APPROVED: Valencia pharmaceuticals company MannKind finally accomplished its mission of getting Food and Drug Administration approval for inhalable insulin. Called Afrezza, the drug was approved for patients living with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes as long as they are not also dealing with asthma or other lung conditions. Billionaire founder Alfred Mann has invested an estimated $900 million into the company, which might reap annual sales in the range of $1 billion to $4 billion from Afrezza.
CHARNEY CHANGE: Ousted American Apparel Inc. Chief Executive Dov Charney has handed over his entire stake and voting rights in the struggling retailer to investor Standard General, Reuters reported. Earlier Standard General had loaned its American Apparel shares to Charney allowing him to boost his stake in the company in an attempt to gain majority control, but American Apparel countered with an anti-takeover plan. Charney has also given up his battle to recover his CEO role until an investigation is completed, sources said.
LATITUDE: The Latitude 34-office complex in Playa Vista has sold for more than $132 million. Co-developer ASB Real Estate Investments sold the still-vacant property to Clarion Partners of New York after commissioning L.A. architects Gensler to revamp the 300,000-square-foot property to attract creative and tech businesses.
GAME ON: Sport Chalet has a new owner. Vestis Retail Group, a Meridien, Conn., company, acquired the La Canada Flintridge-based retailer of sporting goods for about $70 million. The price includes the $52.5 million in debt the new owner assumed in the deal. Vestis controls retailers Bob’s Stores and Eastern Mountain Sports and is itself owned by funds affiliated with Versa Capital Management in Philadelphia. The deal is expected to close before the end of the third quarter.
SUSPENDED: Hookup app company Tinder has suspended Justin Mateen, chief marketing officer and co-founder, after a former executive accused him of sexual harassment in a lawsuit. Plaintiff Whitney Wolfe claims Mateen insulted her in front of the company’s chief executive and that she lost her co-founder’s title because Mateen said crediting a woman with that role “makes the company seem like a joke.” IAC/InterActive Corp., Tinder’s majority stakeholder, announced the suspension and an investigation. Tinder co-founder and Chief Executive Sean Rad wrote in a memo that the claims are unfounded.
TRANSATLANTIC: Kennedy Wilson’s affiliate in Europe has closed $1.2 billion worth of deals. Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate picked up properties in England, Ireland and Scotland. The deals represent a big chunk of the $1.7 billion worth of investments the European concern has made since its initial public offering in February. Kennedy Wilson, of Beverly Hills, owns about 13 percent of the European concern’s shares.
MERGER: American Homes 4 Rent of Agoura Hills has purchased Beazer Pre-Owned Rental Homes in a deal worth more than $260 million in stock, assumed debt and cash. American Homes 4 Rent gets a portfolio of more than 1,300 homes in California, Arizona, Nevada and Florida. Beazer Pre-Owned Rental Homes’ initial investors were New York private equity firm KKR & Co. and Atlanta-based Beazer Home USA Inc.
INDUSTRIAL: Rexford Industrial Realty Inc. has acquired a portfolio of nine Southern California industrial buildings. The buildings are in Industry, Pomona, Anaheim, Irvine and San Diego. Altogether, the buildings encompass some 817,000 square feet of space and were acquired at a price of $88.5 million.
BREAKTHROUGH: The Food and Drug Administration will fast-track the approval process for an Amgen drug being developed as a possible leukemia treatment. The decision means the FDA sees the drug as having potential to offer patients significant advantages to existing care. The Thousand Oaks biotech giant is developing the drug for people suffering from a form of the disease that attacks blood and bone marrow.
HOTEL HELP: The Los Angeles City Council has moved forward with plans to allow a real estate developer to keep $39.2 million in taxes expected over 25 years from a downtown L.A. hotel and residential project planned next to the 110 freeway. The council voted 11-0 to negotiate agreements that would let Greenland L.A. Metropolis Hotel Development retain one-fourth of the property, sales, hotel, parking, business, utility and other taxes that would normally flow to the city budget.
PROBLEM SOLVED: Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced the resolution of a labor dispute involving Los Angeles International Airport workers. The three-year contract covers nearly 2,500 workers represented by SEIU United Service Workers West, including cabin cleaners, wheelchair attendants, baggage handlers, ticket agents and cargo screeners at LAX. The deal provides wage increases, avoids cutbacks to benefits and establishes a fund to provide emergency-response training to LAX service workers.
