Biz Roundup

By Laura Willoughby



Columbia National Acquired

A Columbia mortgage bank with roots in The Rouse Company will soon be acquired by a New York-based mortgage bank. Columbia National is in the process of a $37 million cash acquisition agreement with American Home Mortgage. The two companies entered into a definitive agreement in June and, pending shareholder approval and financing, the deal should close within the next 30 days.

"We've been looking for a replacement for some of the equity that has backed Columbia National since 1993," said Todd Chamberlain, executive vice president with Columbia National. "A chunk of our equity ownership was held by a closed-end fund that had run its course and was looking to exit." Chamberlain said Columbia National has been talking acquisition for three years.

Columbia National was founded in 1939 as Moss-Rouse Company, which later became The Rouse Company. It was sold to Paine Webber in the 1980s, but bought back control in 1993. Its 600 employees service 57 offices in the east and upper Midwest.

The acquisition will change little, including the name: Columbia National will continue operating with the same name, operations will stay roughly the same, and employee layoffs aren't likely.

"There's a potential for great synergy," Chamberlain said. "American Home Mortgage is a publicly traded company in the process of acquiring a bank, both of which are valuable funding sources. We have some operational advantages we bring to the table, and we have a culture that might be helpful to other entities in the American Home family."

Last year, Columbia National loaned $2.8 billion to the retail market and another $2.7 billion for residential loans.



More Jobs Lost

Final approval of fiber optical networking company Ciena's acquisition of rival ONI Systems may help put the embattled firm back on the right financial track, but it's costing about 80 Ciena employees their jobs. The latest round was announced just a few weeks ago.

A total of about 335 workers will lose their jobs, 80 of those from Ciena employees split between the Linthicum headquarters and operations in Georgia. The rest will come from ONI workers. Ciena officials said the layoffs were expected as part of the Ciena and ONI Systems merger, and should help streamline operations and get rid of duplicate positions.



Homeland Security Pays for GP

Add one more feather to the anti-terrorism cap for General Physics Corp. The Columbia firm, already clocking an uptick in contracts for security and anti-terrorism measures since Sept. 11, just landed a contract to analyze 550 Texas hospitals. The contract, awarded by the Texas Department of Health, pairs General Physics with ZA Consulting in Jenkintown, Pa., to assess the hospitals' bioterrorism preparedness and prepare a readiness and response plan.

This latest contract follows the October announcement by the firm that it was ready to help clients meet "the new challenges caused by the heightened threat of terrorism." Recent past projects included developing a security action plan manual for an oil refinery and an anti-terrorism protection study for two government facilities.

General Physics has been working with security and terrorism projects for 20 years, with clients including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, Department of Justice and the Red Cross.



What Fiber Bust?

The fiber network industry may be failing, but that's not keeping an Elkridge company focused on cable fiber networks from rolling out its latest product. Optinel Systems released a new cable transport system developed for the up-and-coming Video-on-Demand services. Video-on-Demand, a long-talked-about potential cable offering typically found in executive hotels, is finally making its way into individual residences. This is prompting high-speed cable needs-and for any company that didn't overextend itself during the networking high-speed heydays, healthy revenues are still an option.

Optinel is an independent provider of cost-effective broadband regional and metro optical network systems for cable and access providers, and builds regional systems.



Power Up the Board

Here's one board that's going to the dogs. Columbia-based Advanced BioNutrition Corp., which creates science-based animal health and nutrition products, named seven members to its newly-created executive board last month, many of them heavy-hitters in the agriculture and aquaculture industry. Advanced BioNutrition also develops nutritional products that promote health and control disease in aquaculture and agriculture.

Among the newest board members is former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Daniel Glickman, who served as secretary until January 2001. Also serving on the board is former Dupont Agriculture executive William Kirk. Other members of the board include oral vaccine and plant biology expert Charles Arntzen, David Kyle, president and founder of Advanced BioNutrition, and representatives of the company's investors.



Nowhere But Up

The Baltimore-Washington, D.C. housing market is going nowhere but up, according to the latest risk index from PMI Mortgage Insurance. The San Francisco firm regularly assesses the likelihood that housing prices will decline-and the latest report shows the Baltimore-Washington Corridor is in the lowest risk category. Not surprising for anyone who's tried to buy a house in the area lately: Houses are still selling after only a few days' listing.

The PMI Group, Inc., through its subsidiaries and corporate affiliates, is a leader in mortgage risk management technology, and provides various products and services for the home mortgage finance industry including special servicing and title insurance.