Isle bankers teach students about finance

Volunteers from Bank of Hawaii and American Savings Bank hit the books Thursday to give students a lesson on personal finance in support of national "Get Smart About Credit Day."

More than 50 Bankoh volunteers shared their expertise with about 1,300 intermediate and high school students at 21 schools on Oahu, Kauai and Hawaii island. The objective was to educate young adults on how to manage credit, read a credit report, protect personal financial information and recognize the signs of overspending.

"Get Smart About Credit Day" is an annual event held in October during which bankers visit local classrooms to share with students the "credit facts of life." Since it was started by the American Bankers Association Education Foundation in 2003, more than 18,000 bankers have reached approximately 704,993 students.

American Savings Bank employees, meanwhile, volunteered with Junior Achievement of Hawaii to provide financial knowledge to 60 fifth-graders Thursday at Lanakila Elementary School. Bank volunteers used JA’s "Common cents" curriculum and Smart Consumer Game, which are specifically designed for fifth-graders. This effort is part of the bank’s ongoing partnership with JA to provide financial literacy education in Hawaii’s communities.

For more information on the Get Smart About Credit program, visit www.aba.com/ABAEF/getsmartaboutcredit.htm.

Microsoft’s earnings hit analysts’ target

SAN FRANCISCO » Microsoft Corp.’s Windows franchise regained some of its vigor during the company’s latest quarter, but that might not be enough to overcome the perception that the world’s largest software maker is being outmaneuvered by nimble rivals whose fortunes aren’t tied to the personal computer.

The results released Thursday were highlighted by a 7 percent increase in revenue that exceeded analyst estimates. The gains for the July-September period occurred throughout Microsoft’s product lineup, which includes the popular Windows operating system, widely used programs such as Office, the Xbox 360 video game console and the Bing search engine.

The company’s earnings for the fiscal first quarter rose 6 percent from last year to match analyst projections. Microsoft earned $5.7 billion, or 68 cents a share, compared with net income of $5.4 billion, or 62 cents a share, at the same time last year. The earnings matched the average estimate among analysts.

Revenue totaled $17.37 billion — about $130 million above analyst forecasts. At the same time last year, Microsoft’s revenue came in at $16.2 billion.

AT&T sees growth slowing in wireless

NEW YORK » Running one of the nation’s biggest wireless networks has been a reliable way for AT&T to boost revenues, quarter after quarter, as people loaded up on phones and then traded up to smartphones. But the easy money might already have been made, AT&T’s latest results show.

AT&T Inc. said Thursday that its wireless service revenue grew just 4.3 percent in the July-to-September period versus a year ago. That growth rate had often topped 10 percent in the recent years, but has now been declining for a year.

Contributing to the slowdown in growth was the delayed launch of the latest iPhone model, which just missed the end of the quarter. AT&T said it activated 2.7 million iPhones in the third quarter, the lowest number in a year and a half, as people waited for the new model.

Dallas-based AT&T reported its net income fell to $3.62 billion, or 61 cents a share, for the quarter, down from $12.3 billion, or $2.07 a share, a year ago, which was boosted by the sale of a subsidiary and a tax settlement. Excluding those items, last year’s earnings were 54 cents a share. The latest earnings matched the average forecast of analysts.

Revenue slipped 0.3 percent to $31.5 billion from $31.6 billion a year ago. That was slightly below analysts’ expectations of $31.6 billion.

ON THE MOVE

Kiewit Building Group has hired the following engineers:

» Damon Gray, a project engineer, has 15 years of construction industry experience, including a project architect for Peter Vincent Architects.

» Brent Kawahara is a document control engineer. He was previously with NAVFAC Southwest in San Diego.

» Clarice Masaki is an engineer in the company’s estimating department. She received her bachelor’s degree in industrial technology from Purdue University.