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January 17, 2001 Qualcomm Inc. is evaluating the effects of Globalstar's announcement that it has suspended indefinitely principal and interest payments on all of its funded debt, including its credit facility, vendor financing agreements and Senior Notes. As of Dec. 31, Qualcomm had $610 million in net assets related to its business with Globalstar, including receivables, inventory, deferred costs, unearned revenues and investment-related assets. The company expects to reserve a significant portion of its Globalstar-related assets and incur a small negative impact to operating earnings in its first fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31. Despite these effects, the company says it remains comfortable with the analyst consensus estimate of 28 cents pro forma earnings per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2001. "The quality, service and reliability of the Globalstar system has been exceptional since its commercial launch in early 2000,” says Irwin M. Jacobs, Qualcomm chair and CEO. “We believe current and new product offerings support an expanding market for Globalstar service and we expect the system to continue to operate into the future. The introduction of higher speed data modules, now in development, should open further data applications and vertical markets for the Globalstar system." *** The Padre Dam Municipal Water District, the Sweetwater Authority and the Valley Center Municipal Water District have filed an action in San Diego Superior Court against 13 power producers seeking injunctive relief and damages for unjust and unreasonable electricity prices. The water districts are unusually large users of power and, unlike similar commercial users in other parts of the state and residential and small commercial users in San Diego, are not the beneficiaries of a rate freeze. The districts are currently paying the full cost of electricity charged by the power producers. Best Best & Krieger LLP has filed a complaint on behalf of the districts which alleges that power producers, including Enron, Sempra and Duke Energy, have engaged in unlawful, unfair and anti-competitive acts and practices including withholding power for the purpose of creating an artificial shortage of electricity which has resulted in unjust and unreasonable prices for power. Padre Dam contends that the unreasonable rates have cost the district in excess of $500,000 during the past several months. Padre Dam services an estimated 134,600 customers in the Santee, parts of El Cajon, and the unincorporated areas of Lakeside, Flinn Springs, Harbison Canyon, Blossom Valley, Alpine, Dehesa and Crest. Sweetwater Authority contends that the unreasonable rates have cost the district in excess of $1 million during the past several months. Sweetwater Authority provides service to 175,000 people in National City, Bonita and the western and central portions of Chula Vista in the southern region of San Diego County. Valley Center contends that the unreasonable rates have cost the district in excess of $1.5 million during the past several months. Valley Center provides service to 23,000 people in the communities of Valley Center and north Escondido in the northeastern region of San Diego County. Eighty-five percent of Valley Center's water is used by agricultural customers. *** Southern California gas prices dipped significantly in the last month, continuing a four-month downward trend, says the Automobile Club of Southern California's Fuel Gauge report. The Southern California average price for regular unleaded fuel is $1.60, a 10-cent decline from last month's $1.70 average price. The averages for regular and premium grades of gasoline in San Diego County are:
The lowest average price is in La Habra, at $1.40 a gallon, and the highest Southern California price is in Bishop, with an average of $1.80 a gallon. Northern California's prices are higher, although they also have dropped about 10 cents a gallon since last month. Nationally, gas prices have risen slightly. The national average for regular unleaded is $1.473, up .4 cents from $1.469 on Dec. 16, and 18.3 cents higher per gallon than last year. Prices have continued downward in California at least in part because of reformulated gasoline regulations. California gasoline uses different additives in the winter to reduce its volatility in colder temperatures, and that "winter blend" must be switched out of gasoline supplies in February. Analysts say the lower prices are an effort to unload the winter-blend gasoline by next month. Once that trend ends, Southern California prices may be headed up again. OPEC nations have indicated that they may decide on Wednesday to cut crude oil production, which will likely drive prices back up. Crude oil prices had sunk as low as $26 per barrel, but now have rebounded and are approaching $28 per barrel. *** Rubio's Restaurants Inc. has entered into an area development agreement with Jim Pardini to develop six Rubio's Baja Grill restaurants in the Fresno and Bakersfield markets over the next three years. “We are very pleased to have on board a quality individual to develop the Fresno and Bakersfield markets," says John Ramsay, Rubio's v.p. of franchising. “Jim is a premier restaurant operator, with not only a life long commitment to the restaurant business, but significant industry and civic achievements as well.” Pardini is a multi-unit Tony Roma's franchisee and the principal of Pardini's Foodservice. Approaching 50 years in business, Pardini's Restaurant & Catering is the largest caterer in the San Joaquin Valley. “Along with his investment group, we know that Jim will represent Rubio's Baja Grill with the highest quality offering of food and service that have made us successful for the past 17 years,” says Ralph Rubio, Rubio's CEO and president. “We welcome the enthusiasm that Jim Pardini and his group has for Rubio's Baja Grill. We feel that granting area development agreements in new markets to proven, multi-unit operators of other restaurant concepts will further our goal to be a national leader in our segment.” *** Novatel Wireless Inc., a provider of wireless data communications access solutions based in San Diego, received CNET's Wireless Best of 2000 Awards for the Merlin for Ricochet and the Minstrel S Wireless Springboard Modem for the Handspring Visor with Omnisky 2.0 service. The Merlin for Ricochet connects to the high-speed 128 kbps Ricochet network, which offers wireless access to full Internet browsing, private intranets, local-area networks, e-mail and other online services. Merlin has a Type II PC Card interface and is compatible with Windows 98/NT/2000/Pocket PC and Macintosh laptops. The modem is a two-way wireless data accessory for the popular Handspring Visor that instantly transforms the handheld computer into a virtual office. It gives users mobility, enabling wireless access to e-mail, corporate LANs, and the Internet. The Minstrel S snaps into the back of the Visor handheld computer and is the first wireless WAN modem available for the Handspring Springboard expansion platform. It features a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery which lasts for approximately eight hours of continuous use; three LEDs to denote cellular service, wireless data transmission and battery life; bundled e-mail and Internet browsing software and 2 MB of Flash ROM memory for storing third party applications. *** In other Qualcomm news, the company has entered into an amendment to IFR's existing CDMA test equipment license agreement with Qualcomm. Prior to the amendment, IFR's CDMA license covered only cdmaOne applications. With the amendment, IFR's CDMA license agreement has now been expanded to grant IFR a royalty- bearing license under Qualcomm's essential CDMA patent portfolio to develop, manufacture and sell test equipment for third-generation CDMA (WCDMA, cdma2000, TD-SCDMA) and cdma2000 1xEV applications. Under the terms of the amendment, IFR will pay Qualcomm ongoing royalties for 3G at rates no less than those for cdmaOne test equipment. "Qualcomm is pleased to extend IFR's license," says Steve Altman, president of Qualcomm Technology Alliances. "By helping companies accelerate the rollout of third-generation wireless products and services worldwide, we expect IFR to contribute to the growth of 3G CDMA test solutions for the wireless industry." IFR is a designer and manufacturer of advanced wireless test solutions for communications, avionics, and general test and measurement applications headquartered in Kansas. *** Syntricity Inc., developer of Web-native engineering decision support system for the semiconductor and related industries, has appointed Guri Stark v.p. of marketing. The appointment comes at a time of expansion for the four-year old San Diego-based software company that is growing at an annual rate of 176 percent. "Our dataConductor product line is increasingly being adopted by leading semiconductor and electronics companies as a solution that works on the user, workgroup, enterprise, and extended enterprise levels," says Syntricity President and CEO Jeff Teza. "Guri, with his 22 years of experience in all areas of high technology and software engineering, sales, marketing, and business development, will play an important role in helping us to achieve our ambitious growth objectives." Stark comes to Syntricity from ENCAD Inc. in San Diego, where he served as v.p. of worldwide marketing. "I am tremendously excited to join this very dynamic and innovative software company," Stark says. "Syntricity is literally creating an entirely new technology space with the dataConductor solution, one that leverages Internet technology to significantly reduce the time it takes to make engineering and production decisions. By making data make sense, dataConductor reduces engineering and production cost and time to market, and I look forward to bringing that message to a wider customer base." *** GMV Network, a leading developer of standards-based streaming media software and technologies, has opened a San Diego office as part of its continued expansion. "Launching the East and West Coast offices is paramount to our strategy of developing a strong awareness as leaders in standards-based technologies," says Christopher Casey, president of GMV Network. "The offices will facilitate our marketing and business development efforts and allow us to serve these important technology hubs more effectively." The San Diego office will act as the base for GMV Network's worldwide marketing and branding activities and will be led by Stephen Condon, recently hired v.p. of marketing. The office also will reinforce GMV Network's presence in the entertainment and technology industries, especially wireless, and serve as a base for representation in the high-growth Asian markets. "San Diego is a key hub of communications, networking and wireless technology and also is in close proximity to the Hollywood market," Condon says. "As we develop our products to serve these industries, we will be in an excellent position to leverage our key relationships the area and also develop new relationships with Pacific Rim companies." GMV Network is headquartered in Chicago, IL and develops standards-based software technologies for the delivery of audio, video and data content. *** Vindigo, developer of a personal navigation platform for handheld devices, has introduced its first set of personalization features for the location-based service and added San Diego to its area of coverage. Users of New York-based Vindigo can now create lists of their favorite places, select individual channels, change their starting locations, and submit new listings via their Palm OS handheld computers. Vindigo's new features include:
*** AirFiber Inc., the San Diego-based developer of wireless optical networking equipment, hired Brett Helm as president and COO. Helm will oversee all of AirFiber's company operations focusing on revenue growth and evolution to profitability. Helm also will focus on the expansion and development of AirFiber's wireless optical networking product line and maximizing the company’s market share in the burgeoning wireless optical networking market. "In the next year, AirFiber's wireless optical networking products will change the way that telecommunications services are delivered," Helm says. "By extending fiber-like capacity without the cost and time constraints required for fiber, AirFiber has the potential to shatter the 'last mile' bottleneck and dramatically increase bandwidth in buildings worldwide." Helm previously served as general manager of Intel Corp.'s Network Equipment Division, which was formed in part by the acquisition of IPivot Inc. in October 1999. *** FirstPeer, a new San Diego-based person-to-person application service provider, released the first open unifying platform for bringing together applications, devices and people in the new peer-to-peer paradigm. FirstPeer's Personal Servant is an intelligent servant-based system that extends the existing Internet infrastructure to match the demands of the new world of peer-to-peer networking. Built upon the basis of widely accepted protocols of XML, DNS, XMP-RPC and Jabber instant messaging, FirstPeer's Personal Servant manages the interaction among applications and devices on a direct peer-to-peer basis. Individuals, businesses and groups can be found and connected through a simple, unified and familiar basis that is consistent across all applications and devices. "FirstPeer has created a tool that will change the way businesses and individuals communicate, search and receive information in a peer-to-peer environment," says Brent Gutekunst, president of FirstPeer. "Through our Personal Servant, FirstPeer has given developers the ammunition to create the revolutionary person-to-person applications services and marketplaces of tomorrow." The Personal Servant is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh, and can be downloaded for free from the Web site, www.firstpeer.com. *** Phogenix Imaging LLC, a developer of retail digital inkjet photofinishing solutions, has moved into new San Diego headquarters. The move is designed to accommodate plans to add 50-60 new employees by year-end. Newly named v.p. and COO Mahmoud E. Mostafa has been hired to lead daily manufacturing, supply chain and global expansion operations as the company prepares to bring their first products to market. "Mostafa's extensive manufacturing and R&D experience are the perfect addition to our strong leadership team," says Fred Heigold, CEO of Phogenix Imaging. "As we move towards our global product launch, the team will rely on his management expertise and strong international perspective." Mostafa brings 20 years of manufacturing and managerial experience from a wide variety of Hewlett-Packard Co. divisions. He was most recently worldwide supply chain manager for HP's consumer business organization. "Phogenix Imaging offered me the opportunity to join a tremendous leadership team in pioneering an entirely new market category," Mostafa says. "Developing the research, development and manufacturing operations necessary to bring a new product to the global market is a tremendously challenging and exciting proposition." Phogenix Imaging's new 65,000 square foot headquarters are located at 16275 Technology Drive in Rancho Bernardo. *** Proflowers, the direct-from-the-grower Internet flower company headquartered in San Diego, has completed a 150,000,000 Yen venture financing for its majority-owned Japanese subsidiary, Flowerfarm Kabushiki Kaisha. The financing, totaling approximately $1.4 million at current exchange rates, was led by SB Investments, the venture capital unit of Sumitomo Bank, along with Nippon Life, the largest life insurance company in Japan, and Meiji Seimei, a large insurer in the Japanese market. "This financing shows the high value placed on Proflowers' proprietary supply chain compression solution for the flower industry," says Steven J. Kemper, CFO of Proflowers and board member of Flowerfarm KK. "Our success with the direct-from-the-grower flower solution in the U.S. has allowed us to expand into international markets and accelerate our growth." Flowers will be delivered direct from Ota Floriculture, the largest flower auction in Japan, to addresses throughout the country. Japan is the second largest flower market in the world after the United States and totals more than $6 billion in annual sales. "Along with our strategic partners, the Ota Floriculture Auction Company, Ltd. and NTT, we are building a rapidly growing business in Japan with a very bright future," says Bill Strauss, CEO of Proflowers. "We hope to continue our international growth with an expanded presence in Europe within the year." *** Pulse has promoted Steven D. Mentas to v.p. of information technology. Mentas joined San Diego-based Pulse in 1997 as director of information technology and is responsible for the strategic design, development, integration and management of all information systems worldwide. He has been instrumental in the development and implementation of Pulse's data warehousing and product data management systems and is directly responsible for the installation of the company’s worldwide network, telecommunications and electronic messaging infrastructure. "The vital nature of our information infrastructure, management systems and electronic commerce applications requires that we elevate information technology responsibilities to top-level management," says President John L. Kowalski. “Steve has the talent and drive to continue building competitive advantage for Pulse in these key areas." Before joining Pulse, Mentas was director of information technology at ComStream Inc. and General Instrument Corp. *** Pulse also appointed Roger Shahnazarian group v.p. of its North America Business Group, responsible for engineering, marketing, sales and customer support in the company’s North American markets. Shahnazarian has experience in all areas of manufacturing operations, magnetics technology, program management, capital administration, statistical process control and manufacturing systems. He has been with Pulse in various manufacturing, engineering and quality roles for 13 years, most recently as senior v.p. of production operations from 1997 to 2000. Before joining Pulse in 1987, Shahnazarian served in various quality, systems and operational finance capacities at TRW's LSI Products Division. The company named Jack VanderKnyff senior v.p. of production operations, responsible for worldwide production at Pulse's manufacturing facilities in China, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia. VanderKnyff has been a consultant to Pulse in the areas of production techniques, process improvement and acquisition integration for four years. "Both Jack and Roger have impressive backgrounds and achievements that go hand-in-hand with our goals and objectives," Kowalski says. "It is clear that they will be instrumental in strategically positioning us for continued growth." *** Click Below to View Previous Daily Business Reports |
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