Aug. 4–VENTURE CAPITAL DEALS PERCOLATE FOR 3 TECH COMPANIES: Three Orlando tech companies apparently are within 60 days of announcing venture capital deals worth $10 million to $20 million. Thecompanies — two that exist and a third in the formation process — all found investors after lengthy searches for money. If the deals come through, the funding could offer a boost to other techcompanies that have all but given up on venture funding in what has been an exceedingly tight market.

WOLFGANG PUCK, LEVY IN TALKS: Rumor has it there could be a change in store at Downtown Disney. Insiders say that Chicago-based restaurant company Levy Restaurants, which owns Portobello Yacht Club and Fulton’s Crab House on Disney property, is striking a deal with Wolfgang Puck Grand Café to buy the restaurant and change the concept. The Wolfgang Puck restaurant, which offers Californian cuisine, was created by one of the country’s most recognizable chefs of the same name. Officials at both Levy Restaurants and with Wolfgang Puck Café would not comment. Rumors had circulated earlier this year about the future of Puck’s restaurant chain. His business partner and wife, Barbara Lazaroff, filed for divorce last November.

JETBLUE TV SYSTEMS IN PICTURE: The folks at JetBlue Airways aren’t saying much about the training and maintenance centers they may build in Orlando — it’s too early to talk about it, they say, with the city and county still mulling an incentives package. But local leaders say the maintenance center will, among other things, be used to install in-flight television systems in more than just JetBlue airplanes. They say the carrier also will be doing work for competitors eager to follow the young carrier’s lead in offering the seat-back devices for passengers.

SHREK LINES NEED WATCHING: Don’t even try to cut in line for Universal Orlando’s newest attraction. Some visitors frustrated by the two-hour-plus wait times for the Shrek 4-D ride have been cutting in front of others by slipping into the express line — just past the point where employees scan express pass tickets. To put a stop to the practice, the company recently assigned more employees to monitor the express line, according to one Universal employee. Now, attraction employees check for express pass tickets three times: at the front and end of the line, plus once more about halfway.

NO WELCOME MAT FOR WAL-MART: Judging from the amount of calls and e-mails in response to news that a Wal-Mart Supercenter is being planned for Oviedo, it sounds as if customers in the area aren’t exactly welcoming the discount chain to their neighborhood. Wal-Mart said last month that residents near Red Bug Lake and Mikler roads were responding favorably to the planned construction of a 200,000-plus square-foot store. Not so, said one caller. “We’re doing everything we can so it doesn’t come here,” she said.

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(c) 2003. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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