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Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Friday, January 21, 2000
Royal Hawaiian selling jewelry stores
Royal Hawaiian Heritage Jewelry says it plans to sell its eight stores, but if a buyer isn't found by August, the outlets will close.Patrick Breeden, Royal Hawaiian's co-chief executive, said the poor island economy brought a downward spiral in sales, and "it finally caught up with us." At its peak in the early 1990s, the company had annual sales of more than $12 million, he said.
Seventy employees will be affected, but another 20 will be kept in other parts of the business, such as a Web site, Breeden said.
Summers: Japan's target too low
TOKYO -- Japan should open its economy and raise its 1 percent target for economic growth as the country pulls out of its deepest slump in decades, U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers said today.The Japanese government has said it expects 1 percent growth for the fiscal year starting April 1. But accepting that target runs the risk that "growth would again be negative," Summers said.
Microsoft boosts VerticalNet shares
HORSHAM, Penn. -- VerticalNet Inc., a manager of Internet sites where businesses buy and sell goods, climbed 30 percent after Microsoft Corp. invested $100 million in the company. VerticalNet rose $58.50 to $252.06 today. Microsoft bought a 3 percent stake.
P&G shares decline on bidding worries
CINCINNATI -- Procter & Gamble Co. shares fell 8.8 percent on concern that it could enter a bidding war to acquire drugmaker Warner-Lambert Co., possibly overpaying to build its small prescription-drug business.Shares of the largest U.S. maker of household products fell $9.87 to $102.69, its second-biggest decline since 1987's market crash. It accounted for half of the Dow's drop today. Procter & Gamble's board may meet by phone today to consider buying Warner-Lambert and its would-be merger partner, American Home Product Inc., as a way to try to thwart Pfizer Inc.'s hostile bid for Warner-Lambert.