Potomac Tech Wire: A Daily Email Newsletter On Venture Capital, Start-Ups, And Technology In Northnern Virginia, Maryland And Washington DC

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Dulles-based Vastera Files For IPO Kennedy Center President Leaves For Broadband Venture Network Solutions Launches Statistical Service Biotech Stocks Fall After Soaring Yesterday Briefly: HR poll, Forum on Internet Taxation, GraciasDoctor.com, Startec, SNL Securities, PartnerAmerica.com, School Technology Management - cutting classes

Dulles-based Vastera Files For IPO

Dulles, Va. -- Vastera, a developer of technology aimed at simplifying international trade, today announced that it has filed papers for an initial public offering of its stock to raise $70 million. Dulles-based Vastera has developed a number of Internet services aimed at helping importers and exporters carry out transactions over the Internet. The service helps users deal with regulatory agencies, customs officials, banks, and other organizations involved in international trade. The managing underwriters for the offering are Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown, Chase H&Q, and Banc of America Securities. www.Vastera.com

Kennedy Center President Leaves For Broadband Venture

Washington, DC -- The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced yesterday that its president, Lawrence Wilker, will step down at the end of the year to join a new venture focused on the distribution of arts programming over the Internet. The Kennedy Center said Wilker plans to launch the new venture with television producer Lou Reda, who has produced many shows for the History Channel and A&E. The venture is aimed at presenting drama, dance, classical music and other performing arts over broadband Internet connections. "I have an extraordinary opportunity, that I simply could not turn down, to put a stage in every living room to make arts and entertainment available to everyone worldwide," said Wilker, who has headed the Kennedy Center for the past eight years. kennedy-center.org/

Network Solutions Launches Statistical Service

Herndon, Va. -- Network Solutions, the largest registrar of Internet domain names, has launched a new service that provides statistical information about the registration of Web addresses. The Herdon-based company said the information will reveal trends about the development of the Internet. The service quantifies the number of domain names registered by a variety of different criteria including country, state, city and type of business. The most recent report showed that Washington DC had the highest number of domain name registrations on per capita basis of any state. It was followed by California, Nevada and Massachusetts. www.nsol.com/nsi

Biotech Stocks Fall After Soaring on Celera Announcement

Washington, DC -- After soaring yesterday following a major announcement by Rockville-based Celera, biotech stocks had a mild sell off today. In late day trading, Celera was down 9%, Gaithersburg-based GeneLogic was down 10% and Rockville Human Genome Sciences was down 8%. Yesterday, Celera Genomic's stock was up 21% after it announced that it has finished the first step in sequencing a person's genes. "Now that we have completed the sequencing of one human being's genome we will turn our computational power to the task of ordering the human genome," said Craig Venter, the company's president.

Briefly Noted:

Alexandria, Va. A new poll of human resource managers and job seekers conducted by the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition and the Society for Human Resources Management show that a higher salary -- and not necessarily work conditions -- is the key motivator of job switchers. The poll reported that 49 percent of HR officials and 44 percent of job seekers said higher compensation was the primary reason for changing jobs. Other reasons included "new challenges," "need for a change of environment," and "to escape a bad boss or bad colleague." A majority of HR professionals defined a "job hopper" as someone who changed jobs once a year; nearly a majority of job seekers defined a "job hopper" as someone who changes jobs as often as every two years. www.shrm.org/surveys

Washington, DC The 2000 BNA Public Policy Forum on Internet Taxation will be held on May 16th at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Washington DC. A number of leading politicians involved with the issue of Internet taxation will speak at the forum. Registration is required for the conference.internettaxation.pf.com/

McLean, Va. GraciasDoctor.com, a health web site aimed at Latin Americans, announced today that it has opened offices in Miami, Sao Paulo, Mexico City and Buenos Aires. McLean-based GraciasDoctor.com provides free health-related content that is tailored to the Latin American market. It targets its information at health care workers and the general population. www.GraciasDoctor.com

Bethesda, Md. After announcing a string of acquisitions two days ago, Maryland-based Startec Global Communications, a provider of telecommunications services to ethnic communities and emerging markets, today announced that it has acquired two additional Internet firms in the Middle East. biz.yahoo.com/prnews/000407/md_startec_2.html Va. Charlottesville-based SNL Securities, a research company focusing on the financial services industry, has published its quarterly report on mergers and acquisitions. The report can be viewed at the link below.www.snl.com/press/20000407.html