Business Briefs
Star-Bulletin staff
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FAST FACTS HAWAII
HAWAII
Wyndham's Waikiki timeshare may be its most successful
Executives at Wyndham Vacation Ownership are pleased with the response so far to the company's timeshare resort in the Waikiki Beach Walk redevelopment project.
Wyndham Waikiki Beach Walk, the company's 13th Hawaii-based resort and its first in Waikiki, had more than 3,000 individual pre-construction sales before its opening Dec. 1.
Franz Hanning, Wyndham Vacation Ownership's president and chief executive officer, said yesterday that with the current sales pace, the property is "well on its way to becoming one of our most successful resorts ever."
The 195-unit timeshare property, formerly the Ohana Reef Towers Hotel, will be affiliated with the company's FairShare Plus portfolio of timeshares. Wyndham said it has invested $54 million to renovate the property over the past two years.
Wyndham Vacation Ownership, a unit of Wyndham Worldwide Inc., has developed or acquired more than 140 resort properties throughout North America and the South Pacific.
NATION
Fired executive to get $10 million
J.C. Penney Co., the third-largest U.S. department store company, gave former Chief Operating Officer Catherine West a severance package worth $10 million after firing her for poor performance.
West was unable to meet objectives "related primarily to gaining an understanding of the company's operations," the Plano, Texas-based retailer said yesterday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
West, the former president of Capital One Financial Corp.'s U.S. credit card division, was hired in June to oversee store operations, property development and logistics, responsibilities that again report directly to Chief Executive Officer Myron Ullman.
"Our discussions indicate it was primarily a fit issue with the CEO," Arun Daniel, a senior analyst at ING Investments LLC in New York, said in an e-mail. His firm has $40 billion in assets including J.C. Penney shares. "You do have some risk," bringing someone in without a retail or operations background, he said.
Freddie expects to report losses
WASHINGTON » Home-mortgage financier
Freddie Mac said yesterday it expects to report losses for the third and fourth quarters of 2006, citing interest rates declines.
The government-sponsored company, emerging from a multibillion-dollar accounting scandal, forecast a loss of about $550 million for the third quarter, compared with a profit of $880 million in the third quarter of 2005. During the most recent July-September period, long-term interest rates declined by about half a percentage point.
WORLD
Tycoon starts budget Asian carrier
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia » Malaysian aviation tycoon Tony Fernandes has launched a new long-haul budget airline named AirAsia X, which will start flying to destinations in China, India and Europe in July, a statement said yesterday.
AirAsia X will be a collaboration between AirAsia, the region's biggest low-cost carrier, and Fly Asian Express, or FAX, a small airline serving rural routes in Malaysia.
Fernandes is the majority owner of Fly Asian Express Sdn. Bhd. with a 50 percent stake. He is also the brain behind AirAsia, which he bought as a bankrupted company in 2001 and turned it into the most profitable and biggest low-cost carrier in Asia. He is one of the main shareholders in the airline.
GM may boost inventory to prep for possible strike
General Motors Corp. plans to boost vehicle inventories as much as 20 percent higher than normal as a precaution against a possible labor strike this year, people familiar with the matter said.
The world's largest automaker may stockpile as many as 1.2 million cars and trucks, up from about 1 million, according to people briefed on GM's strategy. They didn't want to be identified because the plans haven't been made public.
The move would signal that GM is bracing for a possible showdown with the United Auto Workers over health-care and other costs. GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said yesterday that even after cutting $9 billion in annual labor, health-care and manufacturing costs, his Detroit-based automaker needs more concessions from its largest union.
GM spokesman Tom Wickham and UAW spokesman Roger Kerson declined to comment.
One day, you may Google the universe
SEATTLE »
Google has already planted its flag on Earth, the Moon and Mars. The universe could be next.
The Internet search company has struck a partnership with scientists building a huge sky-scanning telescope, with hopes of helping the public access digital footage of asteroids, supernovas and distant galaxies.
"Frankly, I could see the day when they would be our sort of window to the general public," said Donald Sweeney, manager of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, or LSST.
Officials also say Google's technical expertise and vast data processing capacity will be an invaluable help, even for a project that has access to some of the country's leading research institutions.
The 8.4-meter LSST is expected to begin surveying the sky in 2013 from a mountaintop in Chile. Its goal is to continuously scan space, taking a series of 15-second exposures that allow it to cover the sky every three nights.
BUSINESS PULSE