GET OUT: Dov Charney was officially fired from American Apparel Inc., and this time for good, after an internal investigation found he violated the terms of his employment agreement. The founder and former chief executive of the downtown L.A. clothing company, known for its high-waisted jeans and provocative billboards, had been suspended from the company in June amid allegations that ranged from violating sexual harassment policies to purchasing travel for family members with company money. But Charney continued to work as a consultant for the firm, pending an investigation into the accusations against him. With the investigation complete, American Apparel’s board said Tuesday that Charney would not be reinstated. He will be replaced next month by the company’s first female chief executive: veteran fashion executive Paula Schneider.
WINNER: A consortium including Pasadena engineering giant Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. won the bid to design and construct the second phase of California’s high-speed rail project. The winning group also includes Dragados USA Inc. in Costa Mesa; Flatiron West Inc. of Broomfield, Colo.; and Shimmick Construction Co. Inc. of Irvine. Jacobs will be the lead designer for the project, which has an estimated cost of $1.2 billion and will cover 65 miles from Fresno to near Bakersfield. The joint venture beat out the group that won last year’s bid to build the first phase of the rail project, a team that included Tutor Perini Corp. of Sylmar and Pasadena engineering firm Parsons Corp.
‘EMBARASSING’: Livingston, N.J., finance firm CIT Group Inc. is expected to collect $1.4 billion from federal regulators to cover future losses should its purchase of Pasadena’s OneWest Bank be approved, according to the California Reinvestment Coalition, a San Francisco organization that’s trying to hold up the deal. That’s on top of the more than $1 billion the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has already paid out to OneWest as part of a loss-sharing agreement reached when OneWest’s owners took over the assets of failed Pasadena savings and loan IndyMac Bank in 2009.The previously unreported $2.4 billion figure emerged as the result of a Freedom of Information Act disclosure obtained by the coalition, which advocates for banks to do more for low-income communities, and wants the Federal Reserve to delay CIT’s planned $3.4 billion acquisition of OneWest in favor of hearings. The coalition called the subsidy a boon to the billionaire owners of the bank and deemed it “embarrassing.”
DEAL: NantWorks, billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s Culver City holding company, has inked a deal with San Diego biopharmaceutical firm Sorrento Therapeutics Inc. to develop cancer and auto-immune disease treatments. A NantWorks subsidiary and Sorrento will form an independent biotech company, Immunotherapy Antibody JV, and the two will seed it with $20 million. NantWorks will acquire a 19.9 percent stake in Sorrento as part of the deal. The new biotech company will focus on accelerating the development of treatments that use the body’s immune system to target and treat cancer.
ATTACKS: American intelligence officials have concluded that the North Korean government is “centrally involved” in the cyberattacks on Culver City’s Sony Pictures Entertainment. News of the conclusion hit the same day that the studio scrapped the release of the film “The Interview,” which was slated to open in theaters Christmas Day. Sony Pictures’ decision followed the news that the largest theater chains in the United States had decided not to play the film until the conclusion of an FBI investigation into the cyberattack on the studio and terrorist threats that followed. Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., Cinemark Holdings Inc. and Carmike Cinemas Inc. had all dropped out, in addition to several smaller chains. They were concerned about threats that were sent out by hackers saying that attacks would be launched, perhaps on theaters themselves, if the “The Interview,” a comedy about an attempt to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was released.
DISMISSED: The Securities and Exchange Commission has dismissed charges against Jordan Peixoto, a Canadian man accused of profiting from privileged information related to embattled downtown L.A. nutritional supplement company Herbalife, after the two men who allegedly gave him the lowdown fled to their native Poland. The SEC had charged Peixoto with insider trading based on information he received about then-undisclosed plans by Bill Ackman and Pershing Square Capital Management to bet against Herbalife. In 2012, Peixoto bought Herbalife options that earned him roughly $47,100 once Ackman’s plans were made public. The SEC said it is dismissing the charges against Peixoto because his two ex-roommates, responsible for giving him the inside scoop, wouldn’t be available to testify at the trial, which had been set for March.
ACQUIRED: Media giant 21st Century Fox will acquire the video advertising company TrueX Media in an attempt to grab the attention of online viewers who are used to ignoring commercials. TrueX’s marketing platform gives online viewers the option to watch a video ad before their content starts in exchange for lowering the total number of ads they have to watch during their programming. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though the Wall Street Journal said it was worth upwards of $200 million.
