MERGED: Live Nation Inc. and Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. closed their merger after reaching agreements with U.S. and Canadian anti-trust regulators. Live Nation Entertainment Inc. will be under a 10-year court order prohibiting it from retaliating against venues that choose to sign ticket-selling contracts with competitors.
JOBLESS RATE: L.A. County’s unemployment rate rose from 12.2 percent in November to 12.4 percent in December as the professional service, construction and manufacturing sectors shed jobs. The rate was up sharply from 9.2 percent a year ago. For the second straight year, local employers shed payroll jobs in December. Total nonfarm employment in the county decreased by 2,300 jobs to about 3.9 million. Professional and business services led the decline, losing 5,000 jobs. The county lost 115,000 jobs in 2009, a drop of 2.9 percent, with the biggest decline in manufacturing, which lost 30,000 jobs.
MARTHA MOVES: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. has struck a deal with Crown Media Holdings Inc., operators of the Hallmark Channel, to exclusively televise the weekday “Martha Stewart Show” and other productions on the cable channel starting in September. New York-based Martha Stewart Living also will develop new series and prime-time specials for Studio City-based Hallmark. The show is now syndicated to broadcast channels by a division of NBC Universal under a contract that winds down in the fall. Stewart’s flagship how-to series will continue to be filmed in New York.
UNION SWITCH: Kaiser Permanente workers in Los Angeles and elsewhere in Southern California have voted to switch their union affiliation from the Services Employers International Union to the National Union of Healthcare Workers, a rival union formed a year ago by former SEIU officials.
NEW CEO: Abraxis BioScience Inc. said Chief Executive Lonnie Moulder was leaving the company to pursue other opportunities. The maker of the cancer drug Abraxane said the new CEO will be Bruce Wendel, who has been with the company since 2004 and had been executive vice president of corporate operations and development.
NEW CFO: SouthWest Water Co. said Chief Financial Officer David B. Stanton was no longer with the company and Ben Smith, principal accounting officer, had been appointed interim CFO. The water utility did not give a reason for Stanton’s departure.
MIRAMAX FADES: Walt Disney Co., which has been winding down operations of Miramax studios, closed the division’s L.A. and New York offices last week, laying off about 80 people. The fate of six movies awaiting distribution has not been announced. The formerly independent studio founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who later left Disney to found another studio in New York, was best known for critically acclaimed films such as “My Left Foot” and “Reservoir Dogs.”
HIGH-SPEED FUNDING: The Obama administration announced that California will receive $2.25 billion, the largest amount for any state, in federal economic stimulus funds to develop a high-speed rail line running from Anaheim to San Francisco. The announcement was a big boost for the long-discussed project aimed at accelerating the state’s economic recovery. The proposed line is projected to cost about $42 billion and could take a decade to build.
EPA FINE: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department said Pacific Pipeline Systems LLP agreed to pay a fine of $1.3 million related to a 2005 oil pipeline break in northern Los Angeles County. The Long Beach company, which was charged with violating the federal Clean Water Act, also agreed to shut down a 70-mile stretch of the pipeline until that portion can be strengthened or relocated. The break in the Bakersfield to Los Angeles pipeline stemmed from a March 2005 landslide.
EARNINGS: Amgen Inc. reported net income of $931 million, 1 percent higher than a year earlier. Revenue rose 2 percent to $3.81 billion. … Occidental Petroleum Corp. reported net income of $938 million, 112 percent higher than a year earlier. Revenue rose 13 percent to $4.54 billion. … City National Corp. reported net income of $19.7 million, 203 percent higher than a year earlier. Net interest income rose 9.5 percent to nearly $163 million, and noninterest income was $110 million. … East West Bancorp Inc. reported net income of nearly $253 million, compared with a net loss of $3.02 million a year earlier. Net interest income rose 129 percent to more than $219 million and noninterest income was more than $420 million. … Nara Bancorp Inc. reported a net loss of $1.5 million, compared with a net loss of $10.3 million a year earlier. Net interest income rose 16 percent to $26.4 million and noninterest income was $5.4 million. … Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. reported net income of $72.4 million, down 37 percent from a year earlier. Revenue fell 23 percent to $2.5 billion. … Ryland Group Inc. reported net income of $39 million, compared with a net loss of $59.9 million a year earlier. Revenue fell 20 percent to $418 million.
CORRECTIONS
The Main Events section of the Downtown article headlined “Landlords May Be Holding Space to Boost Rents” in the Jan. 25 Real Estate Quarterly incorrectly stated the details of a recent lease signed by Current Media Inc. at Los Angeles Center Studios. The article failed to note that for two years former tenant ReelzChannel will pay landlord Bristol Group Inc. the difference between what had been its lease rate and Current Media’s lower lease rate.
• • •
In the Jan. 25 edition, a story headlined “Electric Utility Switches Stance” misstated the first name of Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at the Corporate Library. Also, the article characterized the Corporate Library as a corporate governance watchdog; it considers itself a corporate governance research firm.
