Business Briefs
Star-Bulletin staff
and wire services
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FAST FACTS HAWAII
HAWAII
Families sell decades-old shopping center on Lanai
Castle & Cooke Resorts LLC has bought the 60-year-old Richard's Shopping Center in Lanai City from the retiring Tamashiro families, said the company's billionaire owner, David Murdock.
Murdock owns most of Lanai and has been switching the island's economy from pineapple to tourism and luxury real estate. Castle & Cooke Resorts is expected to assume the operations of Richard's on Feb. 1, and the Tamashiros will assist with the transition.
EXHIBITORS HAPPY WITH JOB FAIR
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Yesterday's Job Quest job fair at the Blaisdell Center drew 3,400 job seekers and 182 exhibitors, fewer than a September event, though exhibitors were happy with the quality of the candidates, said Beth Busch, president of Success Hawaii Advertising, event sponsor. Kenneth Phillips, left, talked with Food Pantry Ltd. district manager Glenn Ooka about opportunities at the company.
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Successor named for NFIB's Tatum
Local lawyer and lobbyist Melissa Pavlicek is replacing the retiring Bette Tatum as head of the local arm of the National Federation of Independent Business.
Tatum, who represented the small-business organization for about 25 years, and her husband, Lon, plan to devote their time to family, travel and writing a book to help others in dealing with a child's death from cancer.
NATION
L.A. housing market loses steam
LOS ANGELES » Southern California's residential real estate market ended 2005 in tepid fashion with sales sinking to their lowest level for a December in four years and price appreciation continuing to lose steam, an industry tracker said yesterday.
Last year, 355,698 new and previously owned houses and condominiums changed hands, down 0.4 percent from 2004, said La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems.
The median price for all housing, the point at which half the units cost more and half less, increased 16.5 percent, to a record $460,000.
Google shares shed $22.20
Google Inc., among the most-loved stocks on Wall Street, had its steepest decline in more than a year after two analysts recommended selling the shares and
Yahoo! Inc. reported disappointing results.
"The stock is overvalued and I think Yahoo is an indication of change," said Scott Devitt, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. "What they offer the consumer is outstanding," though the stock price "is very high."
Shares of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company dropped $22.20, or 4.8 percent, to $444.91, the steepest decline since November 2004.
Google, which has more than doubled in value the past year, faces revenue concentration and rising competition, wrote Scott Kessler, a Standard & Poor's equity analyst, in a note published after U.S. exchanges closed yesterday. Its planned $1.1 billion purchase of DMarc Broadcasting Inc. reflects a "need to diversify," he added.
Devitt and Kessler both cut Google, the world's most used- Internet search engine, to "sell" from "hold."
Yahoo, owner of the most-visited Web site, plunged as much as 13 percent after profit missed estimates and the company posted the slowest revenue growth in three years.
Northwest to lose $1.1B without labor-cost cuts
Northwest Airlines Corp., seeking to cut costs to avoid liquidation, will lose $1.1 billion and decrease its cash balance by more than $500 million this year if it is unable to reduce expenses, including pay to its pilots and other workers, the bankrupt company's controller said.
Northwest is asking a federal bankruptcy judge for approval to scrap contracts with its pilots and flight attendants as part of a plan to reduce labor costs by $1.4 billion. Both the pilots and flight attendants have said the pay cuts are excessive and they may strike.
Southwest reports profit; AMR posts loss
DALLAS >>
Southwest Airlines Co. reported a 54 percent jump in fourth-quarter profit as the bets it made on fuel prices allowed it to dodge for a little longer the spiraling costs that led to a $604 million loss for the parent of American Airlines, the nation's biggest carrier.
Revenue increased at both airlines, as planes were more crowded and average fares rose.Southwest shares added 30 cents to $16.76 yesterday. American's parent, AMR Corp., however, lost 15 cents to close at $20.39.