Ups to Royal Appliance. Its TeleZapper has been so successful that company president Michael Merriman has begun discussions with phone manufacturers to embed the TeleZapper into the next generation of telephones. Telemarketers, you’ve met your match!
Downs to AOL/Time Warner. Stockholders grousing over the company’s recent stock price woes have more reason to complain. AOL recently sent out another round of “Try it Today” CD-ROMs for AOL 7.0. Instead of packaging these in low-cost, high-volume paper bundling, these arrived in sturdier — and more expensive — tin containers. Can this really be the company’s marketing and growth strategy?
Ups to the Ohio Assembly Plant. Ford’s announcement that it will produce the Ford Escape in Avon Lake beginning in summer 2003 spells good news for the 800 workers shelved as a result of the discontinuation of the Mercury Villager and Nissan Quest.
Ups to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. CFF awarded $2 million to research and care institutions in Cleveland including the CF Foundation’s Therapeutics Development Center at Case Western Reserve University, the Leroy W. Matthews Cystic Fibrosis Center at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital, and Copernicus, a Cleveland biotechnology firm conducting gene therapy research.
