BUSINESS BRIEFS
LavaNet leader stepping down
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Internet and business services company LavaNet Inc. today announced that President Yuka Nagashima is leaving to pursue other interests. She will be available to the company in an advisory capacity.
Pali Ka'aihue will become the company's new president effective March 6. He currently is vice president. Matt Freeman, currently the business development manager, will become vice president of operations.
Nagashima, who grew up in Kobe, Japan, joined LavaNet in 1996 as a sales representative and two years later was named president. She successfully steered the company from its origins as a consumer Internet service provider to its current focus as a high-end business service.
ALOHA AIRLINES EXITS BANKRUPTCY
Aloha Airlines emerged from bankruptcy yesterday, just 14 months after filing for Chapter 11 protection.
Aloha paid its creditors through a series of wire transfers, spokesman Stu Glauberman said.
The money came from the airline's new majority investor, Yucaipa Cos., and was used to pay off $62 million in loans from Goldman Sachs Credit Partners LP, and to recapitalize the company.
Hawaiian Airlines, the state's other major carrier, came out of bankruptcy in June after two years of reorganization.
"The historic Hawai'i-based air carriers are both out of bankruptcy and looking to the future," Glauberman said.
MORE LUGGAGE MISHANDLED
WASHINGTON — More bags were lost, damaged, delayed or pilfered by U.S. airlines last year than in at least eight years, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
However, Hawaiian Airlines had the lowest rate of mishandled luggage among the 20 major airlines listed — just 2.95 reports of mishandled bags per 1,000 passengers.
When figures for all the airlines were combined, reports of mishandled bags on domestic flights rose 23 percent in 2005, from 4.91 per 1,000 passengers in 2004 to 6.04 per 1,000. That's an average of about 9,700 lost or damaged bags per day.
SIRIUS POSTS $311.4M LOSS
NEW YORK — Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. reported a wider loss in the fourth quarter yesterday as costs for building its rapidly growing base of subscribers mounted.
The company, which added shock jock Howard Stern to its roster last month, lost $311.4 million compared with a loss of $261.9 million in the same period a year ago. The loss per share came in at 23 cents, a penny lower than analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had been expecting.
CHINA COMPANY FILES PIRACY SUIT
SHANGHAI, China — Chinese flash-memory products maker Netac says it has filed a lawsuit against U.S. rival PNY Technologies for alleged infringements of one of its patents — in a rare instance of a Chinese company pursuing piracy charges overseas.
The lawsuit, seeking unspecified "significant financial damages" was filed Feb. 10 in the Eastern District Court in Texas, the Chinese company said on its Web site.
