Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal articles from September 2001

Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal archives from September 2001

New HP is bigger with bigger stakes.
September 7, 2001... Carly Fiorina and Michael Capellas, photographed all day Tuesday like smiling newlyweds in front of a backdrop of HP and Compaq's logos, insisted to reporters, analysts and employees that the companies' planned merger is an offensive move, not...

Merged company buffs valley image.
September 7, 2001... For an outsider looking in, Silicon Valley's image won't likely change much as a result of the proposed Hewlett-Packard Co.- Compaq Computer Corp. merger. But for employees of the valley stalwart and the communities in which they live,...

Will new airport name fly?
September 7, 2001... Tenth District Councilwoman Pat Dando has a solution to the controversy that's erupted over naming the San Jose airport: Call it the "San Jose Norman Y. Mineta International Airport," and then go out and find Ernie Renzel's biplane. Mayor...

Parking under parks less likely.
September 7, 2001... It is looking less and less likely that St. James Park and Plaza de Cesar Chavez will be torn up for construction of underground parking garages. The two parks are among 10 sites the San Jose Redevelopment Agency is evaluating for expanded...

Republicans say nay.
September 7, 2001... Shawn Steel, chairman of the California Republican Party, has rejected a plan written by a confidant of President George W. Bush to reorganize the party's apparatus. The subject may sound arcane, but Mr. Steel's decision generated a lot of...

Falun Gong gets San Jose OK.
September 7, 2001... The San Jose City Council is now on record as supporting the Falun Gong movement. Falun Gong is the practice of enhancing the body and spirit through what looks like slow-motion calisthenics. Followers have upset the Chinese government, which...

Japan's slumping economy bad news for valley companies.
September 7, 2001... Japan's intensifying economic distress could mean more trouble for beleaguered technology companies in California and Silicon Valley. Despite a decade of economic malaise, Japan has been California's largest export market for much of the...

City won't fight court ruling.
September 7, 2001... The city of San Jose is unlikely to appeal a court ruling that would force it to pay back as much as $86 million to the San Jose Redevelopment Agency for costs associated with the construction of a new downtown city hall. The city still is...

Proposed law allows doctors to take contracts to court.
September 7, 2001... The State Legislature has moved one step closer to passing a law that would allow physicians to collectively take contract negotiations with health plans into the court system. Critics say this is another attempt by the Legislature to...

Corrections.
September 7, 2001... Top Secret In the Top Secret column in the Aug. 31 Edge section, Billie Shepard's name was misspelled. Photo credits A photo caption in the Aug. 24 Business Journal misidentified an event at which Republican Bill Simon spoke Aug....

Elite purchases rights to name ComputerWare.
September 7, 2001... Longtime Silicon Valley computer retailer and repair facility Elite Computers and Software says it has bought the rights to the name "ComputerWare," which was the name of a regional Apple distributor that went out of business several months...

Spanning the Economy.
September 7, 2001... Although August job cuts of 140,019 put total job cuts for the year above the seven-figure mark, last month's layoffs fell 32 percent from July's, according to a report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. But news of a slowdown in job cuts is...

Union, BART reach tentative agreement just in nick of time.
September 7, 2001... Unionized workers at BART are expected to vote Sept. 10 on terms of a new contract hammered out just hours before a strike deadline. Union and management negotiators say exact terms of the agreement will not be released until after the...

State's economy showing gains, says economist.
September 7, 2001... California's getting some positive news from one of the state's leading economists. Keitaro Matsuda, senior economist for Union Bank of California, says the combination of a strong housing market and a significant rise in new jobs and...

Power use drops in August.
September 7, 2001... Californians used 9 percent less electricity during peak (afternoon) hours this August compared with last year, according to figures released by the California Energy Commission. Overall energy use in August was down 1.6 million megawatt hours...

Jones presses FERC for investigation.
September 7, 2001... California Secretary of State Bill Jones, who is running for governor, has called on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to probe possible collaborative market manipulation by the state's power-buying arm, the California Department of...

Students harbor millionaire dreams.
September 7, 2001... Despite the downturn in the economy over the past year and failure of the dot-coms that had fueled a lot of big-money dreams, college students are still optimistic, according to a poll of college and university students conducted at the Ernst &...

Schwab cuts more jobs.
September 7, 2001... Charles Schwab Corp. says it's eliminating 2,000 to 2,400 full-time jobs in reaction to slowing business. The discount stock brokerage says the cuts equal 9 percent to 11 percent of its July head count of 22,300. These moves, combined with...

Executives beat coaches in longevity -- barely.
September 7, 2001... Who survives longest in their job -- corporate executives or National Football League coaches? It's the executive, but not by much, according to figures released by Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a specialist in outplacing business...

Enter the dragon.
September 7, 2001... FIRE-BREATHING, ALMOST: With bright-colored paint and lots of imagination, artist Jennie Hoffer turned this fish into a Chinese symbol of prosperity and good luck. The Chinese Dragon Shark, one of 100 sharks peppered throughout San Jose, is at...

Dried plums take flight.
September 7, 2001... Consumers favor dried plums over prunes, according to the state marketing board for dried plums. Sales of dried plums are up 5.5 percent for the sales year ending July 25, compared with the previous 12-month period. This is the first time sales...

Staffing pioneer dies.
September 7, 2001... Robert Half, founder of Robert Half International Inc., the world's first specialized staffing firm, died Aug. 31 in Palm Beach, Fla., after an extended illness. He was 82. Mr. Half was credited with pioneering the concept of specialized...

Southern California Edison.
September 7, 2001... The Assembly Appropriations Committee approved a state plan to bail out Southern California Edison. The deal includes allowing Edison to issue $2.9 billion in revenue bonds, backed by ratepayers, to pay off part of its $3.9 billion debt. As...

Spartan Power.
September 7, 2001... Spartan Power of San Jose is going ahead with plans to build two small power plants in Santa Clara County, company officials say. One plan calls for a 96-megawatt power plant at Seventh Street near Tully Road and another 200-megawatt plant in...

The California Energy Commission.
September 7, 2001... The California Energy Commission is scheduled to give final approval to the controversial Metcalf Energy Center in south San Jose by Sept. 12, commission officials say. There are a few issues still to be settled, including how often the plant...

Electricity.
September 7, 2001... California used nearly 9 percent less electricity during peak hours in August 2001 compared to August 2000 and 7.1 percent less overall, according to state government records.

D.C. is the hotbed for execs, publishers and broadcasters.
September 7, 2001... Manufacturing is king in Indiana, but a pauper in Alaska and the District of Columbia, according to new employment data from a U.S. Census Bureau survey. Indiana's manufacturers had nearly 685,000 workers on their payrolls last year. That...

Great Mall of the Bay Area begins to live up to its name.
September 7, 2001... Even as landlords in and around Santana Row, Westfield Shoppingtown Valley Fair and downtown San Jose angle for tenants and position in the hopping upscale retail market, an oasis of relative calm flourishes to their north. The Great Mall...

Big deal for CPS.
September 7, 2001... Santa Clara-based CPS, A Commercial Real Estate Co. Inc., has brokered the $21 million sale of a 130,000-square-foot office/R&D complex in Sunnyvale. The transaction is one of the largest in Sunnyvale this year, says Scott Athearn, a CPS senior...

Major expansion.
September 7, 2001... P.F. Chang's China Bistro is opening a 7,000-square-foot restaurant Sept. 17, at West El Camino Real and Mathilda Avenue in Sunnyvale. The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based company, which achieved sales of $235 million last year despite opening its...

Static on Pac Bell long-distance line is increasing.
September 7, 2001... A widening circle of opponents to Pacific Bell's plan to enter the state's long-distance market has delayed the company's entry into the market until at least next year, according to the phone company and state regulators. Approval of Pac...

Honeymoon may be short for merger.
September 7, 2001... Hewlett-Packard and Compaq claim the company resulting from their proposed merger will be the market leader in a number of product segments. But market leadership and success are not necessarily the same, say some observers. In announcing...

Dot-com stays afloat by shifting its services to consulting.
September 7, 2001... When Ed Ring started EcoWorld.com a little more than a year ago, he figured it would take about 15 to 18 months to build the Web site to profitability. Mr. Ring, former chief financial officer of the now-defunct Sacramento technology firm...

Firms may be liable for worker use of cell phones in crashes.
September 7, 2001... A traffic fatality and a resulting lawsuit against a Palo Alto-based law firm and one of its attorneys is raising new liability concerns for all employers regarding use of cell phones for business while driving. At issue in the case is...

Lawmakers take on identity theft problem with stiffer regulations.
September 7, 2001... Who are you? Increasingly in an e-commerce society, your identity is precious, marketable and the target of thieves. California U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein proposed a federal law Sept. 4 cracking down on identity theft. The...

Many expect unhappy ending for movies over the Internet.
September 7, 2001... Buddy Snow apologizes for his casual Friday attire -- black shorts, a green-andtan, pineapple-print Hawaiian shirt and brown sandals -- but the outfit seems to exemplify his industry's nonchalant reaction to Moviefly, the potentially...

Subscribers won't be left in cold should Excite fold.
September 7, 2001... After publicly raising doubts about its ability to survive, At Home Corp. is assuring subscribers they will receive uninterrupted service even if the company folds its tent. The question is where subscribers will go should that happen. ...

Some hard-charging dot-com firms fell flat in Europe, too.
September 7, 2001... Internet startups in Silicon Valley harbored big international plans in 1998 and 1999. Many had their eyes on Europe in particular. Given the relative maturity of technology markets in the United States, after one or two rounds of venture...

Colorado spends $45 million to keep promoting tech industry.
September 7, 2001... Despite massive layoffs, bankruptcies and the drying up of venture capital in the technology industry, state officials aren't yet ready to pull back on all efforts to promote Colorado's tech industry. Secretary of Technology Marc Holtzman...

Netscape founder withholds part of $150 million Stanford gift.
September 7, 2001... Saying he's upset with federal limits on government funding for stem cell research, Silicon Valley software billionaire Jim Clark, founder of Netscape Communications Inc., says he's suspending payment of $60 million he had promised Stanford...

Profit warning from Sun.
September 7, 2001... Sun Microsystems Inc. says it may not turn a profit in its current quarter because of slow sales in Japan and Europe. It would need a sharp uptick in September sales to meet its previously announced break-even revenue target of $3.7 billion for...

NASA says handhelds could reduce aliport congestion.
September 7, 2001... If you've done any traveling through major airport terminals recently you may have seen some airline employees using handheld computers to speed the check-in of passengers. Now a NASA study confirms what some companies have already...

E-Trade to consolidate operations.
September 7, 2001... Internet personal financial services company E-Trade says it's closing offices and making other cuts in an effort to "maximize operating economics." Job cuts, if any, were not mentioned in the announcement and company representatives did not...

Food packager refocuses.
September 7, 2001... Landec Corp. of Menlo Park, a developer and marketer of technology-based polymer products for food, agricultural and other applications, says it will restructure its food business to focus on its specialty-packaged technology products and on...

AMD updates its projections.
September 7, 2001... Sales of its flash-memory products will decline by about $100 million -- or 30 percent -- from second-quarter levels in the current third quarter, says Advanced Micro Devices in an update of its financial projections. Rob Herb, executive...

Tality names new president.
September 7, 2001... Brent Hudson, vice president and general manager of the Wireless Design Group of Tality Corp., a subsidiary of Cadence Design Systems, has been promoted to president of Tality. Mr. Hudson succeeds Bob Wiederhold, who is resigning as...

TV recorder records lower loss.
September 7, 2001... TiVo Inc., which makes a hard disk TV program recorder for consumers, says it cut its red ink in its recently completed second quarter. The Alviso-based company says revenue for the quarter ended July 31 increased 28 percent to $4.1...

Internet death toll passes 600.
September 7, 2001... Since January 2000, 642 Internet companies have failed, according to figures compiled by Webmergers.com, a San Francisco-based company that tracks the health of the Internet economy. Webmergers' figures show 38 Internet companies shut down...

Area companies share in state technology grants.
September 7, 2001... Seven Silicon Valley companies are among 25 California firms sharing in $4 million in matching state grants for projects designed to increase economic growth, global competitiveness and high-wage jobs in California. In the most competitive...

Kyocera, Tycom brace for layoffs.
September 7, 2001... Workers at Kyocera Wireless Corp. and Tycom Corp. in Southern California are facing layoffs as their Japanese parent company trims its worldwide work force by 10,000 jobs. The announcement was made Aug. 30 by the world's largest maker of...

Another tech magazine collapses.
September 7, 2001... One more casualty was added to the carnage of the technology slump when the Denver-based technology publication Broadband Week was re-absorbed by Cahner's Multichannel News. Broadband Week, which spun out of Multichannel News in September 2000...

Tablet is no artist's dream.
September 7, 2001... It's easy to see why many creative-types shun the PC. A mouse might do the job for highlighting text and selecting menu items, but when it comes to drawing pictures, nothing beats old-fashioned canvas and a paintbrush, pencil or charcoal. The...

Speedy chip makes debut.
September 7, 2001... A microchip running at the unheard of speed of 70 gigaHertz -- 35 times faster than the fastest chip now on the market -- was unveiled Sept. 4 by Motorola Inc. The company says it is the first to successfully combine the best properties of...

Largest Tax Preparers.
September 7, 2001... Largest Tax Preparers Ranked by number of returns prepared in 2000 in Silicon Valley [*] offices Company Address Total returns prepared Rank Phone, fax ...

Team spirit.
September 7, 2001... Fostering camaraderie takes a lot of work, a lot of play In the workplace, developing team players doesn't always come from two-day seminars and management lectures. Sometimes, the foundation of teambuilding can be seen in three employees...

Adjustable and reusable, booths for rent make sense.
September 7, 2001... Putting up a trade show exhibit and controlling a marketing budget can be diametrically opposed. Trade show managers juggle many factors when deciding to stage an exhibit. Trade shows are forums to communicate directly to potential...

Companies deliver message with lower-cost trade shows.
September 7, 2001... It was only last year when flamboyant corporate spending gave trade-show managers one of their busiest years ever. Nowadays, however, business is abiding by a more restrictive code of conduct. The venerated trade-show road trip is...

How valuable is a hospitality suite in a trade show?
September 7, 2001... It is the nature of the two shows we attend to have no hospitality suite. The Design Automation Conference, which was held last June in Las Vegas, decided 10 years ago to configure the exhibition hall in two segments. One half is for booths and...

Lean times mean stretching those trade-show dollars.
September 7, 2001... Now, more than ever, trade-show marketing dollars need to be justified. That is not to say you should pull back and stop attending trade shows altogether. But it does make sense to check that you spend your dollars wisely. Start...

Reflection, R&R spots offer escapes from maddening crowd.
September 7, 2001... Traipsing through exhibits can be both exhilarating and exhausting. But after a day of smiles, handshakes and exchanging information, you just want to find a place to unwind and relieve stress. It's time for some R&R -- not more R&D. So...

Convention veterans offer advice to first-time attendees.
September 7, 2001... Cattle calls. That's how Amy Arnett got noticed at a conference a few years back. At 34, the brokerage director of The Nowacki Agency in Louisville, Ky. is now an experienced professional who has been attending trade shows and conventions...

Fans flock to moorland setting of Sherlock Holmes classic.
September 7, 2001... "The Hound of the Baskervilles" has prompted a group of Sherlock Holmes fans to pay tribute to the story 100 years after it first saw print. One of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous works, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" brought...

Trapeze act teaches that all is fair in corporate teamwork.
September 7, 2001... Mark Maxham believed flying through the air on a swinging trapeze would break down barriers among his group of techies who work at his Silicon Valley computer firm. So the software developer at Oni Systems in San Jose signed up his...

Busiest Airlines.
September 7, 2001... Busiest Airlines Ranked by total number of enplanements/deplanements in 2000 at San Jose International Airport Airline Reservation number Rank Web address Total 2000 2000 Rank...

Old strategy in new settings.
September 7, 2001... Former Israeli commander applies art at war to business Avi Katz is using lessons learned commanding a missile frigate in the Israeli Navy as he tries to keep Equator Technologies Inc. ahead of its competitors, and guides the maker of...

Bowwow powwow fund-raiser lets pets strut their stuff.
September 7, 2001... It's the downtown San Jose event that lets you and your dog talk the talk, bark the bark and walk the park: It's Bark in the Park, the annual dog and dog owners convocation to be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sept. 8, at William Street Park...

Detours on the information superhighway.
September 7, 2001... Cell phones, noisy kids, unbuckled seatbelts and backseat drivers -- distractions or just background noise? There's an entertaining way to find out: the Driver Distraction Demonstration. General Motors Corp. unveiled this online simulator...

Are you Kirk or Picard?
September 7, 2001... Many sci-fi fans have religiously followed the adventures of Capts. Kirk, Picard, Sisko and Janeway in the "Star Trek" TV series and movies. Now they have an opportunity to see which "Star Trek" captain or crew member shares their personality...

'Israeli startups are defined by the loyalty of their employees'.
September 7, 2001... In terms of high-tech startups per capita, Israel is second only to Silicon Valley The Israeli culture of entrepreneurism is due in large part to the mandatory military service required of every Israeli citizen. The military intelligence...

Pediatric cardiac surgery rallies companies around Tally Ho.
September 7, 2001... Each year, hundreds of children are born with severe heart defects requiring minimally invasive surgery The procedure is performed with the aid of a device called Aesop -- a fiber-optic camera guided by an electromechanical arm directed by the...

Hitachi Data Systems exec takes philosophical approach.
September 7, 2001... Jun Naruse carries himself with a dignified bearing in simple surroundings. The CEO of Hitachi Data Systems eschews the traditional trappings of the hierarchical system, sitting in an open cubicle in Santa Clara, often wearing a polo shirt. ...

Bentley: Good enough for both Bond and Concours.
September 7, 2001... The 51st Annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in mid-August brings the creme de la creme of the collector automobile world to the Monterey Peninsula. Anyone with a weakness for nostalgia may have been attracted to this display of about...

People in the News.
September 7, 2001... Consulting DragonVenture Inc. of San Jose has named Brad Lee vice president Mr. Lee most recently had been executive vice president at TCL Technology Innovation Inc., and in 1997 had been a Cofounder of Internet software maker GuardOne.com...

Ask the Exec: How has the Bush administration helped your business?
September 7, 2001... Moe Baniani Broker Alain Pinel Realtors Saratoga The economy is not driven by either the president or the Federal Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve has made seven reductions and those did not help. The economy is a state of...

Ailing Japanese economy taking a toll on valley companies.
September 7, 2001... Leo Keeley shuttles between Redwood City and Tokyo helping Silicon Valley technology companies set up shop in Japan. Lately, some of those firms have been sitting on the sidelines. "If you're a... Silicon Valley company right now and...

Compaq's exodus from Houston may affect real estate development.
September 7, 2001... Compaq Computer Corp. - once the largest employer in Texas' Harris County - has played a significant role in fueling years of conspicuous real estate growth just northwest of Houston. But now that the influential computer maker is being...

With HP takeover, what becomes of the arena just renamed Compaq Center?
September 7, 2001... Just because Hewlett-Packard Co. wants to take over Compaq Computer Corp. doesn't mean it wants to take over the name of San Jose's arena, say some people who study naming rights. Houston-based Compaq's name most likely will disappear if...

Texas economist ranks Silicon Valley behind Lone Star capital.
September 7, 2001... Despite massive cutbacks in jobs and the failures of dot-com businesses, Mark Dotzour, chief economist for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, is optimistic about the long-term future for Austin's technology industries and the...

Our sharks: more than pearly teeth.
September 7, 2001... The well-dressed matron snapping pictures of the "ballerina" shark at the Circle of Palms said she had been searching for the Dega knockoff for days. "I finally found her," she enthused. Nearby two techies in T-shirts admired a shark...

Saddam's novell headed for the stage.
September 7, 2001... Stephen King, John Grisham, Danielle Steele. Successful authors and business people? Amateurs. A new standard has been set for publishing creative works. Mr. King and his ilk make millions of dollars and dominate the best-seller lists,...

Letters to the Editor.
September 7, 2001... Story slanted Memo Editor: Your "Downtown Divided" article (Aug. 31 Business Journal) stretched into hyperbole and inaccuracies to link the Palladium project with two other stories in the news last week: the City Hall lawsuit and...

CEOs should heed lessons of Condit's behavior.
September 7, 2001... As we bemoan the very troubling conduct of Congressman Gary Condit -- and the tragic circumstances of the Chandra Levy family -- we should not ignore what we as business owners and managers can learn from these events. No, I do not mean...

Comeback from disaster.
September 14, 2001... Jamis MacNiven, owner of venture capital breakfast spot Buck's of Woodside, walked into the restaurant to the sound of a blaring TV the morning of Sept. 11, just as the first tower of the World Trade Center fell in New York. Most of Buck's...

A day of infamy.
September 14, 2001... One of the first public events canceled in the wake of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., was the appearance of San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales and Sixth District Councilman Ken Yeager at the Herbert Hoover Middle School on...