October 9, 2008
By Kayvon Sharghi
For those who like puzzle games like Tetris and Bejeweled, which require minimum neural processing but provide maximum stimulationnot to mention big revenues for game developersthings in Seattle may get a bit more interesting in the coming months. RealNetworks, one of the largest casual-game publishers and distributors in the world, announced plans last spring to…
- November 2008
October 9, 2008
By Kim Sklar
About a year and a half ago, all eyes in Seattle were on real-estate mogul Al Clise. In June 2007, he announced that he wanted to sell a 13-acre, seven-block swath of commercial property in Denny Triangle. However, by April 2008, the chairman and CEO of Clise Properties took the lots off the market without…
- November 2008
October 8, 2008
By Sheila Bacon, with research conducted by Sheila Mickool, Kayvon Sharghi and Kim Sklar.
What does a gaming guru starting a new venture have in common with a CEO planning to move the companys headquarters? Rather than heading to the suburbs, both are now more likely to choose a city neighborhood for their new digs. Commuting long distances is still the norm for many workers in the Puget Sound…
- November 2008
October 8, 2008
By Jeff Meisner
Last April, as the battle raged over whether the NBAs Seattle SuperSonics would stay in town or leave, a former Sonics star and a public-relations executive unveiled a bold new proposal that they believed at the time was a game changer. They wanted to build a sparkling new professional sports and exhibition center along the…
- November 2008
September 18, 2008
By Randy Woods
Ron Wiener wants to open your mail. He doesnt want to read it, but hell scan it, track it, forward iteven shred it if you ask him to. As CEO of Seattle-based Earth Class Mail, Wiener has a vision to drag the worlds postal services into the 21st century by digitizing them. Trying to transform…
- October 2008
September 18, 2008
By Jeff Meisner and Myke Folger, with additional reporting by Jeff Bond, Kayvon Sharghi, Kim Sklar and Niki Stojnic
Darren Berg runs 11 companies. Thats right, 11 companies! The hyperactive Berg is constantly coming up with new ways to improve his burgeoning empire, which includes everything from a motor-coach service to a real-estate operation to an event ticketing service. He even admits to analyzing how to more efficiently run his local coffee shop as…
- October 2008
September 18, 2008
By Kim Sklar
With 8,370 votes, Barack Obama has a commanding lead, followed by Ron Paul with 5,184 votes, John McCain with 2,334 votes and Hilary Clinton with 1,860 votes. Wait a secondRon Paul is in second place? Whats going on here? Is this the latest Florida vote-counting scandal? No, these are just the numbers of Jones Soda…
- October 2008
September 18, 2008
By Manny Frishberg
Unions and lawyers love Democrats. Big business and developers prefer Republicans. That may be a well-worn stereotype, but lists of endorsements and major campaign spenders for Gov. Christine Gregoire and Dino Rossi illustrate the basic truths behind the cliche. According to the lists of contributors in the campaigns filings with the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC),…
- October 2008
September 18, 2008
By Nick Horton
These are tough times for Zango. The Bellevue-based software firm, which was founded in 1999, has repeatedly raised the ire of consumers, internet privacy advocates and even the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The scrutiny, it seems, is well-deserved. In the period between 2001 and 2006, Zango (then known as 180Solutions before its 2006 merger with…
- October 2008
Commentary
Hey, Genius: Enough Already!
September 18, 2008
By David Volk
Although Im too busy to look it up right now, I was recently stunned to learn that sometime, somewhere, a literary figure who is older than my grandparents said something like the rich are different from you and me. This remark got me to wondering what the difference was. It would be easy to come…