BUSINESS BRIEFS
Ag jobs hold steady in April
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Hawai'i's agricultural workforce totaled 6,800 people during April, unchanged from the same month a year earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported yesterday. The diversified agricultural sector, which includes all crops except sugar and pineapple, accounted for 78 percent of the workforce with 5,300 workers.
The sugarcane industry employed 600 workers (excluding mill workers), while the pineapple industry employed 900 people (excluding cannery workers). The average wage rose 5 percent to $11.96 an hour.
BANANA SALES INCREASE 14 PERCENT
Sales of Hawai'i-grown bananas rose 14 percent to $9.2 million last year on an increase in production, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported yesterday.
Banana acreage fell 16 percent to 1,145 acres amid continued concerns about the banana bunchy top virus. However, favorable weather pushed production up 27 percent to 20.9 million pounds.
HOMEBUILDER LOWERS FORECAST
DETROIT — Pulte Homes Inc. yesterday became the latest major homebuilder to lower its full-year earnings outlook as the housing market continues to cool. Its shares tumbled more than 5 percent to a new 52-week low.
Pulte cut its full-year outlook after both Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. and Toll Brothers Inc. lowered forecasts within the past month. All three companies cited large dips in new orders and jumps in cancellation rates in the second quarter on top of rising interest rates and larger inventories.
MICRON RAISES BID FOR LEXAR
SAN JOSE, Calif. — In an 11th hour move before a potentially contentious stockholders' vote, Micron Technology Inc. said yesterday it is prepared to sweeten its bid to acquire flash memory products maker Lexar Media Inc.
Under the new proposal, each share of Lexar would be traded for 0.5925 shares of Micron, up 5.3 percent from the previous exchange ratio of .5625. The revised ratio is subject to the approval of both company boards, the companies said. Though the value of the acquisition would not be set until closing, the revised bid would put the deal's value at about $826.5 million, based on Thursday's closing share prices and number of outstanding shares.
GOLDMAN SACHS PICKS CHAIRMAN
NEW YORK — The board of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said yesterday it intends to elect Lloyd C. Blankfein as its next chairman and chief executive officer after the investment banking company's current head, Henry M. Paulson Jr., moves to the U.S. Treasury.
The board said in a statement that the election of Blankfein, 52, will occur after Paulson is confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the next Treasury secretary.
