Private-Equity Group Prevails in VNU Bid
A group of six private-equity firms declared victory in a three-month battle for Dutch market-research company VNU NV, the Wall Street Journal reported. The group, called Valcon Acquisition BV, said it received 78.7 percent of shares of VNU, which owns the Hollywood Reporter and Nielsen television ratings service, and waived all conditions to accepting the stock, allowing them to soon take control of the company. The conclusion of the $9.84 billion deal marks a triumph for the private-equity group, after fighting what appeared to be a losing campaign against shareholders who said they could restructure the company on their own and make it more valuable. Shareholders and executives around the world closely followed the clash because it was the first time shareholders objected en masse to a private-equity bid that was friendly and recommended by the company’s management and board.
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Major Eastside Project Will Have to Wait Longer
The planned sale of a major redevelopment project in Boyle Heights is raising concerns that the affordable housing and retail outlets that the area needs may be delayed, the Los Angeles Times reports. Santa Monica-based real estate firm MJW Investments is expected to formally announce today that it is soliciting proposals from buyers to purchase its 23-acre site at Olympic Boulevard and Soto Street. The site, home of a long-shuttered Sears, Roebuck & Co. distribution center, is a landmark in East Los Angeles and one of the city’s largest redevelopment projects in recent years.The project’s proposed addition of condominiums, apartments, stores, offices and restaurants would provide an economic spark for the area, possibly making it less affordable for the community’s lower-income residents.
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L.A.’s NFL Bid Set for Debate
A dozen years after the NFL broached returning professional football to the Southland, team owners will meet this week to debate the merits of locating a franchise at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum or in Anaheim, although – once again – they’re unlikely to make the definitive decision for which local officials have hoped, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. A committee of 11 owners, dubbed the L.A. Working Group, will meet today in Denver to debate the merits of both proposals, then will lead a discussion Tuesday among the owners of all 32 teams. Neil Glat, the National Football League’s vice president for strategic planning, said he expects “tangible next steps to keep the momentum going.”
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Council Members Take 2 Routes in LAX-Area Dispute
The rapid escalation of tensions at the LAX Hilton has called into question the larger goal of improving the strip considered to be “gateway to Los Angeles. Revitalization will require the collaboration of industry, workers and the city, but right now Los Angeles officials find themselves caught between labor and management, the Daily Breeze reports. And the city’s predicament is illustrated by the good cop-bad cop approach taken by the South Bay’s pair of City Council members, Janice Hahn and Bill Rosendahl.
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Ad Buyers Look Longer Before Leaping
If a nation reveals itself by what it watches on television, America , based on the new series the broadcast networks will present for the 2006-7 season , is a country consumed with: the disappearance of friends and relatives, whether they vanished on purpose, are fugitives or were kidnap victims; weddings, particularly those that would never pass muster with Martha Stewart; going behind the scenes as a murder is solved, a magazine is published, a TV show is created or a football team tries to win a game. Now comes the hard part for Madison Avenue: figuring out which series will be worth sponsoring , and which to avoid. At stake is an estimated $9 billion that advertisers agree to spend each spring during the so-called upfront market, so named because the bargaining takes place before the fall season starts. Unlike last spring, when agency executives wasted little time in picking potential hits and flops, this time around they are more hesitant. A major reason is the marked increase in the number of drama series with elaborate plots and large casts.
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Riverside Trains Keeping Better Time
Riders of Metrolink’s Riverside Line rolled the dice every time they tried to make it to work on time through much of the winter, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reports. About one of every four trains that made the trip from the downtown station to Los Angeles was late, statistics show. But with improvements to the track, including stops in Pedley and East Ontario, on-time performance has rebounded. In April, the Riverside Line was the most reliable of the three that serve Riverside County, according to records from the Riverside County Transportation Commission. In San Bernardino County, a route between San Bernardino and Los Angeles is becoming increasingly popular for weekend riders. Already the most heavily used of all Metrolink’s routes during the work week, the San Bernardino Line has enjoyed a 48 percent increase in Saturday ridership during the past year.
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