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What will come first: a writers strike or a deal with Joe Torre? Perhaps neither. What seemed like a nearly done deal for the former Yankee manager to join the Dodgers appears a little more tentative. Dodgers GM Ned Colletti would only say that there's interest. "I don't ever classify anything as close or far," Colletti said today in the LAT. "It's either done or not done, and it's not done." He added that "it's...
LA Biz Observed archive
Mark Lacter covered business, the economy and more here from 2006 until his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
The entire LA Biz Observed archive — more than 10,000 blog posts by Mark —
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October 2007
So what exactly did the folks from Sacha Barron Cohen's production company tell those people who appeared in the movie and came off looking racist, alcoholic or just plain dumb? If you read the lawsuit recently filed against Cohen and 20th Century Fox, the Borat film was supposed to be a documentary for Belarus Television. Plaintiff Cindy Streit (she's the one who operated an Alabama etiquette training business) asked one of the producers whether Belarus...
It's Martin Smith, who leaves his senior editor post at the LAT magazine for the top job at Orange Coast magazine. You might recall that Emmis Communications bought the title this summer from founder Ruth Ko (Emmis also owns Los Angeles and Tu Ciudad). Smith had been the former editor of Orange Coast between 1994 and 1998....
As if the two-joint Nancy Silverton/Mario Batali/Joe Bastianich creation needed additional acclaim. Now you won't be able to get in until 2016 (they can take you at 5). I am of the unworldly belief that no restaurant is worth such a fuss - and even L.A. Magazine's Patric Kuh seemed to be wondering the same thing when he tried to get reservations. "Once, after a tortuous exchange with a host, I proffered three dates," he...
What recession?: We're looking at 3.9 percent annual growth rate for the third quarter, which is way more than most experts had expected and reflecting an economy in decent shape. Increases in exports, consumer spending and business investment apparently made up for another plunge in home construction. Keep in mind, of course, that tighter lending policies towards the end of the quarter probably slowed things down. This morning's GDP numbers add a little spice to...
The LAT reports that a Torre deal could be announced tomorrow. The former Yankee manager has apparently agreed to contract terms - $3 million to $4 million are the numbers being mentioned- but he wants to choose his own coaches, among them Don Mattingly, so there's the question of salaries. One other element of this: the possible signing of free-agent Alex Rodriguez, who has close ties to Torre. He's supposedly looking for $30 million a...
It's still more than a week before the official launch of the much-awaited British grocery chain, but MetroBlogging posts that several stores have quietly opened - just to get things fine-tuned, as often happens with restaurants and retailers. A Hemet location supposedly opened two weeks ago and sales have exceeded expectations (whatever those might have been). Several more soft openings are in the works, including one in Glassell Park, according to Curbed LA. The early...
The Daily News essentially gutted its biz section today. Instead of having its own section front, as has been the format for more than 20 years, business now moves to B2, with one staff story (and that from City Hall reporter Rick Orlov), no more stock listings (there's a small wrap-up of market activity), and the rest wire filler. The section front is now occupied by a daily feature called KNOW, which the paper says...
That's Virgin America, the start-up airline launched by British billionaire Richard Branson and offering service from L.A. to NY and SF. Price is a big part of the attraction: The cheapest round-trip fares between L.A. and NY are running below $300, which is roughly $100 lower than what had been the standard price. First-class fares are also cheaper - $699 one-way. All passengers get a seat-back entertainment system with movies, television, games and 3,000 songs....
To cut or not to cut: For several days it's been assumed that the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates by at least a quarter point, but there appears to be some sentiment for no cut at all. This is very unsettling news on Wall Street where a rate cut is not only welcomed but at this point expected. Except here's the thing: the economy is in decent shape. Sure, there's the housing collapse and...
The leader of Teamsters Local 399 is advising members that they should honor WGA picket lines, even if the local itself can't strike, picket or boycott a producer while its contract is in effect. "As for me as an individual, I will not cross any picket line whether it is sanctioned or not because I firmly believe that Teamsters do not cross picket lines," said Leo Reed, in a message to his membership. The key...
All right, it's a shameless plug - my piece in the November issue of Fast Company on police surveillance cameras in and around the long-troubled South L.A. housing complex. In updating the year-old Motorola/LAPD project, I found very little resistance among residents about 24/7 surveillance – and that’s turning out to be a common reaction. With millions of dollars in federal grants, mostly being used as seed money, cameras can be found in most cities...
The Union Square store is apparently among the highest grossing locations in the chain, with 5,000 daily customers and sales of over $1 million a week. But numbers aren’t the only thing that sets this Trader Joe's apart from most others. As Arianne Cohen notes in this week's NY magazine, "supermarket employees have never looked so appetizing, or so poignantly arty." The store is using these cute, clean-looking, multiethnic twentysomethings to keep them coming back...
The weak dollar, Middle East tensions, weather-related production cuts in Mexico - all the usual culprits were behind today's jump in oil prices. Then again, it doesn't take much these days. Crude futures for December delivery rose as high as $93.20 a barrel, though prices pulled back later on (Bloomberg). Reaching $100 could take a while - perhaps into early next year - as traders go through their buy-sell routines. Meanwhile pump prices took a...
The NBC/Universal CEO said it's looking "more and more likely." Speaking at a meeting sponsored by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School, Zucker said a writers strike "would be very, very unfortunate" and that it would take place "at everyone's own peril" (TV Week). But Zucker also said that the impact on TV would be limited, at least in the beginning, as the networks ramp up the use of reality programs and newsmagazines. He also questioned whether...
Writers prep for deadline: They'll meet tomorrow with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers - this time joined by federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez. On Thursday, a general membership meeting is planned to provide updates on the negotiations and options (including whether and when to strike). WGA West President Patric Verrone urged guild members last night to be discerning in where they get their information. “In the days to come there will be...
Considered one of the most powerful players at City Hall, General Manager Ron Deaton said he was leaving "with a heavy heart." He'll also be leaving with a $267,000 separation package, according to the LAT. That's a bargain compared with the $690,000 the utility would have shelled out if Deaton had stayed on disability for the next two years. He's been on medical leave since July, when he suffered a severe heart arrhythmia that left...
Earlier this week we got into a little back and forth with our friends at DealBreaker about whether this week's fires will indeed provide an infusion for the economy. I said yes because of all the rebuilding money coming in (LABO); they said no because rebuilding just brings things back to where they were (these are the Cliffs Notes versions). Anyway, here's another stumper: A study prepared for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority found that an...
Here's another example of the wacky world of Wall Street. This morning, Countrywide Financial, the troubled Calabasas mortgage lender, reported a third-quarter loss of $1.2 billion - its first quarterly loss in 25 years - and the stock finished the day up 32.4 percent, to $17.30. Why? Because Countrywide said it expects to return to profitability in the current fourth quarter, and despite the dubiousness of that claim, investors want to think it means the...
That's according to the Times of London, which reports today that the Time Warner CEO is ready to hand over the top job to Jeff Bewkes as early as next week. That's a bit sooner than had been expected. The TW board apparently discussed the handover at a meeting this week in London. (A TW spokesman denied the Times of London report.) Okay, so while no official decision has been made, there's little doubt that...
California's third-quarter numbers are crazy high, of course, with a record 72,571 Notices of Default filed in the July-September period. That's even higher than during the housing crunch back in the 1990s (the previous peak was 1996). But it does help to break apart the numbers to see where most of the action is coming from. And according to Dataquick, which released the information this morning, half the entire state's default activity is concentrated in...
Countrywide's good/bad news: The Calabasas mortgage giant reported its first quarterly loss in 25 years, the result of $2.27 billion worth of mortgage losses and write-downs and soaring credit-loss reserves. But never mind that - CEO Angelo Mozilo insists that profitability is on the way for the fourth quarter. And Wall Street is buying into it; Countrywide shares are up 16.5 percent at last check (though that just brings the stock up to a paltry...
The studios and networks presented what Variety is calling "a streamlined proposal" to jump-start the contract talks. "The proposal lays the groundwork and provides a framework for an agreement," said Nick Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (how's that for labor negotiation-speak?). The plan apparently doesn't cover any changes in DVD residuals and it's hard to believe the guild would go along with that. WGA sources told Nikki Finke that...
The idea is to gradually phase out the oldest, dirtiest trucks, starting next year. The schedule would run all the way into 2014, when every pre-2007 vehicle would be banned from operating in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Port officials will present the idea to their respective harbor commissions next week. The trucking industry has put up a big stink over the proposal to eliminate or retrofit 16,000 short-haul trucks over a...
Here we have another case of apparent misinformation from this week's wild fires. Early reports that a third of the state's avocado crop had been lost were incorrect, according to California Avocado Commission. It turns out the fires were expected to reduce this season's crop by 10 percent, not 33 percent. But there will still be plenty of losses - and as pointed out by the San Diego Union-Tribune, farmers often buy the cheapest insurance...
I just have three words for you: Revenue Anticipation Notes. And yes, it could turn out to be a big deal. The state of California is selling $7 billion worth of these short-term notes today to essentially pay the bills until tax revenue comes in. That's almost five times more than last year and reflects the fact that when folks stop buying and selling homes, there's bound to be a big dropoff in the amount...
Reality checks: The media mob back east is still saying that this week's fires forced almost a million Californians to flee (it's on the Bloomberg main page). That's turning out to be, well, a bit exaggerated - as has much of the national coverage. The LAT reports on p1 that the number of those displaced was far lower - a pretty logical conclusion given that Qualcomm Stadium only had 17,000 people at the peak of...
Now here's one that might make you gag. When celebrity chef Tom Colicchio began receiving complaints about service at Craft, his new fancy-pants joint in Century City, one of the things that came up was "soigné treatment." Soigner means "to care for" in French, but at a certain kind of L.A. restaurant what it really means is VIP treatment. When an "important" person makes a reservation at Craft, the manager fills out a slip that's...
Economists starting to assess the impact of this week's fires are pointing out that this kind of event can actually stimulate growth, perverse as that may seem. Keep in mind that the Malibu fire in 1993 destroyed 268 homes and almost all of them have been rebuilt (or the owners have rebuilt nearby). They all had to hire a contractor and buy furniture and maybe even use an interior decorator or landscape architect. All those...
Please tell me that David "Consumer Confidential" Lazarus didn't actually begin his column this morning with the words, "If past history is any measure..." (really makes you want to dive into the piece, eh?). And while we're at it, please tell me that a sentence in a Calendar section story doesn't start off with, "While a writers strike would effect TV production almost immediately..." We all know that standards at that place have nose-dived, but...
Socal fires: This should be the turnaround day, as winds die down and temperatures (slowly) begin to moderate. In San Diego, thousands of evacuees began returning to their homes, the vast majority of which were unscathed. In Malibu, most sections of Pacific Coast Highway have reopened - as have the schools. Still, there are anywhere from 1,200 to 1,600 homes and buildings destroyed (the number keeps changing) and plenty of fires that remain out of...
Expect a bunch of stories over the next few days about how San Diego was not prepared for this week's firestorms - despite the area having gone through the Cedar Fire disaster in 2003. Steve Erie, the prominent UC San Diego political science professor, tells the WSJ that "the only lessons applied were those that don't cost any money. ...In terms of new fire prevention or fighting capabilities, we have barely made any progress." One...
Talk about a nice return on your investment. The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association is selling the landmark Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel & Spa in Pasadena for $170 million, which is a few dollars more than the $42.5 million that the association paid for the property in 1994. The buyer is Great Eagle Holdings, a Hong Kong real estate investment firm that's controlled by billionaire Lo Ka-shui. Great Eagle owns hotels in Boston, London, Hong...
A Boston jury ruled today that Roche’s new drug, Mircera, infringed 11 Amgen patent claims - a very big deal for the Thousand Oaks-based biotech/drug firm. For now, the jury verdict will block Roche from introducing an anemia drug in the U.S., though the company said it was looking at all legal options, including an appeal. Amgen's two anemia drugs, Epogen and Aranesp, had sales last year of $6.6 billion last year - nearly half...
Already they're serving pancakes at Qualcomm Stadium and buying air time on KNX. The message is we're here for you, which of course is what you want to hear if you're desperately worried about losing home. And to some degree it's true. But attorney Michael Raibman of insurance recovery group Reed Smith puts it this way: "Insurers are in the business of collecting premiums and denying claims. As supportive as they may be in times...
MySpace is beefing up its games component through a deal being announced today with distributor Oberon Media Inc. (THR). The games section on MySpace, to be launched in January, will have hundreds of free "casual" games - everything from online puzzles to games like Bejeweled. Casual games have become a big deal because they reach a huge audience and can be easily distributed. But Doug McIntyre at 24/7 Wall St. reminds us of the bigger...
Perhaps sensing some movement from Washington, the Calabasas-based mortgage lender said it would help its subprime borrowers who face huge bumps in interest rates. Countrywide said its plan could help up to 82,000 borrowers with adjustable rate mortgages. Qualifying borrowers will move into prime fixed-rate mortgages, or into home loans guaranteed by the government-sponsored housing agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. "We are determined to assist borrowers who have the willingness and wherewithal to remain...
Socal fires: It's hard to focus on anything else. At last count, more than 1,000 homes and businesses had been destroyed, but the numbers will certainly go up. For now, attention remains on San Diego and Lake Arrowhead, where damage appears heaviest by far. Here's a pretty sobering passage from an AP story this morning: Fire crews and fleeing residents described desperate conditions that were sure to get worse. Temperatures across Southern California were about...
Both seem to be operating in different orbits. In the latest government survey, the average price of self-serve regular in the L.A. area was $3.13, up from $2.89 on Sept. 17. Meanwhile, crude oil fell $1.04 a barrel today, to $87.56 (it had been hovering around $90 a few days ago). There's still talk of $100-a-barrel oil in the not-too-distant future, but for now traders are pulling back for a bunch of reasons - some...
He's checked into a hotel in Anaheim, along with his wife and dog. "Totally surreal to be here with people who are on vacation or in town for business or conventions while smoke hovers over the area from fires in Irvine and nearby Newport Beach," he blogs on MarketWatch. (see post below). With the situation in Malibu and Santa Clarita calming down (for now), the top story seems centered in San Diego County. (LAT)...
While only a small percentage of Socal's housing stock is being threatened by the fires, this might be a good time to review your policy and make sure you're not underinsured, which tends to happen a lot. This is especially true when it comes to coverage for the contents of your home. The Insurance Information Network of California offers these tips: --Base your insurance on the cost to replace your home and not the current...
That's how MarketWatch columnist Herb Greenberg described the intensity of this morning's fires across San Diego County, where more than 250,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. As of late morning, this seems to be the most perilous situation in Socal. Qualcomm Stadium and the Del Mar Fairgrounds were opened as evacuation centers, and officials made 120,000 "reverse 911" calls to tell people to evacuate. Here's what Greenberg was blogging earlier this morning: What...
Fire impact: It's still way too early to know. But in case you're wondering about the economic effects, it's worth noting that the 1993 "superfire" destroyed 268 homes, almost all of which have been rebuilt (or whose owners have rebuilt nearby). Weird as it sounds, fires can actually provide an economic boost for the construction industry (not to mention furniture retailers and landscape architects). There's typically little impact on prices. (cbs2) Wall Street worries: As...
September's employment numbers were kind of quirky because of stepped-up show biz hiring in preparation for a possible writer's strike. The L.A. County unemployment rate rose to 5.1 percent in September from 4.9 percent the previous month, but that was well below the 5.6 percent rate statewide. (Business Journal) The jobless rate is a little misleading this time around because of all the extra movie and TV activity (studios and networks want to stockpile as...
It's nice to see there are other folks out there who avoid biz breakfasts, lunches and by all means, dinners. I routinely get emails and calls from complete strangers asking if we can get together for a "get acquainted" lunch. Or sometimes they'll want to buy me breakfast or whatever and "pick my brain" (a pretty hopeless exercise since it's been well picked over). NYT columnist Lisa Belkin has a number of suggestions for deflecting...
This was the day we were supposed to reflect on that scary Monday 20 years ago. But there are more pressing matters at hand - specifically, a 2.7 percent drop in the Dow right at the closing bell. That's a far cry from the 22.6 percent drubbing in 1987, of course, but it's still pretty bad - bad enough for the NYT to be calling this "Gray Friday." Today will mark the 44th day this...
Stocks are sinking: This is a joke, right? It's the 20-year anniversary of the '87 market crash and the Dow is down more than 200 points. Now granted, that's just a 1.5 percent drop, compared with a 22.6 percent plunge on Black Monday. But it's not just today; this has been a lousy week in general, with major banks coming out with terrible subprime-related numbers (Wachovia's third-quarter earnings, just out this morning, fell 10 percent)....
That's what Staples Center owner AEG is charging for top-of-the-line luxury suites, per year ($250,000 on the low end). Five of the 157 suites are available now, but another 70 are due to expire in 2009 – and given the Lakers uncertain future, it's a decent bet that a few of those leases with not be renewed. That could explain those full-page ads in zoned editions of USA Today, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek and the...
Crude prices flirted with $90-a-barrel today and you have to believe that the century mark is not far off. That's another all-time record - even accounting for inflation. Part of the explanation for the run-up involves the world's unsettled state - Turkey's prime minister has been given the authorization to use military force against the Kurds in northern Iraq (sound familiar?), and there's today's massive bomb blast in Karachi, just hours after the arrival of...
I mean besides LABO? MarketWatch took the honors last month in the number of minutes per person per month, followed by Yahoo Finance and MSN Money. Of course, there are a zillion ways to measure Web site readership, and as usual, everyone is pushing the numbers that make them look the best. Good luck figuring it all out. Anyway, here's the lineup, courtesy of 24/7 Wall Street, which would only say it got this information...
This time, it's a proposed marine research facility on the 28-acre site that has been home to environmentally unfriendly Westway Terminal Co. Inc. (the port bought out the remaining 18 years of Westway’s contract for $17 million). The new facility, which would be helped along by $50,000 in grant money from the Annenberg Foundation, is being peddled by the port's executive director, Geraldine Knatz, as a way of attracting more jobs to San Pedro. This...
Strike vote deadline: The WGA will start counting ballots for a strike authorization, which gives guild officials the power to call for a walkout as early as Nov. 1. Meanwhile, there's no sign of progress at the bargaining table, despite the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers removing that dastardly proposal to revamp the residual system. Talks aren't set to resume until at least Friday. From Variety: Two key questions have emerged among observers:...
It's an informal investigation into stock sales by Countrywide’s CEO, according to the WSJ. The news comes just a week after North Carolina Treasurer - and Countrywide shareholder - Richard Moore shipped off a letter to SEC Chairman Christopher Cox to gripe about how Mozilo was selling massive amounts of stock in the months before the company's shares nose-dived because of the credit crunch (LABO). All told, Mozilo sold at least $130.6 million in stock...
This wouldn't be worth mentioning if it weren't for all the bluster some months back about the astronomical salaries that Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe, the networking site's two founders, had been "demanding" from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. DeWolfe and Anderson had reportedly been looking for a two-year deal worth $50 million (Nikki Finke says that News Corp. was offering a little over half that). Anyway, Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici is posting on his Mixed Media...
Claire Hoffman propelled her career last year with a much-discussed profile in West magazine on "Girls Gone Wild" mogul Joe Francis. You might remember the piece: She got manhandled and screamed at by her subject. It's after 3 a.m. and we're in a parking lot on the outskirts of Chicago. Electronic music is buzzing from the nightclub across the street, mixing easily with the laughter of the guys who are watching this, this me-pinned-and-helpless thing....
You want to know how lousy the newspaper industry is? A unit of Morgan Stanley that's held a 7.2 percent stake in New York Times Co. - and whose money manager had been making a big stink over performance - just sold out, even though the stock is trading at a 52-week low. Actually, you might call it a moral victory for Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who has been under the gun because of...
Twist in writers talks: Never try to figure out labor negotiations when you're sitting on the sidelines. You'll usually be proven wrong. Out of the blue (well, at least to those on the sidelines), the studios and networks scraped their proposal to revamp residuals for writers. Nick Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, said withdrawal of the idea was an effort to jumpstart negotiations with the Writers Guild. Of course,...
The nation's biggest mortgage lender is looking at pretax restructuring charge of $125 million to $150 million to cut operations and staff. A regulatory filing lays out a few specifics - about $57 million of the charge will occur in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, with the balance in the fourth quarter. About $30 million to $35 million is for termination benefits at Calabasas-based Countrywide (the company said it may cut 12,000 jobs). None...
Progress at getting more women into the state's board rooms and executive suites continues to be glacial. The UC Davis Graduate School of Management is out with a study of women at California's 400 largest publicly held companies, and the results shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Women hold only 10.4 percent of the board seats and highest-paid executive officer positions, half the companies don't have a single woman among their executive officers (unbelievable),...
If you want to be technical about it, 49.5 percent - just 4,361 homes sold in all of L.A. County last month, half the number sold in September, 2006. Yowser. The numbers were mind-blowing throughout Socal, with September sales falling to their lowest monthly level in more than two decades (all numbers courtesy of Dataquick). Yet when you think about it, the results are not all that surprising, given that September closings fell into that...
Housing endangers economy: That's what Treasury Secretary Paulson is saying this morning (you mean he just found out?). "I have no interest in bailing out lenders or property speculators," Paulson said in a speech. "Still, we must recognize the very real harm to families affected by the housing downturn." Last night, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke offered a middling economic forecast, noting that the drop in interest rates will perk up growth but adding that housing...
Already, there are no shortage of discussions about then and now. In this week's Barron's, Andrew Barry lays out the reasons why there probably won't be another day like Oct. 19, 1987 (even though it’s still a possibility). A 22.6 percent one-day drop in the Dow still stands out as an astonishing moment in the history of U.S. financial markets - as in, how could investors have kept selling? Didn't they realize the buying opportunities...
It's not official yet, but Seymour Lazar, a former Milberg Weiss client accused of receiving illegal kickbacks, appears ready to cop a plea. His lawyers wouldn’t offer details during a session in federal court in L.A. Lazar, himself a lawyer, was indicted last year in connection with an alleged scheme in which MW would give big money in exchange for serving as name plaintiffs in class actions. Lazar is quite the character – he worked...
The Skadden Insider, which provides tidbits on powerhouse law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, finds some grumbling in the L.A. office. In particular, a bunch of emails promoting the Skadden LA AIDS Walk team rubbed people the wrong way (some folks were bothered by all the colored type in the message and by “Gay Colleague” in the subject field). A Skadden source told SI that the emails "are pretty aggressive and unprofessional....
What's weird is that prices keep going up despite signs that the U.S. economy has been slipping. That's not supposed to happen. Then again, oil isn't supposed to reach record levels without any apparent impact on the economy. Today's close was $86.13 a barrel, which is the highest nominal level since they began trading oil contracts in 1983. But keep in mind that when adjusted for inflation, oil is still below all-time highs. For now....
I-5 reopens after all: Talk about a story that's been tough to figure out. The main traffic lanes on both sides of the freeway in the Newhall Pass were open as of 3 a.m. - earlier than expected. The southbound truck lanes, which include the tunnel where Friday's deadly crash occurred, remain closed - and it could be a while before the tunnel reopens. Three people were killed and 10 injured, none critically, in the...
As for the tunnel, where that fiery chain reaction killed three people, repair work is expected to take a couple of weeks, though at this point the Caltrans folks are probably just guesstimating. Reporters were shown the northern end of the tunnel, which was smoky and blackened with soot. It's still quite a mess - and commutes in the area are likely to be rough for a while. I-5, of course, is a very big...
Our esteemed assembly speaker hardly offered a full accounting of his crazy spending, but at least he coughed up a few explanations. The $8,745 spent at Hotel Arts in Barcelona covered accommodations, as well as the cost of a mini-van rental and the hiring of a driver and translator. The $2,562 bill at Louis Vuitton in Paris covered gifts for dignitaries in connection with his visits to France to study high-speed rail and universal preschool....
The tight-wad Tax Foundation has come out with its annual ranking of business friendly and unfriendly states. And guess what? California is ranks near the very bottom. "States need to constantly be on the lookout for ways to improve their business tax climates," says study co-author Curtis Dubay. The Index ranks states based on the taxes that supposedly matter most to businesses and business investment: corporate tax, individual income tax, sales tax, unemployment tax and...
Perhaps one of these days the folks at Vitesse Semiconductor will be able to focus their attention on making telecom chips, not paying legal bills. The company announced that it will pay $8.75 million to settle shareholder suits over the backdating of employee stock options. It sounds like Vitesse is coming off relatively well - the company says that its insurers will cover the amount. The settlement, subject to court approval, also releases them from...
NBC sprucing up?: It's a decent bet that sooner or later GE will unload its entertainment property, and what better way to unofficially shop around the $40 billion asset than to show improving results? GE's 14 percent increase in third-quarter profit was helped along by a 9 percent earnings increase at NBC Universal (that was the high end of management projections). Once more, cable played a big role in the numbers, as did a few...
Call Wall Street reaction underwhelming. Shares of the Bev Hills concert promoter - and now record company - fell 3.7 percent today, as analysts were at best lukewarm in their instant analyses of Madonna leaving Warner to join Live Nation in a $120 million deal. LN might be trying just a bit too hard to be a soup-to-nuts music powerhouse (Madonna still does pretty well on the concert front, but her albums haven't been blockbusters...
Good luck. Nikki Finke had posted last week that Warner production head Jeff Robinov told three different producers that the studio was no longer doing movies with women in the lead (he supposedly doesn't even want to see a script with a woman in the top spot). Now she posts - at some length - the exchanges she's had with Robinov and Warner flaks about the subject. After lots of hemming and hawing, Robinov had...
Here's another example of why companies have no business dealing with people’s health care coverage. Employees who smoke (and/or family members who smoke and are covered by Tribune insurance) will have to fork over a $100 surcharge each month. The new fees, to be assessed beginning next year, are an effort to offset higher insurance premiums and promote workers health. "We pay the lion's share of medical expenses and we have a responsibility to contain...
NBC leaves Burbank: Talk about breaking up an act - the network that made beautiful downtown Burbank a cultural icon (pathetic, huh?) is selling most of its 34 acres and moving to nearby Universal Studios. The formal announcement is expected today. This is part of NBC Universal's master plan that includes construction of a massive broadcast facility - completion date is 2011 - plus all kinds of residential and retail development (very little of which...
Who knows for how long, but at least a federal district judge in SF had the good sense to issue a preliminary injunction that blocks the Department of Homeland Security from launching a program that punishes companies based on discrepancies between their workers' names and their Social Security numbers. The rule “would result in irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers,” wrote U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. He also wondered about the burden it would...
The LAT publisher will be writing about "things going on at The Times and in our industry." He's inviting comments, but advises that "this is internal, just for us, so please don’t share the blog content outside the company" (hee-hee). Actually, I hope his postings are a little clearer than the memo introducing his postings (he says he’s starting a BLOG and then keeps referring to BLOGS, as in more than one). Anyway, Times-folk are...
Well it's not official yet, but the WSJ is reporting that she's close to signing up with Bev Hills concert promoter Live Nation in a $120 million deal. The 10-year agreement, which seems mighty risky for any number of reasons (er, Madonna is nearing 50), would involve cash and stock in exchange for the rights to sell three albums, promote concert tours, sell merchandise and license her name. The move to Live Nation, which has...
One of the many arguments for universal health care has been a practical one: Folks who don't have coverage don't get checkups. That means nagging problems get worse until folks wind up in the hospital and are faced with really serious - and expensive - medical issues that will someone will have to pay for. Well, it's the same with teeth. More than 100 million people lack dental insurance in this country, and publicly supported...
Well, you knew this was bound to happen. A Michigan pension fund filed a shareholder suit accusing the El Segundo-based toy company and its board of mishandling product safety procedures that were responsible for three toy recalls. CEO Robert A. Eckert and the board are said to have breached their duty to shareholders by allowing the company to delay the reporting of hazardous toys beyond the 24-hour window required by the feds. Oh, there's also...
An outside deadline will keep me away for a couple of days....
The tiny Hammer Museum in Haines, Alaska was minding its own business when along came the big bullies at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles who decided to also call themselves the Hammer Museum. You would think that the Alaskans would have first dibs, but the city slickers from L.A. thought enough to file a trademark application. The Alaskans followed up with their own application, and now they're both sitting in the...
That's according to the WSJ's M&A reporter, Dennis Berman, who concludes that the chances of the Sam Zell deal falling through aren't all that great. For months, the vague concerns on Wall Street have been reflected by a stock that's well under the $34 price that stockholders were promised. When the spread between purchase price and trading price is so wide, it often spells trouble (a Lehman Bros. analyst put the odds of the deal...
OK, all you sleepy Hollywood beat writers out there - time to wrap up your Friday flack lunches and follow up once more on a Nikki Finke item. This one's a doozy: She's reporting that Warner Bros president of production, Jeff Robinoff, has decreed that the studio is no longer doing movies with women in the lead. That's right, men have to be starring in every picture made (he's not even reading scripts with women...
Employment rebounds: Not only did payrolls rise a healthy 110,000 in September, but August's horrible numbers - what many say convinced Fed officials to lower interest rates - were revised, to a gain of 89,000 jobs instead of a 4,000-job decline. That’s quite a difference – and another example of how one month’s worth of data doesn’t tell you all that much. September hiring was spurred by the public education and service sectors. As expected,...
They either keep moving or they're dead (borrowing shamelessly from the old Woody Allen line). With the private equity boys cooling their heels, perhaps it's finally time for corporations to get into the M&A hunt. That's been the chatter for some time, a theory that's bolstered by a slowdown in corporate profits (S&P 500 companies are on track to grow just 1.9 percent during the third quarter, the slowest pace in more than five years)....
After a summer of fundraisers, she's winning over a bunch of show-folks - at least according to a breathless LAT story. The Rob Reiner endorsement was apparently a big deal, since he can drum up support from lots of affluent corners. One notable fence sitter, former Paramount head Sherry Lansing, might be about to choose sides after a fundraiser earlier hosted by Marc Nathanson. Lansing said she arrived at the event with an open mind....
New worries?: A shortage of air-traffic controllers at LAX helps explain the 55 runway incursions reported since October 2001, according to a report by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. But hold on – the FAA says that the runway incursions aren't related to staffing issues, but rather pilot error (expect the airline pilots group to say something about that). You want to know how screwy things are? The air-traffic controllers and the FAA can't...
Let's just say she wasn't that wild about a lengthy Fortune profile of CAA (her post is headlined "Fortune CAA Puffery a Pukefest"). Actually, her critique of the article is a lot more fun than the article itself, which has CAA chieftains Bryan Lourd and Richard Lovett insisting that they don't want publicity. "We are behind-the-scenes players," Lovett tells Fortune. "We are uninteresting and are meant to be, as everything we do is for and...
There's nothing like pissing off a food editor of the LAT to get the attention of L.A.'s snooty restaurant crowd. In today's food section, Leslie Brenner looks into the mystery of why it's next to impossible to make a reservation for 7 or 7:30 - the time when most of us eat. And yet, the restaurant is often half-empty at 7 or 7:30. What's up with that? Much of the explanation has to do with...
Here's an amazing number to ponder: A whopping 61 percent of IndyMac stock available for trading had been sold short as of last month. That is, investors are betting in large numbers that shares of the Pasadena mortgage lender - the nation's second-biggest home lender - will go down. And they've been right: Its stock price is down 46 percent this year (it’s even down on the days when Countrywide is up). The question is...
FCC leaks: Companies and trade groups are being tipped off to confidential information about when regulators plan to vote on important issues, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. Other parties - generally consumer and public-interest groups - don't get such favorable treatment. No specifics on the companies or groups that received the early info. There are already rules prohibiting such leaks, and several years back an FCC staff member was fired. (LAT)....
That would be David Hans Schmidt, the Phoenix agent who tried to shake down Tom Cruise for $1 million in exchange for stolen wedding photos of the mega-star and his bride, Katie Holmes. The extortion effort ended with Schmidt winding up in custody. He later agreed to plead guilty and face two years behind bars. But along the way, according to NY Daily News gossips Rush & Molloy, Schmidt turned suicidal. "I did something really...
The Santa Monica-based chain lost $2.3 million for the first six months of the year, while same-store sales fell 10 percent. It's already been delisted from Nasdaq, and it could go into default at any time. We're talking disaster here, and yet its CEO, a convicted felon named Andrew Wiederhorn, has been pulling in $4.6 million in salary. How on earth does the place keep going? As explained by Dorothy Pomerantz in Forbes, it's considered...
Now that I've got your attention, let's turn to the on-air talent that’s ready and eager to launch the Fox Business Channel in a couple of weeks and tell you all about your puts and shorts. There's Shibani Joshi (former model in India), Cheryl Casone (former flight attendant), Jenna Lee (played Division One softball in college), and Nicole Petillades (loves slalom waterskiing). And as NY magazine dutifully notes, some of the foxes being promoted on...
The L.A. billionaire says in an interview with Bloomberg that it will be "quite a while before we have a robust housing market again,” noting that "the idea that any loan against real estate is a good loan has never been a rational thought.” It was more than a decade ago when Milken, the junk bond king turned philanthropist, began talking up real estate as an investment (remember it had fallen out of favor when...
Judge delays worker crackdown: U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said that the Bush administration's effort to track down illegal immigrants doesn't appear to be authorized by law. He extended for up to 10 days a temporary restraining order issued by another federal judge that stopped officials from mailing letters to employers notifying them of the new requirements. He said he would rule within 10 days on a preliminary injunction that would bar the change until...
It's still a long way off from a walkout (remember the supermarket workers), but seeking member approval to call a strike is certain to ratchet up the tension, especially coming three days before negotiations are set to resume. A strike authorization vote is just that - the guild leadership would be given the leverage to call for a walkout. Variety story is here. The rank-and-file is almost certain to vote yes, but Craig Mazin at...
This week the average price of a gallon of regular is $2.961, up just a penny over last week. But over the last five weeks, L.A. prices are up 22 cents a gallon. That's a considerable jump, but higher gas prices have not really dampened consumer spending, especially in Socal. Meanwhile, oil prices continue to slide to around $80 a barrel. Looks like $100 oil will have to wait a while. (EIA, WSJ)...
It came up during a wrongful termination suit brought against Knicks coach Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden, which owns the team. Anucha Browne Sanders, a former marketing executive, was fired after she complained about being called "bitch" and "fucking ho" by the coach. Thomas did some nifty tap dancing in his testimony. "I've never cursed at Anucha,” he said. "I've cursed around Anucha." Er, OK. But where do you draw the line on the...
That's the title of Citigroup analyst Stephen Kim's report on the homebuilding industry that came out this morning - and was cited, in part, for today's 191-point Dow gain. "In this sector, with its long history of feverish booms and catastrophic busts, it is precisely when things have gotten this bad that the stocks start looking good," Kim wrote. The locally-based homebuilders seemed to perk up on the news; KB shares were up 3.6 percent...
Just when you think advertisers have run out of space to advertise, somebody comes along with an idea that’s stunningly intrusive and, well, just plain dumb. An outfit called Ad-Air figures that instead of looking at boring runways, arriving and departing passengers might just as well be hit with super-sized pitches the length of three football fields. The London-based company will introduce the first ads in Dubai next month, and then move to London's Heathrow,...
What, us worry?: Wasn't it just a few months back when the Dow topped the 14,000 mark for the first time, only to nosedive after the housing-induced credit crunch ruined all the fun? Well, the Dow topped 14,000 again this morning (it has since slipped back), and the interesting thing is that it came on a day when both Citigroup and UBS reported weak third-quarter numbers because of all the credit market turmoil this summer....
Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.The multi-talented Mark Lacter
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