its first quarter. The loss is blamed on $1.1 billion in unreimbursed wholesale power costs at PG&E Co. as well as...

Newspapers choke on rising paper costs, falling revenue.
May 4, 2001... The year may become the newspaper industry's most difficult in a decade, as falling advertising revenue, higher newsprint costs and money-losing Internet operations are sapping papers' vitality nationwide. Only weeks since Jay Harris...

City's $250K donation puts Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley closer to funding goal.
May 4, 2001... Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley moved a step closer to its $2.1 million fundraising goal on May 1 when the San Jose City Council gave it $250,000. The donation was offered last fall as a 4-to-l matching grant, designed to bring the ballet's...

Pressure building in Congress for new ergonomics rule.
May 4, 2001... Senate moderates who helped kill OSHA's ergonomics regulation are frustrated by Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao's refusal to commit to a deadline for a new policy to address workplace injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome. They are...

Second XFL season may hinge on TV commitment from UPN.
May 4, 2001... The future of the XFL rests in the unlikely hands of UPN, a bit player in national sports television, in the aftermath of an inaugural season filled with mistakes and miscalculations. "The XFL has got to have UPN's involvement," says Breck...

CalPERS pumps $132 million into investment group focused on sports business.
May 4, 2001... The California Public Employees' Retirement System pension fund will invest as much as $132 million in an investment group controlled in part by sports management power IMG. The 1MG Sports Capital fund, the only financial vehicle to invest...

San Jose store part of Sears entry into upscale home decor.
May 4, 2001... In a battle of behemoths that have dominated different eras of American retailing, Sears will take on The Home Depot for a share of the Bay Area's lucrative home remodeling market beginning next spring. That's when Sears, the operator of...

Housing development making life better for older residents.
May 4, 2001... Sverre "Andy" Andersen, a 70-year-old retired Teamster who has called San Jose home since 1969, lived in a moldy, cramped and dark apartment behind a 100-year-old home for a decade. It was a place "to bed down" but not a place to spend much...

Downtown San Jose gets new eatery.
May 4, 2001... Popular downtown eatery House of Siam expects to open its third location -- also downtown. Co-owner Nuttawee Ritprasert says a convoluted series of events led her and her sister to the downtown expansion. But she thinks the new, much...

IBM gaining on Oracle.
May 4, 2001... Informix acquisition creates new ballgame IBM's $1 billion purchase last week of Informix Corp.'s newly independent database software business was significant news for both companies: It's one of IBM's biggest acquisitions ever, and it...

Convergence spurs Intel's drive to optics.
May 4, 2001... Intel Corp. is stepping up its efforts to become a supplier of fiber-optics components as well as computer chips. The effort underscores the growing convergence between computers and telecommunications. Intel has completed seven major...

Avoidance of supply-chain glut brings a ray of Sun-shine.
May 4, 2001... Sun Microsystems Inc., which once boasted of being "the dot in dot-corn," is looking about as big as the tiny punctuation mark these days. But beneath its severely weakened stock, poor third-quarter sales and the prospect of an even...

Despite new film, organizing tech workers remains tough.
May 4, 2001... Labor sympathizers may be inspired by a new documentary film critical of valley tech firms, but outside the theater the task of organizing tech workers remains daunting. Although the movie, "Secrets of Silicon Valley," depicts tech...

Chipper AMD holding its own against battered rival Intel.
May 4, 2001... Despite a slowdown that has knocked Intel Corp. down to size, investors appear upbeat on the prospects of crosstown foe Advanced Micro Devices Inc. As both chipmakers gear up for another skirmish in their long-standing rivalry AMD...

Software maker lops 150 positions.
May 4, 2001... Software maker @Comm Corp. of Burlingame cut 150 jobs April 30. The company has suspended further development and marketing of its new integrated communication system, saying it will refocus its efforts on its telemanagement software...

New law aims to reveal financial institutions' privacy policies.
May 4, 2001... People who automatically throw out what they consider junk mail without opening it may want to look at such items more closely this spring. Those envelopes may include a chance to stop junk mail. Federal law requires financial institutions...

MobileSys-Bitmo deal latest wireless consolidation move.
May 4, 2001... MobileSys Inc., a Mountain View-based wireless infrastructure company has acquired Bitmo, a San Francisco-based wireless software firm, in a move that reflects an increasing trend in the wireless communications sector: consolidation between...

Atoga raises $50M to curb telecom bottlenecks in cities.
May 4, 2001... Atoga Systems, a Fremont-based maker of metropolitan networking systems, has raised more than $50 million in a second round of debt-and-equity funding. The company makes optical equipment that directs telecommunications traffic between the...

Fifty-five dot-coms fold their tents.
May 4, 2001... At least 55 Internet companies closed their doors last month, bringing the number of Internet-related firms that have folded in the past 16 months to 435, according to Webmergers.com, a company that provides a research-based hub for buyers and...

Docent bypasses Portland, chooses Austin for R&D center.
May 4, 2001... Austin, Texas, has beaten Portland, Ore., in the contest to land a Silicon Valley Web-based learning management company's first research and development center. Darrell Woelk, former vice president at Austin-based Microelectronics and...

Look, mom, hands-free cells.
May 4, 2001... Few products make more sense for Bay Area residents than cell phones that allow hands-free operation. Such devices are safer than cell phones that require driving with one hand, and they allow drivers to take advantage of the long commute...

Internet tax is no big deal, says study.
May 4, 2001... The prospect of having to pay a sales tax on small purchases made via the Internet doesn't seem to raise the ire of three out of four online shoppers, according to a study by Jupiter Media Metrix. While the October 2001 scheduled expiration...

Investments won't perk up until next year, according to VCs.
May 4, 2001... The overall U.S. economic climate will decline or stay the same in the next six months, and most Silicon Valley venture capitalists don't expect to step up their investment activity until next year, according to the second Silicon Valley...

Catamaran gets German crew.
May 4, 2001... Infineon Technologies AG, the biggest microchip maker in Germany, is paying $250 million in stock to buy Catamaran Communications Inc. of San Jose. "The complementary strengths of the two companies will provide true value to our customers...

Kids teach parents tech basics.
May 4, 2001... Most children are enhancing their parents' knowledge about technology, the Internet and the digital economy, according to a study commissioned by Hewlett-Pakard's e-commerce site, Hpshopping.com. Two-thirds of parents surveyed across the United...

Translating tech talk is tough.
May 4, 2001... What we've got here is a failure to communicate, say technology executives surveyed recently by RHI Consulting of Menlo Park. Forty percent of chief information officers polled say translating complex technical information into layperson's...

ELance to charge.
May 4, 2001... Internet-based professional services marketplace eLance Inc. of Sunnyvale says it will begin charging monthly subscription fees from all service providers to bid on projects in the eLance market-place. The new fee structure is expected to...

Versant posts rare loss.
May 4, 2001... Software maker Versant Corp. of Fremont says in the first quarter of 2001 it lost $3.6 million, or 30 cents per diluted share, down from net income of $444,000, or 3 cents per diluted share, for the same period a year earlier. For the...

Guilty pleas in trade secret case.
May 4, 2001... A Fremont man and his employer have pleaded guilty in a case of stealing trade secrets, according to the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco. Junsheng Wang, 53, of Fremont, and Bell Imaging Technology Corp. in Fremont were charged last...

Pilot no longer flying.
May 4, 2001... Pilot Network Services Inc. has shut down, laying off 180 employees. The Alameda-based Internet service provider, which specialized in hackerproof hosting of Web pages and subscription-based e-business services, says it "does not expect to be...

Dot-com job cuts set record.
May 4, 2001... After two consecutive months of declining dot-com job-cut announcements, the number of cuts in April surged 84 percent over March to a record 17,554, according to figures released April 30 by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas,...

Customer e-mail inquiries get slow or no response.
May 4, 2001... Businesses aren't answering e-mail inquiries as fast as consumers expect, according to a study released April 30 by Jupiter Media Metrix. It says 53 percent of retail companies respond to e-mail customer inquiries within six hours, but most...

Insider trading.
May 4, 2001... The following transactions have been reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Cadence Design Systems Inc. Robert Wiederhold, officer of subsidiary company, sold 5,000 shares of common at $24.60 each on March 6 and now...

Maestro's mantra: To the future and Bach.
May 4, 2001... Software exec, pianist says complex compositions keep him composed Software developer and passionate pianist Serge Soudoplatoff sits at his piano every morning, playing Bach. The music written in the early 18th century is a counterpoint to...

Take a 'paws' with people and pugs in the public park.
May 4, 2001... You've heard of Manic Monday and Freaky Friday. But are you ready for Pug Sunday? Pug Sunday is an informal get-together of proud pug owners and their dogs in San Francisco's Alta Plaza Park. Think of it as a networking opportunity to meet...

Not a half-baked idea.
May 4, 2001... Table scraps might become passe should your dog get a taste of Bubba's Breath Mint, Barney's B-B-Q or Pupcorn. These dog treats are the products of the San Rafael-based Smiling Dog, a bakery for dogs. Smiling Dog owner Patricia Griecci...

Claws news in Pause, too.
May 4, 2001... The storm wasn't kind to Wampla Tonka. It dislodged her from her nest in Bakersfield, injuring her hip -- causing it to occasionally pop out -- and keeping her from capturing prey on her own. As Wampla Tonka is a golden eagle, this...

For exec with everything, Mercedes S600 adds a little more.
May 4, 2001... There's a certain type of executive who has everything. Let's start with the seldom-used vacation houses at Tahoe and Hawaii, and the condo on Central Park West in Manhattan. Home is a 12,000-square-foot number in Los Altos Hills with a...

'My bottom-line message is to stick to the old rules'.
May 4, 2001... It is time for capitalists to refocus on the true tenets of capitalism. The single most important thing for a business to do is to generate profit, giving customers what they want, and then convincing them to pay for it. For far too long,...

San Jose plays host to best student scientists in the world.
May 4, 2001... In searching for a treatment for multiple sclerosis, Seattle-based biotech company Corixa Corp. studies the effects of two proteins on T cell receptors. T cells cause multiple sclerosis by attacking the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve...

ClickArray CEO gives fickle VCs 31 million reasons to invest.
May 4, 2001... Lawrence Lu remembers being fascinated by magnets as a child, spending his lunch money on them and staging little experiments. He also built tiny cars out of tinfoil. As a grown-up, Mr. Lu's ingenuity has evolved, and it's his own...

People in the News.
May 4, 2001... Banking Bridge Bank of Silicon Valley in Santa Clara has appointed Timothy Boothe senior vice president and senior loan officer. Mr. Boothe had been at Heritage Bank of Commerce since 1996 and spent six years in progressively senior...

Ask the Exec: What's the worst job you've ever had?
May 4, 2001... Mark Comiso President Maus Haus San Mateo When I was in high school I stood at a conveyer belt for 12-hour shifts, picking bad green beans out of the good green beans that went by This lasted for two months in the summer. ...

Roadkill on the information superhighway.
May 4, 2001... High-tech innovations are not necessarily paths to progress An Internet device was designed to surf the Web and save you time by helping you organize your life. But six months after creator 3Com Corp. gave birth to "Audrey" the Santa Clara...

Auto makers wheel in whiz-bang wonders for better driving.
May 4, 2001... There's pretty intense competition among luxury auto manufacturers to see who can come up with the latest, and greatest amenities -- things that will delight the buyer as well as distinguish one vehicle from another. Currently there's an...

Web sites provide landlocked surf lovers ways to escape.
May 4, 2001... It wasn't that long ago that video cameras linked to the World Wide Web -- popularly known as Web cams -- were cutting-edge technology. Not anymore. These days anyone with $50 to spare can buy a decent Web camera and feed the signal to a...

Love machine helps gentlemen practice their words of woo.
May 4, 2001... Want to practice those skills needed to woo a potential partner? A Japanese company has the solution: Love By Mail. Wired News reports at least 30,000 Japanese men have been honing their romantic moves with the program, created by toy...

A pret-a-computer) port fusion of fashion and high tech.
May 4, 2001... Tie pins that beam business cards. Wallets that link to your bank accounts. Wired clothing. These forms of "smart clothing," are slowly making their way from prototype to market. And whether consumers are ready or not, technology is...

What high-tech gadget can you just not live without?
May 4, 2001... My Palm Pilot is it. It has my "to do" list, my calendar, documents, memos, all my addresses and phone numbers. Any paper that comes to me goes on it. Now I need to surgically attach it to my body. Mark W. Bailey CEO WebPartner...

Sites make the Internet a warm and fuzzy networking village.
May 4, 2001... The Internet has given the wired population access to a new world of people and ideas. But some folks say spending hours alone surfing the Net has increased social isolation. With an estimated 154 million users in the United States alone,...

Largest Software Developers.
May 4, 2001... Largest Software Developers In Silicon Valley [*] -- ranked by 2000 fiscal-year revenue Company Address Fiscal-year Rank Phone, fax revenue/ Employees 2000 Rank...

Pressure mounts for Washington to cap electricity prices.
May 4, 2001... The political pressure on the Bush administration to contain the cost of electricity in the West is continuing to build -- to the point that many of those making California's case in Washington are saying that victory is at hand. "It's...

Four 'peaker' plants could help keep lights on this summer.
May 4, 2001... The San Jose City Council on May 8 will consider four sites on which to place temporary power plants meant to stave off rolling blackouts this summer. Warmer weather could translate into near daily rolling blackouts this summer as energy...

Lobbying group pushing for more energy.
May 4, 2001... A new Washington lobbying group, made up primarily of other lobbying groups, today called for bolstering the supplies of energy as the best way to solve the nation's energy problems. The Alliance for Energy and Economic Growth says what's...

Democrats: There's still hope for caps on electricity prices.
May 4, 2001... The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's approval of "price mitigations" when California's energy reserves get low suggests the battle for electricity price caps isn't lost, say some state and federal Democrats. While FERC's April 25...

Calpine to be main tenant for Houston high-rise.
May 4, 2001... Houston-based Hines' recent announcement that it is moving forward with construction on a multi-tenant office building near downtown Houston's Market Square marks the fourth new high-rise office project that will break ground in the Central...

VTA light-rail cars to be built on ex-Navy site.
May 4, 2001... For 150 years, Mare Island was known around the world for building ships. Now the former Navy facility in Vallejo may become known for building another form of heavy transportation: trains. A train-building subsidiary of a major...

Spring grads face tougher job market.
May 4, 2001... After an eight-year expansion during which 21 million jobs were created, this spring's college graduates will find a more competitive and more demanding job market. In an analysis of job market trends, international outplacement firm...

Already booked?
May 4, 2001... A delegation of 15 Silicon Valley business and government leaders just got back from a trade mission to Taipei on the new American Airlines direct flight from San Jose. The visit, April 22 to 28, was a day longer than expected. The flight,...

Movement vs. forward motion.
May 4, 2001... Reality check: In a break in the state Assembly recently, Speaker Pro-Tem Fred Keeley, D-Santa Cruz, confided: "There is a phenomenon around [the statehouse] that equates motion with progress."

Power policy needs light touch.
May 4, 2001... All hail the free market. That's the mantra being chanted by the Bush administration to solve the energy crisis. Vice President Richard Cheney said this week that the administration's answer to the power shortage plaguing California...

Free speech defense just smoke.
May 4, 2001... Hal Shoup spent part of his career in the toughest creative field I can imagine -- lobbying for tobacco and alcohol advertising. Mr. Shoup retired last month after serving in Washington, D.C., for 12 years as executive vice president of the...

Letters to the Editor.
May 4, 2001... LCDs vs. CRTs Editor: The ongoing power crisis and current spike in electricity prices are forcing businesses to conserve energy in new ways - not just here in California, but across the globe. While visiting customers in Asia, I...