Hawaiian Telcom added to Russell 2000
Hawaiian Telcom has been added to the Russell 2000 stock index, the company announced Monday.
The addition, which went into effect after the markets closed on Friday, is part of Russell Investments’ annual index reconstitution.
Hawaiian Telcom also was added to the Russell 3000, Russell Global, Russell Microcap and the appropriate growth and value style indexes.
"We are excited to join the Russell family of indexes," said Eric Yeaman, Hawaiian Telcom’s president and chief executive officer.
"We believe that membership in the Russell indexes will increase our exposure to the broader institutional investment community, help further expand our shareholder base, and contribute in our efforts to enhance shareholder value," he said.
Hawaiian Telcom shares closed down 1 cent at $19.54 Monday on the Nasdaq.
Research in Motion stock near 9-year low
Research In Motion Ltd., the struggling maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, fell the most since May after Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock, citing "rapidly deteriorating fundamentals."
"The only way RIM remains a viable entity is at a fraction of its current size, a transformation that erases much of its earnings power," Ehud Gelblum, an analyst at Morgan Stanley in New York, wrote in a note to investors Monday. He cut RIM’s recommendation to underweight, a negative rating, from equalweight, the equivalent of a hold.
RIM’s stock fell 7.6 percent to $9.11 at the close in New York, the worst decline since May 30. The shares are trading at their lowest level since December 2003.
The company plans to release a new lineup of phones based on the BlackBerry 10 operating system, an attempt to reverse a sales slide and regain market share from Apple Inc.’s iPhone and devices running Google Inc.’s Android. RIM, which has hired JPMorgan Chase & Co. and RBC Capital Markets to help evaluate its options, has lost two-thirds of its value in the past 12 months.
Madoff victims to get money within 3 years
ALBANY, N.Y. » Investors in four funds that lost more than $1.2 billion in Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme will receive $405 million in payouts over the next three years, New York’s attorney general said Monday.
A settlement with hedge fund manager J. Ezra Merkin was approved Friday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan. It settled state civil charges filed in 2009 claiming breach of fiduciary duty by Merkin.
The attorney general’s office said the investors are likely to get more money when Madoff’s estate is settled, though a federal trustee in the case, Irving Picard, said he is now reviewing the New York agreement and issued a caution about third-party settlements.
Facebook names first woman to board
NEW YORK » Facebook has named its No. 2 executive, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, to its board of directors.
Sandberg, who joined Facebook from Google in 2008, is the first woman on Facebook’s board of directors. People had called for the company to add a woman to its board ahead of its initial public offering of stock in mid-May.
Sandberg’s appointment is somewhat symbolic. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg controls Facebook and its board by owning more than half of its voting stock.
Facebook’s stock closed down 99 cents, or 3 percent, at $32.06 Monday on the Nasdaq.
The stock is down 15.6 percent from its initial public offering price of $38 on May 18.
Nissan plans new $800M China factory
BEIJING » Nissan Motor Corp. says it will spend up to $800 million on a new factory in China’s northeast as it works to expand sales in the world’s biggest auto market.
The Japanese automaker said Monday the factory in Dalian will have a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles by 2014. It will be Nissan’s fourth manufacturing center in China.
Nissan announced an $8 billion expansion plan for China last year as part of a global strategy to focus on faster-growing emerging markets and reduce reliance on the United States.
Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile seek more speed
NEW YORK » Verizon Wireless on Monday said it has agreed to sell some wireless spectrum rights to T-Mobile USA and swap others, in a continuing quest to get regulators to approve a bigger spectrum deal it has worked out with a consortium of cable companies and another wireless carrier.
The deal with T-Mobile USA would improve the ability of both companies to offer fast wireless data services, Verizon said.
T-Mobile, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless company, is particularly starved for spectrum compared to its larger competitors, and regulators are likely to favor a deal that would improve its position.
On the Move
Cutter Automotive Galleries has named Gary Scheuring its corporate sales trainer, heading the new Cutter Automotive Training Center. He has 28 years experience in the automotive industry in Hawaii.
Central Pacific Bank has appointed Mark Gurney to Beretania branch manager. He has more than 20 years of banking experience and was previously manager for the Kapahulu branch of American Savings Bank.
New members have been appointed to Chaminade University’s board of regents: William Anonsen, managing partner/principal of the Maritime Group; Melissa Ching Benjamin, community volunteer; Michael Dohm, Chaminade faculty senate president and professor of biology; John D. Field, vice president and treasurer of finance and administration of Punahou School; Ralph Mesick, executive vice president of Bank of Hawaii; Maile Meyer, owner of Native Books Na Mea Hawaii; Michael Rockers, superintendent of Hawaii Catholic Schools; and Richard F. Wacker, president and CEO of American Savings Bank. Returning regents: Jean Rolles and Robert Hoppe.
