Survey picks Fleet as best small biz. bank
BOSTON — A survey of 300 small businesses (fewer than 100 employees) for Your Company Magazine, a bi-monthly small business magazine with a circulation of 1.2 million readers, chose Fleet Bank as the best for small businesses. Fleet claims more than 300,000 small business customers and asserts it is the largest small business lender in New England with $4 billion in current loan commitments. Your Company is published by Time Inc. in cooperation with American Express.
Hasbro Interactive to sponsor Gravity Games
BEVERLY – Hasbro Interactive, the interactive games publisher for its parent, Hasbro, Inc. has become the fifth sponsor for the Gravity Games, the new sports, lifestyle and music festival from NBC Sports and EMAP Peterson, Inc. The event debuts Sept. 5 through 12 this year in Providence, RI, and will be broadcast on NBC in October on five successive Sundays. Other sponsors are Mountain Dew, Toyota, UNIONBAY, and the United States Marine Corps. The Gravity Games feature seven alternative sports, including various bike events, aggressive inline skating, downhill skateboarding, skateboarding, street luge, wakeboarding, and free-style motorcross.
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SEED designated as lender by SBA
TAUNTON – The South Eastern Economic Development Corporation, a non-profit corporation certified in 1982 by the Small Business Administration to package loans under the so-called ‘504 program,’ has been designated by the SBA as the intermediary lender under its Microloan Program for Southeastern Massachusetts. SEED has closed with the SBA on an initial loan of $366,263 but will be able to draw on a fund of $3.5 million to lend to micro-businesses throughout the six-county region. Micro businesses usually have five employees or less. In the last five years, SEED has made 215 micro loans totaling $4 million. The loans helped create 761 jobs. Virtually any type of for-profit small business is eligible for micro loans which can be used for working capital, or to purchase inventory, supplies, furniture, fixtures, machinery and/or equipment. The maximum term permitted is six years, and the current interest rate is nine percent fixed.
Boston’s job increase trails major cities
BOSTON – A 2.1 percent job increase in the Boston metropolitan area in 1998 put this city 18th among the country’s largest metropolitan areas. The Bureau of Labor statistics reported that the area added 39,700 non-farm jobs, about half of them service jobs between 1997 and 1998. Phoenix, Ariz., led the nation with 5.6 percent growth. Boston’s ranking is its lowest since 1991.
Fidelity Investments shuffles managers
BOSTON — Fidelity Investments, the biggest U.S. mutual fund company, announced some changes in its Select Fund managers. Christian Zann succeeds Victor Thay as manager of select Natural Gas Portfolio. Thay, 25, will continue to manage select Home Finance Portfolio. Zann, 25, joined Fidelity in 1996. Shep Perkins, 28, is replacing John Porter, 32, as manager of Select Medical Delivery Portfolio. Porter will continue as manager of Select Software and Computer Services Portfolio, the company said. Fidelity regularly shuffles its lineup of managers to permit its analysts a chance to observe as they oversee a fund and learn as much as they can about different businesses.
JDLdirect ties in with Lycos
WALTHAM – A Japan-based on-line brokerage, JDLdirect SFG Securities, Inc. announced it has linked with a Japanese unit of Lycos Inc. and will begin providing portfolio management services on Lycos’ web site. The company said the service is directed at individual investors in Japan. JDLdirect SFG Securities is a joint venture of Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc. and Sumitomo Bank Ltd. of Japan. It began operations June 11.
Mass. reports drop in welfare roles
BOSTON — Officials of the Executive Office of Health and Human Assistance announced that the number of Massachusetts families receiving welfare has dropped by nearly 52 percent since 1995, when welfare reform was enacted. Department of Transitional Assistance studies show that the main reason why families leave welfare is earned income. “Work works. It’s as simple as that,” said the Department’s Commissioner Claire McIntire. “Families are becoming more reliant on themselves rather than the taxpayers.” There are now 49,711 families receiving Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children compared to 102,993 about four years ago.
Jury convicts businessman, acquits another
BOSTON — After two days of deliberations, a jury has found one businessman guilty and one innocent of helping to cook the books of the personal computer card manufacturer Centennial Technologies Inc. The federal jury found Robert E. Lockwood, chief executive of Presage Corp., guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Robert Kuzara, a former Centennial director, was acquitted. Lockwood, 51, had conspired with Wilmington-based Centennial’s chief executive officer, Emanuel Pinez, to falsely inflate revenues reported by the company to the Securities and Exchange Commission and to investors, the jury found.
