Winners & Losers

Winners

>>Shirokiya department store has a fighting chance at continued life with its sale - for a buck - to a team of managers and executives.

Though the Maui store will close, Ala Moana Center will retain the site in Survivor's Alley, next door to Liberty House.

It's safe to say that community support, and a hefty risk by the new owners, kept this store from the gallows of corporate cost-cutting. Not that we know anything about that.

>> Hawaiian Airlines' 895 flight attendantsare flying high with a tentative agreement on a new 42-month labor pact that includes hefty pay increases and better benefits, providing one of the few national bright spots in airline and union relationships.

>>Honolulu company Pihana Pacific, which builds Internet data centers in Asia and the Pacific, managed to score $34 million in new financing during a Wall Street week slightly less stable than a Tilt-A-Whirl.

In total, the company has now raised $236 million to build seven facilities, including the one near the Honolulu Airport.

Losers

>> Chevron Corp.: In a hamhanded lobbying attempt, Chevron Hawaii ended up dumping fuel on a fire. According to the sworn deposition of a former Chevron manager, a top Hawaii executive for Chevron Corp. intimidated service station dealers in 1997 so they would not support a major piece of legislation the company opposed.

>> Dot-com, Dot-going, Dot-gone. Internet companies are still closing at the rate of a dozen a week, with 106 shutting their doors in the first two months of the year as investors flee for companies that actually make money, according to research and advisory firm Webmergers.com. Also on the not-so-bright side, dot-com job cuts are likely to slow, but only because the companies are running out of jobs to cut, says outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas.

>>Feeding the bears: U.S. corporations slugged through their biggest quarterly profits decline in a decade during the beginning of this year, forcing precipitous stock market sell-offs and widespread corporate layoffs. Funny, the new economy comes to a screeching halt just like the old one did.