Business Briefs: Craig Consumer Electronics, Big 5 Sporting Goods, WPT, Kilroy Realty, Global ePoint

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A former


Craig Consumer Electronics Inc.

vice president was sentenced to two months in custody for falsifying books at the shuttered Cerritos-based distributor of car audio equipment. Bonnie Metz, who was Craig’s vice president/director of international trade, was also sentenced to four months home detention and ordered to pay $81,000 in restitution. Metz pleaded guilty in November to intentionally inflating Craig’s inventory and sales numbers to boost the amount the company could borrow under a credit line from a group of four banks. The four banks in the consortium ultimately lost nearly $8 million on their line of credit to Craig.


In 2003, a Los Angeles federal jury convicted Craig’s former CEO Richard Berger on 12 felony counts for bank fraud and conspiracy. The jury had deadlocked on charges against Metz. Craig’s shares were traded on the Nasdaq until just before it filed for bankruptcy in August 1997.



– Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp.

named Barry Emerson its new senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer. Emerson, a 20-year accounting veteran, will start in early September, after an audit of company financial reports is completed. The El Segundo-based sporting goods retailer, which said in July it would delay financial results because of a restatement, will file its fiscal 2004 results “shortly,” the company said in a statement.


Emerson will become CFO after the company files with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Pending those filings, he will serve as senior vice president. Former Big 5 CFO Charles P. Kirk will remain a senior vice president and a member of the company’s senior management team.



– WPT Enterprises Inc.

, the L.A.-based creator of World Poker Tour television series, reported a net loss of $426,000 (2 cents per diluted share) for the second quarter ended July 3, compared with income of $887,000 (6 cents) for the like period a year ago. Revenues rose 40 percent to $6.6 million from $4.7 million in the year-ago period.


The company expects third-quarter revenues of $1.5 million to $2 million. The forecast reflects a reduction in World Poker Tour completed episodes to one in the third quarter from six in the year-earlier period. Additionally, WPT will not see significant online gaming revenues in the third quarter from its recently launched Web site.



– Kilroy Realty Corp.

signed a 10-year lease agreement with Qualcomm Inc. for a 68,000-square-foot, two-story office building located in the Sorrento Mesa submarket of San Diego. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. San Diego-based Qualcomm will utilize the building for office and engineering lab uses. The lease will begin in December, the L.A.-based real estate investment trust said in a statement.



– Global ePoint Inc.

, a City of Industry-based maker of security products for military and commercial markets, reported a net loss, before payment of preferred dividends, of $1.8 million (22 cents per diluted share) for the second quarter ended June 30, compared with a loss of $1.5 million (13 cents) for the like period a year ago. Revenues rose to $5.2 million from $4.6 million in the year-ago period.


The company said that higher sales of security products, as well as an increase in revenue from its contract manufacturing division, contributed to the increase in sales. Global ePoint currently has a backlog of orders of $18 million, the highest in its history.

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