Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, August 11, 1997

American Medical buys most
of isle ambulance company

American Medical Response Inc., which recently bought a Hawaii ambulance business, has agreed to buy most assets of another, Mercy Ambulance Hawaii Inc.

The agreement covers Mercy's ambulances, equipment and supplies in the ambulances and Mercy's contracts, according to Aurora, Colo.-based American Medical. It does not include Mercy's helicopter service on Maui or the Mercy name, the company said.

In late July, American Medical, which previously had an ambulance operation on Maui, completed the purchase of International Life Support, a company with ambulances on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island.

Mercy has provided nonemergency ambulance services on Oahu since 1993.

Aloha Airlines to fly
to Christmas Island

Aloha Airlines has a one-year contract with the island nation of Kiribati to resume weekly flights to Christmas Island, starting tomorrow.

Christmas Island is located 1,300 miles south of Hawaii near the equator. Aloha served Kiribati between 1986 and 1991 under a contract with Kiribati's national airline, Air Tungaru, but halted the service after Air Tungaru was grounded due to financial problems.

Aloha said it will provide Christmas Island its only regularly scheduled air service. Plans call for the chartered three-hour flight to leave Honolulu at 6 a.m. every Tuesday and return by 1 p.m. that same day. It is expected to initially attract sport fishing enthusiasts.

Aloha said it will use a reconfigured Boeing 737 aircraft for the flights.

Kauai Electric's parent
sees net tumble 75%

STAMFORD, Conn. -- Citizens Utilities Co., the parent of Kauai Electric Co., said its second-quarter profit dropped 75 percent before a larger-than-expected charge for restructuring and a cutback in its expansion plans in communications.

The company, which provides telephone and utility services in 22 states, also said it will reduce capital spending this year and operating expenses by 10 percent, mainly because of cuts in its communications unit.

Profit from operations fell to $11.6 million, or 5 cents a share, from $46.3 million, or 19 cents, in the year-ago period. Citizens Utilities was expected to earn 13 cents a share, the average estimate from five analysts polled by IBES International Inc., according to Bloomberg News.

Jobs says he dumped
Apple stock in June

NEW YORK -- Fearing Apple Computer Inc. would never recover its past polish, co-founder Steve Jobs sold $22 million of Apple stock two months before announcing a pact with Microsoft Corp. that boosted its value, Jobs told Time magazine.

In June Jobs sold off the 1.5 million shares he received as part of the $424 million Apple paid him in December for NeXT Software Inc. He sold the stock at about $15 a share for more than $22 million -- about $16 million less than the shares would be worth now.

"Yes, I pretty much had given up hope that the Apple board was going to do anything," Jobs said in the magazine's Aug. 18 issue. "I didn't think the stock was going up."

Jobs, recently named a board member of the Cupertino, Calif.-based company, now holds a single share of Apple stock as a symbolic gesture.

"If that upsets employees, I'm perfectly happy to go home to Pixar," he said, referring to his animation company.