The San Francisco Examiner from San Francisco, California • 53

A imkm dtmSm Fundtco Snofajr ttmkm mi Qmidi ww Sunday, Januaiy 30, 1994 1 hytwcold stock gtttinf hot? Find out by calling City lino at (415) 612-6000. En-ter 9000 for market info, i Enter 9626 for dock quote. JOHN CRUDELE 1.2 KV.STOCkS 1.7 NASDAQ STOCKS Mutual KJMds BoA keeps growing and growing and grLng J- It ti. 'Ix, By Wendy Tanaka OF THI EXAMNER STAFF mi "(BofA) thinks, the larger (it) gets the more efficient operations (will become)," he said. "But (expansion) can spread risk and create management problems." 1 i BofA's announcement Friday to buy Chicago's Continental Bank Corp.

for $1.9 billion will strengthen its position as the nation's sec-ond-largest bank with assets of $210 billion and will give it a major presence in Midwestern business banking, Continental's specialty, analysts said By comparison, Citicorp is the largest bank in the country with assets of $217 billion. In recent years, BofA has been in an expansion mode. It has acquired two banks since the begin-. ning of the decade, and is in the midst of buying a third' In April 1992, the bank bought Security Pacific in a $4 billion merger which moved BofA into second place among the nation's banks. It was the largest merger in banking history.

In early 1993, BofA acquired First Gibraltar Bank, the largest thrift in Texas with $9.6 billion in assets. With Gibraltar's 130 branches, BofA doubled its presence in Texas. In late 1993, BofA announced plans to buy Liberty Bank in Honolulu in a $23 million stock offer, a transaction expected to be com- J) After completing the largest merger in banking history, analysts thought BankAmerica Corp, would take a breather, Instead, the San Francisco financial-services giant has moved with gusto to become a national banking franchise and strengthen its corporate banking business. "This is further indication of (BofA's) underlying ambition to stretch across as much of the U.S. as possible," said Jim Marks, an analyst with Sutrq and Co, in The City.

Marks also injected a note of caution about the acquisition, chairman and chief executive officer of BankAmerica Corp. 3 Crystal Dynamics' CEO plans games, CD-ROM venture The difference is that Star is set up to be a major business in its own right: Merrill Lynch Co. is I I right now trying to $30 milhon GINA fortheject SMITH throughaprivate gacwaentofat I $IL I 1 't A V( iff I 0 TT OOKS LIKE the whiz-n II Strauss Zehnck, the ex-II Century Fox CEO JLmbI who last year made headlines when he joined Crystal Dynamics, is quietly creating a new company to publish and distribute other companies' CD-ROM titles and video games. According to a confidential document being circulated to Silicon Valley investors, the new company will be called Star Interactive. It will publish and help sell other firms' titles, in the same way that San Mateo game maker Electronic Arts does through its EA affiliate label program.

JSST sun namics wouldn't iisi i ry comment for this JU I column, but itLLL I sources close to the company say it is actively talking to dozens of small and medium-sized multimedia software houses in its hunt for partners. And San Francisco's PF Magic and New Mexico's American Laser Games, sources add have already signed up. See SMITH, E-4 EXAMINERMARK COSTANTINI Jennifer Fritdsjibach of the Homeless Action Coalition of San Mateo, left, and Bay View Federal Bank's branch manager Mkhael O'Neill and vice president Felix; Kwan developed a pilot savings project for homeless. For people without an address ft if- pi ace EXAMNERMARK COSTANTN Bay Area homeless have safe to put their money Ginger Law, chief lawyer for the Commerce Department, attended patent hearings ban Jose last week debate By KatUssa SuElvan OF IK SXAMMBS STAff By Tom Abate EXAMMER TECHNOLOGY WRITER counts, Many people living on the streets lose the identification required to open an account They cannot meet minimum balance lev-els and do not have a permanent address for receiving account statements. Yet many homeless people work or receive government support checks and need banking services.

Experts say homeless people need an alternative to check-cashing outlets, so they can keep all the money they are due, instead of losing some of it to check-cashing lees, or all of it to muggers. Smith opened his savings account under a six-month pilot program that offered special savings accounts to homeless people in San Mateo County last year. The program ended Dec 31 and no more accounts will be opened until the thrift finishes evaluating the program and decides its fate. Smith deposits his checks from Supplemental Security Income, a federal program for disabled people who cannot work, into his Bay View Federal account Smith head about the program while staying at Turning Point a shelter that offers temporary housing and (unseling to single adults. He likes putting his money in the bank.

"If you're living on the street or in an undesirable place, you shouldn't be carrying a lot of cash around" he said Smith said the staff has treated him well Tve been there five times," he said "They havent attached any stigma to me. I'm just fltwfrff depositor," See HOMELESS, E-13) the concepts in a software program. Even as technology churns out such perplexing new discoveries, the Earase inventor, that fieun in JOHN SMITH credits Bay View Federal Bank for giving him fresh start financially speaking because the San Mateo federal savings bank let him open an account Normally, that wouldn't seem like a remarkable event. Except that Smith not his real name was living at a home-less shelter. He hadnt tried to open an accent for years, tearing that a credit check would reveal earlier compulsive spending problems linked to a mental illness.

Usually, homeless people do not have savings or checking accounts, because they cannot meet the minimum requirements of most ac SOME 200 years ago, the Constitution required the U.S. government to begin issuing patents "to promote the progress of science and the useful arts" by giving inventors a temporary monopoly on the use of their inventions. An easy thing to say in the horse and buggy age. But a difficult mandate to uphold in an era when inventions in computer software force the Patent and Trademark Office to decide whether to patent American myth, sees the Patent Office inching toward changes in 1 U.S. patent laws that favor multinational corporations.

These and other concerns were aired last week at a public bearing in San Jose, where Patent Com- missioner Bruce Thman invited testimony on one issue whether software authors deserved the 1 same patent protection as mouae- See PATENTS, E4).