[luau] Pihana Downtown To Close
John Christian
jwchr at yahoo.com
Wed Oct 9 17:53:01 PDT 2002
October 9, 2002
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2002/Oct/09/bz/bz01a.html/?print=on
Tech firm will close HQ
By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer
Pihana Pacific, one of the largest Hawai'i-based technology
companies, said yesterday that it plans to close its headquarters and
lay off or transfer dozens of employees as part of a recently
announced merger.
Pihana, a 2-year-old Internet data center company, notified the state
Department of Labor and Industrial Relations yesterday that it will
lay off or transfer 53 of the headquarters' 54 employees by Dec. 3.
That's also the expected closing date of its three-way merger with
Equinix and Singapore Telecommunications Telemedia.
Pihana human resources director Ryan Okahara said yesterday that the
Honolulu headquarters was being eliminated as an "inevitable
redundancy."
"As in any other merger, we will not need three headquarters," Okahara said.
Under the merger announced last week, data center company Equinix,
based in Mountain View, Calif., will absorb Pihana's seven data
centers into its network. A handful of employees will remain at
Pihana's airport data center, Okahara said.
Other Hawai'i employees will be offered transfers to offices in Asia
or on the U.S. Mainland. The company has not decided who will be
offered transfers or which senior managers will be retained, Okahara
said.
If the merger goes through, it will mark the end of one of the bigger
players in the Hawai'i technology industry. Pihana made national
headlines in October 2000 when, under founder Lambert Onuma, it
obtained about $240 million from a consortium of venture investors
led by Goldman Sachs in the largest single venture investment into a
Hawai'i technology company.
"Hawai'i got a lot of good coverage when that happened," said Ann
Chung, executive director of the Hawai'i Technology Trade
Association. "The fact they were able to raise so much money was a
real positive for the industry here."
Pihana spent much of its money building a data center network in Los
Angeles, Sydney, Tokyo, Seoul, Singapore and Honolulu, counting on
increasing demand for data storage, Internet services and secure
server sites. While the 160-employee company's Honolulu offices
controlled central administrative tasks, other important functions
were spread around its Pacific sites.
Pihana's Honolulu employee count peaked above 80 last year. But sales
sagged as the telecommunications industry tumbled through 2001, and
the company laid off a few dozen workers after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks.
Okahara said the merger makes Pihana part of a stronger company.
"A larger entity with more coverage gives you more synergy," he said.
"If you're going it alone, you may have the money to run your
business but you have to do everything yourself. With this merger
we'll have more assets."
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