YouTube renting movies

Google Inc.’s YouTube website will add “The King’s Speech,” “Inception” and about 3,000 other titles to its movie rental service, accelerating its shift into Hollywood entertainment and stepping up competition with Netflix Inc.

YouTube is adding films from Sony Corp., Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros., Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures and Lionsgate, according to a statement yesterday. The additions will push YouTube’s total movie rentals available to more than 6,000. Most of the newer titles will cost $3.99 and up to rent.

YouTube, which built a following by letting users post home videos and amateur clips, is counting on professionally produced content to draw more visitors and keep them on the site longer. The movies, which are streamed over an Internet connection, can be viewed within 30 days of renting them. Once users start watching the movie, they’ll typically have to finish within 24 hours.

Veteran exec to oversee Ward Centers

The Howard Hughes Corp. has hired David Striph as senior vice president to lead operations and development at Ward Centers in Honolulu. Striph has financed and managed more than $2 billion worth of real estate assets during his career.

Prior to joining the company, Striph was senior managing director at Dallas-based Westmount Realty Capital.

Central Pacific ends ‘rights offering’

Central Pacific Financial Corp. said its $20 million "rights offering" expired Friday and was fully subscribed to by eligible shareholders.

The parent of Central Pacific Bank said 2 million shares of common stock will be issued at a date still to be determined. Eligible shareholders were allowed to purchase 1.3 shares for every share they owned at $10 a share.

Central Pacific’s stock closed down 30 cents yesterday at $13.40 on the New York Stock Exchange.

7-Eleven Hawaii to double stores

Hawaii’s dominant convenience store operator, 7-Eleven Hawaii Inc., is investing as much as $20 million to nearly double the number of local stores in the chain.

The business, owned by Tokyo Seven-Eleven Japan Co. Ltd., has 54 convenience locations statewide and plans to expand to 100 in the next five years, according to Greg Hanna, president and chief executive officer.

The expansion would bring the employee count to 1,600 from 870 currently, he said.

The company is considering at least 20 sites at the moment and plans to open between three and four Oahu stores this year, he added. The locations will be attached to gas stations, shopping centers and neighborhood strip malls.

Hawaiian Air passenger traffic rises

Hawaiian Airlines carried more passengers in April than a year earlier after increasing its number of seats due to additional aircraft.

The state’s largest carrier transported 678,556 last month, up 2.4 percent from 662,356 in April 2010. Available seat miles, or one seat transported one mile, jumped 21.4 percent to 949.4 million from 782 million. Hawaiian’s load factor, or the percentage of seats filled, slipped 3 percentage points to 82.4 percent from 85.4 percent. Its revenue passenger miles, or one paying passenger transported one mile, increased 17.2 percent to 782.3 million from 667.7 million.

On the Move

 >> State Farm Insurance has appointed Darin Ono as an agent in the Mapunapuna office. He was previously an enterprise wireless account manager with Hawaiian Telcom for five years.

>> The Queen Lili‘uokalani Trust has announced Tracy K. Packer as manager for property management and administration. She was previously working at Honolulu Waldorf School as well as sole proprietor of a business that provided administrative and bookkeeping services to small businesses.

>> Coldwell Banker Pacific Properties has announced Randy Puaatuua as sales administration support assistant at the King Street office. He has nine years of office experience, including as administrative support assistant at Bishop & Co., loan officer with Home Loans of Hawaii, loan officer and call center supervisor at Northstar Alliance and escrow associate at Title Guaranty Escrow Services.

>> Prudential Locations has hired Dee Marumoto as its newest sales manager. She has been broker in charge at Mary Worrall Associates and Coldwell Banker Pacific, principal broker and general manager with RE/MAX Honolulu, and has extensive experience in the legal field of office management and paralegal activities.