SOLD: Dick Clark Productions, which produces TV programs including “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” and the Golden Globe Awards, will be sold to a group that includes investment firm Guggenheim Partners and Mandalay Entertainment, which are part of the investor group that paid $2 billion for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
CLOSURES: Supervalu Inc. said it plans to close 26 Albertsons supermarkets nationwide, including 10 in Los Angeles County. The Eden Prairie, Minn., chain has been criticized for being slow to counter increasing competition from discounters and big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and Target. Albertsons scheduled to be closed by December include stores in Long Beach, Glendale, Northridge and Van Nuys. A Culver City store already has shuttered.
INSIDER TRADING: The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission has announced a $91,530 settlement by L.A. public relations executive Renee White Fraser over insider trading allegations concerning Fraser Communications’ work for Pasadena’s East West Bancorp in its bid to acquire San Francisco’s United Commercial Bank. The SEC alleges that Fraser bought 10,000 shares of stock after being contacted about providing public relations support for the deal, but before the acquisition was made public. She sold her shares after the stock’s price jumped 55 percent after the announcement.
DEVELOPMENT: Caruso Affiliated has signed an agreement to buy a 48-acre Carlsbad strawberry farm for a potential retail and entertainment center that would be its first project in San Diego County. The parcel is now owned by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and sits directly east of Interstate 5. Caruso Affiliated said it would work closely with the city and utility, which has tried to develop the property for several years, to explore options.
WAL-MART OPPOSITION: Two organized labor opponents of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s planned grocery in Chinatown last week filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to halt construction for a planned Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in the Chinatown area. A Nov. 13 hearing is scheduled on their earlier motion to stop the project. The space, at 701 W. Cesar Chavez Ave., is in an apartment complex’s ground-floor retail space that has never been occupied. Wal-Mart received city permits for the 33,000-square-foot grocery, but opponents contend they were not given adequate notice of the application.
LAWSUIT: Environmental groups have sued the Santa Margarita Water District and San Bernardino County over L.A.-based Cadiz Inc.’s groundwater-pumping project in the Mojave Desert. The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association and San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society contend that San Bernardino County should have headed the project review because the project is in its territory. Cadiz has proposed pumping 16 billion gallons of water per year from under 45,000 acres it owns in the county, supplying water to six water districts in California.
SLANDER TRIAL: Casino mogul Steve Wynn and porn producer Joe Francis faced off before a Los Angeles Superior Court jury last week, with Wynn denying he had threatened to kill the producer of the “Girls Gone Wild” video franchise. Wynn is suing Francis for slander, saying that Francis is attempting to hurt his reputation in retaliation over Wynn Resorts Ltd.’s efforts to collect on gambling debts that Francis racked up at one of his Las Vegas casinos. Francis claims he was told about the threats by record executive Quincy Jones, but Jones denied this during his time on the stand.
PLAN STALLS: A controversial plan to end state funding for the UCLA Anderson School of Management has hit a snag. A key committee of the University of California system’s Faculty Senate voted to suspend its review of the plan proposed by the business school. Questions were raised about the potential impact on affordability, educational quality and accountability. UCLA’s Faculty Senate voted by a narrow margin in June to approve the change. Supporters of the change say self-sufficiency would enable the school greater flexibility to be innovative in programming and in offering competitive compensation packages to attract and retain top academics.
EQUITY SALE: BreitBurn Energy Partners L.P. on Sept. 6 priced a public offering of 10 million partnership units at $18.51 each, a 4 percent discount to the previous day’s closing price. The L.A. oil and gas developer said it intends to use net proceeds to pay off debt in its revolving credit facility and expects to receive about $178 million.
MERGER APPROVAL: NCal Bancorp shareholders have approved the L.A. bank holding company’s merger with Grandpoint Capital Inc. Pending regulatory approval, the stock deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, with National Bank of California becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of Grandpoint Capital. NCal is the third of four acquisitions Grandpoint has announced this year.
LOAN DISPUTE: Cathay General Bancorp. has disclosed in a regulatory filing that an Orange County Superior Court jury awarded $11.6 million in damages to Garden Grove Galleria LLC. The Galleria is a stalled mixed-use project in Garden Grove’s Korean Business District that was hurt by declining property values during the recession. In early 2010, the L.A. bank claimed that Galleria’s investors had defaulted on a $42.5 million loan. The project’s developers accused Cathay of improperly refusing to release the full amount promised, halting construction.
CLOUD EXPANSION: NetSol Technologies Inc. has announced a new division that will target the cloud computing market. The Calabasas IT services provider’s NetSolCloudVM will offer infrastructure-as-a-service products, starting first in North America markets. The company serves global clients in the automotive, financial, utilities and technology markets domestically and overseas. The service will launch later this month with Imran Haider, chief operating officer of NetSol North America, heading the division.
BRAND DEAL: Cherokee Inc. has acquired the Liz Lange Maternity and Completely Me apparel brands for $14 million. The Sherman Oaks brand management company acquired the lines from LLM Management Co. LLC, an affiliate of Bluestar Alliance LLC. Liz Lange is a maternity brand with a collection sold exclusively at Target, where Cherokee has deals for other brands in its portfolio. Completely Me is a Liz Lang sportswear line that launched in 2010.
EARNINGS: AeroVironment Inc. reported a fiscal first quarter net loss of $1.4 million, compared with net income of $326,000 in the same period a year earlier. The Monrovia maker of power systems for electric vehicles and unmanned aircraft said revenue fell 5 percent to $58.7 million. … UTi Worldwide Inc. reported second quarter net income of $18.9 million, 17 percent lower than the same period a year earlier. The Long Beach logistics company said revenue fell 11 percent to $1.16 billion.
