Firm buys Blue Hawaiian Helicopters

Maui-based aerial tour company Blue Hawaiian Helicopters has been acquired by Denver-based Air Methods Corp. for undisclosed terms.

The acquisition of Blue Hawaiian, coupled with the earlier purchase of Sundance Helicopters, will make Air Methods the "the leading aerial tour provider in two of the most coveted tourism venues in the United States, the Las Vegas (and) Grand Canyon region and Hawaii," said Aaron Todd, Air Methods CEO, in a statement.

Blue Hawaiian generated consolidated revenue of approximately $47 million in the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, with a fleet comprising 24 helicopters including Eurocopter AS350s and EC130s, according to a statement.

In 2010, the year Blue Hawaiian Helicopters celebrated its 25th anniversary, owner David Chevalier was named chairman of the board of the Helicopter Association International.

The following year, five people were killed when a Blue Hawaiian Helicopters Eurocopter EC-130 crashed on Molokai.

Trends conjure specter of stock bubble

NEW YORK » Is the stock market due for a pullback?

The Dow Jones industrial average has surged 900 points since early October and crossed the 16,000-point threshold Monday. IPOs are hot again. Small investors, stirred from their post-recession daze, are coming back to stocks. And it’s been more than two years since the market has had a significant slump.

Those trends have raised concerns of a stock bubble. They shouldn’t, money managers say, because even with the broader market’s 26 percent jump this year, stocks aren’t overpriced yet.

MF Global ordered to give clients $1.21B

WASHINGTON » MF Global Inc. must pay back $1.21 billion to ensure customers recover their losses sustained when the brokerage firm failed in 2011.

The restitution is being levied following a complaint filed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission earlier this year that alleges MF Global unlawfully used customer funds for the firm’s needs in its final weeks.

MF Global Holdings, the New York-based parent company, imploded in October 2011 after making big bets on bonds issued by European countries that later turned sour. When it collapsed, more than $1 billion in customer money was discovered to be missing. It was later revealed that the funds were used to pay for the company’s own operations. With $41 billion in assets, it was the eighth-largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Housing industry confidence unchanged

U.S. homebuilders’ confidence in the housing market held steady this month, but many are worried that another fight over the federal budget could cause would-be buyers to put off home purchases.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Monday stayed at 54 this month. October’s reading was revised one point lower from its initial estimate.

Readings above 50 indicate more builders view sales conditions as good, rather than poor.

Treasury securities keep selling overseas

WASHINGTON » Foreign buyers of U.S. Treasury securities increased their holdings in September, suggesting many shrugged off budget battles in Washington to keep investing in U.S. debt.

Total foreign holdings rose 1 percent in September to $5.65 trillion, the Treasury Department reported Monday. That follows a 0.03 percent gain in August.

Holdings had fallen from April through July, possibly reflecting concerns about rising interest rates. In September, holdings were 1.2 percent below the record high of $5.72 trillion reached in March.

Yahoo vows to encrypt data center traffic

SAN FRANCISCO » Yahoo is expanding its efforts to protect its users’ online activities from prying eyes by encrypting all the communications and other information flowing into the Internet company’s data centers around the world.

The commitment announced Monday by Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer follows a recent Washington Post report that the National Security Agency has been hacking into the communications lines of the data centers run by Yahoo and Google Inc. to intercept information about what people do and say online.

Yahoo had previously promised to encrypt its email service by early January. Now the Sunnyvale, Calif., company plans to have all data encrypted by the end of March to make it more difficult for unauthorized parties to decipher the information.

ON THE MOVE

Blow Up LLC, operator of ESPN 1420 KKEA and NBC Sports Radio AM 1500 KHKA, has named Sheldon Nagata local sales manager. He replaces Kenny Harrison, who resigned to pursue other endeavors. Nagata joined the company in 2002, recently serving as senior account manager. His has also been senior account manager for Cox Radio, vice president of sales at Broadcast Ink and general sales manager at KGU AM 76 and KGUY 107.9 FM.

Hawaiian Airlines has named Alison Croyle to the newly created position of director-external communications. She has more than 10 years of public relations experience, including as communications manager for TripAdvisor; corporate communications manager at JetBlue; senior publicist for Versus Sports Television Network, now known as NBC Sports Network; and senior account executive for Vollmer Public Relations, now known as Edelman Southwest.