| Self storage is a $145B business
Ten years ago the self-storage business was relatively quiet. A few stark warehouses could be seen from major highways and some investors would try their luck locating near busy streets. The businesses were simple. Greet the customers at the counter and give them a padlock. But the industry has gone from no-frills to high-tech and is growing in areas of San Antonio that are considered residential hot spots. Self-storage experts say residential growth is the biggest factor driving the industry locally, as well as people finding new uses for storage, such as keeping medical records, freeing up office space for small businesses or stashing away wine to let it age. The rise of these facilities has led to a $145 billion industry, with 45,812 facilities nationwide and counting.
Sovran Acquires 20 Cornerstone Properties
Amherst, N.Y.-based real estate investment trust Sovran Self Storage Inc. acquired 20 properties from Cornerstone Development Corp. of Dallas for $90 million. The deal includes seven facilities in St. Louis, a new market for Sovran. Others are in Dallas, San Antonio, Tampa and Southeast Louisiana. The company currently owns or operates 316 self-storage facilities in 22 states under the Uncle Bob's Self Storage brand name. The deal brought another 1.3 million square feet of rentable space to Sovran's existing portfolio of more than 19 million square feet. "The Dallas, San Antonio and Tampa stores will fit in very well with the stores we already operate in those cities," said David Rogers, chief financial officer. "We are looking forward to introducing Uncle Bob's to the St.
3 Execs charged in stock options probe, 80 companies eyed
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO: U.S. authorities on Thursday (July 21, 2006) charged former officers of technology group Brocade Communications Systems Inc. with fraud in the first court actions to result from an investigation of corporate stock option grants that has spread to 80 companies. Federal prosecutors and the FBI filed criminal securities fraud charges against Brocade's former chief executive, Gregory Reyes, and its former human resources vice president, Stephanie Jensen. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed related civil charges against both Reyes, 43, and Jensen, as well as Brocade's former chief financial officer, Antonio Canova. From 2000 to 2004, authorities alleged, Brocade hid millions of dollars in expenses from investors and overstated its income by falsifying employee stock option grant records.
Then and now, EFF defends traditional liberties in high-tech world
EDITOR'S NOTE _ This is one in an occasional series spotlighting the Internet personalities and phenomena. By ANICK JESDANUN AP Internet Writer SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ In March 1990, when few people had even heard of the Internet, U.S. Secret Service agents raided the Texas offices of a small board-game maker, seizing computer equipment and reading customers' e-mail stored on one machine. A group of online pioneers already worried about how the nation's laws were being applied to new technologies became even more fearful and decided to intervene. And thus the Electronic Frontier Foundation was born _ 16 years ago this Monday _ taking on the Secret Service as its first case, one the EFF ultimately won when a judge agreed that the government had no right to read the e-mails or keep the equipment.
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