Sarnoff’s Songbird: VCs Hear Good Things
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Peter J. Mladineo and Barbara Fox were published in U.S. 1 Newspaper on September 2, 1998. All rights reserved.
Life in the Fast Lane
More high tech companies are taking root in East Windsor’s
arable soil. The latest news: I-Stat, the developer of blood diagnostic
products, is leasing 37,000 square feet at Windsor Center Drive, across
from the Lockheed Martin plant. A total of 120 employees are expected
to occupy the space by September 19. This is a consolidation of its
offices at Forrestal Center and at 109 Morgan Lane in Plainsboro.
The 303-A College Road headquarters didn’t allow I-Stat any more room
to grow, explains Bill Beattie, I-Stat’s vice president of human resources.
Moreover, the lease was expiring in September. “It’s nearly 100
percent occupied,” says Beattie.
Windsor Center is owned by Brandywine Realty, the real estate investment
trust that recently purchased the DKM portfolio on Lenox Drive. Its
size, flexibility of layout, and the economics of the property convinced
I-Stat to make the move. “It was a good deal,” says Beattie.
“It did not disrupt the commutes of the majority of our workforce.”
The nearly 60,000 square-foot building is also occupied by Happy World
day care center and preschool.
There is a minor commercial boom happening in the once-sleepy farms
along Route 571 and I-Stat is just the next in line to be enticed
by East Windsor’s affordable leases and available space. This area
has already netted Shiseido, the cosmetics manufacturer that opened
a packaging facility in the old Carter-Wallace plant up the road.
Also Windsor Corporate Park, consisting of four buildings on 115 acres
containing 300,000 square feet in the old Lockheed Martin complex,
is almost ready to come on to the Class A market. “Space can be
delivered in a matter of a few months,” said Aubrey Haines, of
GMH Realty, the leasing agent.
Janice Mironov, East Windsor’s mayor, is practically
talking Silicon Valley. “We’re on a roll and we fully anticipate
that it will continue,” she says. “It’s a super location and
companies are realizing that. We also have put into place some very
business-friendly streamlined procedures within the community to assist
businesses and we also have a attractive high quality community for
people to live and work in. These are all very high-tech, high-quality
type businesses that we have been attracting along that corridor.”
I-Stat’s main product is a hand-held, point-of-care diagnostic system
that does blood analyses using a few drops of blood. It consists of
an analyzer roughly the size of a portable phone and disposable test
cartridges that perform the most common blood tests. I-Stat is marketing
this system to neonatalogist as an alternative means to monitoring
pre-term infants (who are currently given regular blood transfusions
while on intensive care watches). I-Stat systems are in use in health
organizations including VHA, Kaiser Permanente, and Premier. The company
is traded on NASDAQ as STAT.
I-Stat’s net sales for the second quarter increased by $10.5 million,
24.95 percent, compared to last year’s second quarter increase of
$8.4 million. I-Stat cartridges have also been selling well. The sales
volume increased by 47.7 percent in the second quarter, 1.62 million
units, compared to 1.10 million units for the same period last year.
More importantly, in August I-Stat signed an agreement with Abbott
Laboratories where Abbott would take over the sales and marketing
aspects of I-Stat’s analyzers in exchange for an minority equity position
— 2 million shares at $11.35 per share. The two would collaborate
on the development of new products. “Abbott gives I-Stat the marketing
and distribution strength we need to realize the full potential of
our technology,” says William P. Moffitt, president and CEO, in
a press release. “This alliance will also help us achieve the
economies we need to maximize the efficiency of our production process,
making our products even more cost-efficient.”
— Peter J. Mladineo
I-STAT Corp., 303 A College Road East, Princeton08540. William P. Moffitt, president and CEO. 609-243-9300; fax, 609-243-9311.Home page: https://www.i-stat.com.Top Of PageSarnoff’s Songbird: VCs Hear Good ThingsSongbird Medical Corporation, a little-known researchfirm working on new hearing aid technology, has received $12 millionin second-round financing, the single largest investment in New Jerseyduring the second quarter of 1998. Fred Fritz is the president ofthis latest spinoff of the Sarnoff Corporation that is keeping aneye on the demographics of an aging baby boomer population.Fritz majored in engineering at the University of Illinois, Classof 1972, and has an MBA from Harvard; most recently he was presidentof Coleman North America. Ron Goldfuss, the CFO, majored in economicsat Boston College, Class of 1968, and has a Wharton MBA. Mike Tardugnois the senior vice president, and the rest of Songbird’s team is madeup of Sarnoff employees.”Sarnoff has a reputation on the TV side but they do a tremendousnumber of other products in medically related areas. Many of the otherthings that Sarnoff has worked on will come into play,” says Goldfuss.Though Songbird is being billed as working on “disposable”hearing aids, the throw-away aspect is not the company’s central concern,he says.A Boston-area firm, Prism Venture Partners, led the first round offinancing along with Johnson & Johnson Development Corp. and TredegarInvestments Inc. They were joined for the second round by Bank ofAmerica Ventures and Oak Investment Partners.In spite of Songbird’s success, venture capital investment in thestate is down when compared to the same quarter last year, reportsBob Roche, regional director of the survey taken by PricewaterhouseCoopers.Songbird and 16 other companies received a total of $73.1 millionin the quarter ending this June, compared with last year when 21 companiesreceived nearly double that amount, $132 million.Nettech Systems Inc. at 600 Alexander Road (https://www.nettechrf.com)received $3.5 million in second stage financing from Early Stage Enterprise,Graystone Ventures, and Keystone Ventures .Signius, formerly of Witherspoon Street and now located in Somerset,has $3 million in bridge financing from UST Private Equity InvestorsInc. and Fidelity Ventures. It is doing roll-up mergers of pagingdispatch services, voicemail, and telemarketing communications services.Therics Inc. at University Square (https://www.therics.com) reportedlyreceived $2,500,000 from IAI Ventures Inc. for its innovative 3-Dproduction process for medical products and devices. SysTech Solutions,the packager of automation software on Cedar Drive in Cranbury (https://www.systech-tips.com)received a $500,000 bridge investment from Anthem Capital and EuclidPartners IV.”Technology industry companies received over three quarters ofall investment dollars in New Jersey,” says Roche. “SevenNew Jersey-based venture capital funds reported investing $42.2 millionin 17 deals during the most recent quarter.” Among them, AccelPartners of Palmer Square, gave $1 million to an Oceanport-based firm,Tellium Inc., to develop low noise broadband transmission technology.Songbird Medical Corporation, c/o Sarnoff, CN 5300,Princeton 08543-5300. Fred Fritz, president. 609-734-2000; fax, 609-720-4847.Top Of PageSJP Groundbreaking:Spec on Roszel RoadGroundbreaking for a $40 million 300,000 square footbuilding at Alexander and Roszel roads, the first speculative constructionin Princeton in years, will be Thursday, September 3, at 2 p.m. A26,000 square foot warehouse is being torn down for the Class A officebuilding, designed by Bob Blakeman of the Hillier Group, to be builtby Bovis Construction. “The vacancy rate in this market is 1 percentand largest block of contiguous space is about 9,000 square feet,”says Charlie Hatfield, vice president of SJP Properties.”A lot of people said they were going to be first to break groundon a spec building,” says Hatfield, former director of corporatemarketing for the Hillier Group, “but we did, and we are.”SJP, founded by Steven J. Pozycki, manages 12 million feet of ClassA space and is one of the largest privately held real estate developmentand management companies in the state.Top Of PageNew CEO at CytogenH. Joseph Reiser is the answer to Cytogen’s search fora new president/CEO and a new direction for a firm that is rich intechnological potential but struggling to find a workable businessplan. He replaces founding scientist Thomas J. McKearn and a boardmember from Boston University, John E. Bagalay, who had served asacting CEO since June.Reiser went to Indiana University, Class of 1970, and stayed to earna PhD in physiology. After a stint in academe he spent virtually hisentire business career, 17 years, at Berlex Laboratories, the Wayne-basedsubsidiary of Schering AG, most recently as corporate vice presidentand general manager, pharmaceuticals. On his four-year watch, he increasedrevenue growth, started new direct-to-consumer marketing programs,and initiated various unusual clinical development programs in painmanagement and gene therapy.Berlex is known for a sustained release cardiovascular drug, an oralcontraceptive, transdermal estrogen replacement therapy, and the introductionof Betaseron, the first commercial product for treatment of multiplesclerosis.Cytogen firm markets and develops products for targeted delivery ofdiagnostic and therapeutic substances directly to sites of disease.It went public in 1986 and has had three products approved by theFood & Drug Administration nuclear medicine-based diagnostics: Quadramet,Prostascint, and OncoScint (U.S. 1, June 24). Founder McKearn is nowworking on lymphocyte therapy at a Massachusetts-based subsidiary,Cellcor.Cytogen Corporation, 600 College Road East, CN5308, Princeton 08543-5308. H. Joseph Reiser, president and CEO. 609-987-8200;fax, 609-452-2975. Home page: https://www.cytogen.com.Top Of PageNew in TownDocument Depot, 126 Stanhope Street, PrincetonForrestal Village, Princeton 08540. Edward Keenan, owner and president.609-520-0094; fax, 609-520-1294. E-mail: edkimkeen@aol.com.Edward Keenan has opened a copy shop/computer rental store in ForrestalVillage. Keenan, 31, has a degree from Fordham University (Class of1989), was controller and systems manager for Office Tech in Bellmawr.Top Of PageCrosstown MovesLapjack Systems, 5 Independence Way, Princeton08540. Andy Goren, president and CEO. 609-514-5181; fax, 609-514-5176.Home page: https://www.lapjack.com.Lapjack Systems moved to the Office Gallery at 5 Independence Way,vacating a suite at 600 Alexander Road it moved into earlier thisyear. The toll free number is still 888-LAPJACK, but the phone andfax are still new.”It made a lot of sense to us,” says Andy Goren, the president.Since he launched Lapjack, a security device for laptops, in June,the product has sold nearly 10,000 units — most of them in Europewhere the company is working with more master distributors. It isa subsidiary of TV Objects.The Spencer Group Inc., 475 Wall Street, ResearchPark, Princeton 08540. Gordon W. Spencer, president. 609-252-0111;fax, 609-252-0060.It moved from 3,000 square feet in 104 Carnegie Center to a sharedsuite in Research Park’s D/J Business Services at 475 Wall Street.The firm specializes in product acquisition for major retail chainsand management advisory service relative to the apparel industry.HIP Health Plan of New Jersey, 1 HIP Plaza, NorthBrunswick 08902. Victoria A. Wicks, president and CEO. 732-937-7600;fax, 732-937-7810. Home page: https://www.hipnj.com.The computer center at 100 Horizon Drive has moved to consolidatewith headquarters at HIP Plaza in North Brunswick.Outpost Outpost Inc., 301 North Harrison Street,#411, Princeton 08540. Janice Abrahams, president. 609-921-6001; fax,609-252-9605. E-mail: info@outpost2.com. Home page: https://www.outpost2.com.The Internet consulting firm moved from 295 Nassau Street to the AparriDance Studio at 217 Nassau Street. The mailing address is 301 NorthHarrison Street, Number 411, Princeton 08540. The phone and fax remainthe same.Gateway Funding, 1230 Parkway Avenue, Suite 101A, Ewing 08628-3081. Allan Smith, branch manager. 609-671-1080; fax,609-671-1240.Consolidated Mortgage changed its name to Gateway Funding, the nameof its parent company, and moved out of 2,000 square feet at 100 CanalPoint Boulevard to 1230 Parkway Avenue in Ewing.O’Gorman & Johnsen, 624 Rosedale Road, Princeton08540. 609-921-0777.John O’Gorman moved his investment banking outfit from 3490 Route1 to his home. He had left his post as regional vice president withUnited Jersey Bank, where he had been for 27 years, when UJB mergedwith Summit, and he started his own firm with J.P. Morgan alumnusJim Johnsen.Top Of PageDeathsElizabeth Ann Jungeblut, 67, on August 18. She was a seniorresearch assistant at ETS.Christine Elizabeth Sutton, 54, on August 23. She hadworked at Applegarth Care Center.William J. Malloy, 75, on August 23. He was a maintenancesupervisor at Princeton University.Sukhmandir Singh Khalsa, 48, on August 25. He was co-directorof the Khalsa Yoga Center in Hamilton.John S. LaMarca, 74, on August 26. He was president of the InternationalUnion of Electronic Electrical Technical Salaried & Machine WorkersLocal 469.Corrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
