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April 2, 2001 In March, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce predicted San Diego County was well-insulated from the growing threat of economic recession. However, two days of blackouts hurt businesses large and small and continued blackouts could have a large impact on the County's economy. On April 10, the San Diego law firm of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, the city of San Diego Environmental Services Department, the San Diego Unified Port District, the county of San Diego Department of Environmental Health will make presentations at the Environmental Breakfast Club's "California Energy: State & Local Perspectives." Attendees will hear from Assemblyman and Speaker Pro-Tem Fred Keeley who will discuss the various state measures and key legislative energy relief proposals that have been, or are likely to be introduced to the Assembly in 2001. He will focus specifically on how these measures will mitigate the problems of rolling blackouts, deferred debt to SDG&E customers and the impact of the crisis on businesses and residential consumers. Councilman Scott Peters will highlight current and prospective environmental impacts of the energy crisis in San Diego. The perspective begins at 7 a.m. with registration and a continental breakfast at the Ridgehaven Conference Center. The event is free, but registration is required, call (619) 525-3825 or e-mail smo@procopio.com. *** The technology banking group at Comerica Bank (NYSE: CMA) has provided a $30 million credit line to Maxwell Technologies (NASDAQ : MXWL ) in San Diego. Maxwell will use the funds will be used for expansion and working capital. "Comerica Bank is pleased to take part in the exciting expansion of Maxwell Technologies as an industry leader in power and computing systems and the manufacturing of precision electronic components,” says Craig A. Nelson, v.p. and regional manager of Comerica's technology banking group in San Diego. “We have tremendous confidence in management and their ability to keep Maxwell on the leading edge of technological innovation. Maxwell is poised for dramatic growth in 2001 and beyond.” Maxwell develops electronic components and power and computing systems for customers in many industries, including transportation, telecommunications, consumer and industrial electronics, medical and aerospace. With more than $50 billion in assets, Comerica Bank is a Fortune 500 company and among the 20 largest banking companies in the United States. Posting net income of $749 million in 2000, Comerica marked its eighth consecutive year of record earnings. *** ChatSpace Inc. is acquiring the WebBoard line of products from O'Reilly & Associates Inc. The O'Reilly WebBoard product, one of the earliest vehicles for threaded discussions on the Internet, will be sold and supported by ChatSpace starting when the sale is finalized. ChatSpace, located in Carlsbad, has provided community products and services since its introduction of the Internet's first chat server running on Windows NT systems in 1996. ChatSpace will continue development of the line and will sell the products under the WebBoard brand as well as integrating the technology into the company’s own product line. O'Reilly's WebBoard is an Internet-based tool that provides threaded discussions and real-time chat for a wide range of companies including Hewlett Packard, IBM, Cisco, Intel, Merrill Lynch, as well as numerous universities such as MIT and the University of California system. "It’s good news for the Web community that WebBoard has a new home with ChatSpace," says Tim O'Reilly, founder and president of O'Reilly. "WebBoard is a natural fit with ChatSpace's current online community offerings for the Windows platform. We’re pleased to hand the reins to ChatSpace, and we’re confident that they'll uphold the standards of quality and customer support that WebBoard customers have come to expect." "The WebBoard products have become widely known within the community industry for their quality, reliability and unsurpassed customer service,” says Eric Olinger, CEO of ChatSpace. “This has enabled them to become the most widely distributed product of their kind on the Windows platform. With the acquisition of the WebBoard products, we can accelerate our growth and leadership in the online community space to deploy an integrated package of top quality software and services. The future strategies of the two product lines, including a move into the Unix/Linux marketplace, are also very well aligned." The WebBoard acquisition is expected to be complete by May. Sales and support of the product will continue uninterrupted. ChatSpace will support and develop the product after the acquisition. *** QThink has been awarded the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce Emerging Business of the Month Award for March 2001. Their significant growth within the chip design market coupled with their contributions to the San Diego community helped the company earn this prestigious honor, the Chamber reports. “The company has grown from 12 employees at the end of 1999 to 45 presently, and our intentions are to more than double in size in 2001,” says Akbar Shokouhi, QThink’s president. *** Mitchell International is holding a career open house from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at its headquarters, 9970 Carroll Canyon Road, in Scripps Ranch. Positions in the high-tech company include positions in software development, quality assurance, information systems, product management, customer support, marketing and business development, human resources, legal and finance. Interested persons should e-mail their resumes to www.mitchelljobs.com for advanced consideration. *** SVI Solutions Inc. says it has reached an agreement with its senior lender, Union Bank of California to extend its loan maturity date by about 30 days from the end of March. This extension will provide San Diego-based SVI and Union Bank time to continue discussions regarding a potential longer-term extension of the company’s senior loan facility. The company’s new management team has conducted a detailed review of operations, and as a result, also has announced that it has implemented a reorganization of its SVI retail operations in its San Diego and Irvine locations as part of its ongoing consolidation and cost-containment efforts. SVI estimates total annual savings from this reorganization to be about $2.3 million. The company will incur a restructuring charge in its fourth fiscal quarter as a result of this action. "We are putting in place what we believe are the key elements of a plan to return the company to a positive cash flow from operations in fiscal 2002 (which began April 1), says Tom Dorosewicz, SVI's CEO. "During the current fiscal quarter, we have assembled a new executive team including myself, a new CFO and a new executive v.p. of retail operations. We are now in the process of aggressively implementing these plans, including the reorganization of our U.S. retail operations, a rapid expansion of our sales and marketing activities and examining potential sources of new financing. *** Paul V. Lombardi, president and CEO of DynCorp, will be the keynote speaker at the Information Technology Association of America’s National Workforce Convocation set for April 2-3 in San Diego. Joining Lombardi will be David Robino, vice chair of Gateway, Carlene Ellis, v.p. of education at Intel, and Vint Cerf, senior v.p. for WorldCom. *** San Diego will be one step closer to a new local power plant following Friday’s meeting of the committee overseeing the application for certification for the proposed Otay Mesa generating project. The 10 a.m. public conference is open to the public and will take place in Room 358 at the County Administration Building, 1600 Pacific Highway. The conference will discuss comments on the presiding member’s proposed decision. The Otay Mesa Generating Co., Limited Liability Co., filed an application for certification seeking approval from the California Energy Commission to construct and operate a 510-megawatt generating project, to be located on an undeveloped 15-acre site in Otay Mesa. More information on this project may be found at www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/otaymesa. *** |
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