HawTel acquires data center services firm
Hawaiian Telcom Inc. has agreed to pay $16 million to buy Honolulu-based SystemMetrics Corp., a data center services provider.
SystemMetrics, which generates annual revenue of approximately $8 million, will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Hawaiian Telcom Services Co., Hawaiian Telcom officials said. SystemMetrics was founded in 2011 and provides data center services to more than 400 small and medium-size businesses.
“Our goal is to be the pre-eminent cloud and co-location services provider in … Hawaii, and this acquisition significantly advances that objective by increasing the scale and scope of our existing data center business and improving time to market,” said Eric Yeaman, Hawaiian Telcom president and CEO.
Hawaiian Telcom said it expects to complete the transaction by the end of this month.
BOH’s new Hokua branch to open Monday
Bank of Hawaii’s Ward Plaza branch closed Friday and is relocating to the ground floor of the Hokua condominium tower at 1288 Ala Moana Blvd.
The new 3,925-square-foot branch will open Monday and occupy part of the space that formerly housed P.F. Chang’s. All 11 Bankoh employees will move to the new location.
“Our new branch is an efficient and modern facility in a vibrant retail development that’s near much of the new development going on in Kakaako,” said Kevin Sakamoto, executive vice president, branch division, for Bank of Hawaii. “It will increase our visibility and accessibility.”
The new branch will be open Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. as well as Mondays through Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Fridays from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The former 8,000-square-foot branch at 210 Ward Ave. was not open Saturdays.
All branch services will remain the same at the new location. All safe deposit boxes will be transferred to the new site and feature an electronic hand scanner for self-service access.
Navy provides $30M to startup supporter
The Navy said Friday it will give $30 million to a program that provides funding for Hawaii-based startup companies focusing on energy projects.
Startups selected by the Energy Excelerator receive funding up to $100,000 to develop and execute their business plans. They also receive support from a team of mentors.
“Hawaii has the best economic conditions for launching a clean-energy company on the planet,” said Dawn Lippert, senior manager of the Energy Excelerator.
The Energy Excelerator to date has helped 17 local energy companies bring their technologies to market. The latest round of funding from the Office of Naval Research is triple what it had provided the Energy Excelerator over the previous three years.
The Energy Excelerator looks for technologies that address issues such as managing the penetration of renewable energy on electrical grids and reducing the use of oil in transportation.
Navy provides $30M to startup supporter
Walter B. Menzel, president of the San Francisco-based WM Group, is now a member of the Cyanotech Corp. board of directors. Kona-based Cyanotech makes nutritional supplements from microalgae.
Menzel “joins our board at an opportune time as we ramp up Cyanotech’s strategic focus on our own branded products sold online and at retail,” said Brent Bailey, Cyanotech president and CEO.
Menzel’s WM Group is a marketing company, and Menzel also serves as executive director of the Peter Michael Foundation, which underwrites cancer research. He also is a branding and marketing consultant to Ecopia Farms. He was elected to the Cyanotech board at its annual meeting Aug. 29.
Judge won’t stop Vegas newspaper buyout
LAS VEGAS >> The corporate owners of the Las Vegas Review-Journal cleared one hurdle Friday in a bid to buy out the family publishers of their cross-town rival and end a joint operating agreement with the Las Vegas Sun.
But the family member who runs the Sun promised to keep trying to block Stephens Media LLC from buying the newspaper his father started in 1950 and killing the agreement signed in 1989.
U.S. District Judge James Mahan said it was too early to block Stephens Media from trying to buy Sun newspaper and Internet interests from four Greenspun family member trustees. Daniel Greenspun was one of three Greenspun siblings who agreed Aug. 7 to preliminary terms of a deal to sell their Sun interests to Stephens Media for $10, a one-time payment of $70,000 apiece and the lifting of an ongoing $2.5 million-per-year license fee for an Internet website.
The sale would end publication of the Sun newspaper, which is distributed as a six- to 10-page daily insert in the Review-Journal.
ON THE MOVE
The Hawaii Affiliate of Susan G. Komen has announced Megan Jones as executive director. She has a diverse background in project development, operational and strategic planning, policy and procedure development, and marketing and development analysis. Jones’ experience also includes working as a director of development at Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey.
Secure DNA, an information technology security firm, has promoted Ryan Talabis to lead researcher and vice president of information security. He joined the company in 2006 and has 13 years of experience in network security and data analysis, including working with the Honeynet Project, a nonprofit research organization that improves Internet security.
