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Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Monday, June 5, 2000

Cheap Tickets hits 5 million 'Net users

One million new users have signed on to Cheap Tickets Inc.'s Web site since the beginning of April, bringing the total registered to book discount travel through www.cheaptickets. com to 5 million, the Honolulu-based company said today.

One year ago, the company was celebrating its first million users and growing at a rate of 5,000 a day, said Sam Galeotos, president and chief operating officer. The growth rate now is 19,000 a day, partly due to the company's promotion of a brand image that includes Internet, telephone and retail office marketing, Galeotos said.

Cheap Tickets has arrangements with more than 35 airlines to sell their unsold seats at fares less than the published rates.

Microsoft changes rejected by Feds

WASHINGTON -- The government rejected most Microsoft Corp. suggestions for changing a proposal to break up the company. However, in its response filed today, the Justice Department did accept a few of the software giant's minor changes. The judge in the case is considering what remedy to impose in order to prevent Microsoft from continuing to violate the nation's antitrust laws.

Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson is considering a proposal offered by the government to split Microsoft in two.

The company offered significant changes to the government's proposal last week, but the government agreed to only minor alterations. For example, it accepted Microsoft's proposal to characterize the break-up as a "divestiture" rather than a "reorganization."

The government said it rejected most of the changes because they were "unnecessary" or "because they would undermine or frustrate the purpose and effectiveness" of its proposed remedy to break up the company.

Microsoft will be allowed to comment on Wednesday, after which the judge is expected to rule on his remedy in the case within a matter of days or weeks.

In today's Nasdaq trading, Microsoft's stock was up 56 cents to $66.87.

Of Mutual Concern

News for mutual fund investors

S&P singles out 29 top bond funds

NEW YORK -- Standard & Poor's named 29 investment-grade bond mutual funds it identified as having high-quality management, superior and consistent returns and a potential for strong future performance. Investors often invest in bond funds to diversify their holdings and cushion the risks inherent in stock investing.

Many choose investment-grade bond funds because those funds generate more income than common stocks and cash investments such as money market funds or certificates of deposit. The funds, however, are sensitive to interest rate fluctuations, which can result, like stocks, in capital gains or losses. Investment-grade bond fund managers invest principally or exclusively in bonds rated between AAA, the highest grade available, and BBB-minus, one grade higher than junk bonds. These bonds usually include some combination of U.S. Treasuries, agency bonds, mortgages, corporate bonds and bonds sold by foreign countries. To qualify as a "Select" fund, a fund must have at least 65 percent of its assets invested in investment-grade debt.

The list of Select funds, with multiple share classes in parentheses, includes: Alleghany Chicago Trust Bond Fund, BlackRock Managed Income Portfolio, Bond Fund of America, Calvert Income Fund A, Calvert Social Investment Fund Bond Portfolio A, Citizens Income Fund, Endowments Bond Portfolio, Frontegra Total Return Bond Fund, Hotchkis & Wiley Total Return Fund and John Hancock Bond Fund A.

Others include Legg Mason Investment Grade, LM Institutional Western Core Portfolio, Loomis Sayles Bond Fund Institutional, Loomis Sayles Fixed Income, Loomis Sayles Investment Grade Fixed Income, Managers Bond Fund, MAS Fixed Income Portfolio Instititional, MAS Fixed Income Portfolio II Institutional, MAS Special Purpose Fixed Income Institutional and Nicholas-Applegate High Quality Bond Fund Institutional. Also on the list are Nvest Bond Income Fund (A, B, C and Y), Phoenix-Seneca Bond Fund X, SteinRoe Intermediate Bond Fund, Strong Bond Fund Institutional, Strong Corporate Bond Fund, Transamerica Premier Bond Fund, United Bond Fund (A and Y), Vanguard Long-Term Corporate Fund and WM Income Fund A.