MarketStorm LLC Core business: Branding and product marketing Revenue in 1996: $98,000 Revenue in 2001: $650,000 Employees in 1996: 1 Employees in 2001: 2 Goal: To develop brand recognition for MarketStorm and clients Driving Force Entrepreneurs in the technology sector who don’t always understand how to identify markets for their products Company that specializes in marketing technology firms finds it sometimes must tell clients they need to go backward before going forward The niche Nelson Dodge and his marketing firm, MarketStorm LLC, had carved out for itself before this year sounds like it would be enough to make a living off of: Take a small tech company and shepherd it and its new products to market. “I have been working with these little technology companies long enough to know a particular process for selling high-tech products,” Dodge said. But selling isn’t all that’s required, particularly when engineers at high-tech start-ups don’t always understand the marketplace value of what they’re working on. “I’m an engineer, my people are engineers,” said Mike Moldovan, CEO of G3 Nova Technology Inc. of Westlake Village, one of MarketStorm’s clients. “You have this great stuff you’re trying to sell and you don’t know how to do it.” G3 Nova is working on a new network load testing system, its first product. “Getting what I have out in a lot of magazines itself is not very helpful,” Moldovan said. In fact, that’s all Moldovan and the CEOs of some other companies with next-generation technology say they typically get from marketing companies looking for their business. Realizing that technology companies in one way or another still in their infancy need something more than simple exposure in the media, Dodge took on a new partner, Randy Troast, this year and began offering services to clients that, according to Troast, “extend further back in the product cycle.” That’s what high-tech companies like G3 Nova, ProBar Inc., Medea Corp., Dolphin Interconnect LLC, Coyote Network Systems Inc. and, in an earlier manifestation of MarketStorm, Xircom have asked it to do. For instance, ProBar was ready to move from a custom service-based business model to a product-based model, something its CEO, Rob Hobman knew little about. “We have a system-level product (bar code technology), which is hard to market,” Hobman said. “Identifying a market and getting to it are two different things.” Dodge said Hobman “didn’t have a product marketing infrastructure in place.” MarketStorm helped develop a brand, including a change of name for its primary product. Which is something Dodge did for Xircom as well years earlier, only in a grander fashion. “These guys (at Xircom) had recently invented something new that was well timed,” Dodge said, but MarketStorm came on board just weeks before a major COMDEX convention where their first product would be introduced. Dodge changed the name of the company (“The previous name, GMH Datacom, was useless,” he said.), developed a strategy and charged into COMDEX. “They were really just three guys in a room,” Dodge said, “but they came out looking very composed and much bigger than they were.” Last year, Intel Inc. bought Xircom for $750 million. Dodge said MarketStorm’s clients “are typically run by engineers. Their perspective on the world tends to be ‘better engineering.'” While those engineers may be absorbed sometimes obsessed with the technology they can spend years developing, that long period of gestation in relative isolation often leaves them with little awareness of what is actually going on in the marketplace. Troast and Dodge call what they offer clients “productizing.” Before they ever talk to a client about how best to market what it has to offer, they will first deliver a “whole” product audit, assessing whether the market is ready for what the company has and the likelihood of success. Dodge started MarketStorm in 1996. He did just fine marketing the kinds of companies he has been around most of his career but, he said, he felt he could take them only so far “forward” when, in some cases, they needed to take a step or two “backward” first. Troast spent the previous couple of decades at mostly small companies, managing software product development and marketing and sales teams. “Then I decided to make a full-time commitment to this,” Troast said. In MarketStorm’s first year, 1996, revenues amounted to $98,000. This year, he and Troast expect $650,000, mostly in fees from clients. And they expect to do for themselves what they try to do for clients: “We want to grow both our clients and MarketStorm into recognizable brand names, not just Nelson and Randy,” Troast said.

What could be sweeter than the sound of hammers and nails echoing through the corridors of neglected college campuses where trailers stand in for classrooms and just getting a parking space in the morning marks the start of a very good day? Well, the money to pay for those sweet sounds. And that’s exactly what all three of the Los Angeles Community College District’s Valley campuses are getting, thanks to overwhelming voter support in April of a $1.2 billion facilities modernization bond. In fact, all nine colleges in the district, the largest community college district in the country, are in line to receive Proposition A rehabilitation funding over the course of the next 10 years. And the money has already started trickling in. “The reality is this district has probably gone close to 40 years without any major upgrades,” said LACCD Chancellor Mark Drummond. “We’ve had bits and pieces here and there, but it’s a huge district, and many of the buildings are 50 years old or older. And when you haven’t invested in that kind of real estate in many, many years, you have to take drastic measures to bring it up to date.” Pierce College in Woodland Hills broke ground on a new $6 million student store and student services building earlier this month. That project is one of many planned for the campus. Pierce will get a total of $166 million of Prop. A funding to pay for classroom and library renovations, a new science/agriculture/nursing building, a new technology center building, a new parking lot, fences and the removal of trailers that have served as temporary sites for instruction and academic resource centers. Van Nuys-based Valley College will get $165 million to remodel its gymnasium to accommodate disabled students’ needs and pay for construction of a new library building, a media arts building and a new allied health sciences center. Mission College in Sylmar, the newest of the nine campuses, has already begun work on its new student services wing of the Instructional Building, one of several projects the campus plans to complete with its $111 million in Prop A funding. That project, expected to be completed by June of 2002, aims to double the amount of space available for student services including admissions, registration, counseling and financial aid. It will cost approximately $1.2 million. Future projects at Mission College include a new parking structure, media arts facility, child development center and a new police station and safety center. Mission College was originally established in 1975 and moved to Sylmar in 1991 after operating out of several temporary sites. The campus serves approximately 7,800 students a year. Its biggest struggle to date has been getting approval to expand on nearby property, some of which the district owns, some it does not. “That campus was never completed, so it’s sort of half a college,” said Drummond. “So most of the focus there has been on how to get enough land to build the facilities it needs. There are different ways to use the land we own, and some of it we will trade out. But one way or another, Mission has to have a larger footprint.” Misson College public relations director Eduardo Pardo said for now the campus is working on the assumption that all of the projects to be built with Prop A funds will go on the existing 22-acre site. “We are in the process of developing a master plan for all those projects to come, and it should be completed in about nine months,” he said. “It would be great to expand before these projects are completed, but it’s so iffy. The college has tried to acquire adjacent land in the past and those efforts haven’t gone very well.” The land is near a flood control project and partly owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. Drummond said the district intends to allocate approximately $446 million between now and 2004 to the nine campuses, and anticipates that a large percentage of the projects will actually be completed in less than the 10-year timeframe originally established. To ensure accountability, the district established an independent, 15-member District Citizens’ Oversight committee and separate Citizens’ Oversight Committees for each of the nine campuses. “None of this money is going to the administration or to the district,” said Drummond. “The language in the proposition completely isolates this money. There’s no way that anybody, including me, can get their hands on it.”

Largest Private Companies

Simi Valley-based electronics firm Celetron Inc. is getting a little bigger after it agreed to acquire the Camarillo-based EOS Corp. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Celetron, which makes circuit boards and other components for electronic consumer and industrial devices, had raised $48 million in venture capital in May in an effort to expand its business. Celetron President Jay Tandon said the power supply manufacturer will be a good fit for his company. “This combination will allow EOS’s leading-edge products to be produced cost-effectively in Celetron’s world-class facility,” he said. EOS manufactures miniature power supplies that are used in communications, computing, medical and industrial markets, which Tandon said would complement his company’s electronic component production. TDK Mediactive Gets Financial Help Calabasas-based children’s computer game maker TDK Mediactive Inc. has hired the investment banking firm of Wedbush Morgan Securities Inc. as its financial adviser. CEO Vincent Bitetti said TDK is hoping Wedbush Morgan can help it return to the Nasdaq big board. After being de-listed because its stock price sank below the $1 level, the company currently is listed on the Nasdaq Over the Counter Bulletin Board. Last year, the company lost $3.3 million on $2.6 million in total revenue, compared to a $4 million loss on $4.6 million in revenue in 1999. ValueClick Acquires Mediaplex Westlake Village Internet advertising firm ValueClick Inc. has completed its acquisition of advertising software maker Mediaplex Inc. of San Francisco. The deal, worth $150 million in cash and stock, will give ValueClick access to Mediaplex’s Web-based applications that allow advertisers to create customized messages for online advertising campaigns. Mediaplex also provides media buying services, data capture and analysis, along with Web site visitor profiles. “The key to success from both a financial and technological standpoint is consolidation,” said Tom Vadnais, president and CEO of Mediaplex, who will keep his position and title once the deal is completed. Jim Farley, chairman and CEO of ValueClick, will head the combined companies. In 2000, Mediaplex lost $37.5 million on $63.6 million in revenue. ValueClick fared worse, losing $55.6 million on $56.7 million in revenue. Kutchaver Establishes Effects Firm Veteran visual effects expert Kevin Kutchaver, best known for his work on “Xena: The Warrior Princess,” has formed a new visual effects company, HimAni Productions in Burbank. Kutchaver, former president of Flat Earth Productions which created visual effects for “Xena,” “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys” and others, has partnered with veteran animator Kathy Zielinski to establish the firm. Zielinski, who will continue as animation supervisor for DreamWorks Feature Animation, will also specialize in designing and creating visual effects, Kutchaver said. Kutchaver recently completed work on the yet-to-be-released film “Tremors 3.” Among Kutchaver’s visual effects credits are “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi,” “Beetlejuice” and “Robocop.” Mickey Phones Japan Mickey Mouse wants to get Japan on the line sort of. He’ll be phoning Japan under a deal reached by the North Hollywood-based Walt Disney Internet Group and Japanese mobile telephone firm J-Phone Group, which will allow callers to receive downloadable images of Disney characters on J-Phone’s Internet-enabled cell phones. The agreement gives J-Phone customers access to downloadable logos, screensavers, e-cards and ring tones using recognizable phrases or words of Walt Disney characters like Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck. Mark Handler, executive vice president of Disney Internet Group, said the technology uses Disney characters to notify users of incoming calls or messages. Semtech Introduces Battery Life Extender Newbury Park-based Semtech Corp. has come out with a new component it says will reduce the battery drain on hand-held devices and portable laptops. The company says its new UR5HC703-700, which can also be used in keyboards and cell phones as well, saves power because it can power down when it is inactive, even between keystrokes. But when a key is pressed, the system powers up without losing any data previously recorded. Mike Alwais, Semtech’s director of Human Interface Devices, said the component, along with a similar device for infrared keyboards, will give product designers greater flexibility in future battery-powered devices. The patent on the proprietary protocol allowing the device to function is still pending. Digital Insight Introduces Loan Software Calabasas-based banking software maker Digital Insight Corp. has introduced new software designed to automate the loan application process at branches of financial institutions. “We’re bringing Internet technology into the branches,” said Robert Surridge, vice president of Digital Insight’s lending division. “Applying for a loan via the Internet has never been faster, easier or more personal.” DeskTop Lender permits loan officers at a branch to complete electronic loan applications via the Internet and then submit them to a so-called “decisioning” engine that evaluates the application against each financial institution’s loan policies. Surridge said most decisions can be made within 60 seconds. The AXIS DeskTopLender gives financial institutions the ability to increase their revenue by entering the consumer lending market without the costs of building and maintaining a mainframe computer to handle the loan process, Surridge said. Staff Reporter Carlos Martinez can by reached at (818) 676-1750 ext. 17 or by e-mail at [email protected]

Summary Business: Medical technology services Headquarters: Woodland Hills CEO: Robert Funari Market Cap: $758 million Dividend Yield: None* Total Liabilities: $299.4 million P/E: 25.0 Long-Term Debt: $230.9 million *Syncor does not pay dividends Slowdown? What slowdown? That could be the rhetorical question Wall Street is asking about Syncor International Corp. A third quarter that included three acquisitions also had a 25-percent increase in operating income (to $15.4 million) over the same period last year. For years, the Woodland Hills-based Syncor dominated the nuclear pharmacy services field. Then, four years ago it launched a diversification strategy that has focused on although has not been limited to the delivery of medical imaging services in both the U.S. and foreign markets. The results so far have included a growth in revenue, from sales of $381 million in 1997 to $629 million in 2000. Net income in the third quarter of this year was $7.8 million on $193.8 million in revenue, compared to a net income of $6.3 million on $155.5 million in revenue in the same quarter of 2000. Much of that revenue growth can be attributed to the acquisitions Syncor has steadily made over the last three years. In fact, two of those completed in the third quarter, InteCardia Inc. and Inovision Radiation Measurement, contributed $5.7 million in revenue in the same quarter to the pharmacy services side of the business. “Both acquisitions had positive profit contributions in the third quarter,” said CFO William Forster. The strategy that led to the acquisitions and corporate growth, of course, has included taking on more debt than the once small and relatively unambitious company was accustomed to in the past. Apparently, that has not been a problem for Syncor. “Their numbers are in line with what Wall Street is looking for,” said Mitra Ramgopal, an analyst with Sidoti & Co. LLC. “If you look at their balance sheet three years prior, their rate wasn’t as high. But with an acquisition story, to make those kinds of moves it has to incur debt.” In the quarter ended Sept. 30, Syncor had outstanding debt of $230.9 million, up from $128 million in the same quarter of 2000. At the end of fiscal year 1997, that figure was $17.3 million. Though Syncor’s acquisition strategy will continue into next year, it may do so more with available cash than by taking on debt. “I don’t think (debt balances) will go up significantly from what we have now,” Forster said. Syncor Executive Vice President David Ward said he did not anticipate any more acquisitions in the fourth quarter. Forster said the company will probably spend $40 million to $50 million on acquisitions in 2002 and about $50 million to $60 million on capital expansion. Ramgopal said, “I think you’re betting here on execution, that Syncor is going to make medical imaging a success.” Ramgopal and others seem to think it is a bet worth taking. Third-quarter earnings met analyst consensus estimates of 29 cents a share, up from 23 cents in the same quarter a year earlier. The consensus of First Call/Thompson Financial analysts calls for earnings of 32 cents a share in the fourth quarter, $1.40 for all of 2001 and $1.73 for 2002. Ramgopal said, “This has been a very strong management team that has consistently met or exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, at least as far as EPS is concerned.” Syncor’s stock closed on Friday at $28.84 a share. Its stock reached a 52-week high of $44.09 in April and a 52-week low of $24 last November. It closed on Sept. 10, the day before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, at $33.28 and maintained that level despite downturns in the stock market once it opened the following week.

Electronic Clearing House Inc. of Agoura Hills didn’t invent instant credit card approval and processing services, but it has developed software and electronics intended to make it more efficient. Even with machines to do most of the work, company CEO Jody Barry still relies heavily on the people who work at his six-year-old company. Nevertheless, at no time, he says, was he ready for the large turnover in his customer service department. It wasn’t simply an annoyance, the problem was clearly having an impact on the company’s bottom line, he said. It took his young daughter to help him come up with a solution he employs successfully to this day, Barry told Business Journal reporter Carlos Martinez. “We’re a service organization with a 24/7 customer service department and these are positions that are typically fielded by women, and we found that many of these women were single moms. Typically, from time to time, they’d have to go home and take care of family issues with their kids So we’d have this constant turnover. They’d realize that they couldn’t do their job and take care of their kids. “We didn’t realize what was happening at the time. I have a very outstanding daughter who was a very good soccer player and if she had a game, I went. So one day she said, ‘The only reason you’re here is because you’re the CEO,’ and it just hit me that, if it were somebody else, they’d have to beg their boss to get here. “We were forcing our people to choose between their jobs and their family obligations. So our whole focus had to change. We had to let the employees know that we supported them in their family life. We give up to four hours a month to go see their kid or go see them play basketball or whatever. Policies such as that make for a much happier family life and it makes people happier about going to work. “If people need additional time, they go to the HR department and they’re asked, ‘What’s going on in your life?’ We realize it’s unusual, but we’re very lenient and we try to help. If an employee says, ‘I have to go see my doctor,’ or ‘I have to go see my dad’ or your mother or son or daughter, it doesn’t matter. “During the summer, we hire the kids of single moms, between (the ages of) 13 and 18. They can work half the day and their moms don’t have to worry about them. They don’t have to run home because something happened. “These are things that are working for us and has helped keep a lot of our people.”

Experts are bracing for a rash of small business bankruptcy filings as the effects of the Sept. 11 disaster reverberate through the economy. In the San Fernando Valley, companies supplying airlines and those connected with tourism have already begun to feel the economic aftereffects of terrorism. But many say the problems are likely to extend beyond those industries as the economy continues its tailspin. Many of these businesses were struggling prior to Sept. 11. The horrific disaster and subsequent anthrax incidents may be enough to push many over the edge. Though the numbers do not yet show a significant rise in filings, bankruptcy attorneys say they’ve begun to notice longer lines at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Woodland Hills and they are getting more calls from clients asking, “what if?” “I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg,” said Stephen L. Burton, whose Sherman Oaks law office specializes in bankruptcies. “Watch out a year from now.” Concerned that small businesses are especially vulnerable in a disaster, the Small Business Administration in recent weeks instituted a September 11 Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program, making loans of up to $1.5 million available to companies nationwide who were affected by the attacks. Just days after the program was announced, the agency’s western region offices in Sacramento had already received hundreds of inquiries from businesses seeking assistance. Closer to home, the Valley Economic Development Corp. has placed calls to many of its borrowers and begun trying to restructure loans to reduce the payments required. The agency has also requested that the federal government allow it to use money allocated to a Northridge Earthquake relief program for the current crisis. “Right now it is a little scary,” said Roberto Barragan, president of the VEDC. “Any business involved in retail, transportation or tourism is particularly scared.” Many small business owners finance their operations through credit cards. Even when business slows, they continue to borrow against their credit lines, and such borrowing had escalated well before Sept. 11, bankruptcy attorneys say. “The problem is things were not good before 9/11,” said Richard A. Brownstein, a partner at Tarzana-based law firm Wasserman, Comden & Casselman. “I have a sense that we haven’t seen the worst of it.” Through September of this year, Chapter 7 filings in the San Fernando Valley totaled 7,583, a .075 percent increase from the same period in 2000, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Chapter 11 filings are down to 53 from 71 last year. And Chapter 13 filings also declined to 1,624 from 1,729 last year. The pattern is pretty much the same throughout the Central District. Bankruptcy attorneys explain that the current numbers don’t tell the whole story. Many small businesses continue to borrow until their creditors cut them off, and they don’t seek assistance until these creditors begin legal proceedings. “If they’ve run out of credit, the (credit card company) calls start to come in for about four months,” said Burton. “By six months, it’s charged off and it goes to collection. Things go out to legal at about the one-year mark.” Some companies, especially those doing business with airlines, have already begun to seek assistance. A local company that services airlines found its payments cut off completely in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, according to the VEDC, which holds the company’s loan. The agency restructured the loan to reduce payments and the airlines have since resumed paying their bills, thanks to the federal bailout money they received, but Barragan points out that other businesses may not be so lucky. “This borrower has sales of about $20 million a year and handles a component that’s important to the industry,” said Barragan, who declined to name the company. “But any business with sales of under $100,000 could still be waiting for their check right now.” The pecking order of who gets paid first a larger company with a critical product or service is in a far better position than a smaller business with a product that’s not essential is not exclusive to the airline industry. That leaves small businesses least likely to be paid by customers caught in a downturn. Added to that, these companies often don’t carry insurance to carry them through hard times, they are typically undercapitalized to begin with and, unlike their larger counterparts who may have many options for trimming costs, they may have no wiggle room to make significant reductions in overhead. “Many small businesses are operating month to month,” said Rick Jenkins, a spokesman for the SBA’s disaster office in Sacramento. “They’re able to pay all their obligations, but it becomes tougher and tougher to put away for catastrophic events, and what took years to put together can be wiped out in a couple of seconds.” As a rule, a business surviving from hand to mouth can’t withstand more than 90 days if money stops coming in. And many of the companies that are now most vulnerable were already hurting before Sept. 11. “I had a few businesses that I was helping reorganize prior to 9/11 and they were in bad financial shape,” said Laurence Merritt, a Woodland Hills attorney who has handled bankruptcies for more than 25 years. “But if creditors had cooperated and given them some accommodation, we probably would have been able to turn them around. After 9/11 a bad situation became even worse, so a number of those clients have now filed Chapter 11.” Healthy businesses are not immune either. Hoping to capitalize on what seemed like a strong economy only a short while ago, one VEDC client pumped profits back into an expansion, only to find business dry up in the past month. “I spent all my money this summer to open a cappuccino bar,” said Shahram Kerameddian, the owner of Sean’s Caf & #233; in Venice Beach. “I bought a cappuccino machine, a grinder, I upgraded the electrical system and the business was good.” But sales from the new addition at Sean’s Caf & #233; dropped from about $100 to $150 a day to about $20 a day after the terrorist attack. Kerameddian, who had been able to pay his rent from cappuccino bar revenues alone this summer, has now fired three of his four employees, and he has stopped ordering his supplies wholesale. “I don’t order any big food anymore,” he said. “I get vegetables from the market and I go to Costco to buy burgers. If I order through companies, they bring boxes. If you have customers, it’s no problem. If you don’t, you have to throw it away.” Kerameddian is also working with the VEDC to get an SBA disaster loan to tide him over until Christmas, when he hopes the tourists will return to Venice Beach. Bankruptcy attorneys and others familiar with small business operations say that the strong economic climate of recent years convinced many companies to expand, and, now that the downturn is becoming worse, they are carrying more debt than ever. “Companies that are heavily leveraged are the ones that are most vulnerable,” said Merritt. “I’m sure there’s business being hurt (because of the sector they’re in) but the larger question to me is who is highly leveraged. You can have in the same industry one company with low overhead and the same business across the street with high rent and a lot of debt and the (low overhead) business should be able to get through.”

After two years of lackluster performance and a stock price that is 80 percent below what it was in the mid-1990s with little chance of recovering, Jerry’s Famous Deli is buying back its stock with plans to return to being a privately controlled company. “We always felt that the value of our shares was much lower than what we felt was the actual value of the company,” said Jerry’s CFO Christine Sterling. The company is nearing the end of a buyback program begun in September that, by this point, has left only 86,000 of its shares in the hands of public investors. Since September, the company has purchased 719,325 of 4.7 million outstanding shares for $5.30 a share at a total cost of $3.8 million. Nearly 4 million shares were already owned by founder Isaac Starkman and his family. Earlier this month, Nasdaq informed the firm that it would be delisted for failing to maintain the minimum $2.5 million public float, which is the value of shares owned by people who don’t have a significant stake in the company. Sterling would not say when the company would buy the remaining 86,000 shares, but said going private would give the company a chance to enhance its overall value. Sterling said Jerry’s is more likely to attract capital investment if it removes itself from a sometimes volatile stock market. Jerry’s stock has remained in the range of $5 for several months. Before it was delisted on Oct. 10, Jerry’s stock was trading at $5.10 per share, with a 52-week high of $5.34 and a 52-week low of $1.16. Doug Christopher, an analyst with Crowell, Weedon & Co., said the company’s move is in response to the slowing economy and its own struggle to maintain market share in a competitive restaurant market. “They probably feel that they’ll have better control of the company and possibly enhance its value. But it’s more a reflection of the overall bad economy,” he said. Sterling admitted business has been slow in recent months for the company. “Things are a little slow now, but we expect it to get better as we near December,” she said. Several former Jerry’s investors contacted by the Business Journal would not comment on the record. While the company’s initial public offering in 1995 allowed it to expand and increase revenues by nearly 70 percent in two years, its stock price has been dismal in recent years and has attracted little interest, Christopher said. Moreover, despite a slight jump in revenue in 1999 $70.8 million compared to $66.6 million in 1998 figures for this year are flat and only slightly ahead of last year, he added. In the company’s most recent quarter ending June 30, it reported $242,147 in net income on revenue of $16.6 million, compared to $79,706 net income on revenue of $16.3 million for the same period last year. For 2000, the company reported $1.4 million in net income on revenue of $69.6 million, compared to $910,000 in net income on revenue of $70.7 million in 1999. The company’s growth has slowed since the period immediately following its IPO when revenue jumped from $40 million in 1996 to $66.6 million in 1998. Christopher said the company’s flat numbers underscore the crowded and competitive restaurant business where much bigger chains have the advantage. Comparing Jerry’s to chains like Blimpie and Subway, which he considers its competition, he said, “A lot of people are not going to spend 10 bucks on a sandwich anymore, and that’s what it comes down to.” Christopher said Jerry’s stock never lived up to expectations, hovering in the $3 to $5 range since mid-1998, never returning to the $20 to $25 range of 1997. “I think they expected more from the stock than what it did,” he said. Analyst Robert Robotti of Robotti & Co. said Jerry’s net income and revenue remained steady in recent years despite a declining economy and the costs related to the company’s acquisition of Solley’s Restaurant in Sherman Oaks and the remodeling of its two Florida restaurants. Sterling said the company has been hurt by the stock market’s volatility in the past year, further depressing the value of the company’s stock. “So with this tender offer, we are maximizing the value of our company and in turn strengthening our company,” she said, referring to the $5.30-per-share offer to its public stockholders. Jerry’s Famous Deli was founded in Studio City in 1978 by Starkman and Jerry Seidman. Starkman purchased Seidman’s interest in 1984. In October of 1995, when the company had grown to five restaurants, Jerry’s went public with a $6-per-share IPO. Now a 10-restaurant chain with most stores in the Los Angeles area, the company has slowed its expansion by putting off plans to build a New York City restaurant and another in Las Vegas. One restaurant is under construction in the South Beach area of Miami Beach, but it is not scheduled to open until sometime next year, officials said.

Consulting The board of directors of Arete Associates has named Lawrence J. Delaney president, CEO and chairman of the board. Delaney has over 40 years experience in high technology program acquisition and management and engineering. He will be responsible for the space and missile systems, information systems, propulsion systems and environmental technology. Delaney most recently served as assistant secretary of the Air Force. He was the acquisition executive responsible for all Air Force research, development and acquisition activities. Entertainment Mark D. Detrick was named director and general manager of the marketing division for Universal Studios Japan. He will be responsible for the oversight and development of the marketing division, including the strategic planning and implementation of advertising, group sales, publicity, interactive marketing, corporate marketing partners and creative services initiatives. Prior to joining Universal Studios, he served as management director at Asatsu-DK Inc. in Tokyo. Eric Lewald has been appointed senior vice president of creative affairs for DIC Entertainment in Burbank. He will work with the company’s chief creative officer, Mike Maliani, and be responsible for all aspects of the company’s creative affairs including the development of new projects and maintaining a creative overview of DIC-produced property. Prior to DIC, Lewald was a writer, story editor and supervising producer for Disney Television Animation, Hanna-Barbera and TMS Entertainment. Daniel R. Jensen has been appointed executive vice president for Universal Studios Japan. He will be responsible for the oversight and development of operations and marketing for the international motion picture theme park. In addition, he will manage the daily operations of merchandise, food service, park operations, security, entertainment and technical services. Prior to Universal Studios, he served as senior vice president of resort services for Universal Orlando overseeing facilities management. David “Doc” Goldstein has been promoted to vice president, post-production engineering and sound services for Universal Studios. In his new position, he will manage technical operations and staffing. Goldstein has been an engineer with Universal Studios since 1985. Previously, he worked as an engineer at Warner Hollywood Studios. Health Care Rick Lyons has been named chief operating officer at the Encino campus of Encino-Tarzana Regional Medical Center. Lyons will manage the daily operating procedures as well as legal and regulatory requirements. Most recently, he served as interim president of Bakersfield Memorial Hospital and has been with Catholic Healthcare West for over 20 years. Law Westlake Village-based Masry & Vititoe’s Ed Masry has recently agreed to serve as a member of the board of directors, president and chief executive officer of Save the World Air Inc. He will direct the company’s expansion of engineering, production, marketing and distribution. W Real Estate Shirlee Kingsley was named vice president and general manager of the Ventura County/West Valley region for Caruso Affiliated Holdings. Kingsley will oversee the company’s operations throughout the area, which includes The Promenade at Westlake, The Commons at Calabasas, The Village at Moorpark, The Encino Marketplace, The Courtyard at the Commons and The Promenade Court. Technology Calabasas-based Digital Insight Corp. has named Drew Hyatt senior vice president of Internet banking services. He will oversee all client relations and customer service operations. Prior to Digital Insight, he served as president and CEO of ZMarket. Calabasas-based THQ Inc.’s Brian Farrell, president and CEO, has been appointed chair of the board of advisors for the Harold Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at The Andersen School at UCLA. He has been involved with the Price Center’s board since January 2000 and will lead the 30-member advisory board in its guidance of the school’s entrepreneurial program. Farrell first joined THQ in April 1991 as vice president, then served as chief financial officer and treasurer. Prior to joining THQ, he was vice president and chief financial officer at Hotel Investors Trust.

More than 20 years ago, Rockwell International established the Rockwell Science Center in then-remote, rural Thousand Oaks to dream up high-tech components vital to its work as an aerospace industry leader. Today, the one-time corporate research lab is on its own. The former Science Center is now the Rockwell Scientific Co., a four-month-old spin-off that has been retooled as a fully commercial venture. The company, which as the Science Center began doing research and development for other firms five years ago, is now expanding its client base by licensing its technologies and plans to manufacture its own products for the first time. “We’re becoming more commercial and not so much a traditional corporate research lab,” said company President and CEO Derek T. Cheung. With 485 employees in a new firm that had $97 million in revenue last year from outside clients while it was still a Rockwell division, Cheung said his company is poised to become a leader among technology firms in the 101 Tech Corridor. Rockwell Scientific is now a far cry from the costly research lab run by Rockwell International. As research and development becomes more and more expensive, some former corporate research labs have closed down and others, like Xerox Corp.’s Palo Alto Research Center and Lucent Technology Inc.’s Bell Laboratories, have seen the scope of their work cut back drastically. In recent years, Rockwell Science Center began to take on contracts from non-Rockwell clients in order to fund its operations, Cheung said. “It was a money-losing venture from the beginning,” Cheung said. “That’s why there are so few corporate research labs around today.” Since being spun off, Rockwell Scientific has moved headlong into a commercial mode by building an additional $25 million, 67,000-square-foot state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Camarillo slated to open in November. John Baliotti, an analyst with UBS Warburg, said the spin-off move allows Rockwell Scientific to license and develop new products without the constraints of a corporate structure. “They don’t have to worry about dealing with a Rockwell competitor or developing products that Rockwell can’t use,” he said. The switch from a research lab to a full-fledged commercial enterprise is an easy transition to make, said Cheung, given ideas developed at the center in the past, perhaps not essential to Rockwell International’s core strategy, became moneymakers for other companies. “We had people develop things here and then leave and take them somewhere else,” Cheung said. Time and time again, the center saw its best and brightest head out the door to form their own companies, firms like GTran Inc. of Westlake Village, Opto Diode Corp. of Newbury Park and Telcom Devices Corp. of Camarillo. “They were building their own companies with products we developed here and we weren’t getting any benefit at all from that,” Cheung said. “It was very frustrating.” Cheung’s frustration, however, was not lost on Rockwell International’s leadership, which saw the benefits of spinning off the unit as an independent company still owned by Rockwell. They recognized that not every technology that starts out as the germ of an idea becomes a product that Rockwell can use. The idea was to continue its own research and development work while allowing Rockwell Scientific to operate more as an independent enterprise, developing technologies that it could then market and perhaps even manufacture itself, said Steve Smith, a spokesman for the former Rockwell International. “The thinking was to make the company more independent and have it focus more on its commercial efforts,” Smith said. Rockwell Scientific still does much of its work for the federal government, parent company Rockwell Automation and Boeing but, Cheung said, unlike in the old days, it is now free to pursue clients that compete directly with Rockwell Automation. “We’re like any other business now, free to find our own customers,” he said. “It’s about profit now. Not anything else.” Making decisions in Thousand Oaks rather than at Rockwell Automation’s Milwaukee headquarters allows Rockwell Scientific to better respond to its market and develop its own products, Smith said. “Rockwell was also wanting to focus more on its core automation business and less on its other businesses, which were eventually spun off,” he said. Earlier this year, the Rockwell parent company spun off its avionics and communications unit, Rockwell Collins, to its shareholders, along with its automotive engine manufacturing unit, the Meritor Automotive Co. Rockwell International’s spin-off mania began in 1993 when it parted company with its aerospace and defense unit (which included Canoga Park’s Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power) and sold it to the Boeing Co. “We were fortunate that we were able to take advantage of our market and develop not only our market share, but customers to license our technology,” Cheung said. Already, the company has provided venture capital funding to Oxnard-based Acelo Semiconductor Inc. which makes high-speed semiconductors. Cheung said that won’t be its last investment either.