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Coffee Talk (Sara/Mana)
Phantom's chances vanishing
Sarasota's Infinium Labs faced a barrage of negative press coverage over its proposed Phantom gaming system and related network service, but given the company's questionable decision to attempt a rollout toward the end of the year, it's hard to foresee anything but a sad outcome.
When the business first planned to enter the market in the Christmas 2004 season, it faced almost no competition from new gaming consoles.
It spent millions on its booth at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), one of the gaming industry's largest expos, but didn't have enough money so it pushed back the rollout.
This year, there are going to be bigger sharks in the water. The biggest competitor to vie for gaming dollars this holiday season is Microsoft's second consumer console dubbed the Xbox 360. Aside from the obvious financial and marketing muscle of Microsoft, the company is said to be creating an expanded and more uniform online component through Xbox Live. Although somewhat below expectations, the Microsoft sold about four million Xbox consoles in its first year.
At the same time, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. has announced plans to offer video games on-demand through a broadband connection to PC users later this fall. While Turner's GameTap would not involve its own gaming console, it certainly could impact demand for Infinium's gaming service, which is not available to users without the Phantom console. In addition, the service offers much the same advantages to game developers, such as lower priced retail rollouts and lower long-term storage costs, as the Infinium system.
Tech tag team
Don't worry; Sarasota is not the home base for a new pop music boy band. 82 Degrees Tech is a new technology advocacy group that combines the efforts of the Suncoast Technology Alliance, the Technology Entrepreneurship cluster group of the Sarasota County EDC and the Technology Council for the Manatee County Chamber of Commerce's EDC.
Sarasota County's Bob Hanson and Dan Miller, the group's president, came up with the idea of 82 Degrees.
"We noticed that we were going to different meetings where we kept seeing the same people and talking about the same things," Miller says. "We noticed the overlapping efforts and thought it would be more effective and efficient to create a bi-county organization."
Still in its infancy, the organization is struggling to find a workable organizational structure that would balance the paid membership elements of Suncoast Technology with the two working groups' unpaid community participation structure. All totaled, Miller says, the organization involves about 250 people. In addition to the consolidation of resources, the move is also designed to create a more high-profile organization.
The group is still putting together its strategic goals but has already made news by introducing, in conjunction with Sarasota County government, Downtown Unplugged, a free Wi-Fi service in downtown Sarasota. The organization expects to eventually expand the service to the entire county.
Miller says 82 Degrees Tech is in talks with Manatee County and the City of Bradenton about bringing the service to downtown Bradenton and other areas of the city and the county.
There is the potential, Miller says, for private enterprise to eventually aid the expansion of the Wi-Fi network. He suggests businesses could participate possibly with a donation or by buying a sponsorship or advertising model through the county's legal disclaimer Web page.
The origin of the group's name refers to the longitude line that runs through Sarasota and Manatee counties as well as the region's balmy weather.
Nicer things to say
Banking analyst Richard X. Bove is toning down his recent criticism of SunTrust Banks Inc.
Bove, who works at Punk Ziegel & Co., was quite critical of SunTrust last year because he says the Atlanta bank had botched its acquisition of Huntington Bank's former Florida branches, among other miscues.
Relations between bank executives and Bove had gotten so bad last fall that the analyst told Coffee Talk that SunTrust wasn't taking his calls anymore. After a recent SunTrust presentation to Wall Street types, however, Bove is being kinder.
Bove notes approvingly in a recent research report that SunTrust's efforts to attract new checking accounts and to make more business loans are generating double-digit growth.
"It is producing impressive results," writes Bove.
The Pinellas Park-based analyst has forecast 2005 earnings for SunTrust in the range of $5.39 to $5.55 a share. SunTrust reported earnings of $5.20 a share last year.
But Bove still rates SunTrust stock as merely a market performer for the time being. He says he won't put a buy signal on SunTrust just yet.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating SunTrust's booking of loan-loss reserves. The securities regulators are looking at whether the bank socked away extra cash last year to smooth out earnings in subsequent quarters, if the economy took a dive.
Correction
A real estate brief in the April 29-May 5 issue was incorrect. It should have stated that the number of residential detached-homes planned for Lake Club at Lakewood Ranch is 768.
Etc...
• Breakout the cigars, Jack Cox, president of Halfacre Construction Co., and Andrea Saputo Cox, vice president of marketing and consumer affairs for Gold Coast Eagle Distributing L.P., have a new baby boy.
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