BUYBACK: Activision Blizzard Inc. and a group of insiders have completed a buyback of shares from former majority shareholder Vivendi. The Santa Monica video game publisher acquired about 429 million shares from Vivendi for roughly $5.83 billion, or $13.60 per share. In a separate deal, a group led by Chief Executive Bobby Kotick and Chairman Brian Kelly has completed buying 172 million company shares from Vivendi for $2.34 billion. Vivendi retains about a 12 percent stake in Activision.
MPG SOLD: Brookfield Office Properties Inc. has completed its purchase of L.A. office tower owner MPG Office Trust Inc., making it the dominant office landlord in the city’s downtown financial district. The New York company now owns seven high-profile skyscrapers in the area, four of them acquired from MPG. Brookfield paid about $430 million to common and preferred shareholders, and assumed about $2 billion in MPG debt. The full value of the deal is estimated at between $2.2 billion to $3 billion.
IGNORE THEM: Walt Disney Co. has asked its shareholders to disregard an unsolicited tender offer from TRC Capital Corp., a Toronto investment company that specializes in mini-tender offers. TRC offered to buy 2 million shares, or one-tenth of 1 percent of Disney’s outstanding shares, for $61 a share. That’s 4.7 percent below the closing price Oct. 8, the day before the offer commenced. Tender offers creating a stake smaller than 5 percent require less regulatory scrutiny.
FILMING INCENTIVES: The Los Angeles City Council unanimously has passed an ordinance waiving certain fees for location filming of television pilots. The ordinance applies to fees connected to special event permits requiring the closure of streets. The ordinance will allow the Bureau of Street Services to waive fees for traffic control that are calculated based on the number of additional city personnel required for traffic control and their hours worked.
L.A. PORT: Cargo traffic at the Port of Los Angeles fell 4.5 percent in September compared with the same month last year. Imports were down 3.8 percent, while exports decreased 13 percent. Even so, 711,000 containers moved through the port in September. It’s the third consecutive month that traffic at the port has exceeded 700,000 containers.
REBRANDING: Banc of California Inc. has completed the merger of its two subsidiaries, Pacific Trust Bank and Private Bank of California, into a single national charter bank called Banc of California. The Irvine bank holding company, formerly known as First PacTrust Bancorp Inc., had closed the acquisition of Century City’s Private Bank in July. The deal expanded its presence in Los Angeles County, with the combined banks having about $2.2 billion in assets, 22 branches in four counties and 23 loan production offices in four states.
WORKFORCE ISSUE: The L.A. region is poised to create more manufacturing jobs, but more needs to be done to get potential workers ready for those jobs, Mayor Eric Garcetti said during the Westec manufacturing expo in Los Angeles. Garcetti said his administration will work with public school and community college districts to promote engineering, math and science courses.
ANOTHER TRY: MannKind Corp. has submitted a revised application to the Food & Drug Administration to allow the company to market inhaled diabetes drug Afrezza. The submission includes results from two additional clinical trials required by regulators. The FDA rejected the Valencia biotech’s first application two years ago, saying the company needed to include studies using its revamped smaller Dreamboat inhaler, which was not part of the original application in 2009. MannKind’s latest filing includes data from separate studies on patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
RETIREMENT PLANS: Steven Borick plans to retire as chief executive of Superior Industries International Inc. as of March 31. Borick, 61, will remain chairman of the Van Nuys aluminum wheel manufacturer founded by his father, the late Louis Borick, in 1957. He took over as chief executive from his father in 2005 and became chairman in 2007. He said he is stepping down from management to devote more time to personal interests, including philanthropic activities.
MERGER: L.A. digital media firm Break Media has merged with New York’s Alloy Digital to create Defy Media. The new company will be based in New York with production, technology, sales and marketing teams in Los Angeles and satellite offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto and Detroit. Alloy Chief Executive Matthew Diamond will head the new firm, while Break Chief Executive Keith Richman will become Defy’s president.
HULU DANCE: Former Fox executive Mike Hopkins has been named chief executive at Hulu. Hopkins was previously president of distribution at Fox Networks, a division of 21st Century Fox. He is replacing interim Chief Executive Andy Forsell, who is leaving the L.A. streaming TV service. Fox is a part owner of the service, along with Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal. Those companies put Hulu on the market earlier this year, but the sale was called off.
EARNINGS: Mattel Inc. reported third quarter net income of $424 million, 16 percent higher than the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 6 percent to $2.21 billion. … East West Bancorp Inc. reported net income of $73.2 million, 10 percent higher than a year earlier. Net interest income rose 14 percent to $254 million. … Joe’s Jeans Inc. reported a net loss of $287,000, compared with net income of $2.7 million in the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell 3 percent to $29.4 million.
