Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal articles from October 2001

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal archives from October 2001

Bioattack battle plan.
October 5, 2001... Santa Clara County is one of the best prepared areas in the country for a bioterrorism attack, according to top local and national experts. Public health officials here began tightening the reins in recent weeks on a massive three-year...

Valley rallies 'round security.
October 5, 2001... Washington is calling on Silicon Valley to take the lead in developing technology that would make air travel safe again. U.S. Reps. Mike Honda of San Jose and Jim Matheson of Utah plan to file legislation as soon as Oct. 5 to fund...

A hat in the ring.
October 5, 2001... Jose Posadas went to work for Cindy Chavez during her campaign for San Jose City Council in 1998. Ms. Chavez won, and Ron Gonzales took the mayor's office. It was a big year for Hispanic candidates. Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante became the...

San Jose expands military leave benefits, others reviewing move.
October 5, 2001... As military reservists await a call to duty in the country's war on terrorism, the city of San Jose has expanded its military leave benefits beyond the requirements of law. On Oct. 2, the San Jose City Council approved expanded benefits for...

Some Nasdaq slack.
October 5, 2001... A sigh of relief has been uttered by those once-hot valley IPOs whose stock now languishes at less than a dollar. To stabilize markets reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Nasdaq Stock Market Inc. of New York...

Energy bonds battle pitting Davis against PUC appointees.
October 5, 2001... Gov. Gray Davis is playing a game of "chicken" with people who should be his closest allies regarding how California will pay its energy bills, say those watching the battle between the governor's office and the California Public Utilities...

Spanning the Economy.
October 5, 2001... Alan Greenspan may be losing his magic touch. After announcing his ninth rate cut at the Oct. 2 Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting, tech stocks barely budged. This was despite ongoing pronouncements by analysts that lower rates will...

PG&E sought settlement similar to SoCalEd's.
October 5, 2001... Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials say the utility probably would have taken a deal similar to the one accepted by Southern California Edison on Oct. 2 had it been offered before PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April. ...

Economy, attacks leave California hotels facing 10-year lows.
October 5, 2001... The California hospitality industry has hit a 10-year low, clobbered by a one-two punch of a softening economy and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast, according to a study analyzing recent California occupancy numbers, room rate...

No bonus for Cisco execs.
October 5, 2001... The annual bonus, so common in Silicon Valley companies in recent years, won't happen this year for top executives of Internet equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose. That's due entirely to the company failing to meet financial...

Unemployment benefits increase.
October 5, 2001... The state's jobless will get their first "significant" increases in unemployment benefits in California in nearly a decade under a bill signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis. The governor also issued a directive to the Employment Development...

Simply mah-velous.
October 5, 2001... SHARK OF THE WEEK: "San Jose doesn't have enough glamour," says artist Ed Clapp. So he created this party shark, situated inside the Knight Ridder building at West San Fernando Street (Knight Ridder is the shark's sponsor.) Like its...

A limit to term limits?
October 5, 2001... The future of term limits in California could be limited if results from the latest Field Poll transfer to the legislative process. The poll shows half of California voters are inclined to favor a state initiative that would change term...

Study: Recycling means jobs.
October 5, 2001... Diverting garbage gives the California economy a hefty boost, according to a report by an economist at the University of California at Berkeley. An analysis of 1999 data from government and private industry reveals that diverting trash in...

CEO departures and tenure dip.
October 5, 2001... The nation's chief executive officers are spending less time in the saddle before they're bounced out of a job, according to figures compiled by the job outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But there are fewer departing, the...

Natural gas prices to decline.
October 5, 2001... Natural prices in October are expected to be half what they were a year ago. The average residential bill for October 2001 should be $14.33, down from $28.77 in October 2000, says Pacific Gas & Electric Co. The lower prices are the...

Argentine citrus banned.
October 5, 2001... California citrus growers are cheering a federal court decision banning further imports of citrus from Argentina. The California growers had gone to court saying the U.S. Department of Agriculture was wrong in allowing the imports because...

Federal Reserve reappoints San Francisco regional directors.
October 5, 2001... The chairman and deputy chairman of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank have been reappointed to new terms by the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. Nelson Rising, chairman and chief executive officer of Catellus Development...

State's poverty rate drops.
October 5, 2001... California's poverty rate dropped to an 11-year low in 2000, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by the nonprofit California Budget Project. But it says the 12.9 percent state poverty level is expected to increase as the national...

Ethics probe sought.
October 5, 2001... California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has been asked by two statewide consumer groups to investigate possible ethics violations involved in a contract between the state and a power generating company. The Utility Reform Network and...

Executive resumes sometimes lie.
October 5, 2001... Companies looking for executives today have no shortage of candidates as layoffs continue to rise in struggling markets -- but don't believe every resume you see. According to a study by a Cleveland executive recruitment firm, more than...

Sierra Power Corp. (Oct. 2).
October 5, 2001... * Biomass operators report that low electricity prices have undercut their business and that several plants may close. Biomass plants need to make about 7 cents per kilowatt to break even; electricity in California has been selling in the range...

Public Utilities Commission (Oct. 1).
October 5, 2001... * Gov. Davis signed three other energy bills, including a provision that would prohibit the state Public Utilities Commission from raising utility rates without reasonable justification once the state-imposed rate freeze ends. Other bills...

Hawaii's economy hard hit, but valley's buying spree continues.
October 5, 2001... Hawaii's tourist-driven economy, supported in significant measure by Californians, has been whacked by the drop-off in air travel since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. But so far, a Silicon Valley buying...

Airport passenger volume slowly getting back to normal.
October 5, 2001... They are coming back in dribs and drabs, with a suspicious eye and a weary gait, but air travelers are slowly returning to Bay Area airports. While it may be months, if not years, before the number of passengers on San Jose International...

City Hall costs could rise again in view of court ruling, safety.
October 5, 2001... The city of San Jose is recalculating the cost of a proposed new downtown City Hall in light of two factors that could raise that cost again: an adverse court decision and concerns about security in the new building. The City Council met...

Plans for new downtown tower include office space, ice rink.
October 5, 2001... A proposed 17-story office tower abutting San Jose's Plaza de Cesar Chavez would include ground-level retail space and two new adjacent plazas, one of which will accommodate a permanent ice-skating rink. The preliminary budget for the...

Corrections.
October 5, 2001... Space technology In an article in the Sept. 7 Technology Silicon Valley supplement ("Down-to-earth technology from space") Velcro, Teflon and Tang were mentioned as space technology products transferred to consumers. While these products...

Irvine Co. chooses Sunnyvale for first retail outside Orange.
October 5, 2001... The Irvine Co. of Newport Beach is opening a 58,000-square-foot specialty retail center in Sunnyvale. It's Irvine's first retail development outside Orange County where the company is a noted developer of large master-planned communities...

Pasta Pomodoro growing in South Bay.
October 5, 2001... San Francisco-based Pasta Pomodoro, one of the Cherry Orchard tenants, is on an ambitious South Bay expansion path of its own. It opened a restaurant at 1205 The Alameda in January and has another scheduled to open at Evergreen Marketplace in...

Temporary office for Palladium?
October 5, 2001... An official with The Palladium Co. has been scoping out downtown San Jose in search of a little office space, but only to lease on a monthly basis, according to sources who did not want to be named but are considered reliable. Palladium is...

Construction contracts nearly half of last year's pace.
October 5, 2001... August contracts for future construction in Santa Clara County fell to nearly half what they were a year ago, according to the latest numbers from the F.W. Dodge Division of The McGraw-Hill Cos. Contracts for residential construction worth...

'Patriotic' hacking nixed.
October 5, 2001... Within minutes of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., officials across the nation were calling U.S. citizens to acts of patriotism. For many, this meant giving blood. To others, it meant donating money to relief....

Businesses get more domain-name options.
October 5, 2001... .info joins group of seven new extension names in attempt to deal with growing Web popularity Just when you had gotten used to the differences between .com, .org and .gov, the organization in charge of domain names is adding seven new...

Online ads drop sharply, and year-end recovery is in doubt.
October 5, 2001... A yearlong decline in online advertising spending is expected to continue into the third quarter, further punishing ad-dependent Web properties such as Yahoo Inc. Analysts who follow the Sunnyvale-based Web portal say it may miss revenue...

Not all telecom Chapter 11s created equal.
October 5, 2001... Two heavily indebted telecom providers, Exodus Communications and At Home Corp., both filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in late September before reaching an agreement with their creditors. But that's where the similarities end. Web host...

Analysts: Disaster isn't only factor in lower Redback revenue.
October 5, 2001... Redback Networks has warned it will perform much worse than expected for its third quarter, citing the impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But analysts say the company should look inward instead. Redback plans to announce its...

Will consumers pay for downloaded music? Stay tuned.
October 5, 2001... Catch-up is a game most businesses don't enjoy playing but, it's what major record companies will be doing over the next few months as they take their first steps into the online music arena. In hopes of quenching pent-up demand for...

Rival chipmakers unveil pair of faster microprocessors.
October 5, 2001... The world's two largest microchip makers are taking the wraps off speedy new chips. Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, the largest chipmaker, says it has the world's fastest and lowest-power-consuming microprocessors for laptops. It says its...

At Home files Chapter 11.
October 5, 2001... In a move not entirely unexpected, AtHome Corp. on Sept. 28 filed for bankruptcy protection. AtHome markets its Internet broadband access and Internet portal as ExciteAtHome. In addition to seeking protection from creditors, AtHome agreed...

Clarent cuts work force by half as third-quarter sales plunge.
October 5, 2001... Clarent Corp. is slashing its work force by 350 jobs or roughly 50 percent. The Redwood City firm says the job cuts will be across the board. Clarent expects revenue for the third quarter of 2001 to be approximately $17 million to $18...

Terrorist attacks hit Proxim's bottom line.
October 5, 2001... Proxim Inc., which makes wireless broadband networking products, is blaming the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast for a weak third quarter. "As a result of difficult business conditions experienced during the third quarter of...

Yahoo enters video conferencing field.
October 5, 2001... Internet portal Yahoo Inc. has unveiled new products for Internet-based and enhanced video conferencing and broadcasting. "Speaking with one voice to hundreds or thousands of internal and external contacts is an essential part of strategic...

Uniscape secures $18.5 million in additional funding.
October 5, 2001... Uniscape Inc., which sells globalization software and services, says it has received $18.5 million in additional funding from a group of investors. The group includes EDS, Mitsui & Co. Venture Partners, BOS Ventures, a private equity arm of the...

Cisco completes acquisition of Allegro Systems.
October 5, 2001... Cisco Systems Inc. says it has wrapped up the acquisition of privately held Allegro Systems Inc., a purchase which it first announced in July. Allegro Systems is a developer of virtual private network technologies designed to enhance the...

Chipmaker slashes jobs, scales back operations.
October 5, 2001... Atmel Corp. says it's cutting 2,500 jobs from its worldwide operations and making other economies as it tries to grapple with what it calls "the most difficult business climate our industry has ever faced." The job cuts represent 26 percent of...

Genesis Microchip to buy Sage.
October 5, 2001... Genesis Microchip Inc. of San Jose is buying Sage Inc. for approximately $241 million in stock. Under the terms of the agreement, Genesis will issue 0.571 shares for each outstanding Sage share. Following the acquisition, former holders of...

Roxio CEO adds chairman title.
October 5, 2001... Chris Gorog, president and chief executive officer of Milpitas-based Roxio Inc., has added the title of chairman of the board. Roxio makes software for controlling digital media. Mr. Gorog, 48, joined Roxio a year ago. Since his arrival,...

KnowNow raises $15 million.
October 5, 2001... KnowNow of Mountain View says it has raised $15 million in additional funding, led by venture capital firm TPG Ventures, an affiliate of Texas Pacific Group. The round includes investments from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Morgan Stanley...

Dot-com layoffs winding down.
October 5, 2001... Dot-com job cuts fell to 2,986 in September, the lowest level since July 2000, the month that marked the beginning of the dot-com job-cutting spree, according to figures released by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which tracks...

IBM to lead initiative.
October 5, 2001... IBM Corp. will establish a low-power-computing research center in Austin as part of a companywide initiative to improve the energy efficiency of information technology. The Austin research lab will focus on increasing the power efficiency...

Teleconferencing made easy.
October 5, 2001... The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have revived interest in teleconferencing (also known as videoconferencing), a technology that promises the convenience and savings of telephone calls without sacrificing the personal touch...

Angels steer clear of last year's disappointing tech investments.
October 5, 2001... The dot-corn shakeout has clipped the wings of many nouveau riche angel investors who previously had insatiable appetites for tech opportunities. The investors have assumed a new level of sobriety, becoming more cautious in making new...

Ask Jeeves looks to boost search powers via Teoma Technologies purchase.
October 5, 2001... Emeryville-based Ask Jeeves Inc. is winning kudos for its plans to acquire Teoma Technologies Inc. -- a search engine that some say can compete with, and perhaps slay, search engine powerhouse Google Inc. Before the Ask Jeeves-Teoma combo...

Xerox reduces manufacturing.
October 5, 2001... Xerox Corp. says it's farming out much of its manufacturing operations to Flextronics Crop., a global electronics manufacturing services company. Xerox calls its decision "another major step forward" in its plan to reduce costs, improve...

Insider trading.
October 5, 2001... The following transactions have been reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. 300 Co. Stephen E. Fowler, officer of subsidiary company, exercised an option for 15,000 shams of common between S2.13 and 33.25 each on Aug....

Mac attack's third musketeer.
October 5, 2001... Thomas Armes and Elite Computers hoping latest Apple initiative will bear fruit Jobs. Wozniak. Armes. The three names associated with the birth and growth of Apple Computer Corp. Three names? Who's Armes? Thomas Armes, while he's never...

Micro-brews and macro-laughs to mix in San Pedro Square.
October 5, 2001... Disaster or no disaster, the usual October crowds are about to fill San Jose's San Pedro Square for a weekend of laughing and throwing back some brews. The city's annual Brew Ha Ha comedy festival is produced by the San Jose Downtown...

Ford Focus small, tall and a far cry from your average wagon.
October 5, 2001... Ford has a pretty big hit on its hands with the Focus compact. Both in terms of sales, performance, quality and value, it is perhaps the first domestic entry-level car that can compete in this segment head-to-head with Japanese competitors. ...

Managers must act 'presidential' in helping workers to cope.
October 5, 2001... Although some of the horror and shock of recent events have passed, the images and emotional distress still linger for most of us. Executives and managers can play an important part in helping their staff to return to some kind of normalcy,...

Israeli interns learn high-tech ropes from valley businesses.
October 5, 2001... Although Shira Nemirovsky did not take classes this summer, her days nonetheless were devoted to education. While at Campbell-based semiconductor firm Equator Technologies Inc., she worked on analog and digital circuits for a chip the...

CEO builds a team and leads Philips division to profitability.
October 5, 2001... The economic slide had begun in September 2000 and Philips Components, a division of Dutch giant Philips Electronics since the early 1990s, needed a leader. Matt Medeiros was hired on as president and CEO with both startup savvy and mature...

Organizations offer assistance after Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
October 5, 2001... The Business Journal continues to provide resources and information to readers wishing to offer assistance in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. We also encourage companies, agencies and organizations seeking to publicize their...

Mental health benefits have their ups and downs under act.
October 5, 2001... Once relegated to the position of orphan child, mental-health care in California took on a seemingly new face last year with the passage of a bill requiring state-regulated insurers to give the same coverage to a mentally ill patient as to one...

People in the News.
October 5, 2001... Banking Heritage Commerce Corp. of San Jose has named Christopher Gust senior vice president of cash management services. Mr. Gust has more than 25 years of relationship sales and management experience and most recently had been vice...

Ask the Exec: Should nannies be trained and licensed as day care centers are?
October 5, 2001... Mary Bellack Vice president, general manager, neurovascular venture Guidant Corp. Menlo Park While this idea has some appeal, I believe it would place an undue burden on many nannies and baby sitters who do not have formal...

Largest Cigar Dealers.
October 5, 2001... Largest Cigar Dealers In Silicon Valley [*] - ranked by square footage of store Company Address Phone, fax Square footage Rank Web address of store 1 Humboldt Tobacco Co. ...

Largest Retail Centers.
October 5, 2001... Largest Retail Centers In Silicon Valley [*] - ranked by leasable square feet Company Address Leaseable square feet/ Rank Phone, fax current rental rate 2000 Rank...

Largest Events.
October 5, 2001... Largest Events In Silicon Valley [*] -- ranked by estimated attendance Event name Event location Estimated Rank Web address attendance 1 San Jose America Festival ...

Years of planning for onetime event.
October 5, 2001... Each Thursday, during the summer, when 60,000 people frequent the free summer concert series held in St. James and Plaza de Cesar Chavez parks in downtown San Jose, Blage Zelalich walks among them. Most people in the audience pay little...

Wine tradition calls for stompin' fun.
October 5, 2001... Autumn is here -- a season filled with celebrations across cultures for thousands of years to mark the harvest. To the ancient Greeks, that included giving thanks to the pantheon of gods, in particular Bacchus -- not only the god of...

Livermore Valley seeks tourism business.
October 5, 2001... Two words come up over and over whenever the Livermore Valley is mentioned: destination point. For years going on decades, politicians, vintners and local boosters have been trying to turn the 7,000-acre Livermore Valley into a place where...

Masquerade party celebrates life with lots of free love.
October 5, 2001... In the traditional free spirit of San Francisco, the 22nd annual extravaganza known as the Exotic Erotic Ball will be held as usual this year. "As we mourn the dead," says event co-founder Perry Mann, referring to the Sept. 11 terrorist...

Festivals reap millions by giving audiences blasts from the past.
October 5, 2001... Olden times have produced hefty profits for modern-day businesses. More than 130 Renaissance or medieval fairs take place across the country each year and can draw as many as 300,000 people per event, reports ABC news. The industry is...

Vintage arts fair showcases colorful posters of yesteryear.
October 5, 2001... Frances Larose knows that a handsome piece of original art is financially out of reach for most middle-income families. That's the reason, she says, that she found herself drawn to buying her first vintage poster. "It's a 1945 poster of a...

Danke! Oktoberfest brings in the crowd as fun fund-raiser.
October 5, 2001... Scores of them soon will crowd the streets -- grown men in short pants and long stockings, braided goddesses in milkmaid attire, apple-cheeked children begging for strudel. The odor of sausages and sauerkraut will permeate the air, the cuckoo...

How can you cut costs when planning a company event?
October 5, 2001... A good formula to follow with a buffet is to order from every food group. That way you get a variety of colors, textures, and hot and cold foods. Buffets tend to be less expensive than individual dinners. Also, you can order upscale platters...

Last-minute response.
October 5, 2001... The City Council, meanwhile, is waiting until the last minute to respond to a civil grand jury report that called on the city to institute a no-fraternization policy after the mayor's affair with a former staffer, who resigned after the mayor...

Drawing lines on the map.
October 5, 2001... Elsewhere in the world of politics, the Santa Cruz La Raza Lawyers Association is working with Assemblyman Fred Keeley to ask the U.S. Department of Justice to turn down the state's redistricting plan, which splits up Senate District 15 on the...

Reboot this.
October 5, 2001... Now we know why we haven't heard any good lawyer jokes lately. The target has changed to VCs. The Business Journal's Sarah Lacy reports that Anthony Clarvoe and Ethan McSweeny, writer and director, respectively of "Ctrl Alt Del," the San...

His feet always reach the floor.
October 5, 2001... Cyril Isnard, new general manager at the Fairmont San Jose, is busy these days learning the ways of the city, completing a $67 million expansion of the hotel and encouraging people to travel and stay at the Fairmont. Mr. Isnard, a...

Bioterrorism: We must be prepared.
October 5, 2001... A month ago, most people would have shrugged off the notion that Silicon Valley might be the target of a bioterrorist attack. Such naivete seems years ago, as does almost everything that happened before Sept. 11. On that day terrorism...

Cheers 'n' jeers for TV memories.
October 5, 2001... Infomercials. Click. "Brady Bunch" reruns. Click. A Pauly Shore film. Click. Or was that Adam Sandler? Backward click. No, it was Pauly Shore. Click. "Biography" on Joey Buttafuoco. Click. HBO is showing "Battlefield Earth" again. Click. ...

Letters to the Editor.
October 5, 2001... Airport delays are worth it Editor: The recent article on airport security seems to imply that the "paramount concern of delivering passengers on time" will dictate that American airports will never have the same level of security as...