Friendly’s closes 80 stores, targets 70 more
WILBRAHAM – Friendly Ice Cream Corp., acknowledging diminishing returns from some of its older, smaller restaurant-stores, announced that it was closing 80 of those stores immediately, and that it would close 70 more stores over the next two years. The stores being closed are all company owned and are located in 12 of the 14 states between Vermont and Florida in which Friendly’s stores are located. The company also franchises some of its stores. Friendly’s reorganization will also reach into its headquarters staff where it is eliminating 110 administrative and managerial jobs. The company announced that the 80 closed stores had averaged sales of $520,000 last year, compared with its chain-wide average of $958,000. Analysts were quoted in various publications as observing that the company was struggling to maintain its niche in the low-priced restaurant business with pressure from below, the fast-food chains, and above, where the slightly more expensive Applebee’s and Chili’s have grown. Friendly’s reported total revenue of $709 million in 1999, up from $678 million in 1998, with net income of $400,000 or five cents a share for 1999, compared with a loss of $5 million or 67 cents a share for 1998.
Raytheon trims bonus for chief executive
LEXINGTON – Raytheon Co.’s chief executive officer Daniel Burnham received only $900,000 in his bonus last year after various problems drove the company’s share price down sharply. The bonus Burnham received constitutes a 40 percent reduction from the previous year. He was eligible to receive a bonus of up to twice his annual salary, but other members of the board of directors voted to reduce that amount because of what was described as a “disappointing year” for the company.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
Woburn firm wins Time Warner contract
Woburn – Xenon Corp. announced that it has won a contract with Time Warner, Inc. for use of its technology in producing DVD movie discs. Xenon’s low temperature, pulsed-light bonding process improves the production and quality of music and movie discs. Time Warner is reportedly making an initial $1 million purchase of Xenon’s equipment for use by its WEA division at TW’s Pennsylvania plant. But Xenon officials predicted that the agreement with TW would result in at least $10 million in DVD business within three years.
Digital Broadband gets insurance agents contract
WALTHAM – Digital Broadband Communications, Inc., a startup Internet and telecommunications provider, said it won a contract to be the exclusive provider of high-speed Internet access and telecommunications services for the 1,900 member Massachusetts association of Insurance Agents. Digital Broadband is targeting agents within the Route 495 circumference at first and will expand services beyond that range as it fulfills its contract to build a statewide DSL system for public schools and municipal buildings.
3Com to lay off 275 at Marlboro plant
MARLBORO – As part of what it described as a broad reorganization, 3Com Corp. announced it was laying off 275 employees at its Marlboro plant. The company employs 1,125 here in its Network Systems business, where it principally designs and markets digital switching equipment for computer networks. The company acknowledged that it had lost much of its large business sales to Cisco Systems, Inc., and was now focusing on smaller businesses. A spokesperson for 3Com said the company is eliminating 2,700 jobs out of a total of 11,800 throughout its system. The spokesperson also said that about 1,700 employees leaving 3Com would take jobs with the company’s business partners. The company’s Andover facility where it develops voice-data technologies is not affected by the layoffs, the spokesperson said.
State unemployment rate up slightly
BOSTON – The Massachusetts Department if Employment and Training announced that the unemployment rate rose to 3.1 percent in February, up from the 3.0 percent in January. The state’s unemployment level has averaged 3.2 percent for the last 12 months. For the last 17 months, the level of unemployment has been between 3.0 and 3.3 percent. Massachusetts is still a full percentage point below the national unemployment level of 4.1 percent, an increase of 0.1 percent from January. DET reported that although the total of jobless increased by 2,900 to 101,600, Massachusetts also gained 4,500 jobs in February.
Speech recognition technology leaders joined
BURLINGTON — Lernout & Hospie, located here, is acquiring Dragon Systems, Inc. of Newton for about $600 million in stock. Lernout & Hospie is a Belgian multinational company whose North American headquarters is located here. The two companies are among the leaders in developing computerized systems that respond to spoken commands and convert written information, including Web content, into synthesized speech. L&H is acquiring $592 million in stock to obtain Dragon. The acquisition will create a 2,000 employee company. L&H acquired Dictaphone Corp. Stratford, Conn. For a $938 million in stock and debt earlier this month. Dictaphone had been using L&H technology as it moved to update its methods, and L&H plans to market its technology to many of the 400,000 doctors who use Dictaphone equipment.. An advisory panel is being formed to help the companies merge smoothly. No layoffs are planned at this time.
