Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 15

Business Business editor Jennifer Ptttman 429-2447 3 Ci Sentinel Wednesday, October 27, 1999 B-g Aladdimi celebrates public iradimig October 26, 1999 stufflt Deluxe DOW(Industrials) 500 and profit will be about $1 million. The 50 employees who own stock options celebrated completion of the merger with a public company, making Aladdin public. Instead of an initial public offering to infuse the company with money for expansion, Aladdin's board of directors opted to merge the company into Foreplay Golf Travel Tours a public company shell. The deal allowed Aladdin to maintain a controlling interest in the parent company, which is now called Aladdin Holdings Inc. After over-extending itself in recent years, the company was forced last year to lay off 20 employees.

But these days, the company is looking only at expansion. The hard times? "It's over," Kahn said. "It was a great learning experience and it did a lot for re-energizing the company. We're gearing up again." By JENNIFER POTMAN Sentinel business editor WATSONVILLE The mood was upbeat in the Watsonville office of Aladdin Systems, which created a half dozen "paper millionaires" and enriched dozens of employees in Day 1 of public trading Tuesday. It may not buy dinner, except with plastic, but things are looking up for the 11-year-old Internet software company.

Company stock, trading as OTC BB: ALHI on the over-the-counter bulletin board exchange opened at $2 and reached a high of $7 before closing at $4. "I'm pretty happy," said Jonathan Kahn, chief executive officer and a company co-founder. Kahn said he was surprised at the volume of shares traded 64,000. Aladdin Systems sells software that helps computer users send, access, and organize computer data. The company is set to release a RUSSELL 2000 Company stock, trading as OTC BB: ALHI opened at $2 and reached a high of $7 before closing at $4 58.

new version of its flagship product, Stufflt this year and add another new product as a result of an acquisition to be announced in 60 days. The company makes a variety of Internet products, including Spring Cleaning, a Macintosh product; and MacTicker, a desktop stock ticker. The company reported more than $8 million in sales last year and about $580,000 in profit. Darryl Lovato, president and chief technology officer, predicts sales will top $9.2 million this year NASDAQ Dly YTD Dlv PE Lad Nam Dan CoyrarSenunofptvAO Aladdin Systems CEO Jonathan Kahn and CTO Darryl Lovato follow the trading in their stock using their MacTicker product. SCO sets earnings record I ItlMI 1 Comotic 1.44 14 S4' -fc DoanFd .88 11 43V -V 7.7 DowJns .96 25 57VU -1V 19.1 Qotchk 1S 8' 16.4 GianlteC .28 13 22Vk -Vj LockhdM 9 .88 13 22Vs -V Penney 2.18 12 26' -1V Plantrn 16 57 SBC Com .98 23 45 1V Saleway 20 33 -1 Seagal 6 26W -Vi Texlnst .17 57 79' 'A 88.3 WatkJn .48 37 8' 65.3 WelteFrgo .80 29 44k 11.9 Wfigley .88 28 72 AppleC 21 76V 83.4 Cisco 67V4 45.0 CoastBcps .32 14 18 V4 15.4 Inprise 3 3Vj -Va Intel .12 34 71 20.6 MetaCreat 5V -'A MontBB .18 14 13'ft 1V4 Novell 38 17V Odwalla 6'A SanlCrz 36 WslMai 72 VH -V I Business-jet sales boom WASHINGTON The nation's booming economy, corporate globalization and ever-increasing airline delays have fueled a sales boom for business jets like Payne Stewart's.

Also attracted by the ability to set their own schedules and travel with privacy, security and comforts like couches and wet bars, more and more companies and celebrities are jetting around in Lears and By DONNA KIMURA Sentinel staff writer SANTA CRUZ Last year's scramble to streamline operations and forge new industry alliances has yielded results for Santa Cruz Operation Inc. SCO's stock price rose to a 52-week high Tuesday after news the company set a quarterly earnings record. The stock closed at 14, up more than 12 percent. It has ranged from 3M to 14 during the past year. "We achieved a string of record financial results and introduced innovative products and technologies to new high-growth markets significantly expanding the near and long-term opportunities for SCO," said Doug Michels, president and chief executive officer.

Michels attributed the software company's strong year to the Internet boom and need to access data that has created an "insatiable appetite for server-centric computing." The company saw great demand for its server products, OpenServ-er and UnixWare 7, as well as its Web-enabling software Tarantella, according to Michels. For the fourth quarter ending Sept. 30, revenues reached a quarterly record of $58.1 million, a 20 percent increase over the same quarter last year. Net profit for the quarter was $5.38 million, or 14 cents per diluted share a 100 percent increase over the net profit of $2.68 million, or 8 cents per diluted share, a year ago. Revenues for the fiscal year grew 30 percent to more than $223 Voters in SF will decide ATM fee ban By BOB EGELKO The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO A proposal to ban those aggravating $1 or $2 bank ATM surcharges goes before voters for the first time next month in San Francisco, setting up a court fight over whether local communities can force banks to drop the fees.

There's little doubt the ban will pass, but it is certain to face a legal challenge from the banking industry, which contends that federally chartered banks aren't subject to local and state laws. San Francisco's referendum is the latest sign of growing consumer outrage over the ATM which are usually charged when customers withdraw money from a bank other the one where they hold a(i account. Sometimes the surcharges are levied on top of. fees charged by the customer's own bank. In southern California, Santa Monica city officials have already passed an ordinance banning the -mux charges that is supposed to take effect Nov.

12. A dozen other California communities are considering bans, including Los Angeles and San Diego, said Jon Golinger of the California Public Interest Research Group, which has led the no-surcharge campaign. -Congress has thus far rejected legislation that would ban the surcharges nationwide, but Connecticut and Iowa have used existing laws to do so. Even the military is getting involved. Last week, the Defense Department said it would consider a ban on ATM fees on U.S.

military bases in order to help financially strapped military personnel. Banks say the charges are simply the price of 24-hour convenience and help pay for their growing networks of ATMs. But opponents say they fees are unjustifiable at a time of soaring bank profits, teller layoffs and bank branch closures. They also contend the fees hurt competition by inducing customers to switch to larger banks, which have more ATMs. Golinger sees the San Francisco referendum see it as a way to accelerate efforts to ban the fees elsewhere.

"This is a bottom-up event," said Golinger. "In the end, surcharges will be banned just about everywhere." Not if the banks can help it. Connecticut and Iowa residents don't currently pay the surcharges because pre-ATM laws have been interpreted to prohibit them. Following a challenge from the banks, however, Connecticut's Supreme Court is now considering whether a 1976 state law that bars charging fees from non-customers applies to ATMs. The surcharges, which averaged $1.20 in a 1998 study by the Federal Reserve, have become almost universal in the other 48 states in the last three years.

The surcharges aren't needed to cover the costs of ATM transactions. The average ATM transaction cost banks 27 cents, while transactions with tellers cost Up to $2.93 each. The rationale for the fees is that the money raised pays to install more a way of having non-customers share in the burden of maintaining that net- Web master launches firm NEW YORK Web pioneer Marc Andreessen is launching a startup that will help other companies build Internet businesses, his first major venture since leaving America Online last month. Andreessen, the 28-year-old co-founder of Netscape Communications, formed the new company, called Loudcloud with a group of other Internet professionals from Netscape, Cisco Systems InfoS-eek and other Web-related businesses. The venture was vague about what it would sell.

Loudcloud will supply "technology and services high-growth Internet companies need to compete and win," Andreessen said in a statement released Tuesday. million. John W. Luhtala, senior vice president, operations and chief financial officer, said the company is in its strongest cash position in its history with more than $62 million in cash and short-term investments. On Tuesday, SCO also announced a new agreement with San Francisco-based TurboLinux, further extending its market into the free software movement and the consulting market.

TurboLinux customers will be offered consulting services from SCO. In August, SCO announced a set of Linux and other professional services. Snmuel ThalerSentinel file Santa Cruz Operation Chief Executive Officer and President Doug Michels, nhotoaraDhed recentlv at the comDanys Santa Cruz headquarters, credited work." said California Bankers Association spokesman the company's record quarterly earnings to new technology in the Internet John Stafford K. market. Company stock shot up to a 52U high Tuesday as a result of the Scot positive report.

thousands, the Amercan Bankers Association warned Buyer confidence wanes NEW YORK Consumers aren't as bullish about the stock market and the long-running economic expansion these days, with a new survey showing confidence dropping sharply in October to extend its decline from a 30-year high to four straight months. But the Conference Board survey released Tuesday also says most Americans don't seem ready to scale back their spending yet. That bodes well for retailers who are gearing up for the imminent start of the holiday shopping season. New soy labels listing health benefits expected to boost sales food products." over into the mainstream" market, Studies indicate that soy also may have anticancer properties and may fight osteoporosis as well as symptoms of menopause, but its ability to lower cholesterol levels is the best documented. said Peter Golbitz, president of Soyatech.

"The historical growth in the industry was without a health claim. The health claim is icing on the cake and will push food companies to add soy proteins to a variety of reach $2.14 billion this year, up from $852 million in 1992, and reach $2.6 billion next year, according to Soyatech which tracks the industry. Soymilk sales alone are growing at close to 40 percent a year. U.S. production of soy additives like the flour and concentrates that are mixed into bread and other conventional foods is valued at $1.8 billion this year, triple what it was in 1992, and is expected to hit $3.3 billion by 2002.

Soy "is going to continue to cross traditional such soy-based foods as tofu and soymilk. Consumers can look for soy to start showing up in everything from bread and cereal to soup and salad dressing, industry analysts say. "Soy is a big food opportunity," said Carlos Gutierrez, president of the Kellogg Co. Kellogg's is acquiring the biggest maker of soy-based meat alternatives, Worthington Foods, and announced this week it is developing a soy cereal. Sales of soymilk, tofu and other soy-based foods are expected to By PHIUP BRASHER The Associated Press ARLINGTON, Va.

Doing their grocery shopping, Anne and Steve Browning skipped the dairy case and instead plunked five cartons of soymilk into their cart. "We bought it because we kept hearing about how good it was for you," said Mrs. Browning. "We don't buy milk anymore." With the government now allowing food labels to tout soy's ability to lower cholesterol, a new surge of interest is expected, and not just in H3P mm vmm 24-HOUR INFORMATION SERVICE A nwer symrjoi consists oi up io nve letters. Each letter corresponds to a iwo-aigiinumoeronyourieie-.

Stocks close lower NEW YORK Stocks closed lower Tuesday as investors' nervousness about inflation and interest rates again overshadowed upbeat earnings news. But Intel got a boost as it and Microsoft were picked as new components of the Dow Jones industrial average. At the close of trading on Wall Street, the Dow was down 47.80 at 10,302.13, having surrendered an earlier 59-point gain. The blue chips fell 120 points on Monday amid uneasiness over higher rates. Sentinel wire services pnone leypaa.

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