HMSA donates $35,000, goods to Foodbank
Employees of the Hawaii Medical Service Association have donated $35,000 and 5,000 pounds of canned goods and other nonperishables to the Hawaii Foodbank.
The contributions from a four-week holiday food drive were collected at HMSA offices on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and Hawaii island, and will provide more than 100,000 meals statewide.
Couric to anchor Yahoo’s video news
SAN FRANCISCO » Katie Couric is joining Yahoo to anchor an expansion of the Internet company’s video news coverage in a move that she hopes will help persuade other broadcast TV veterans to make the transition into online programming.
Monday’s announcement confirms recent published reports that Couric is hoping to attract more viewers on the Internet after spending the past 22 years working as a talk-show host and news anchor at NBC, CBS and ABC.
"I am particularly excited about hopefully attracting other people to this platform and venture," Couric said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We are in a major, transformative time in terms of media in this country."
Couric’s hiring is the latest coup for Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer as she brings in well-known journalists in an effort to create compelling content that will attract more people to the company’s online services. In the past month Yahoo has also lured away technology columnist David Pogue and political reporter Matt Bai from The .
Couric, 56, will continue to host her daytime talk show, "Katie," on ABC even after she becomes Yahoo’s "global anchor" beginning early next year. She described her now role at Yahoo as a "work in progress."
No Chrysler IPO in 2013, Fiat says
FLORENCE, Italy » Chrysler won’t be offering its stock for sale on the public markets this year.
Italian automaker Fiat SpA, Chrysler’s majority owner, said in a statement Monday that Chrysler’s board has determined an initial public offering is not practicable in 2013. Instead, Chrysler Group LLC will continue work on the offering so it can happen in the first quarter of next year.
Fiat owns 58.5 percent of Chrysler’s shares, with the remaining 41.5 percent held by a United Auto Workers union trust fund that pays health care bills for blue-collar retirees.
But Sergio Marchionne, CEO of both automakers, has been squabbling with the trust over the price, and so far they haven’t been able to reach agreement. The IPO would consist of shares currently held by the trust.
CEO invests $1M in J.C. Penney’s stock
PLANO, Texas » J.C. Penney Mike Ullman seems confident the slumping retailer will bounce back during the holiday shopping season.
Ullman showed his faith by buying 112,000 shares at $8.95 apiece at the end of last week. The $1 million investment disclosed Monday comes as Ullman tries to snap Penney out of a funk that has seen the Plano, Texas, company lose more than $2.4 billion since late 2011.
The financial misery prompted Penney to fire Ron Johnson in April and bring back Ullman for a second stint as its CEO. Penney’s woes have caused the company’s stock to plunge by 53 percent so far this year. The shares closed at $9.19 Monday.
Things are so bad that the retailer is being booted from the S&P 500 index Friday.
Apple buys Israeli motion-tracking firm
Apple Inc. has acquired PrimeSense Ltd., the maker of motion-tracking chip technology that was used in Microsoft Corp.’s Kinect game console accessory.
Apple, maker of the iPhone and iPad, and Tel Aviv-based PrimeSense were negotiating a deal for about $350 million, one person familiar with the deal said last week.
The deal fits Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple’s pattern of buying less well-known companies whose capabilities are folded into future products. PrimeSense’s technology gives digital devices the ability to detect movements and objects, and then translates that into depth and color. Apple, the world’s largest technology company, hasn’t used much of its $146.8 billion in cash and investments for big acquisitions.
Pending home sales fall
WASHINGTON >> The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes fell in October for the fifth straight month, the National Association of Realtors said Monday.
Higher mortgage rates, price increases and the 16-day partial government shutdown held back sales.
On the Move
Robbie Dingeman has been named editor of Honolulu Magazine. She has 25 years of experience in journalism including 14 years as a news reporter and staff writer at The Honolulu Advertiser. She was also a news reporter for KHON and Hawaii stringer for the Time magazine Los Angeles Bureau.
Bennet Group Strategic Communications has hired Rachel Gibson as an account executive. She returns to Hawaii after serving as alternative content and events manager for Reading International in New York. Her experience in advertising and marketing also includes Anthology Marketing Group, freelance writing for Hawaii Bride and Hawaii Home and Remodeling, and promotions and events manager for Consolidated Theatres.
Hawaiian Host has hired Stuart Saito as vice president of operations. He will oversee factory operations in Honolulu and Los Angeles. He has 25 years of manufacturing operations experience with numerous companies in the candy, dairy and frozen food industries.
