Keo’s restaurant empire is down to one
Keo’s Thai Cuisine in Waikiki closed Saturday, according to a message posted on the long-lived restaurant’s website.
Keo Sananikone explained on the site that the Ambassador Hotel, where the restaurant is located, has been sold, and "we chose to end our lease at the same time and not pursue a new lease with the new owner."
Sananikone, among Hawaii’s first restaurateurs specializing in Thai cuisine, is looking for a new location, he said in the online statement.
Keoni by Keo at the Ohana Waikiki East hotel remains open. Over the years, Sananikone has owned and operated several Thai restaurants under the Mekong and Keo’s brand names.
Stock, housing gains fuel record net worth
WASHINGTON » A surging stock market and rebounding home prices boosted Americans’ wealth to a record in the final three months of last year, though both trends have slowed so far in 2014.
U.S. household net worth jumped nearly $3 trillion during last year’s fourth quarter to $80.7 trillion. Stock and mutual fund portfolios gained nearly $1.7 trillion, or 9 percent, according to a Thursday report by the Federal Reserve.
The value of Americans’ homes rose just over $400 billion, a 2 percent gain. And checking account balances, pensions plan assets and retirement savings also increased.
Staples will shut down up to 225 stores
Staples has become the second major chain to announce the mass closing of stores this week, providing the latest evidence of how the retail landscape is being remade by shifts in American shopping habits.
The nation’s largest office supply company said Thursday that nearly half of its sales are now generated online, and it is working aggressively to cut costs and become more efficient.
It aims to close more than 10 percent of its North American stores by the end of next year, up to 225 stores, as part of a plan to save about $500 million.
Staples Chairman and CEO Ron Sargent said the stores have fallen short of expectations over the past three years. The company launched a plan last year to reinvent Staples.
Disney Interactive slashes staff by 26%
GLENDALE, Calif. » Disney’s struggling video game and Internet division laid off roughly 700 employees Thursday, or 26 percent of its global staff, in a major retrenchment that includes a shift in advertising strategy at Disney.com.
Layoffs were long expected in the unit, but not on this scale. They came as a result of Disney’s decision to combine two businesses: booming mobile games (those played on iPads and smartphones) and sagging social games (those played on websites like Facebook).
Disney also decided to sharply scale back in-house development of games of all types. It will now rely much more on outside licensing.
Disney Interactive President James Pitaro said the unit, which published about two dozen games last year, would cut annual game output as much as 50 percent.
Boeing freezing nonunion workers’ pensions
SEATTLE » Boeing Co. said Thursday it is freezing the traditional defined-benefit pensions for 68,000 nonunion employees including managers and executives starting in 2016.
The Chicago-based aerospace company said in a statement that the employees will shift to a company-funded defined contribution retirement plan, effective Jan. 1, 2016. They will have a 401(k)-style retirement plan similar to what union machinists approved in a contentious contract-extension vote earlier this year.
Nonunion Boeing employees hired since 2009 have not had a traditional defined pension plan. Thursday’s announcement applies to those who started working for the company earlier.
Bitcoin exchange CEO, 28, found dead
SINGAPORE » The American CEO of a virtual currency exchange was found dead near her home in Singapore.
A police spokesman said Thursday that initial investigations indicated there was no suspicion of "foul play" in the Feb. 26 death of 28-year-old Autumn Radtke, meaning officers do not suspect murder.
The spokesman said police found Radtke lying motionless near the apartment tower where she lived.
Police have so far classified the death as "unnatural," which can mean an accident, misadventure or suicide.
Radtke’s company, First Meta, said it was "shocked and saddened by the tragic loss."
First Meta allows users of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin to trade and cash out the currencies. It is one of several such exchanges.
The future of Bitcoin has been under scrutiny since the collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange in Tokyo last month.
ON THE MOVE
DTRIC Insurance Group has appointed Michele Saito president. She was previously chief operating officer of Healthways as well as president of Hawaii operations and regional vice president for Farmers Insurance Group, known as Farmers Insurance Hawaii.
Austin, Tsutsumi & Associates has promoted Erik S. Kaneshiro to vice president. He will continue to oversee the company’s surveying department. Kaneshiro has been with the firm for 15 years.
Hawaii Meth Project has announced that Julie Nguyen is its program coordinator. Before joining the organization, Nguyen served as manager for fundraising and special events at the American Diabetes Association as well as volunteer coordinator for the Hawaiian Humane Society.
>> Michela Soto as a patient services representative. She previously worked at a medical practice in Las Vegas.
>> Juliana Propios as a patient services representative. She previously served as a patient services representative at a local veterinarian’s office.
