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So much for that investment: Turns out that billionaire Kirk Kerkorian is pulling out of GM entirely. The WSJ reports that his last 28 million shares have been sold for $29.25 a share to Bank of America, which has been a key lender to Kerkorian. All told, Kerkorian will make less than $100 million on his GM investment, which sounds pretty impressive to most of us, but considering that the guy plunked down $1.6 billion for all those GM shares, it's a relatively modest return.
Inline banking deal: Catching up on the news that Calabasas-based Digital Insight is being sold to financial software giant Intuit Inc. for $1.35 billion. It's a handsome all-cash purchase that gives Digital shareholders an 18 percent premium over the stock's close on Wednesday. Digital Insight was one of the first companies to develop software for online banking. Its customers are mainly smaller banks and credit unions that don't have extensive IT capabilities.
NBC-Azteca feud: It's not every day that a major TV network petitions the FCC to deny renewal of a broadcast license for a station by invoking a morals clause. Well, NBC is claiming that TV Azteca, the Mexican company running KAZA-TC Channel 54, is corrupt. "In Mexico, TV Azteca has used strong-arm tactics — including armed raids — against legitimate U.S. business operations in Mexico to prevent them from competing lawfully against TV Azteca in its home country," NBC Universal wrote in its 34-page complaint. There's a backstory here: NBC claims that when it expanded its presence in Mexico, TV Azteca resorted to strongarm tactics.
On the economy beat: A slump in housing construction will cause Socal's economy to slow in the next three to six months, according to Cal State Fullerton's index of leading economic indicators. Even so, Cal State economist Adrian Fleissig doesn't think the housing market is going to crash. Gas update: Little change in the Auto Club's weekly survey, though we're back to paying more at the pump than we did a year ago. The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area is $2.489, which is the same as last week, six cents higher than last month, and five cents higher than last year.
Breeze sale delayed: As noted on LAO, the purchase by Dean Singleton's MediaNews Group is now expected by the end of next week. That would pretty much complete Singleton's Socal clustering strategy.
MySpace China update: Looks like Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is finally ready to start up a Chinese version of the social networking site, with Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, expected to join the board of the newly formed company. (It would be her first official job at News Corp. since marrying Murdoch in 1999.) The Chinese venture arm of Boston tech publisher International Data Group is also involved in the startup, according to the WSJ.
Fewer Cheesecake Factories: But expect more of those higher-end Grand Lux cafes, which have been outpacing the namesake restaurants. The Calabasas-based company finally reported two quarters of earnings that wound up ahead of expections (results had been held up because of an options-related review). Third-quarter net income was down, however, from the previous year. Chairman and CEO David Overton said sales have not yet returned to "normalized levels." At last check, the stock was down.
Living Wage vote?: The Hotel Association of Los Angeles is gathering signatures for a referendum that could overturn a newly enacted law requiring LAX hotel owners to pay employees at least $10.64 per hour, or $9.39 with health benefits. It is the first such requirement in Los Angeles for businesses that don't have contracts with the city. To trigger a May referendum, the group needs to gather 49,308 names by Dec. 29.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.