Technology Companies

Get a reputation as an A student and the teachers will let you coast once in a while. But the principle of cutting the best performers some slack in troubled times has not held true in the technology stock market. Investors have beaten up some of the best-known technology names in recent weeks. Such previous market darlings as Microsoft Corp., Dell Computer Corp. and Applied Materials Inc. have been banished to the cellar. In many cases, their share prices have fallen even farther than the average tech stock, which is down about 35.6 percent percent this year through Thursday.

The stock market surged yesterday in the face of an expected increase in interest rates, even as Microsoft Corp. stumbled, finally following the retreat of other technology shares. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 100.46 points, or 1.5 percent, to 6,905.25 as investors anticipated that the possible effect of a slight interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve already has been factored into stock prices. Traditionally, when interest rates go up, stock prices fall. Yesterday's increase in the Dow was the eighth-largest point gain in history.

Now that many companies have made the leap onto the Internet, they're ready for the next step: making money from it. Brian Lowy, electronic business consultant with GTE Corp., told a Center City audience yesterday not to worry about the technology of creating an e-commerce Web site. "Technology is easy," he said. "Knowing what you want is the hard part. " Lowy was among the speakers at a daylong seminar on electronic commerce sponsored by five technology companies that help businesses sell on the Internet.

A technology advocacy organization yesterday announced efforts to lure more technology firms to Philadelphia, including an ad campaign and low-interest loans for tech companies that want to expand. The ePhiladelphia Technology Alliance, a group of 60 technology companies, said its research found that the city already is home to about 250 tech firms. "While everyone has been busy talking about the technology firms in the western suburbs - which are a major asset in this region - Philadelphia entrepreneurs have been very busily growing their businesses right here in the city," said Paul R. Levy, executive director of the Central Philadelphia Development Corp.

Innova Dynamics, Inc., an advanced-materials technology company created by two University of Pennsylvania engineering alumni, said Wednesday that it has attracted $5.5 million in venture financing. The lead investor is Rho Ventures of New York, whose partner, Nicholas Darby, will join the Innova Dynamics board as chairman. MentorTech Ventures, a Philadelphia firm that specializes in technology companies that grow out of Penn, also invested. Innova's founders are Alexander Mittal and Arjun Srinivas, who studied engineering and business at Penn.

The state will put up $5 million in capital-budget redevelopment assistance funds to the University City Science Center to help launch the Port of Technology project in West Philadelphia, Lt. Gov. Mark Schweiker said yesterday. Located in one of the city's Keystone Opportunity Zones, the new eight-story building will help the city retain and attract high-tech companies and workers, Schweiker said. The Port of Technology includes state-of-the-art facilities for technology companies, the Port's information-technology and life-sciences incubator, and the newly designated Southeastern Pennsylvania International Technology Trade Port - a center for technology companies to establish partnerships and promote growth in the commonwealth.

Drive west on Market Street from 30th Street Station, and you will notice two things: office buildings and parking lots. This is Philadelphia's Avenue of Technology. Officially named by Mayor Rendell in December, the Avenue of Technology is being marketed as the city's high-tech corridor - home to technology companies and research institutions. And with 49 acres along Market Street being named one of the 12 Keystone Opportunity Zones in Philadelphia by Gov. Ridge last month, supporters of the Avenue of Technology hope to bring more technology companies to the area.

The technology boom that produced tens of thousands of high-paying jobs in some sections of the country largely bypassed Pennsylvania in the late 1990s, and the wages of workers in the state reflect it. The federal government reported yesterday that the average annual pay for Pennsylvania workers was $33,999 in 2000, which was $1,297 below the national average of $35,296. In New Jersey, average pay rose 6.5 percent in 2000 to $43,691. The average pay gain in Pennsylvania was nearly two percentage points below that of the nation in 2000, further evidence of a belief that the state has failed to restructure its industrial economy for a high-tech era, economists said.

Eleven technology companies - seven of them in this area - have received a total of nearly $12 million from the Pennsylvania Early Stage Partners, a public-private venture fund created 11 months ago. Mike Bolton, managing director of the fund, said the first 11 companies were selected from a field of nearly 600. The fund, based in Wayne, is a $50 million effort proposed by Gov. Ridge as part of his Technology 21 initiative. The Pennsylvania School Employees Retirement System put up $30 million and Safeguard Scientifics Inc., a venture capital firm based in Wayne, and the commonwealth added $10 million apiece.

In a glass case across from their receptionists' desk, Syncro Development Corp. has preserved the history of the telephone, a product it hopes will be just that - history - in the years to come. Above the 1902 ringer box and beside the 1956 desk phone, Syncro has already begun to memorialize this decade's contribution: a floppy disk and computer interface card. "You don't have to be some sort of computer weenie to use a computer-based phone," said Paul Van Reed, Syncro's director of sales, as he clicked on a mouse that removed a computerized image of a telephone receiver to dial up one of his coworkers across the room.

Initial public offerings used to be seen as a rite of passage for small businesses. Judging by last week's filing by Facebook Inc. to raise at least $5 billion, it's a big company's game now. Facebook may be just eight years old, but it's no small business. The Menlo Park, Calif., social-network operator had $3.7 billion in 2011 revenue and 3,200 employees as of the end of December. In addition, with $1.5 billion in cash already on hand, Facebook seems as though it's raising capital for a bank rather than a growing technology juggernaut.

U.S. stocks advanced, snapping a four-day decline in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, amid signs that manufacturing across the world is strengthening. Financial and industrial shares in the S&P 500 rose at least 1.1 percent to lead gains among 10 groups. Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. added more than 3.2 percent. Whirlpool Corp. surged 13 percent as the appliance-maker projected earnings that beat forecasts. Technology companies in the benchmark index rallied to an 11-year high.

Here's what becoming a smarter city means to me. Philadelphia just launched a small program to help city companies develop a market for their technologies to improve energy efficiency. The $430,000 program will award grants of between $50,000 and $150,000 to companies with more than a great idea. This money is aimed at getting products off the lab bench and installed into a setting where the entrepreneurs can prove their technologies can walk their talk. How, you might ask, can a city that needed to attract $600,000 in private- sector funds before it could open its public pools this weekend afford to push such a program?

Innova Dynamics, Inc., an advanced-materials technology company created by two University of Pennsylvania engineering alumni, said Wednesday that it has attracted $5.5 million in venture financing. The lead investor is Rho Ventures of New York, whose partner, Nicholas Darby, will join the Innova Dynamics board as chairman. MentorTech Ventures, a Philadelphia firm that specializes in technology companies that grow out of Penn, also invested. Innova's founders are Alexander Mittal and Arjun Srinivas, who studied engineering and business at Penn.

Vishay Intertechnology Inc., of Malvern, will take its battle to gain control of a California semiconductor company to shareholders tomorrow by offering a slate of three directors for the board of the takeover target. The target, International Rectifier Corp., has rejected Vishay's advances, saying that its $1.7 billion offer substantially undervalues the company. Vishay issued a statement yesterday questioning International Rectifier's plan for boosting company profits and accusing its current board of directors of spending "enormous sums to address accounting improprieties that occurred on its watch.

If plain old telephone service is the vinyl record of communications, then "Voice over IP" may be the iPod: a digital technology whose significance can hardly be overstated. It means, among other things, that Comcast Corp. could be your next telephone company. Using this technology, which converts your voice calls into digital packets for transmission over its cable-TV network, Comcast could soon become a serious competitor in the phone industry, going head-to-head with leaders such as Verizon Communications Inc. and SBC Communications Inc. The technology is gaining attention not just because it is so different - for users, in fact, the experience of making and receiving calls will hardly change - but because it is providing the opportunity for new competition.

A Doylestown information technology company signed a five-year, $98 million contract yesterday to provide communications support services to the Air Force in southwestern Asia. Sytex Inc. initially expects to have 100 employees in six countries in the region, which stretches from Kazakhstan to Sudan and Kenya in Africa. "If we were to go to war, those numbers could increase significantly," the company's president and chief executive officer, Syd Martin, said. Sytex will function as a full-service telecommunications firm for the Air Force in that territory, Jim Soos, its vice president of marketing, said.

The technology boom that produced tens of thousands of high-paying jobs in some sections of the country largely bypassed Pennsylvania in the late 1990s, and the wages of workers in the state reflect it. The federal government reported yesterday that the average annual pay for Pennsylvania workers was $33,999 in 2000, which was $1,297 below the national average of $35,296. In New Jersey, average pay rose 6.5 percent in 2000 to $43,691. The average pay gain in Pennsylvania was nearly two percentage points below that of the nation in 2000, further evidence of a belief that the state has failed to restructure its industrial economy for a high-tech era, economists said.

On one hand: Prime East Coast location. Affordable housing. Great universities. A good place for families. Outstanding high-culture venues. On the other hand: Fragmented political and business interests. Provincial and insular attitudes that are resistant to new ideas. Tradition-bound. These were some of the pros and cons of Philadelphia and its suburbs described in a report aimed at finding ways to develop and market the region's strengths and combat its weaknesses. The intention of Greater Philadelphia First, which commissioned the $270,000, two-inch-thick report, is to identify ways to attract more investment dollars and accelerate economic growth.

Rowan University's board of trustees purchased an abandoned elementary school in the heart of Glassboro yesterday to set up a business incubator to nurture fledgling technology companies. The incubator will serve as an arm of the region's first technology center, which is to be located on 400 acres of old peach orchards that Rowan has bought near the the intersection of Routes 322 and 55. Glassboro officials hailed the purchase of the Academy Street School, which the borough's 70-year-old mayor attended, as yet another sign of town-gown cooperation.