Business Briefs: Universal Studios, Milberg Weiss, Red Horse Entertainment, Northrop, A-Mark Precious Metals

0



– Universal Studios

Chief Operating Officer and President Ron Meyer was reappointed for a 5-year period to head the studio’s film, parks and resorts business. Meyer has held the position since Aug 1995. He was previously with Creative Artists Agency, a talent firm he co-founded. Universal was recently acquired by General Electric Co.’s NBC unit, which bought 80 percent of Vivendi Universal Entertainment in May 2004. Vivendi owns 20 percent of NBC Universal.





A second lawyer pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges in an illegal payments case involving

Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach

. Paul T. Selzer said in federal court in Los Angeles Monday that he did not help in channeling illegal payments to retired lawyer Seymour Lazar, who was previously charged with receiving $2.4 million in kickbacks and pleaded not guilty last month. Milberg Weiss maintains that it was “unfairly implicated” by prosecutors in the case.


Lazar and Selzer were indicted in June on charges that they participated in a scheme in which Lazar was paid a share of Milberg Weiss’s fees for acting as a named plaintiff in class-action cases.



– Red Horse Entertainment Corp.

, an L.A.-based development stage company, announced it completed the acquisition of Silverstrand International Holdings Limited, a private property development company in Hong Kong. Red Horse offered 10.1 million shares of its common voting stock to the former shareholders of Silverstrand in exchange for all of the shares of Silverstrand.



– Northrop Grumman Corp.

was awarded a $109.6 million contract by the U.S. Navy for planning and systems engineering on a new class of LHA (R) amphibious assault ships. The total value of the construction contract, if all options are exercised, is $264 million. Northrop has already constructed the older LHA 1 ships for the Navy before, which the new LHA (R) model is expected to replace.





Greg Manning Auctions Inc., a New Jersey-based seller of rare coins and stamps, acquired 80 percent of Santa Monica-based

A-Mark Precious Metals Inc.

for $16 million. The remaining 20 percent of A-Mark was acquired for $4 million by Madrid-based Afinsa Beines Tangibles SA, which also owns 69 percent of Greg Manning. A-Mark, one of six companies authorized by the U.S. mint- to purchase gold, silver and platinum eagle coins, estimates its full-year sales to be around $2.5 billion.

No posts to display