Charter Acquiring Falcon Cable
Charter Communications, the fast-growing cable company owned by billionaire Paul Allen, plans to acquire Falcon Cable TV for about $2 billion in cash and stock and the assumption of another $1.6 billion in debt.
With the acquisition of Falcon, the only Los Angeles-based cable provider, Charter would add 500,000 subscribers in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Through St. Louis-based Charter, Falcon will get a deep-pocketed partner with established ties to the cable and Internet worlds. Falcon, along with the rest of the industry, has been spending heavily to upgrade its cable TV lines to handle phone, interactive video, high-speed data and Internet access.
The Falcon deal is the latest in a series of high-profile cable transactions that include the pending $54 billion AT & T; Corp. takeover of MediaOne. Charter also moved to buy Denver-based Fanch Communications in a $2 billion deal.
Gun Makers Targeted
The city of Los Angeles and L.A. County joined a growing number of government agencies targeting gun makers with lawsuits aimed at forcing better control of sales and additional safety features on firearms.
In addition, the county suit will seek to recover costs associated with gun violence, including those incurred by the county medical system.
The suit by the city of Los Angeles names as defendants more than 40 gun manufacturers as well as gun dealers and firearms trade groups. The suit claims the defendants operate with deliberate indifference to gun violence.
The various legal theories behind the suits are largely untested but the sheer volume of the litigation could become enough of a distraction and expense to cause the industry to consider compromise.
Nurses Reach Agreement
The California Nurses Association reached a tentative contract agreement with the University of California system granting a 4 percent wage increase to the 2,100 nurses working at UCLA Medical Center, sources said.
David Johnson, chief negotiator for the CNA, declined to comment on details of the pact, saying only that the it was “very complex.”
He said terms of the agreement vary among the 10 medical centers where nurses are represented by the CNA. The package will be presented to nurses throughout the UC system for approval over the next 10 days.
The exact terms of the contract will be made public if union members decide to ratify the agreement, he said.
MedPartners Selling Units
MedPartners Inc. signed agreements to sell five groups in its California physician management system, the first such deals in a plan to unload its ailing subsidiary.
The five units represent about 13 percent of MedPartners Provider Network Inc., which manages business affairs for 117 clinics and more than 1,000 doctors in California.
MedPartners agreed to sell its California operation after it was seized by the state and placed under bankruptcy protection.
Refco Agrees to Settlement
Refco Inc., a global futures brokerage, will pay $8 million to settle allegations that its lax procedures let Beverly Hills money manager S. Jay Goldinger juggle customers’ profits and losses.
Refco, without admitting wrongdoing, agreed to pay the Commodity Futures Trading Commission one of the largest penalties ever assessed by the agency. The settlement includes $1 million to fund an industry study of how brokers receive and record customer orders.
Refco took Treasury futures orders from Goldinger without account numbers, enabling him to decide who made and lost money, the commission said.
Funds Sought for Secession Study
Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa will seek $1.84 million in state funding to help pay for a study of the economic impact of San Fernando Valley secession.
Villaraigosa, a possible L.A. mayoral candidate in 2001, said he opposes a breakup of the city but believes the state should pay for the study because it was the Legislature that required such an analysis before allowing the public to vote on the issue.
The funding proposal is opposed by a number of legislators, including state Senate Leader John Burton, D-San Francisco.
Cost estimates for the study range from $2.3 million to $8 million. Approval of the speaker’s request would leave the city, county and Valley Voters Organized Toward Empowerment, the group behind the breakup movement, to decide how to split the remainder of the tab.
LAUSD Auditor Wants Changes
To avoid the loss of millions of dollars in waste and fraud, the top auditor for the Los Angeles Unified School District called for an expensive revamping of the way district finances are scrutinized.
Don Mullinax, a former Defense Department auditor hired by the district in January, asked the board of education to establish financial controls now lacking in the LAUSD, which has an annual budget of $6.6 billion.
If the request is approved, the auditing budget would increase from $2.6 million to $7.3 million over five years and raise the number of investigators from four to 25.
A review completed last year indicated that district auditors lacked independence from administrative meddling, spent too much time on minor inquiries and received insufficient training.
Feds Fund Rail Study
Los Angeles is one of seven cities in the nation that will split $12 million in federal funding for the study of a high-speed rail line.
The so-called magnetic levitation train would travel up to 250 mph above or along freeways and carry passengers from Los Angeles International Airport through downtown Los Angeles and on to Riverside.
The trains are levitated a few inches above a guideway by electromagnets and propelled by electromagnetic force.
The projected cost of the system is $3.2 billion. If the project moves ahead, Los Angeles would compete with other major cities for $1 billion in federal funding. L.A. is considered a strong contender because of its critical traffic congestion.
Fairplex Village Revamped
The L.A. County Fair Association unveiled a revamped design for a $100 million shopping and entertainment center at the Fairplex in Pomona.
Officials said the Fairplex Village project was redesigned to address community concerns. The Beverly Hills office of Madison Marquette has joined Fairplex and Upland-based Lewis Retail Centers to jointly develop, own and operate the project.
The new plan includes an 87,000-square-foot multiplex theater, 50,000 square feet of restaurants, and 120,000 square feet of retail anchors. The revised project will include more parking lots and smaller streets that make it more pedestrian friendly.
Gemstar Working With AOL
Stepping up its interactive television efforts, America Online Inc. struck a deal with Pasadena-based Gemstar International Group to develop an electronic program guide.
The guide would allow AOL members using special set-top boxes to point and click their way to TV shows using an on-screen guide. The deal marks a significant step in AOL’s effort to develop its television-based service.
For Gemstar, the alliance represents an important endorsement of its program guide technology, which is licensed to a number of television manufacturers as well as WebTV parent Microsoft.
Compiled by Danny Pollock
