If the Nasdaq has paled in a year, consider the stock woes since last March of some Tampa Bay area tech-oriented stocks. All are brightly lit, clean and convenient alternatives to traditional neighborhood recycling centers. The company plans market tests later this year in Orlando, Atlanta and Tampa. . . . The Atlanta banking company that's known for a conservative, no-nonsense style begins a new print, radio and TV advertising campaign this weekend that's actually meant to be, well, funny. In one spot, a pack of squirrels raids a woman's bird feeder.
Investment bankers are squirrels, out to plunder customer funds.
For SunTrust, No. 3 in Florida's banking market, the campaign is its first major brand-building effort in years. . . . In the swirl of call-center closings, you lose some and you win some. As WorldCom and SBC shutter local call centers, here's some good news. Telespectrum Worldwide is closing an upstate New York, 300-employee call center in Cheektowaga. And the company, whose centers are handling calls for Verizon, says all calls once handled in Cheektowaga will go to centers in Norfolk, Va., Birmingham, Ala., and good ol' Tampa. . . .