Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Business Briefs

Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire

Friday, October 6, 2000

Verizon Hawaii execs to review merger

Officials of Verizon Hawaii, formerly GTE Hawaiian Tel, will speak at a luncheon of the International Association of Business Communicators at the Plaza Club Wednesday about how their parent company took two separate corporate identities and names -- Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp. -- and changed them into one, Verizon Communications.

Verizon Hawaii communications and public relations executives will talk about steps taken to promote the Verizon name, communications with employees on the merger and its impact, and developing the Verizon Hawaii brand.

The cost is $25 for IABC members, $30 for nonmembers and $15 for students. For reservations, contact Michelle Busbee by fax at 521-6141 or email at michel@strykerweiner.com.

Delta stock takes off on talk of possible bid

NEW YORK -- Delta Air Lines Inc. shares gained 5.2 percent today on a published report that the No. 3 U.S. airline might get a $7.5 billion takeover bid from a buyout group. The shares of Atlanta-based Delta rose as high as $48.69, before settling back to $47.69, up $2.38, on the New York Stock Exchange. Business Week magazine, in its "Inside Wall Street" column, cited unnamed industry insiders as saying two former airline executives and a major buyout group were looking for bank financing for a $7.5 billion bid, which would amount to $61 per Delta share. The potential suitors were not named.

In other news . . .

The Standard & Poor's rating service raised Hawaii's credit rating to A+-positive from A+-stable, following a similar increase by Moody's Investors Service Wednesday, which lifted its rating on $3.2 billion of Hawaii general obligation bonds to Aa3 from A1. Gov. Ben Cayetano said the rating firms' approval confirms that the state economy has rebounded and is expanding.

ANDOVER, Mass. -- CMGI Inc., an Internet investing company whose stock price has plunged 85 percent this year, said today it had enough cash and cash equivalents on hand to fund operations for two years.