Thursday morning headlines

Amazon raises the stakes: Lots of coverage this morning on the huge online retailer planning to sell songs for use on any music player, including Apple's iPod. At this point, the offerings will be limited, with just content from EMI (it has the smallest share of the U.S. market) and 12,000 independents. Left out are Universal, Warner Music and Sony, which continue to restrict how their music can be sold online because of piracy concerns. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has pushed the record labels to lift those restrictions, and there are signs that they, too, might be willing to take the leap - Universal in particular. That would change a lot in the music business. NYT LAT

Steady growth in Valley: Job creation is expected to grow by 1.5 percent (OK, not great) and worker earnings are forecast to rise about 3 percent, according to a report released today at the 2007 San Fernando Valley Economic Summit. The information industry, which covers entertainment jobs, will grow by about 4 percent each year through 2009, manufacturing will fall 0.9 percent this year and continue slipping in 2008 and 2009, and construction will drop 4.5 percent. Daily News

KB considers unit sale: The L.A.-based homebuilder is in an exclusivity period to sell its 49 percent stake in French subsidiary Kaufman & Broad SA to PAI Partners for $814 million in cash. The French unit accounted for 21.4 percent KB's first-quarter revenues, but there have been rumors for some time about KB's interest in pulling the plug (especially after the forced resignation of Bruce Karatz, who had a soft spot for France). Company CEO Jeffrey Mezger said "the sale would further KB Home's focus on its core homebuilding operations in the U.S.," so you can see where his head is at. AP

New Century sale: The OC lender's loan servicing operations, which handles collections and is the last major asset for sale, is going to hedge fund Carrington Capital Management LLC for $188 million. That's $49 million more than Carrington originally offered. New Century couldn't find a taker for its lending unit, so it had to fire 2,000 people two weeks ago. That's in addition to the 3,200 people who were let go when the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Reuters

Dow Jones board steering clear: Directors had a regularly scheduled meeting yesterday, where they took no action on the latest overture to the Bancroft family from News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch. Normally, boards would consider buyout offers, but the DJ voting power is controlled by the Bancrofts. So the directors are caught in the middle. From the WSJ:

The board's position is that to assess the offer at this point would be futile if the controlling shareholder would vote it down anyway. That is a safe haven -- legal experts agree that the board has no obligation to act -- but legal precedent indicates that the board could make a recommendation at any time. Its next meeting is set for June, but family members have been in frequent contact with one another.

Mr. and Mrs. Google: They're otherwise known as Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki and they just got married in the Bahamas - none of which would be a big deal if it weren't for the super-secrecy that has surrounded the wedding. Even the actual date remains a secret (sources told the San Jose Mercury News that it happened sometime from May 4 to May 6). Wedding guests who boarded the jetliner owned by Brin and Google co-founder Larry Page were not told the destination. Even Brin's 83-year-old grandmother, Maya, referred a reporter to Brin's parents (talk about brainpower: the father is a mathematics professor at the University of Maryland and the mother works as a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center).

Silicon Valley cognescenti, however, have known about the Wojcicki-Brin relationship for some time. It is a kind of only-in-Silicon Valley romance - a tale of two brainy entrepreneurial spirits that involves a garage. The garage was part of a rented Menlo Park house that Susan Wojcicki, then a recent UCLA business school grad, sublet to Brin and business partner Larry Page in 1998, after they had left a Stanford graduate program to launch Google. They knew Susan through Brin's girlfriend at the time and, later, Susan introduced Brin to her sister Anne. The arrangement worked out well. Susan is now a Google vice president of product management. (And Brin's ex-girlfriend is still said to be a friend.)

Tori Spelling fibs: This one involves her reality show "Tori & Dean: Inn Love" where Spelling and her new husband, Dean McDermott invest in a Socal bed-and-breakfast. Contrary to what the couple has said, Spelling did not buy the property, and she did not use the entire $800,000 left to her by her father, Hollywood producer Aaron Spelling. They're leasing the place with an option to buy, which doesn't quite have the same ring to it. And the place remains for sale for $2.6 million, according to the Fallbrook Village News, which first reported the lie (it was picked up this morning by the NYT).