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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, February 11, 2000

Japan biotech firm builds Maui facility

WAILUKU -- A Japanese producer of microalgae has broken ground for its new production facility at the Maui Research and Technology Park.

Micro Gaia Inc. is the park's first biotechnology company. In his welcoming message yesterday, Gov. Ben Cayetano said the development of biotechnology industries is one of Hawaii's highest priorities.

Micro Gaia had searched for a 20-acre U.S. site that had warm temperatures and an abundance of sunlight. The company considered locations in California and Arizona, as well as Hawaii. Micro Gaia cofounder Seishiro Hirabayashi said the company decided on Hawaii because it has the right climate and right water resources. Shizuoka, Japan-based Micro Gaia was founded in late 1996 to develop mass cultures of microalgae.

Pets.com goes public at a $11 per share

NEW YORK -- Pets.com Inc.'s initial public offering of 7.5 million shares were priced at $11 each on today. The shares were trading under the "IPET" symbol on the Nasdaq stock market.

The San Francisco company is an online retailer of pet products. The company had expected the IPO shares to be offered at $9 to $11 each. The stock ended the day at unchanged at $11.

Proceeds from the offering are to be used for general corporate purposes, including marketing expansion and brand building.

Clinton to convene 'Net security meeting

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton will convene a meeting on Tuesday of government officials and leaders in the Internet business community to respond to this week's attacks on popular Web sites. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said today that Clinton wanted to bring the group together "to talk about what our overall long-term plan is and to work through whether we're doing everything we can now." Hackers knocked out popular sites Yahoo!, the largest independent Web site, leading retailers Buy.com, eBay, Amazon.com and news site CNN.com. At the meeting will be National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Attorney General Janet Reno, Commerce Secretary William Daley, among others. In addition, there will be representatives from Internet firms. "We are going to look at our overall capabilities," said Clinton, who last week sent Congress a budget request to combat computer sabotage.