Business Briefs

Club Med gets $700 million buyout offer

Club Med, the French resort operator, said Monday that it had received a $700 million buyout offer led by its two largest shareholders, an investment unit of the French insurer AXA and a Chinese conglomerate called Fosun International. The proposed deal gives a Chinese company an unusually visible role in a prominent Western brand.Founded in 1950, Club Med operates about 80 resorts in Europe and around the world.

U.S. markets closed

The U.S. stock and bond markets were closed Monday due to the Memorial Day holiday. They reopened today.

Seattle bridge collapse hurts trade corridor

SEATTLE » For farmers, business owners and government officials up and down the West Coast, Washington’s bridge collapse on Interstate 5 represents much more than a close brush with tragedy. As much as $20 billion in freight travels to and from Canada and along the busy north-south corridor each year.

People in Canada won’t go hungry if no Washington apples are trucked to them, but the American apple farmers may feel a pinch, said Don Alper, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University in Bellingham, about 20 miles north of the Skagit River.

"It’s a huge commercial artery," Alper said. "If things happen to it, it can have huge economic ramifications."

Gov. Jay Inslee announced a plan Sunday to have temporary spans installed across the Skagit River in three weeks that would be able to handle cargo trucks, but the remaining spans must clear inspection before that work can begin. In the meantime, alternative routes around the bridge that collapsed Thursday will slow freight significantly.

Shippers can change their plans and ship by rail, air or water, but those options are more expensive and could have different economic impacts on the region. On Monday, crews began removing the mangled steel, crumpled pavement and cars that fell into the river when the bridge collapsed.

Industry giant GE aims to improve fracking

PITTSBURGH » One of America’s corporate giants is investing billions of dollars in the new boom of oil and gas drilling, or fracking.

General Electric Co. is opening a new laboratory in Okla­homa, buying related companies and placing a big bet that scientific advances will improve profits for clients and reduce the environmental and health effects of the boom.

"We like the oil and gas base because we see the need for resources for a long time to come," said Mark Little, a senior vice president. He said GE did "almost nothing" in oil and gas just more than a decade ago but has invested more than $15 billion in the past few years.

GE doesn’t drill wells or produce oil or gas, but Little said the complexity of the fracking boom plays into the company strengths. Wells are being drilled horizontally at great depths in a variety of formations all around the country, and that means each location may require different techniques.

Little also pointed out that GE has significant experience in wind energy, solar and nuclear power. "I think the world needs all of these kinds of systems," Little said.

Germany’s leading tabloid adds pay wall

BERLIN » Europe’s top-selling newspaper said Monday it will introduce a pay wall for part of its online offerings starting next month.

Main news stories will remain free of charge online, but a subscription will be required to view features, interviews and other exclusive content, German tabloid Bild said.

The move comes as Europe’s newspaper publishers struggle to make up for lost advertisement revenue and shrinking circulation numbers. Analysts say publishers across Europe will be closely watching whether Bild’s pay wall will succeed, as many of them hope to follow the move of Europe’s biggest publishing house.

"It is a change of paradigm toward a culture of paying for journalistic content online," said Donata Hopfen, managing director of Bild’s digital division. "It’s a mammoth project."

Samsung, Apple, Sony see opportunity in India

Global technology companies such as Samsung Electronics Co., Apple Inc. and Sony Corp. are poised to see surging sales in India as the country’s anemic tech manufacturing sector can’t fulfill booming demand for TVs and smartphones.

The world’s fastest-growing market for consumer electronics has few homegrown makers of flat-panel TVs and no producers of mobile phones or the semiconductors and displays used in the devices. Last year the nation of 1.2 billion people spent $14.2 billion importing screens and smartphones, accounting for 90 percent of demand.

ON THE MOVE

Palama Settlement, a nonprofit, community-based social service agency serving the Kalihi and Palama neighborhoods, has announced five new members of its board of trustees for three-year terms. They are Steve Hidano, president of Hidano Construction Inc.; Wayne Iseri, manager for First Hawaiian Bank’s Chinatown branch; Peter Kim, president of Yummy Restaurant Group; Valerie Moore, vice president for Pineapple Tweed Public Relations & Marketing; and Gary Wassel, community volunteer.

The Hawaii HealthInformation Exchange has hired:

» Ann Mashita as its executive office manager. She was previously working at University ofHawaii at Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine.

» Sharon Esser as its business analyst for Meaningful Use. She was previously working at the Department of Clinical Investigation at Tripler Army Medical Center.

»Mert Gambito as its compliance and privacy officer. He served as the Kaiser Hawaii Region privacy and security officer at Kaiser Permanente.