Murdoch Rushes Sale of Hawaii's Lanai Island

    In an attempt to learn more about Castle and Cooke's reasons for the sale of the island of Lanai, we discovered that the Honolulu Star Advertiser had previously reported that Castle and Cooke had been losing anywhere from$10 to $20 million a year in Lanai alone. Now we have learned that David  Murdoch, owner of Castle and Cooke has put the RUSH on the sale of 98% of  he island to Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle.

    Apparently Murdoch wants the cash only sale, estimated to be worth between $500 and $600-million, to close tomorrow, June 27, 2012.  It brings into question what the condition is of the entire Castle and Cooke real estate empire in the U.S. and our attempts to  inquire on many questions we have had  have been unsuccessful.

    Ellison is listed as Forbes 6th richest man in the world.  Locally, Castle and Cooke owns the Saddle Creek development, Copperopolis Town Square in Copperopolis, and surrounding land. Homeowners in that development wonder if a lack of cash could be one of the reasons that the  smell from the sewage ponds is often overwhelming.
   Our many questions to Dave Haley, local Castle and Cooke representative, go unanswered. Also, e-mails to Murdoch's office are now not answered. Speculation that Murdoch may need the cash from the sale of the island to infuse cash into the business here on the mainland is growing.