China Eastern expands its Honolulu service
China Eastern Airlines, which launched the first regularly scheduled China-to-Hawaii flight in August 2011, is expanding its Shanghai-Honolulu service to daily from four to five times a week.
The daily service will be in effect from June 30 through Aug. 14.
Hawaiian Airlines and Air China each began three-days-a-week service earlier this year between Beijing and Honolulu.
Montage Kapalua announces opening
The all-suite luxury Montage Kapalua is accepting reservations after a $15 million renovation of the former Residences at Kapalua Bay.
The property includes 50 upscale residential-style suites ranging from one to four bedrooms but also offers 54 Montage-branded residences for purchase.
The signature restaurant, Cane & Canoe, is helmed by executive chef Riko Bartolome.
Resort rates start at $595 a night.
Mobile app adds Oahu to its guide to rides
The RideScout app has included Oahu in its "Summer of 69" rollout of 69 new markets across the U.S.
The app, designed for iOS and Android, aggregates 337 public transportation services including bus systems, rail systems where applicable, taxicabs, hourly car rentals and bicycle sharing companies.
The app offers notifications to help minimize overages on use times for bicycle sharing or rentals, said spokeswoman Rachel Charlesworth.
"We’ll let you know if you’re approaching your 30-minute time limit on the bike, preventing the extra charge. We’ll also send you a notification if, while you’re en route to your station, the dock becomes full, and we’ll reroute you to a new station with available docks," she said.
Car-sharing companies such as Zipcar and car2go also are included in the app, where applicable.
The app previously offered information only for five U.S. cities.
Tyson wins bidding war, acquires Hillshire
NEW YORK » Tyson Foods Inc. has won a bidding war to gobble up Hillshire Brands, the maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park hot dogs.
Tyson had been vying with rival poultry producer Pilgrim’s Pride to acquire Hillshire, which wrapped up its bidding process Sunday. Tyson’s final offer ended up at $63 per share, about two weeks after Pilgrim’s Pride made an initial bid of $45 per share.
Pilgrim’s Pride, which is owned by Brazilian meat giant JBS, said that it was bowing out of the competition.
Still, the deal is not sealed yet. It is contingent on Hillshire not going through with its offer to acquire Pinnacle Foods Inc., which makes Birds Eye frozen vegetables and Wish-Bone salad dressings. Pinnacle could allow Hillshire to do its deal with Tyson, leaving Pinnacle with a $163 million breakup fee. Or it could force Hillshire shareholders to vote on whether they’d prefer a merger with Pinnacle.
Growth to pick up in quarter, survey says
WASHINGTON » U.S. economic growth should accelerate in the second quarter and remain healthy for the rest of this year, according to a forecast by a group of U.S. business economists. Still, growth for the full year will likely come in lower than they previously estimated.
Job growth should remain steady, and consumer spending will also likely pick up, a survey by the National Association of Business Economists said Monday. The survey of 47 economists from companies, trade associations and academia was conducted from May 8 to 21.
The survey also found that economists increasingly agree that the Federal Reserve will end its bond purchase program by the end of this year.
Merck to pay $3.85B for drug developer
TRENTON, N.J. » Merck & Co. will spend about $3.85 billion for Idenix Pharmaceuticals Inc., a small company developing hepatitis C medicines that, together with Merck’s experimental drugs, could produce lucrative combo therapies that quickly cure most patients with the blood-borne virus afflicting tens of millions.
The price for the deal announced Monday — a per-share bid more than triple Friday’s closing price for Cambridge, Mass.-based Idenix — seems high. However, the latest hepatitis C medicines command very high prices, the number of patients keeps rising and Merck was bidding against rivals.
ON THE MOVE
Hawaii Theatre Center has appointed Ruth Bolan as its new president, succeeding Sarah M. Richards, who retired last month after nearly 25 years as the top executive for the organization. Bolan was a managing director of external affairs at Teach for America Hawaii as well as executive director of Pacific Islanders in Communications and executive director of Ohia Productions.
The University of Hawaii has named Daniel Friedman dean of its architecture school effective Aug. 1. He is currently a professor of architecture at the University of Washington and previously served as dean of the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington. Prior to joining UW, Friedman was the director of the architecture school at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Oceanic Time Warner Cable has announced the following promotions:
» Norman P. Santos, a 32-year Oceanic Cable veteran, to vice president of engineering from vice president of technical operations.
» Kirk Izawa to vice president of technical operations from new business development director. Izawa has been with the company for 20 years in finance, business and accounting operations.
