Kopin plans plant, expansion in Taunton
TAUNTON – Kopin Corp. announced that it would construct a $20 million plant in the Myles Standish Industrial Park to supply what it said was a growing demand for HBT Transistors. Kopin said it expected double its work force to 500 by the end of the year between its Taunton and Westboro sites. The 60,000 square foot plant would result from the renovation of an existing building. Kopin makes components for Internet, wireless, and fiber-optic telecommunications.
AltaVista facing more cuts
ANDOVER – AltaVista Co. will eliminate 50 more jobs, the company has announced. The job loss will affect both its Andover and Palo Alto, Calif., locations, the company said. AltaVista, the Internet search unit of CMGI, eliminated 60 jobs last fall as it has steadily lost money since its acquisition by CMGI a couple of years ago. However, a CMGI spokesman predicted that with the layoffs and other modifications, AltaVista is expected to move into a positive cash flow position by December.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
Learn More
Arthur Little to spin off technology divisions
CAMBRIDGE – Arthur D. Little, Inc. announced that it is spinning off its technology-based divisions into a publicly traded company called C-Quential, Inc. The new firm will consist of Arthur Little’s telecommunications, information technology, media, and electronics units, previously referred to by the company as its TIME group. C-Quential’s headquarters will be in Cambridge, but its offices will be spread around the globe, with 90 percent of its 250 employees working among 21 countries. In its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Arthur Little said it hoped to raise $150 million in its initial public offering. Part of the proceeds would be used to retire $70 million in debt, according to the SEC filing. Arthur Little was founded in 1888 and had been publicly traded until 1988 when a hostile takeover bid was defeated. The company has been privately held ever since.
Microsoft investing in Seachange of Maynard
MAYNARD – Microsoft Corp. announced that it would make a multimillion dollar investment in Seachange International, Inc. Seachange is working on perfecting video on demand systems to make large libraries of movies available for home viewing through cable TV. Microsoft’s Windows Media streaming technology would be adapted by Seachange to improve images transmitted over cable-TV systems. Specific financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but a Seachange spokesman told The Boston Globe that Microsoft will hold “less than two percent” of the company with its investment.
Patriots choose stadium designer-builder
FOXBORO – Beacon/Barlow Malow will be hired as design-builder for the new stadium to be built here by the New England Patriots football team. Beaton/Barton Malow is a joint venture with Beacon Skanska Construction Company of Boston and Barton Malow Sports of Baltimore, Md. Also participating in the project as designer is the highly regarded HOK Sports Facilities Group of Kansas City, Mo. HOK has been responsible for the Cleveland Browns new stadium, Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Stadium in Tampa. Fla., all designed for football, as well as Camden Yards in Baltimore and Jacobs Field in Cleveland, baseball stadiums. The $325 million privately financed 1.7 million square foot stadium will have 68,000 chair-backed seats, 80 luxury suites, and 6,000 club seats and two HDTV scoreboards/videoboards. The field that the stadium will enclose will accommodate football as well as international soccer. The Kraft family which owns the Patriots also owns the New England Revolution which competes in Major League Soccer.
Lycos agrees to takeover by Spanish telecom giant
WALTHAM – Rebuffed by its shareholders last year in its bid to merge with the USA Networks, Lycos, Inc., has agreed to be purchased by Terra Networks SA, a Spanish Internet company linked to Telefonica, Spain’s largest telephone company. Terra Networks agreed to pay $12.5 billion in stock, according to reports. The new company that will result is to be called Terra Lycos, with headquarters in Madrid, but retaining a major operating presence here in Waltham. Bob Davis, head of Lycos, will be chief executive of the new company. Lycos is the fourth largest Internet portal in the United States and attracts about 33 million visitors a month. Juan Villalonga, the chairman of Telefonica, as well as the Terra Networks will be chairman of the new company.
Home sales slow in first quarter
WALTHAM – Apparently as the result of rising interest rates, sales of single family homes in Massachusetts slowed in the first quarter, according to information released by the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. Sales of detached single family homes declined 12.1 percent from 9.280 units in 1999 to 8,155 units in the same period this year. Condominium sales also declined, the Realtors reported, from 2,420 last year to 2,325 in the first quarter this year. While sales fell off, the Realtors reported, the demand for housing remained strong, but inventory declined. Last year inventory declined 6.1 percent from the first quarter of 1998. This year, however, single family listings in the first quarter were 27,043, a 22 percent decline from the 34,638 listed in 1999 for the same quarter. As demand rose against a diminishing inventory, the realtors reported the cost of single family houses rose from an average of $225.063 in he first quarter of 1999 to $266,925 in the first three months of 2000.
(Compiled from news reports and releases, print and electronic.)
