Archive by Month
February 28, 2007
Computer Sciences Corp., the big data processing company based in El Segundo, did an interesting thing today. It notified the...
Shares of the Santa Monica-based mortgage lender were down 20 percent this morning after the company postponed filing its fourth-quarter...
It was built for the 120-episode ABC series that ran from 1966 to 1968, and some unidentified private collector sold...
The just-posted NYT story said the market "showed tentative signs of recovery" and that pretty much sums up a 60-point...
Market opening: The Dow is up after an hour of trading, but not by that much - about 80 points....
February 27, 2007
Throw a batch of more data onto the debate. This time, it's a University of California at Davis economist who...
And it's not one of the names that have been bandied about. Several news organizations are reporting this afternoon that...
How bad a day was it? Well, at one point during the session 1.46 billion of the 1.5 billion shares...
At a little after 11, the Dow was down more than 200 points. As is often the case during really...
Market down sharply: The Dow is off more than 120 points in early action, probably in response to a huge...
February 26, 2007
There's being generous - and being ridiculous. By having an unlimited grace period to return consumer electronics products for a...
The numbers are still preliminary, but it looks as if the veeeery lengthy telecast actually drew a slightly larger audience...
A short story in the Sunday paper (picked up by Talking Biz) notes that business coverage moves to the back...
The L.A.-based Spanish-language network being slapped with a $24 million fine for trying to pass off telenovelas as children's programming...
Superchef Joachim Splichal is getting into the chain steakhouse business. Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group Inc. is being acquired by...
"The Departed" financials: This year's best picture is shaping up to be a solid financial success. Box Office Mojo reports...
February 23, 2007
This is the so-called self-help proposal in which the company is split into separate broadcast and newspaper divisions and shareholders...
The L.A. homebuilder issued a release this afternoon saying that the Department of Justice is looking into KB's past stock...
Don't expect me to sniff around for angles to the video showing a dozen or so rats having their way...
So has the world's biggest coffee house chain gone a little too far in its expansion efforts, at the expense...
Bloomberg News is reporting that the L.A.-based homebuilder is under investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles over...
A Valencia landscape company made news early in the week when some of its employees got stuck in Bermuda because...
Even by the loosy-goosy standards of today's private equity financings, this one really stands out. The L.A.-based Spanish-language media company...
LAX loses out: Those monthly passenger counts at the airport routinely show signficant drops in international traffic because travelers -...
February 22, 2007
Forget about Oscar-related goodie bags - it's all about "branded retreats," where the already ridiculously rich and famous are being...
Well, it's what you might expect. Fortune looks at 10 markets to see what's available for five million bucks. Here's...
Greed as opposed to fear - and yes, the market mavens actually study the yin and yang of those two...
The world has truly gone nuts. I don't how I could have missed this one, but THR confirms that a...
L.A.-based Revver is a video-sharing site that's backed by some big-time venture money. Microsoft execs toured Revver's offices last month,...
Eater L.A. has gotten word that Osteria Mozza, which is part of the Nancy Silverton/Mario Batali/Joe Bastianich casual Italian empire,...
BW's Ron Grover takes a look at the so-called Oscar curse - and yes, you've probably read about it many,...
Ron Burkle's payday: You don't think he became a billionaire out of nowhere, do you? It looks like the L.A.-based...
February 21, 2007
Clearwire, billionaire Craig McCaw's latest venture, just selected the L.A. office of DDB to handle its advertising, according to Ad...
Wild Oats Markets, whose largest shareholder is L.A. billionaire Ron Burkle (technically Burkle's investment arm, Yucaipa), is being sold to...
At least according to Page 6 of the NY Post. The story is that someone from Clinton's office placed a...
It's over the airport's plan to sharply increase terminal rents, a plan that the airlines say will eventually result in...
Downtown boom?: It's a happening place, according to a study by the Downtown Center Business Improvement District. The LAT trumpets...
February 20, 2007
Outgoing NBC head Bob Wright lays out the particulars in an interview with Fortune's Tim Arango. It was 1994 and...
It's from something called the Donald T. Sterling Graphic Design Foundation and it's a request - well, more like a...
Item #1 The WSJ's Charles Forelle, James Bandler and Mark Maremont win a George K. Polk Award for revealing the...
The L.A.-based warehouse chain, which was started 136 years ago when no one knew what warehouse chains were, was picked...
The NBC-owned Latino cable channel Mun2 obviously isn't interested in political correctness, at least judging by its new image campaign...
No, not City Hall, but the Seventh Street Market, where the Department of Public Health has been finding all kinds...
Gelson's deal: The high-end supermarket chain has reached an agreement with the United Food and Commercial Workers that apparently eliminates...
February 19, 2007
SmartMoney sits down with Amgen Chief Executive Kevin Sharer for its March issue and finds a CEO with "a militant...
The NY Post reports today that the long-awaited Sirius and XM merger is expected to be announced today, barring last-minute...
JetBlue founder and CEO David Neeleman messed up big time during last week's winter storm (well, his airline messed up),...
It's one of the biggest L.A. real estate deals ever. The NY investment firm Blackstone Group is selling 23 Socal...
February 16, 2007
•Socal is expected to add 1.1 million jobs and 2.2 million residents over the next 10 years, according to the...
The president and COO of Universal Studios is apparently the subject of a Times investigative report that focuses on his...
C'mon, who needs reality TV when you can have real reality TV? Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said that...
Stamps.com keeps managing to defy the naysayers, most recently in a fourth-quarter profit that was above analysts estimates and seemed...
What's up at the Beverly Hills Hotel? Check out p36 of Citybeat and you'll find a display ad for host/hostess,...
It's not fourth-quarter earnings that's getting Wall Street in a tizzy this morning. Actually, the L.A.-based restaurant chain reported a...
Broadcom probe revealed: The WSJ and LAT provide some details on the federal investigation into backdating stock option grants at...
February 15, 2007
L.A.'s famous jazzspot isn't confirming but Eater L.A. has gotten hold of a sale listing for an "upscale jazz club"...
Are corporate boards, especially those sitting on compensation committees, personally liable for issuing options just before the release of good...
Good luck. Here it is two months after the holidays and it's very tough to keep the thing in stock....
NY magazine came across this pitch from a casting producer for Magical Elves Productions (home of "Project Runway," "Project Greenlight,"...
Airbus snubs LAX: The airport shelled out $9 million in order to accommodate the new A380 jetliner on what was...
February 14, 2007
Got any Power 106 listeners out there in LA Biz Observed land? Well, the L.A. hip hop station (actually it's...
January's median price was a still-hefty $520,000, down 0.9 percent from December and up 6.1 percent from a year earlier....
NY keeps nibbling away at L.A.'s movie-making supremacy (they still have a ways to go). Steiner Studios, Brooklyn's largest studio...
NBC pulled the love-it-or-hate-it show off the network lineup a week ahead of schedule. The plan all along was to...
It's not an L.A. story, but I couldn't resist. The 60th birthday party of Stephen A. Schwarzman, chairman of Blackstone...
V-Day: Florists will be averaging $30,000 per shop today - part of the annual lovesfest in which 189 million roses...
February 13, 2007
If you're paying attention to the veeeery early action on Intrade, one of the more popular prediction markets, Hillary Rodham...
In its 10K filing on Tuesday, L.A.-based KB Home provides a little more detail on the internal investigation into former...
Good luck. The L.A.-based homebuilder reported a mish-mash of a fourth-quarter that had a $50 million net loss - better...
Leonardo DiCaprio seems to have a thing for business-themed movies. There was "The Aviator," of course, and his Oscar-nominated performance...
Enjoying your new cable service? Well, now you can buy shares of Time Warner Cable, which will begin trading next...
Most indicators are pointing to a good, if not great, economy over the next 12 months. Jack Kyser, chief economist...
The problem with region-wide transportation efforts is that everybody has to sign on. Otherwise, the plan falls apart. Such is...
KB's red ink: The L.A.-based homebuilder lost $49.6 million in the fourth quarter, compared with a profit of $304.4 million...
February 12, 2007
Tribune goes it alone: It's looking more likely that the Chicago-based parent of the LAT will turn down those few...
February 9, 2007
It's the first time he hasn't been in the Riviera field since 2002 and it's likely to have a big...
There's no mention in the just-filed News Corp. 10-Q of Judith Regan’s severance agreement, which Michelle Leder over at Footnoted.org...
So what's wrong with negotiating a contract that included stock options dated months before the contract negotiations even began? That,...
This is the one developed by the L.A. office of Deutsch that had a robot being thrown off an assembly...
Pixar backdating?: WSJ reports that Pixar head Steve Jobs (he's also Apple's CEO in his spare time) helped negotiate an...
February 8, 2007
News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch confirmed that it's going to happen once Sacha Baron Cohen fulfills another contract (I'm assuming...
Forbes and the WSJ (there may be others) are reporting that EMI Group has been in advanced talks to sell...
Billionaire Ernest Rady's home in La Jolla had no locked gates, security guards or guard dogs. All it took an...
Limited posting today and tomorrow. Tribune earnings: All that cost-cutting is apparently having some effect because the Chicago-based parent of...
February 7, 2007
Horrendous, hideous, agonizing, insufferable, unendurable, unbearable - am I getting warm? Well, the government came out with its annual report...
A new study says there’s an increased risk of leukemia in breast cancer patients who take Amgen’s Neulasta and Neupogen....
What's it like to be on board a plane that carries 500-600 passengers? Today was media day for the A380...
Prototypes of Condé Nast's much-hyped and long-awaited business glossy, Portfolio, are making the rounds in NY, which is kind of...
The Mouse House scores big with first-quarter earnings of 79 cents a share, compared with 37 cents a year earlier...
As could be expected, Jeff Zucker's promotion to CEO of NBC Universal has led to chatter about whether GE Chairman...
Zell enters the ring: The Chicago real estate magnate has approached Tribune Co. with a proposal that may include taking...
February 6, 2007
Yeah, we're talking off the charts, but here goes: Millennium Hotels (operator of the Biltmore) is offering what it calls...
Premiere magazine is not for sale, according to its publisher Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., but Ad Age is hearing industry...
Sort of. It's Barneys New York Co-Op, which opens at The Grove next month and offers more casual apparel and...
But she seems to have taken product placement a bit far. Theron had cut a deal with Swiss watch designer...
This is one of those intriguing wire stories that's based on very scant information but gets picked up nonetheless. OK,...
Let's see, you're a news organization that covers major corporate goings-on and you hand out "leadership awards" to some of...
Hollywood deal: The dilapidated Seven Seas building across the street from Grauman's Chinese has been bought by CIM Group, which...
February 5, 2007
The connection between who wins the big game and how stocks will perform for the year has proven to be...
That would be the influx of restaurant and retail investors who have determined that the downtown makeover is not an...
Yeah, I know - enough Judith Regan already. But VF contributor Michael Wolff weighs in for the March issue (he...
Buried amid yet another piece of puffery on AEG head Tim Leiweke comes word that the massive L.A. Live complex...
Now that Jeff Zucker has gotten Bob Wright's old job as CEO of NBC Universal (formal announcement expected later this...
NYT pettiness: TV reporter Bill Carter confirms this morning that Jeff Zucker will replace Bob Wright as chairman and CEO...
February 4, 2007
LAT TV reporter Meg James gets the big scoop, citing four people at the company. Zucker moves up to CEO,...
February 2, 2007
The News Corp. chieftain is giving each of his six children $100 million worth of stock, and that, of course,...
The campaign to get travelers to avoid LAX gets a big boost with plans by ExpressJet Airlines to start service...
In case you haven't heard, the northbound 405 is a parking lot over the Sepulveda Pass, thanks to a crane...
In the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo, "Wha Haapened?" Well, the weather got nasty back East, which increases demand in...
That's roughly what CBS is charging for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl (though prices will vary quite a...
Hearst Corp. has lost $330 million in the San Francisco Chronicle and tried to sell the newspaper in 2005 to...
That's what fired Citigroup executive Todd Thomson had in his "Swiss chalet" of an office - photos of himself with...
Hmmm, this could get interesting. The parent company of MTV and Comedy Central is demanding that all its stuff be...
Jobless numbers: Somewhat tame employment report for January, with 111,000 jobs added to payrolls for the month (analysts had expected...
February 1, 2007
The L.A. City Council has signed off on $36 million in subsidies for a planned $146 million mixed use project...
Red flags should be posted at Calabasas Hills-based Cheesecake Factory - at least according to Jeremy Perler of the Center...
As a public service, courtesy of WSJ's Weath Report, LABO brings you globalrichlist.com, a site where you can plug in...
Debating living wage: It sounded like a done deal yesterday, but the compromise on extending the city's living wage ordinance...
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More than 1,000 Toyota and Lexus owners have reported sudden acceleration problems over the last decade, resulting in 19 deaths.
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Advice for Greenies in a Complicated World
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After 22 years of loyalty, Baylor is unceremoniously shown the door.
As newspapers and television pull back from investigative reporting, foundations and other organizations are beginning to fill the void. One of the most interesting is Accountable California, a project of Local 721 of the Service Employees International Union.
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