Maui Aloha Investment is not just playing games

Seed-level investor Maui Aloha Investment Fund LLC is seeking business plans to develop video games suitable for mainstream consumer retail sales.

The deadline for entries is May 15. Five winners, selected by June 15, will be given help to complete the plan. In exchange for funding, winners will be required to develop the game on Maui, using on-island resources. Winners will also appear on the PBS TV show "Computer Chronicles."

Plans should include a description of the game's concept, gameplay mechanics, technical feasibility, authors' experience and abilities, and a development plan.

Entrants should submit plans at www.mauialohafund.com.

SEC, N.Y. prosecutors looking into Compaq vote

SAN JOSE, Calif. >> Hewlett-Packard Co. acknowledged today that the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors in New York are looking into its executives' contacts with big investors just before last month's vote on the purchase of Compaq Computer Corp.

HP's last-minute moves to win support for the $19 billion Compaq deal are already under scrutiny in a lawsuit by dissident director Walter Hewlett that goes to trial next week in Delaware.

Though the proxies are still being counted, Hewlett wants a judge to order a new vote or disqualify the votes by Deutsche Bank, which he believes switched its position on 17 million shares out of fear HP would take future investment banking business elsewhere.

In addition to that case, the San Francisco office of the SEC is seeking documents and "related information" about HP's relationship and communications with Deutsche Bank, the giant computing company said in an SEC filing today.

States poised to rest case in Microsoft antitrust trial

NEW YORK >> The states pursuing stiff antitrust sanctions against Microsoft Corp. are preparing to rest their case today, clearing the way for what is expected to be a month of testimony by Microsoft witnesses who will urge a federal judge to apply a lighter touch.

The coalition of nine state attorneys general say their proposal will open up competition in emerging technologies that may eventually replace the ubiquitous Windows operating system as the link for consumers to their computing machines. Microsoft and the Justice Department, which have reached a less restrictive settlement than the nine states are proposing, say the states' plan would confuse consumers and bestow unfair advantages on Microsoft's rivals.

But for all the predictions about the future from the technology executives, economists and lawyers testifying on both sides of the case, it increasingly appears that the judge's decision may rest on a question about the past. The question is hypothetical: If Microsoft had not violated antitrust laws to maintain its Windows monopoly in the mid-1990s, would consumers have a choice in PC operating systems today?

Microsoft's expert economist, Kevin Murphy of the University of Chicago, is expected to testify this week that the answer is no. Microsoft has long argued the company's superior products and the missteps of its competitors, not illegal actions, enabled it to maintain a position of power.

Rents plummet with glut of vacant office space

SAN FRANCISCO >> Econ- omists see signs the recession is abating, but that's little consolation to those who own office space in America's cities, where rents are plummeting because of the biggest glut of commercial real estate in years.

Even as U.S. companies are adding jobs and home sales remain brisk, the nation's office vacancy rate hit 14.7 percent in the first quarter -- the highest since the mid-1990s, according to Reis Inc., a New York real estate investment firm.

The cities with the highest drops in office rents this year all are high-tech centers: Boston, Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Austin, Texas, according to Reis. Phoenix, Dallas, Denver and Columbus, Ohio, also have vacancy rates over 18 percent.

Although the Internet economy started to tank in 2000, constructing an office building can take nearly two years, so some new complexes are just now opening after the demand has dried up.