& #8226; Occidental Petroleum Corp.
won approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to construct a $600 million liquefied natural gas tank near Corpus Christi, Texas. The project will enabled the oil and gas producer to process 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. Occidental’s application is one of more than three dozen LNG facilities the agency is considering throughout North America, as fuel producers and consumers look for alternatives to rising fuel prices and diminishing supplies.
& #8226; DirecTV Group Inc.
has extended its reach to ethnic audiences by striking a deal with Philippines-based ABS-CNS Broadcasting Corp. to expand programming aimed at Filipino-Americans. DirecTV subscribers can now pay $22.99 per month to access four video channels and two audio channels previously only available to subscribers of ABS-CBN’s domestic subsidiary, ABS-CBN International. ABS-CBN International’s current 80,000 subscribers will migrate to DirecTV free of charge.
ABS-CBN International is the most popular source of Filipino entertainment in U.S. Four video channels the Filipino Channel, the ABS-CBN News Channel, Pinoy Central TV and Cinema One offer drams, sitcoms game shows, movies, news and other programming in English, Tagalog, Ilocano, Cebuano and Illonggo.
& #8226;
One of the founders of
Stan Lee Media Inc.
settled a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit after spending a few years on the run in Brazil. Peter Paul, who founded Encino-based Stan Lee Media Inc. with Stan Lee, agreed to refrain from future securities law violations and pledged not to serve as an officer or director of a public company, but he admitted no wrongdoing in the suit brought by federal prosecutors in New York. Another former company executive, Stephen Gordon, pled guilty in March to a fraud scheme involving secretly borrowing money against company stock.
Stan Lee Media filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and the SEC announced an investigation into the company. Paul, Gordon and three others were charged with manipulating share price through fraudulent accounts set up to conceal trading. Paul fled to Brazil in 2001, but was ordered back to the U.S. by the Supreme Court of Brazil in 2003.
& #8226; Kilroy Realty Corp.
announced that it would be restating per-share income from continuing operations for 2004. The problem stemmed from improper accounting of dividends to preferred stockholders. The restatement will have no impact on net income or earnings per share, according to the company filing.
The L.A.-based real estate investment trust ran afoul of Financial Accounting Standards Board rule 128, which deals with earnings per share. The mistake means the company will be filing amendments to its annual report on Form 10-K for last year and its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q for several quarters. Of the company’s $1.4 billion market capitalization, $126.5 million represents preferred stock issues, or about 9 percent of shares outstanding.
