BUSINESS BRIEFS
More seats on ATA route
Advertiser News Services
ATA Airlines will add 50 more seats a day to its Hilo-Oakland International route for the peak month of August, the airline announced yesterday.
ATA will deploy a Boeing 757-200 in place of its current 737-800 beginning Aug. 4, increasing its daily seat capacity by 16 percent.
"Traffic on our new Hilo-Oakland flight has exceeded our expectations and is a nice surprise to have to deal with," said Mark Suman, ATA managing director of planning.
SBA LINES UP 'BLITZ' FOR LOANS
Hawai'i small businesses will be matched with financial institutions tomorrow at Kapolei Hale to talk about possible loans under $50,000 for working capital to expand or diversify their businesses, renovate or purchase equipment.
The U.S. Small Business Administration's Business Loan Blitz and Banking Expo will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will match small businesses with financial institutions for 30-minute confidential appointments to discuss financing and to begin loan applications.
The loans require no collateral, financials or business plans and can result in funding in a few weeks.
For more information, call Kim Hite at 541-3024 or Jerry Hirata at 541-2969, or register online at www.sba.gov/hi.
HP ACQUIRING SOFTWARE MAKER
SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett Packard Co. is biting off its biggest acquisition in four years with a $4.5 billion purchase of Mercury Interactive Corp., a maker of business management software that has been entangled in a stock options scandal.
The deal, announced yesterday by the Palo Alto, Calif.-based computer and printer maker, isn't cheap.
The all-cash price works out to $52 per share — a price that Mercury's long-slumping stock hasn't topped for more than two years.
The deal, expected to close late this year, represents HP's biggest acquisition since the Silicon Valley icon paid $19 billion for Compaq Computer Corp. in 2002.
