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State marketing official joins seawater business

Steve Bretschneider has resigned as deputy director and chief marketing officer of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, and is being replaced by Mark Anderson, administrator of Hawaii's foreign trade zone program.

Bretschneider, a longtime advertising executive who joined the Lingle administration in January 2003, is leaving to work for Los Angeles-based Deep SeaWater International Inc., one of several companies exporting high-priced bottled water from the Big Island to Japan.

Anderson has been named acting deputy director of the department.

Hawaiian Air gets no complaint

Hawaiian Airlines did not have a single complaint in November, and led the nation's airlines in on-time performance while ranking third-best for mishandled baggage, the carrier said yesterday.

Hawaiian's flights were 93.4 percent on time during the month, the 13th straight month it has led all carriers in the nation, according to federal transportation statistics cited by Hawaiian. The airline also had the fewest number of passengers who were denied seats because of oversales.

Shidler buys California buildings

Shidler Group, a U.S. owner of 8 million square feet of commercial real estate, bought office and research-and-development buildings in San Diego and Los Angeles from Arden Realty Inc. for $142 million.

The 19 buildings acquired by Shidler encompass 1.1 million square feet, the San Diego-based company said yesterday in a statement.

Separately, Shidler Group said it sold an 18-story, 180,000-square-foot office building in downtown San Diego for $48 million to Arden, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment trust. Tenants at the building, which Shidler bought in September 2003 for $35 million, include Washington Mutual Inc. and the San Diego city attorney's office.

Alltel seeks to buy Western Wireless

Alltel, the United States' sixth-largest wireless carrier, is in advanced negotiations to buy Western Wireless, a regional carrier in the Northwest, for roughly $4 billion, executives close to the talks said last night.

The deal, which would be the latest in the rapidly shrinking wireless industry, could be reached within the next week, the executives said.

Combined, Alltel, which is based in Little Rock, Ark., and Western Wireless, based in Bellevue, Wash., would have about $10 billion in revenue and 9.8 million subscribers -- about 6 percent of the national market. Alltel, which also has a fixed-line business, provides wireless service in parts of nearly two dozen states mostly in the Southeast and Midwest; Western Wireless operates in 19 Western states primarily under the Cellular One brand.

Circuit City's store sales drop

RICHMOND, Va. » Circuit City Stores Inc. said yesterday its December sales rose a disappointing 1.8 percent, while so-called same-store sales fell 5.8 percent, as the nation's second largest consumer electronics retailer failed to draw large crowds of holiday shoppers.

The company's shares dropped 8.4 percent, or $1.25, to $13.71 a share yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.