KB Home Says SEC to Start Probe on Option Practices
KB Home, the fifth-largest U.S. homebuilder by stock-market value, said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will start an informal probe into the company’s stock-option practices, Bloomberg News reports. The company, which is conducting an internal review, will cooperate with the inquiry, Los Angeles-based KB Home said in a statement distributed today by Business Wire. KB Home spokeswoman Caroline Shaw didn’t immediately return a telephone message to her office after business hours. Yesterday, KB Home said it was reviewing some stock options awarded to Chief Executive Officer Bruce Karatz. The options are the subject of pending litigation, the company said yesterday.
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Home Sales Plunge Statewide
California’s residential real estate sector continued wilting in July, with sales plunging 30 percent and the median price falling under the year-ago level in more than half the state’s major markets, a trade association said Thursday, the Los Angeles Daily News reports. Los Angeles County fared better, though, with the median price increasing an annual 6.8 percent to a record $581,140 even though sales declined 25.6 percent from their year-ago level, said the report from the California Association of Realtors.
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AOL to Offer Movie Downloads From Four Studios
Digital entertainment took an evolutionary leap Thursday when AOL disclosed agreements with four major studios to offer downloaded movies and on-demand television from a single Internet portal, the Hollywood Reporter reports. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group will offer downloadable movies through AOL Video, including such titles as “Hitch,” “Spider-Man 2,” “Batman Forever,” “The Matrix,” “American Pie” and “Doctor Dolittle.”
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Firm Picked to Manage Project in Las Vegas
S.L. Leonard & Associates will oversee the design and construction of the POST Modern Museum in Las Vegas, the Ventura County Star reports. The $32 million renovation of the 1933 post office and federal courthouse will include 13,000 square feet of cultural, civic and educational exhibition space that also will be used for receptions, special events and conferences.
