Corrections or additions?
These articles were
prepared for the December 20,
2000 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Life in the Fast Lane: RCN
Two years ago RCN was hiring five new people a day;
last week it gave pink slips to 70 workers in Carnegie Center, 10
percent of its workforce. It may also relinquish up to a quarter of
its Carnegie Center space. This news came on the heels of RCN’s
announcement
that it had halted construction on its Princeton Pike headquarters
(U.S. 1, December 6).
Though the company’s plummeting stock price is an obvious trigger
for cutting back, there is also a strategic reason, says Nancy Bavec,
RCN’s spokesperson. She says that RCN wants to move decision making
closer to the customer and decentralize. “RCN’s markets have grown
to a size where we can make better, faster decisions in the market
itself.”
RCN continues to rollout fiberoptic lines with bundled cable
television,
high-speed Internet, and telephone services to seven of the top ten
residential markets in the United States but has drawn back from
entering
new markets. RCN is now operating with varying degrees of market share
in New York, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles,
and San Francisco. (It had contemplated moving into Houston, Miami,
or Denver.)
Many staff functions will move to the outlying markets “where
they will have greater accountability for profit & loss statements
in their areas,” Bavec says.
Next year’s cash needs for RCN are roughly equivalent to the entire
investment made in 1999 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Though
the company reportedly has $2.7 billion in available cash, it will
spend more than half of it, $1.6 billion, in 2001.
RCN is looking for sublet tenants for about 29,000 square feet in
Carnegie 214 and 45,000 feet in Carnegie 202. RCN currently occupies
approximately 200,000 square feet at the Carnegie Center, including
60,000 square feet at its Carnegie 105 headquarters plus some space
sublet from Raytheon. RCN has also relinquished its 21,000 square-foot
call center at a Nexus Properties building on Brunswick Pike.
“We are taking a look at the business in a conservative way,”
says Bavec. “If the capital markets don’t open up for a while,
we need to consider how we can manage the business, continue to grow,
and fund the business appropriately.”
RCN Corporation (RCNC), 105 Carnegie Center, Suite300, Princeton 08540. David C. McCourt, CEO. 609-734-3700; fax,609-734-7551.Www.rcn.com.Top Of PagePVI’s Mexico DealLatin American broadcasters are more adventurous thanthose in this country, says Dennis Wilkinson, president and chiefexecutive officer of Princeton Video Image (PVI). PVI has just boughtits most successful client/licensee, Mexico City-based PublicidadVirtual, the leading revenue producer in the virtual advertisingbusiness.The transaction cost PVI 21 percent of its stock, and the Mexicancompany now owns 25.6 percent of PVI’s shares. The deal is expectedto close March 31.Among the clients for PVI’s Emmy-winning L-VIS System, an electronicvideo insertion system, are CBS for the virtual lines at the NationalFootball League’s games; ads in back of home plate for the Phillies,the Padres, and Sunday night games on ESPN; virtual billboards atmotor races for the Indy racing league; the X games for ESPN; overseassoccer games in Brussels and the Netherlands; and some golf matches.PVI has nearly doubled in size since Wilkinson came two years ago,and it now has 71 employees at 25,000 square feet in two locationson Princess Road. The buy will add $10 million in profitable revenueto PVI, Wilkinson says, and help PVI conquer other Spanish-languagemarkets. Publicidad Virtual currently provides virtual advertisingservices in Latin America for clients such as Visa, Volkswagen andNokia.Mexican advertising companies, Wilkinson says, “are veryadventurous,very open in the way they approach things. They experiment at a morerapid pace.” Broadcasters in this country are slower to adaptto new technology, he says, using the word “provincial.”Wilkinson’s view: “It’s a business model issue. It’s new. It’sdifferent. It’s pushing the envelope.”Top Of PageExpansionsExpert Plan Inc., 50 Millstone Road, Building 400,Suite 100, Cranbury 08512. Winthrop Cody, owner. 609-394-0606; fax,609-918-1328. Home page: www.expertplan.com.Expert Plan, a company that started with 10 people and 900 squarefeet at the Trenton Business and Technology Incubator on South BroadStreet, has moved up and out to Windsor Corporate Park, where it has18 full-timers and 7,270 square feet. It is a web-based applicationservice provider for Internet-based retirement planning services (U.S.1, March 15, 2000).Cody had been CIO at the Copeland Companies, the retirement planningsubsidiary of CitiGroup/Travelers. C.R. Chandrasekar, director ofinternet development, had developed object-oriented global systemsfor Morgan Stanley and had also worked at the Copeland Companies.The company offers large financial firms an “efficient andadaptable”technology to service retirement plans for small to mid-sizedcompanies— online 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and 457s. “Traditionalservices,”says Winthrop Cody, the founder, “have high administrative feesand find it difficult to adequately serve smaller companies. TheInternetallows us to focus on good service at a reasonable cost.”Ken Clark International, 2000 Lenox Drive, Suite200, Lawrenceville 08648. Kenneth Clark, president, CEO. 609-308-5200;fax, 609-308-5255. Home page: www.kenclark.com.Ken Clark moved his executive search business from 9300 square feetat Independence Way to 17,000 feet on Lenox Drive and thisheadquartersnow houses 35 employees. The company has offices in Singapore, Paris,London, Dusseldorf, and Newport Beach, and it is opening offices inSwitzerland and Japan. It does high-level retained executive searchesfor the healthcare, scientific, consumer, and industrial productsand services industries.Top Of PageCrosstown MoveNew Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police,830 Bear Tavern Road, Suite 105, West Trenton 08628. Mitchell C.Sklar,executive director. 609-637-9300; fax, 609-937-9337.The state police association will move from 777 Alexander Road onJanuary 1. The new address, phone, and fax, are as listed.Top Of PageName ChangeNextera Enterprises (Sibson & Company), 600AlexanderPark, Suite 208, Princeton 08540. Donald Gallo, principal.609-520-2700;fax, 609-520-0369. Home page: www.sibson.com.Sibson & Company expanded last summer from the Carnegie Center to24,000 square feet at Alexander Park, and now changes its name toNextera Enterprises, its owner as of two years ago. Nextera also hasLexecon and Nextera Interactive as separate business units.”Collaborationamong these groups has led to a diverse team of consultants withservicesthat are particularly attuned to these times of great change,”says Janet Dow, market relations manager. “We are approachingthe marketplace as a unified company with more than 600 consultantswho have deep and functional expertise in human capital and technologysolutions.”Corrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
