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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Thursday, June 1, 2000

Calif. couple donates $1 million to UH

A California couple involved in investment and development of computer technology has contributed $1.1 million toward the planned Center for Entrepreneurship and E-Business at the University of Hawaii College of Business Administration. The gift from Barry and Virginia Weinman will endow a chair for a faculty member and help underwrite establishment of the center for which the state Legislature has appropriated $1 million.

Barry Weinman is a general partner of AVI Management and managing director of the Media Technology Venture Funds. Virginia Weinman is president and founder of allusions.com, a California company specializing in computerized multimedia business presentations and Web site development. The Weinman's gift is the 15th of $1 million made to the university's $100 million Campaign for Hawaii.

Hilton goes online to buy supplies

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Hilton Hotels Corp. and PurchasePro.com Inc. have agreed to create an Internet exchange where Hilton will spend as much as $1.5 billion annually buying supplies for its more than 1,800 hotels. The site will link hotels in the Hilton chain -- which include Hilton, Doubletree, Embassy Suites and seven other brands -- with suppliers on line. Hilton and PurchasePro hope to start a similar exchange that will be open to rival hospitality firms. The exchange is expected to go online in a few months and be fully functioning by year-end, the firms said. The alliance comes about a month after Marriott International Inc., the biggest U.S. hotel chain, and closely held rival Hyatt Corp. agreed to create an online company that will sell hotel supplies.

In other news . . .

WASHINGTON -- Thirty-year mortgage rates fell to an average 8.54 percent this week from 8.62 percent last week, according to a nationwide survey released today by mortgage broker Freddie Mac. The average rate on a 15-year mortgages dipped to 8.24 percent from 8.31 percent. One-year adjustable-rate mortgages remained at an average 7.25 percent.