Industry Experts

The finding yesterday that Microsoft Corp. has a monopoly on computer operating systems was a stinging, surprisingly forceful setback for the world's most prominent software company.Industry experts said the ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson heralds continued profound change in a technology industry that is redefining itself at a blinding pace. The judge's statements were seen as so aversive to Microsoft that the company may seek a settlement with the federal government.

Was 1996 the year the music died?That's certainly the impression being given by the recording industry. After four years of steady growth, in which the total value of sales grew by more than $100 million annually, the recording industry finds itself in something of a slump.But as industry experts scramble to explain the sales slowdown, blaming everything from apathetic alterna-kids to competition from the Internet, it begins to seem as if the recording industry has grown so besotted with huge sales that it no longer understands the way fans think and act. Because despite all the dark words and dire predictions, the problem isn't that sales are off, but that the industry's expectations are seriously out of whack.

WASHINGTON -- Congress is determined to stop federal workers playing computer solitaire on government time -- but the cure may prove more costly than the problem, industry experts warn.Legislation poised to pass this fall would force the removal of LTC games from more than a million federally owned computers and block purchases of new computers that have games built in.The reason: Federal workers waste time worth $10 billion a year by playing games, Sen. Lauch Faircloth, a primary sponsor of the bill, told the Senate recently.

The wind blew through Jim Fisher's hair as he knelt on the deck of his trawler, the Vera Brant, sanding and varnishing its teak when he was interrupted by the beep of the cellular telephone.On the other end that morning -- Feb. 9, 1992 -- was his assistant, Mary Ann Rice. Her voice was agitated as she explained that the government had just filed a lawsuit against him.The Resolution Trust Corp. -- created two years earlier to clean up the nation's exploding savings and loan -- was seeking $32 million from Fisher and nine other officers and former board members of Baltimore Federal Financial, accusing them of causing the loss of tens of millions of dollars and the collapse of the thrift.

It was one of the worst disasters in aviation history. On Dec. 12, 1985, an Arrow Air DC-8 charter crashed in Newfoundland, killing 256, most of them American soldiers headed home for Christmas.Investigators never found the cause of the accident. But they did find a lot of problems with the way Arrow maintained its planes.On the plane that crashed, adhesive tape had been used to hold shut some windows and panels. And in congressional hearings after the accident, a former Arrow Air pilot said the company performed "only marginal maintenance."

When dignitaries get their first glimpse today of the nearly complete Maryland BioCenter, they will be seeing a facility that many hope will put the state at the forefront of an important new industry.It's hoped the first batches of some of the world's most important new biologically engineered vaccines and drugs will be made at the new center.But a big question looms:Can the $21 million state-of-the-art facility on Johns Hopkins' Bayview Research Campus draw enough business to be a success?

From his office at the Ft. Holabird Industrial Park in southeast Baltimore, Dr. Craig Smith watches with anticipation as a $4 million, cutting-edge biotechnology laboratory takes shape down the hall.The new facility is where scientists at his fledgling biotechnology company, Guilford Pharmaceuticals, will work to develop breakthrough treatments for Parkinson's Disease, brain cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. It represents just the latest of the millions of dollars the company has invested, including a new $2 million production facility, in the hope of future profits.

New federal clean-air standards for marine engines that were proposed last week could sharply increase the prices of those engines and drive potential customers away from an industry just coming out of a slump, marine business operators said last week.Moreover, the standards unfairly single out people who already are environmentally conscious, the businessmen said."The boaters are more conscious of emitting fuels and gas than people think they are," said Rick Gunther, service manager of Wilkins Yacht Sales.

National Bohemian, Baltimore's last hometown brew, is in danger of going down the drain.G. Heileman Brewing Co., the debt-swamped maker of local beers that include Lone Star in Texas and Baltimore's "Natty Boh," is in a financial fight for its life that industry experts say might force the elimination of many of its smaller brands.Officials of the nation's fifth-largest beer company met with Teamsters officials last night to try to settle a 3-week-old strike at VTC its Halethorpe brewery and is in the crucial stage of negotiations with bankers, bottlers and others who were stuck with $1 billion in debt when Heileman filed for bankruptcy protection in January.

Hit by a sudden downturn in steel orders, the Bethlehem Steel Corp. is expected to report its first quarterly operating loss in more than three years, steel industry experts said yesterday.Henry Von Spreckelsen, a spokesman for the Bethlehem, Pa.-based steelmaker, said yesterday that orders had held up through January despite the recession. But demand from automobile and appliance factories fell precipitously, starting in the middle of February, he said.Despite the downturn, the nation's second-largest steelmaker still expects to continue with its costly equipment-upgrading plan, expected to total $500 million in 1991, and still plans to renovate the hot strip mill at its Sparrows Point yard sometime this spring, he said.

You're vacationing in the Bahamas with your girlfriends when the charming man in the flowered shirt comes by with offers of a free bottle of rum, breakfast and access to exclusive beachfront property for the day. All you have to do is tour a time-share resort that just opened on the island. You're intrigued by the prospect and find yourself in a luxury resort seated next to a salesperson trying to persuade you to buy a unit at the property. He promises a deal you can get only for that day. You're tempted by the thought of being able to visit the pristine piece of beachfront property every year.

Attendance and betting at the Preakness hit five-year-lows on Saturday, and fewer people watched on television than last year. Does this signal a worrisome decline in business for Maryland's signature race or did a sluggish economy and the anticipated dominance of Big Brown lead to a one-year blip? Magna Entertainment Corp. officials and industry analysts say that the numbers weren't down enough to raise long-term questions about the health of the Preakness. Magno owns Pimlico. The crowd of 112,222 and the betting handle of $73,457,510 were both fifth best in the event's 133-year history.

While a panel of judges continues to deliberate the fate of the Public Service Commission, the clock is ticking on the agency's mandate to study ways to revamp Maryland's electric regulations to make power cheaper for the state's residents. Industry experts say potential fixes range from having utilities buy long-term power contracts through competitive energy auctions to building power plants that would fall under old-style state regulation. Though opinions are as varied as the potential solutions, consumer advocates say everything should be on the table as regulators look for ways to undo mistakes that may have contributed to a 72 percent rate increase for customers of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. this year.

From their choreographed handshakes to their matching dark suits and red ties, chief executives for Constellation Energy Group and Florida-based FPL Group Inc. gave all indications last Dec. 19 that they were in control of their destinies. The two companies announced a proposed merger at the Waldorf Astoria in New York to a welcoming audience of industry analysts. And they put plenty in the deal to win the hearts of civic leaders and politicians back home - from a pledge to keep dual headquarters to a promise to maintain historic levels of philanthropic giving for 10 years.

Oil industry experts say energy prices are likely to bounce back upward this weekend as Hurricane Rita charts an uncertain path toward the Houston area, which is home to more than a quarter of the nation's already beleaguered refining industry. For the second time in a month, gasoline futures climbed and natural gas prices hit new highs as oil companies abandoned hundreds of rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and shut down refineries that feed a pipeline that carries a majority of the Baltimore area's fuel.

The title of Van Halen's 1988 hit, "Finish What Ya Started," could double as the header for a breach-of-contract lawsuit the rock band has filed against the Baltimore Orioles. Van Halen contends in a suit recently filed in federal court in Los Angeles that the baseball team sought to have it perform the first-ever concert inside Camden Yards next month and then backed out of the deal. The band's touring company is suing the team for "at least" $2 million in damages, saying it rearranged its schedule and lost other opportunities to perform in Baltimore.

WASHINGTON - The immediate causes of the blackout Aug. 14 were made clear in a report issued last week. But various experts say the findings were too narrow, ignoring the federal government's role in the recent reshaping of the power industry. Two organizations that operate in the part of Ohio where the problems originated - First Energy, a utility, and the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, a regional agency that was supposed to be overseeing FirstEnergy - were created as part of the deregulation process.

Union members pass through the lobby of Verizon Communications Inc.'s Inner Harbor offices wearing pins that skewer their employer's popular commercials: "Hey Verizon! Jobs not greed! Can you hear me now?" The phone company's managers, meanwhile, wonder whether they'll be moved to fill in for jobs several states away, knowing they could be apart from their families for a long time. As negotiations between Verizon and two major unions begin their sixth day since their contract expired, emotions of workers at the nation's largest local phone provider range from anxiety to anger to impatience.

The steep falloff in hotel nights booked by the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association makes critical the selection of a top-notch chief executive who can revive the floundering association, public officials and industry experts said. The Sun reported last week that, halfway through its fiscal year, BACVA had met just 18 percent of its hotel room sales target - sharply behind last year's pace. Disclosure of the lethargic bookings coincides with the start of the association's search to replace its president, Carroll R. Armstrong, who resigned under pressure after a three-month consultant evaluation of BACVA's operations.

Port Discovery, the financially troubled children's museum, will need more than a move to revive its operations, industry experts said yesterday. The museum has to reinvent itself and frequently change its mix of exhibitions to keep it fresh and customers returning, they say. The move should be part of a "strategic plan to improve what you are doing," said Lynn Robertson, executive director of the McKissick Museum in Columbia, S.C., and director of...