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."
300, Princeton 08540. David C. McCourt, CEO. 609-734-3700; fax,
609-734-7551.
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PVI’s Mexico Deal
Latin American broadcasters are more adventurous than
those in this country, says Dennis Wilkinson, president and chief
executive officer of Princeton Video Image (PVI). PVI has just bought
its most successful client/licensee, Mexico City-based Publicidad
Virtual, the leading revenue producer in the virtual advertising
business.
The transaction cost PVI 21 percent of its stock, and the Mexican
company now owns 25.6 percent of PVI’s shares. The deal is expected
to close March 31.
Among the clients for PVI’s Emmy-winning L-VIS System, an electronic
video insertion system, are CBS for the virtual lines at the National
Football League’s games; ads in back of home plate for the Phillies,
the Padres, and Sunday night games on ESPN; virtual billboards at
motor races for the Indy racing league; the X games for ESPN; overseas
soccer 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 locations
on Princess Road. The buy will add $10 million in profitable revenue
to PVI, Wilkinson says, and help PVI conquer other Spanish-language
markets. Publicidad Virtual currently provides virtual advertising
services in Latin America for clients such as Visa, Volkswagen and
Nokia.
Mexican advertising companies, Wilkinson says, "are very
adventurous,
very open in the way they approach things. They experiment at a more
rapid pace." Broadcasters in this country are slower to adapt
to new technology, he says, using the word "provincial."
Wilkinson’s view: "It’s a business model issue. It’s new. It’s
different. It’s pushing the envelope."
Top Of Page
Expansions
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 square
feet at the Trenton Business and Technology Incubator on South Broad
Street, has moved up and out to Windsor Corporate Park, where it has
18 full-timers and 7,270 square feet. It is a web-based application
service provider for Internet-based retirement planning services (U.S.
1, March 15, 2000).
Cody had been CIO at the Copeland Companies, the retirement planning
subsidiary of CitiGroup/Travelers. C.R. Chandrasekar, director of
internet development, had developed object-oriented global systems
for Morgan Stanley and had also worked at the Copeland Companies.
The company offers large financial firms an "efficient and
adaptable"
technology to service retirement plans for small to mid-sized
companies
— online 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and 457s. "Traditional
services,"
says Winthrop Cody, the founder, "have high administrative fees
and find it difficult to adequately serve smaller companies. The
Internet
allows us to focus on good service at a reasonable cost."
200, 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 feet
at Independence Way to 17,000 feet on Lenox Drive and this
headquarters
now houses 35 employees. The company has offices in Singapore, Paris,
London, Dusseldorf, and Newport Beach, and it is opening offices in
Switzerland and Japan. It does high-level retained executive searches
for the healthcare, scientific, consumer, and industrial products
and services industries.
Top Of Page
Crosstown Move
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 on
January 1. The new address, phone, and fax, are as listed.
Top Of Page
Name Change
Alexander
Park, 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 to
24,000 square feet at Alexander Park, and now changes its name to
Nextera Enterprises, its owner as of two years ago. Nextera also has
Lexecon and Nextera Interactive as separate business units.
"Collaboration
among these groups has led to a diverse team of consultants with
services
that are particularly attuned to these times of great change,"
says Janet Dow, market relations manager. "We are approaching
the marketplace as a unified company with more than 600 consultants
who have deep and functional expertise in human capital and technology
solutions."
Corrections or additions?
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