Evicted Calif. residents to meet with mayor

SANTA ROSA, Calif. >> Mayor Mike Martini has scheduled a meeting for people evicted last weekend from some 149 rental homes in two Santa Rosa subdivisions.

A letter from a Honolulu law firm was tacked to each home's door, ordering tenants to vacate their houses within 30 days. The notices were signed by lawyers for Gensiro Kawamoto, a billionaire Japanese real estate tycoon who built the homes more than a decade ago.

"It's a real gutless way to do things," said Robert Brownlee, a California Highway Patrol officer who lives in one of the houses. "Here you have a whole community that has to pick up and go."

Kawamoto said he wants to sell properties in California, as well as 80 homes and condominiums he owns in Hawaii, to raise money for new investments. Kawamoto, 69, built a small family kimono business into one of Japan's largest real estate empires, Marugen Corp. He began buying property in the United States in the 1980s. Within a few years, he acquired about 800 houses and condominiums in Santa Rosa, Sacramento and Hawaii.

Residents have the option of buying the homes, but many say that's not possible because they're expected to sell for about $350,000.

Many residents said they're most upset by the short time they have to find new housing.

"At this point we're all resolved to the fact that we're going to have to move," resident Kathy Wagner said. "It's the time element we're stressing about."

Sabre offers to purchase rest of Travelocity shares

FORT WORTH, Texas >> Sabre Holdings Corp. plans to offer about $345 million, or $23 a share, in cash for the rest of Travelocity.com, the second largest online travel agent, that Sabre doesn't already own.

There are about 15 million Travelocity.com shares outstanding, and the purchase price is 20 percent more than Travelocity.com's Friday closing price of $19.20, Sabre said, Bloomberg News reported. A tender offer is expected to begin on or soon after March 5.

Travelocity.com shares rose $5.71, or 30 percent, to $24.91.

Sabre, which owns about 70 percent of Travelocity.com, fell $2.34, or 5.2 percent, to $42.94.

Sabre's purchase of Travelocity.com would allow the largest travel company to add its technology to the travel site and surpass rivals Expedia Inc. and closely held Orbitz.com, which have been gaining market share by offering low-fare travel prices, J.P. Morgan Securities analyst Matthew Fassnacht said.

S&P rethinks downgrade after Princess vote delay

LONDON >> P&O Princess Cruises Plc, the No. 3 cruise operator, is less likely to have its credit rating cut after shareholders delayed approving a union with junk-rated rival Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Standard & Poor's said. There's now a growing chance that the biggest cruise operator, Carnival Corp., will succeed in its $6.8 billion hostile bid for P&O Princes, S&P said.

Bloomberg News reported S&P changed its outlook on P&O Princess' "BBB" rating to developing from negative because a takeover by Carnival would aid its creditworthiness, while a Royal Caribbean merger is more likely to result in a downgrade. Royal Caribbean has a junk rating of "BB+" with S&P, while Carnival is rated "A".

In other news . . .

OMAHA, Neb. >> Amcon Distributing Co., the parent of Hawaiian Natural Water Co., yesterday declared a cash dividend of 3 cents per share payable on March 22 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 28.

LINTHICUM, Md. >> Ciena Corp., the second-largest U.S. maker of fiber-optic telephone equipment, will buy rival ONI Systems Corp. for $1.2 billion in stock and debt to add sales in one of the only rising communications-gear markets.