Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Tuesday, June 1, 1999

Building contracts slip 39% in Hawaii

The value of contracts signed for future construction in Hawaii equaled $86.45 million last month, down 39 percent from $141.49 million in April 1998, a report shows.

McGraw-Hill Cos.' F.W. Dodge Division, which tracks the construction industry nationwide, said that residential contracts in April were down 37 percent from a year earlier, nonresidential contracts (primarily for commercial projects) were off 20 percent, and nonbuilding contracts (including infrastructure projects) were down 64 percent.

For the first four months through 1999, the value of all Hawaii contracts for future construction was up 3 percent, equaling $526.46 million, from $511.6 million in the same period last year.

Intel investing in Internet firm

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Intel Corp., the world's largest computer-chip maker, agreed to buy Dialogic Corp. for about $780 million in cash to add equipment that combines phone and computer systems using the Internet.

Santa Clara-based Intel will pay $44 for each share of Dialogic, a 32 percent premium to the stock's Friday close. Parsippany, N.J.-based Dialogic makes software and computer cards that help companies use the Internet to automate tasks, like directing calls, usually done by an operator.

In other news . . .

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- AmSouth Bancorporation is buying First American Corp. for $6.3 billion in stock in a deal that will create a banking concern with operations in nine Southern states from Kentucky to Florida.

WASHINGTON -- The Teamsters union and trucking companies that haul autos to dealers set a new midnight tonight deadline for a strike that could crimp U.S. sales of cars and light trucks.

Talks gained momentum an hour before yesterday's deadline, leading to the 24-hour extension.