Corrections or additions?
These articles were prepared for the January 7, 2004 issue of U.S.
1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Life in the Fast Lane
After more than 30 years of serving drinks and food in a convivial
atmosphere, the Rusty Scupper has left port, headed for uncharted
waters. The 50-person staff had less than two days notice of the
shut-down on Saturday, January 3. No decision has been made about what
will be done with the building, whether it will continue as a
restaurant or be used for another purpose.
"The property is not for sale," says Toby Laughlin, a realtor who is a
part owner. "I am talking to various people, but it is at a
preliminary stage, and I’m open to everything right now."
Laughlin declined to be specific about why the national restaurant
chain did not renew its lease. "As in any sort of landlord/tenant
situation, you renegotiate rents from time to time, and it was a
matter of not getting together on that."
The parent company, Select Restaurant Inc. in Cleveland, Ohio, says it
is looking for a new location in Princeton. It owns the liquor license
and has told Princeton Township that the license will go on inactive
status until it is placed at another location or sold.
Like many restaurants in the area, the Scupper seemed to have lost
some business after 9/11. But the owners had been moving aggressively,
with marketing efforts that included a billboard on Route 1, and a new
chef had recently been installed. The Scupper’s second floor was a
gathering place for many professional clubs and singles groups. Last
fall General Wesley Clark’s New Jersey campaign hosted a fundraiser
there.
Laughlin says he regrets the restaurant’s closing: "Over the years
we’ve had a great relationship with the Rusty Scupper." The 10,000
square foot property was built in 1972 for the Rusty Scupper chain by
Laughlin’s father and another partner. Although Princeton University
owns a small part of the parking lot, and New Jersey Transit has a
right of way through the property, the major part of the land and all
of the buildings is owned half by the Laughlin family, and half by
another family.
A graduate of the Hun School and Colorado College, Class of 1972,
Laughlin has a business, Laughlin Real Estate, on Tamarack Circle in
Skillman and focuses on commercial and residential property management
and development. Formerly he had been developing apartments, but now
he concentrates on telecommunications towers. He sold his first firm,
Princeton Towers Pennsylvania, which had 50 towers, and currently owns
about 20 towers.
Maybe the Scupper’s problem was that it was neither "here nor there,"
neither downtown Princeton, where it could attract foot traffic, or on
Route 1, where it would get more visibility.
Top Of Page
Voxware Cleans House
Even though 10-year-old Voxware has had success in landing financing,
getting contracts, and increasing revenues, the company’s CEO,
Bathsheba J. Malsheen, is leaving and the CFO, Nicholas Narlin,
resigned last month.
Founded by Michael Goldstein in 1993, Voxware’s current business is
integrated voice-based solutions for distribution and logistics
operations. While the stock sometimes dipped below $1 in its early
years, it has been trading below 20 cents for the past two years. Yet
its revenues doubled from $4 million to $8 million last year. One of
the two biggest investors in the company is Lenox Drive-based Edison
Venture Fund.
The new CEO is Thomas J. Drury, a venture capitalist who has had great
success with Sensar Inc., the Moorestown-based biometrics company that
spun off from Sarnoff Corporation. An alumnus of St. Peter’s College,
he was CEO in 1998 during Sensar’s strong growth period, and has also
been CEO of Micro Dynamics, a document imaging software firm, and Urix
Corp., a voice processing equipment and software company. Drury’s most
recent venture capital firm, BaseCamp 1, is not an investor in
Voxware, says a Voxware spokesperson.
In December 2003 the Voxware landed a $2 million loan from Silicon
Valley Bank to pay off debt and make investments in sales, marketing,
and customer service programs. The loan is secured by the two biggest
stockholders, Edison Venture Fund V and Cross Atlantic Technology Fund
II.
Counting on the company to be profitable in Western Europe, Edison and
the other venture capitalists had led a $5.6 million round of private
financing in June, 2003. Sure enough, on January 5, Voxware announced
that its VoiceLogistics warehouse system is going to be used by a top
global retailer, the French firm Intermarche. Other contracts have
been signed with CooperVision, 7-Eleven, and US Food Service.
Voxware’s controller, Allen M. Adler, has been filling in as interim
CFO since Narlis resigned last month. The stock traded at $.037 on
December 31, 2002, and at $.13 on December 31, 2003.
Suite
3, Lawrenceville 08648. 609-514-4100; fax, 609-514-4101. Home page:
Top Of Page
DotPhoto Funding
Glenn Paul’s web-based digital photo processing company, Dotphoto.com,
landed $4 million in venture capital funding on New Year’s Day.
Lenox-Drive based Edison Venture Fund led the round with $3 million,
and Sycamore Ventures, on Vaughn Drive, chipped in $1 million. The
company is privately held.
Ewing, Ewing 08628. Glenn Paul, founder. 609-434-0340; fax,
609-434-0344. Home page: www.dotphoto.com
Top Of Page
Stock Roundup
The bulls are on the run, and Princeton-area companies are right in
step. Nearly all of our publicly-traded companies posted gains in
2003. The good news covered young biotechs, some of which were up 300
percent and more, as well as vulnerable oldsters like Church & Dwight.
Powered by newly redesigned kitty litter, among other well-received
products, it moved ahead a solid 30 percent. Banks did well, as did
publishers. Results were mixed for technology companies, but many,
like Universal Display Corporation and ITXC Corp., moved solidly
ahead.
Perhaps better yet, in their most recent filings with the Securities
and Exchange Commission (SEC), even companies that are still lagging
reported that orders are up. After a bruising recession, few companies
are euphoric, but most are at least cautiously optimistic.
Street, CN 5297, Princeton 08543-5297. Robert A. Davies III, chairman
and CEO. 609-683-5900; fax, 609-497-7177. Home page: www.armhammer.com
Stock price on December 31, 2002: $30.43
Stock price on December 31, 2003: $39.60
Reporting positive results for its most recent quarter on November 3,
2003, the baking powder power said it had posted a 10 percent increase
over the prior period. The company’s liquid laundry products are
flying off the shelves, offsetting poorer sales of dry laundry
products. Other earnings spikes came as a result of the introduction
of new cat litter and carpet deodorized products, while cleaner sales
were dampened by a safety recall of an item from the company’s Sno Bol
toilet bowl cleaner line.
Road, Box
3127, Mercerville 08619. Roger Marcus, president, CEO. 609-584-3000;
fax, 609-584-3685. Home page: www.congoleum.com
December 31, 2002: $.42
December 31, 2003: $.68
On the last day of the year, the floor covering maker filed a
prepackaged bankruptcy plan, saying that it had garnered needed
support from asbestos claimants. The markets reacted favorably,
sending the company’s stock over $1.
Congoleum said it plans to seek quick confirmation of the plan, filed
in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Trenton to resolve claims related to its
use of asbestos decades ago in flooring products.
According to a Reuters report, when the reorganization plan is
confirmed, Congoleum will contribute certain insurance rights and a
note for about $2.7 million to a trust for asbestos personal injury
claimants. The plan also calls for Congoleum’s other creditors to be
paid in full and for shareholders to retain their stake in the
company.
The Trenton-based company said it expected to record a $3.7 million
fourth-quarter charge to boost its reserve for estimated costs
required to complete its reorganization.
The company began soliciting final approval for the Chapter 11
reorganization plan in October.
The vinyl floor maker has 694 employees at two facilities in Trenton
and 442 at factories in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
08540-6681. Chris Kuebler, chairman and CEO. 609-452-8550; fax,
609-452-9375. Home page:
December 31, 2002: $24.59
December 31, 2003: $26.80
Covance’s third quarter earnings jumped 24 percent over earnings in
the same quarter one year ago.
In filing the results with the SEC, Chris Kuebler, chairman and CEO,
said that "ongoing productivity improvements drove increased
profitability and earnings." Results were especially strong in the
drug discovery company’s Early Development unit, which posted
operating margins of 22 percent, top line growth of 11.6 percent, and
strong new order flow.
The drug development service company has operations in 17 countries
and 6,900 employees worldwide. It is pulling in an increasing number
of large, multi-capability projects, as net orders have increased for
two quarters in a row. It sees market dynamics on the upswing.
Suite
3100, Princeton 08543-5308. Michael Becker, president and CEO.
609-750-8200; fax, 609-452-2476. Home page: www.cytogen.com
December 31, 2002: $3.25
December 31, 2003: $10.88
Cytogen, a product-driven, oncology-focused biopharmaceutical,
reported a steep increase in revenue for third quarter 2003, to $5.51
million from $3.10 million in the year-ago period. While the company
is still losing money, it is doing so at only half the rate of one
year ago, and reports sufficient cash on hand to take it through at
least 2005.
The year saw the reacquisition of marketing rights to key product
Quadrament, and a marketing realignment whereby the company will sell
NMP22 PladderChek in the U.S. exclusively to oncologists after
December 31, 2003. The company’s strategy is to devote sales and
marketing resources to products with significantly higher gross
margins.
Also on a positive note, Cytogen is "cautiously optimistic" that
encouraging clinical data will lead to approval of Combidex, a novel
lymph node imaging agent developed by Advanced Magnetics, which it
intends to market pending clearance by the U.S. FDA.
Road,
Windsor Business Park, Building 2-A, Box 7528, Princeton 08543-7528.
Robert V. Tarantino, CEO. 609-799-0071; fax, 609-936-1369. Home page:
December 31, 2002: $3.09
December 31, 2003: $4.20
Dataram, in the computer memory business, saw an increase in orders in
its second quarter, ended October 31, 2003. Robert V. Tarantino, the
company’s chairman and CEO, in releasing the results, commented that
"We are encouraged by recent improvements in our level of business.
Our order rate improved in the second quarter, particularly in the
latter part of the quarter."
Margins were up, too, as prices of certain DRAMs increased.
The company sees improvement in demand, "albeit sporadic," going
forward in the new year.
Suite
100, Princeton 08540. Edward J. Quilty, CEO. 609-514-4744; fax,
609-514-0502. Home page: www.dermasciences.com
December 31, 2002: $.75
December 31, 2003: $.40
Derma Sciences, a manufacturer and full line supplier of wound and
skin care products, reported a net sales increase of 33 percent for
its third quarter, ended September 30, 2003. Sales of $4.2 million
compared with sales of $3.2 million in third quarter 2002.
Net loss for the quarter was $.01 per basic and diluted common share.
Edward J. Quilty, president and CEO, commented, "We continue to make
measured progress quarter over quarter, but realize there is still
considerable work to be accomplished to drive profitability to a level
consistent with our potential." He added that new contracts and the
launch of new products "position us well to achieve our goals" in the
new year.
Princeton 08540. Craig Muhlhauser, president and COO. 609-627-7200;
Home page: www.exideworld.com
December 31, 2002, $.275
December 31, 2003, $.025
Exide tried to reorganize by filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy but the
U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware nixed the company’s
proposal. The court said the company put too low a value on its
holdings. A report on the company’s negotiations with its creditors is
due on January 22.
With operations in 89 countries and net sales last year of
approximately $2.4 billion, Exide Technologies is one of the worlds
largest producers and recyclers of lead-acid batteries. It has two
major groups, industrial energy and transportation.
311
Enterprise Drive, Plainsboro 08536. Stuart M. Essig, president/CEO.
609-936-3600; fax, 609-936-2263. Home page: www.integra-ls.com
December 31, 2002: $17.65
December 31, 2003: $28.66
Integra, which develops, manufactures, and markets medical devices for
use primarily in neuro-trauma and neurosurgery, plastic, and
reconstructive surgery, had a good year. In line with its strategy of
growing through acquisitions, it acquired the assets of Tissue
Technologies in August; it acquired J. Jamner Surgical Instruments in
March; and it acquired the epilepsy monitoring and neurosurgical shunt
business of the Radionics division of Tyco Healthcare Group in
December 2002.
The company posted a 56 percent increase in revenue for third quarter
2003 as compared with the year ago period. In its SEC filing, Integra
stated that it expects "future growth will be driven by our expanded
product lines, domestic and international sales and marketing
organizations, and distribution channels."
The company is also seeking to grow its bottom line going forward
through still more acquisitions in areas that complement existing
products and operations.
08540. Tom Evslin, chairman and CEO. 609-750-3333; fax, 609-419-1511.
Home page: www.itxc.com
December 31, 2002, $2.32
December 31, 2003, $4.31
Six years after Tom Evslin founded this Internet telephony company, he
announced it would be sold to a Montreal-based firm, Teleglobe, a
traditional telco that has just emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The sale, expected to take place this year, will help update the
Canadian company, a former division of Bell Canada that trades on the
New York Stock Exchange as TGO. Meanwhile the web-based voice business
will continue to operate from ITXC’s current headquarters on College
Road. Evslin has said he wants to retire.
ITXC has carried nearly 10 billion minutes of voice service to carrier
customers around the world. In the fourth quarter of 2003 it hit the
one billion minute mark.
08540.
Martin Tuchman, chairman and CEO. 609-452-8900; fax, 609-452-8211.
Home page: www.interpool.com
Shareholders of Interpool are still waiting for audited statements for
2000 through 2002, but on January 15 they will get their usual
quarterly dividend of $.0625 cents per share, worth $1.7 million.
After the Arthur Andersen accounting scandals, Interpool fired its
accounting team, and then the chief financial officer and president
resigned when an outside law firm discovered irregularities that
caused the reporting delays. Interpool says that when it reveals the
changes, they will be minimal, but the Securities and Exchange
Commission has begun an investigation. Reports for 2000, 2001 and 2002
show that the cargo container leasing business remains profitable,
Chairman Martin Tuchman assumed the president’s duties and said that
the report showed the former president, Raoul Witteveen, authorizing
transactions that would have improperly increased earnings, but that
the financial statements did not contain any misstatement as a result
of these transactions.
James F. Walsh will officially be Interpool’s new chief financial
officer on April 1, and until then he is working at the company in
other capacities. Richard Gross is interim chief financial officer.
With 100 workers at the College Road headquarters, Interpool is the
world’s largest lessor of intermodal container chassis and a
world-leading lessor of cargo containers used in international trade.
New
Brunswick 08933. William C. Weldon, chairman & CEO. 732-524-0400; fax,
732-214-0332. Home page: www.jnj.com
December 31, 2002: $53.71
December 31, 2003: $51.66
The financial press is beginning to label pharma giant J&J a bargain.
Results are robust, but, like many pharmaceuticals, its stock price
has been lagging.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2003, the company racked up
overall sales of $30.6 billion, up 13.8 percent from the year ago
period. Domestic sales, at $18.5 billion, were up 10.9 percent.
Increases came in across the board, in both consumer and
pharmaceutical divisions.
A lawsuit by medical technology company Conmed claiming anti-trust
practices hurt J&J’s stock price as the fourth quarter drew to an end.
Conmed claims that J&J has used unfair tactics to corner 60 percent of
the $1 billion market for endoscopy surgical devices used in minimally
invasive surgery.
Another concern for investors: Questions over the safety of the
company’s Cypher stents used in angioplasty procedures.
08540.
Donald L. Drakeman, CEO. 609-430-2880; fax, 609-430-2850. Home page:
December 31, 2002, $3.95
December 31, 2003, $6.23
Medarex and its licensees have 16 fully-human antibodies that are
either being used in human clinical trials or are in the applications
stage. All of these antibodies have been derived from Medarex’s
UltiMAb mouse.
The most recent antibody, from Genmab, is for the treatment of
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Medarex has five of the antibody therapeutics
under development by Medarex for diseases that include melanoma,
prostate cancer, breast cancer, HIV, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and
anaplastic large cell lymphoma as well as autoimmune diseases. Other
licensees, including Centocor/J&J and Novartis, are developing fully
human antibodies for diseases such as cancer, lymphoma, rheumatoid
arthritis, and other autoimmune diseases.
CN
5350, Princeton 08543-5350. Joseph A. Mollica, CEO. 609-452-3600; fax,
609-452-3672. Home page: www.pcop.com
December 31, 2002, $8.92
December 31, 2003, $14.23
Pharmacopeia will restructure itself and split its software operations
from its drug discovery division. The software accounted for $95
million of $125 million in sales in 2002.
The drug discovery business will stay on Eastpark Boulevard, as will
CEO Joseph Mollica and 170 employees. It does proprietary small
molecule combinatorial and medicinal chemistry, high-throughput
screening, in-vitro pharmacology, computational methods and
informatics to discover and optimize lead compounds.
Its software subsidiary, Accelrys, which has 530 employees in San
Diego, develops and commercializes molecular modeling and simulation
software for the life sciences and materials research markets,
cheminformatics and decision support systems, and bioinformatics
tools, including gene sequence analysis.
Princeton 08540. Edward Breen, CEO. 609-720-0024. Home page:
December 31, 2002, $17.08
December 31, 2003, $26.50
Operating in more than 100 countries, Tyco is officially based in
Bermuda but has moved its United States headquarters to Roszel Road.
Tyco’s chief financial officer, David FitzPatrick, has said he wants
to halve the company’s debt to about $10-$12 billion and then use cash
to make acquisitions.
The former chairman, Dennis Kozlowski, is being tried on charges that
he and former CFO Mark Swartz wrongfully took $600 million from the
firm.
Having spent $60 billion to acquire hundreds of companies, Tyco is the
world’s leading provider of electronic security services, fire
protection services, passive electronic components, and industrial
valves and controls. It also has undersea fiber optic networks and
services, medical products, and plastics and adhesives. Revenues from
continuing operations in 2003 were about $37 billion.
Jersey
Avenue, Building B, Suite 310, New Brunswick 08901-3279. Ramesh C.
Pandey, CEO. 732-247-3300; fax, 732-247-4090. Www.xechem.com
December 31, 2002, $.0008
December 31, 2003, $.155
Xechem International Inc. has bought a privately held biotech company,
Ceptor Inc., for $6 million in stock. Xechem assumed $300,000 in debt.
The Brooklyn-based Ceptor will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Xechem.
Its lead product inhibits the primary protease that degrades skeletal
muscle and might be used to treat muscular dystrophy. A clinical trial
for muscular dystrophy could begin this year.
Xechem International, Inc. is a fully integrated biopharmaceutical
company focusing on proprietary technologies for orphan diseases.
Top Of Page
More Stock News
08540. Daniel L. Peters, president. 609-514-6000; fax, 609-514-6572.
Home page: www.amershamhealth.com
December 31, 2002, $44.40
December 31, 2003, $68.28
Headquarters of R&D, manufacturing, and marketing firm operating in
the western hemisphere, with a specialty in medical diagnostics and
radiotherapy products, formerly Nycomed Amersham.
Executive Center, Box 902, Monmouth Junction 08852-0920. Clifford
Stanley, president, CEO. 609-514-9696; fax, 609-514-2692.
December 31, 2002: $14.28
December 31, 2003: $18.47
Design, marketing, and manufacturing for hotel amenities and cleaning
supplies.
Floor, Trenton 08608-1298. Robert M. Jelenic, chairman, president and
CEO. 609-396-2200; fax, 609-396-2292. Home page:
December 31, 2002, $17.78
December 31, 2003, $20.70
Newspaper publishing, owner of the Trentonian, New Haven Register, and
22 other daily and 204 non-daily publications.
Robbinsville 08691. Joseph Mo, chairman, CEO, and president.
609-208-9688; fax, 609-208-1868. Home page: www.nexmed.com
December 31, 2002, $.71
December 31, 2003, $3.99
Development of NexACT transdermal drug delivery technology – Alprox-TD
and Femprox creams for ED and female sexual arousal disorder,
respectively
Fourth Floor, Box 183, Princeton 08542-0183. John Short, CEO.
908-281-5100; fax, 908-281-5103. Home page: www.opinionresearch.com
December 31, 2002, $5.60
December 31, 2003, $6.37
A global measurement-based marketing services firm with fact-based
market intelligence, with 200 people in the United States.
Cedar Brook Corporate Center, Cranbury 08512. Carl Spana PhD,
president & CEO. 609-495-2200; fax, 609-495-2201. Home page:
December 31, 2002, $1.98
December 31, 2003, $2.50
Products for sexual dysfunction and appendicitis detection, also
product to facilitate ultrasound testing.
08540. David C. McCourt, chairman and CEO. 609-734-3700; fax,
609-734-4586. Home page: www.rcn.com
December 31, 2002, $.53
December 31, 2003, $.68
A national single-sourced facilities-based competitive provider of
bundled phone, cable television, and high-speed Internet services
420, New Brunswick 08901. Bruce C. Galton, CEO. 732-296-8400; fax,
732-296-9292. Home page: www.senesco.com
December 31, 2002, $2.10
December 31, 2003, $3.31
Agrobiotechnology – developing gene technology to extend the
shelf-life of produce, regulating the onset of cell death
Plainsboro 08536. Kenneth Hoeg, vice president applications
engineering. 609-750-1600; fax, 609-750-1480. Home page:
December 31, 2002, $1.33
December 31, 2003, $1.64
Developer of chip called the WaveMeter that monitors computer,
software, and/or information service usage through encryption and
metering technology.
Business Park Building B, Pennington 08534. Quentin T. Kelly, CEO.
609-818-0700; fax, 609-818-0720. Home page: www.worldwater.com
December 31, 2002, $.16
December 31, 2003, $.135
Principal supplier of renewable energy and remote water supply for
emerging nations – water management and solar energy company,
designing, developing and marketing proprietary technology
head @14 = Crosstown Moves
08525. Kristine Toth, owner/manager. 609-466-2700; fax, 609-466-5681.
Www.uniglobeallaroundtravel.com
Uniglobe All Around Travel has moved from 2 Mercer Street in Hopewell
to 11 Princeton Avenue in Hopewell. Owner Kristine Toth says the new
quarters are more cost efficient. She also reports that her retail
clients are heading "anywhere warm" during the upcoming holidays.
Business is brisk, and many prime resorts are completely sold out.
Cruises are especially popular.
Meanwhile, business travel at her 32-year-old agency, which she has
owned for five years is way up. "It’s doubled since January," she
says.
Cynthia A. Avery, president. 609-921-9111; fax, 609-921-0095.
Cynthia Avery and Edward Schlueter have moved their recruiting firm to
from the first floor to the second floor in order to have more privacy
at Montgomery Commons. Focusing on packaging and food processing
machinery, and pharmaceutical processing industries, they search
nationally for senior sales and marketing positions, general
management, and presidents.
Schlueter graduated with a chemistry major from Hunter, College in
1964 and has a master’s degree in management from at Brooklyn
Polytech. He had worked at InterChemical, Tidland Corporation, and Big
Three Industries (a Houston-based conglomerate), and moved to
Princeton in 1989. His wife, Avery, had been a biochemistry major at
Wheaton College in Massachusetts and had worked for American Cyanamid
and Celanese before going into the recruiting business 25 years ago.
She and her husband opened their business in 1978.
Top Of Page
Deaths
Tomako Nakayama, 66, on December 26. She had been a staff advisor at
GE/RCA
Lawrence C. Ellery Jr., 63, on December 28. He was a self-employed
professional quality engineer.
Marcos A. Carrasquillo Rabelo, 63, on December 30. He worked at the
Nassau Inn.
Raymond A. Hartmann Sr., 59, on January 1. He was a telecommunications
analyst at New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company.
Nicholas A. Mastoris, 87, on January 3. He and his wife founded
Mastoris Diner Restaurant in Bordentown.
Corrections or additions?
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