Movie Fox:
Fox Filmed Entertainment struck a deal last week with billionaire Philip Anschutz’s Walden Media to take on family entertainment giant Walt Disney Co. The Fox company hopes to capitalize on the lucrative family film business and plug a hole in its offerings by teaming with Walden Media, the producer of the 2005 blockbuster “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” Anschutz has multiple interests in Los Angeles, including the Staples Center, the Home Depot Center in Carson, the Kings hockey team and part ownership of the Lakers.
Amgen Raid:
Prosecutors and police raided some of Amgen Inc.’s offices in Germany and the Netherlands last month in an investigation of alleged illegal payments the company made to a German physician, the company disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The raids were conducted at offices in Munich and Breda, the Netherlands. The search warrant issued by a Munich court “alleges improper payments by our German affiliate to a single hospital physician in Germany in 2001.” Shares of Thousand Oak-based Amgen, which started the week at $68.79, were trading below $67 in after hours trading on Aug. 10.
Too Many Options:
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s inquiry into options backdating that began with inquiries into Vitesse Semiconductor Corp. in Camarillo and quickly expanded to other area semiconductor firms has now hit 11 Southern California companies. Agoura Hills video game publisher THQ Inc. is the latest to received notice from the SEC requesting documents and information related to its stock option grant practices. It joins Santa Monica-based video game publisher Activision Inc. and such prominent firms as Cheesecake Factory Inc. and Computer Sciences Corp. all of which are being investigated for possibly backdating options to allow execs to receive artificially high profits from a stock sale and not revealing the practice to investors.
Sterling Problem:
The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Los Angeles Clippers owner and real estate mogul Donald Sterling for housing discrimination, claiming he refused to rent apartments to blacks and families with children. Federal prosecutors contend that Sterling, his wife, Rochelle, and their family trust refused to rent to many prospective tenants and misrepresented the availability of apartments in the city’s Koreatown section. Sterling’s attorney, Greg Garbacz, said the charges were baseless.
Gas Scam:
Sempra Energy, the San Diego-based parent of Southern California Gas Co., and more than a dozen other energy companies were ordered to provide hundreds of hours of recorded conversations with natural gas traders to attorneys who are hoping to prove that they illegally inflated prices for California gas customers. The ruling resolves one of many disputes that have emerged over the traders’ tapes and the lawsuit is among a handful of outstanding cases that allege wrongdoing by energy companies during California’s energy crisis that spanned 2000 to 2001.
Making Space:
Two of the biggest names on the Internet struck a billion-dollar deal to combine the search and advertising technology of Google Inc. with the massive online audience of News Corp.’s MySpace, the phenomenally popular social networking that was launched by Los Angeles entrepreneur Brad Greenspan. The agreement, worth about $900 million to News Corp. over the next four years, will install Google’s search boxes and online advertising on the MySpace. It also may be a key step toward turning the cornucopia of teenage blogs, artwork and photos into a viable channel for advertisers.
Plains Oil:
Occidental Petroleum Co. will purchase gas and oil assets from Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. for $865 million in cash. The deal involves properties in California and Texas and promises to contribute about 56 million barrels of oil to Occidental’s reserves. Separately, Kazakhstan Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov said that Occidental is considering its first oil and gas project in that country, which is the largest oil producer next to Russia among the former Soviet states. Akhmetov said his country plans to triple oil production by 2015. Occidental confirmed that a meeting took place but would not confirm if any agreement had been reached.
Google Books:
Ten libraries in the University of California system, including UCLA’s, will join Google’s book-scanning project. The plan by the online search giant to convert millions of library books into digital form Google’s project has been criticized by opponents as copyright infringement. The UC system joins Stanford, Michigan, Harvard and the New York Public Library and Oxford University in allowing the scanning. Google said it only plans to use public domain books in their entirety and will useportions of copyrighted material. The Mountain View-based company is paying for the project.
Building Scam:
The spotlight got even brighter on the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety after the Los Angeles Times reported that the former president of the Board of Building and Safety Commissions had voted three times to approve permits for an engineering firm that was paying at least $10,000 annually to a company he headed. Critics said that Efren Abratique should have recused himself from the votes involving Psomas Inc. over an apparent conflict of interest. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had already promised to review unrelated reports that the department was giving special treatment to political insiders by speeding their projects through the review process.
Earnings Roundup:
DirecTV Group Inc. reported net income was $458.7 million, up 184 percent from the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the El-Segundo-based satellite cable provider rose 10 percent to $3.52 billion. Edison International reported second quarter net income of $177 million, down 12 percent. Revenue for the Rosemead-based energy company rose 13 percent to $3 billion. California Pizza Kitchen reported second-quarter net income of $6 million, down 3 percent. Revenue for the Los Angeles-based pizza restaurant owner and operator was up 14 percent to $136 million. Mercury General reported second quarter net income of $37.8 million, off 49 percent. Net written premiums for the Los Angeles-based insurance company were up 3 percent to $754 million. Arden Group Inc. reported second-quarter net income of $4.7 million, up 4 percent. Revenue for the Compton-based parent company of upscale Southern California grocer Gelson’s Markets rose 2 percent.
