BRIEFCASE HALF-PRICE TICKETS SOLD IN LAS VEGAS.

Byline: - Staff and Wire Services

STUDIO CITY - Cinema Ride Inc. announced Thursday that it has begun operating a new business venture in Las Vegas, selling tickets to Las Vegas shows at half price on the same day of the performance.

The Coca-Cola Tickets2Nite booth is located next to the giant Coke bottle on the Las Vegas Strip.

The concept, called TKTS on New York City's Times Square, has become a Broadway institution.

Cinema Ride owns 50 percent of the entity that operates the new business venture, Tickets2Nite, LLC.

Data Systems has additional office

VENTURA - Data Systems Worldwide Inc. added an office in Ventura. The business services firm, which offers database hosting and other tech work, expanded to better cover the region to the Northwest of Los Angeles from its new digs at 1567 Spinnaker Drive, Suite 204. From its Woodland Hills headquarters and its two smaller regional sites, the firm serves clients nationwide.

Ex-Adelphia aide to be trial witness

NEW YORK - Members of the John Rigas family conspired to lie to the public and plunder Adelphia Communications Corp., a former executive in the cable TV system said Thursday as he pleaded guilty to securities fraud.

As part of his guilty plea in Manhattan federal court, James Brown, the former vice president of finance at Adelphia, has promised to testify against the family members about the scandal that cost investors billions of dollars.

A lawyer for Rigas, co-founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of Adelphia, did not have an immediate comment on Brown's plea.

Holding company buys GoVacations

Veltex Corp., a Los Angeles-based holding company, announced Thursday the purchase of a majority interest in GoVacations for $100,000 plus 1 million shares.

GoVacations, an online independent marketing company specializing in the vacation ownership industry, will use the funding to develop a new project, according to Roger Brunetti, its founder and CEO.

Both parties decline to elaborate on the exact nature of the project but issued a statement saying it's expected to ``solve the vacation ownership industry's recent setbacks and continuing problems with increasing limitations being placed on their telemarketing operations.''

Clothing splurges cheer up retailers

WASHINGTON - Consumers bought fewer new cars but splurged on clothes, allowing the nation's retail sales to hold steady in October. That raised hopes among economists that the holiday season might see shoppers acting more like Santas than the Grinches many had feared.

With consumer confidence tumbling to a nine-year low last month, dragged down in part by worries about a possible war with Iraq, Thursday's Commerce Department report showing retail sales managed to stay level after plummeting by 1.3 percent in September provided a dose of cheer to Wall Street investors.

Personal finance chains being sold

CHICAGO - HSBC Holdings PLC announced a $14.2 billion plan Thursday to buy Household International Inc., which owns the Beneficial and Household Finance brands and is the largest independent consumer finance company in United States.

London-based HSBC, known best for banking in emerging markets in Asia, would greatly expand its North American presence and its consumer lending business with the acquisition. Household, which earned $1.2 billion for the nine months ending Sept. 30, makes personal loans for houses, cars and other uses.

Managers of both companies are recommending the buyout, but shareholders and regulatory authorities still must approve. The two companies expect to complete the deal during the first quarter of 2003.

Advanced Micro to cut 2,000 jobs

SAN JOSE - Advanced Micro Devices Inc., battered by weak demand for computer chips and tough competition, will cut 2,000 jobs, 15 percent of its work force, officials announced Thursday.

The cuts have been expected since an announcement earlier this year that the company would substantially reduce costs and trim staff in an effort to return to profitability.

AMD had 13,187 employees as of the end of September.

Sprint PCS starts laying off 1,600

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Sprint Corp.'s wireless division will lay off about 1,600 workers, or 6 percent of the division's work force, and release about 500 contractors.

Sprint PCS president Len Lauer, who announced the layoff plans Thursday, said they are part of the Overland Park, Kan.-based company's efforts to reorganize by shedding management and cutting costs.

The layoffs were to begin Thursday and be completed by the end of the year, Sprint PCS spokesman Dan Wilinsky said. About 660 of the job cuts will be in the Kansas City area, while the rest will be spread across the country, he said.

Capellas may get WorldCom post

Michael D. Capellas, who has held more than two dozen jobs at eight companies, including Schlumberger, SAP America, Oracle, Compaq and, surprisingly briefly, Hewlett-Packard, is expected to be named to another today.

WorldCom, the troubled long-distance communications company, hopes to introduce Capellas as its new chairman and chief executive as soon as today, people involved in WorldCom's executive search said on Thursday.

Those people said that Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, who is overseeing the Securities and Exchange Commission's fraud suit against the company, is expected to review a compensation package for Capellas today.

Two online music firms ink deals

SAN FRANCISCO - Pressplay and MusicNet have each signed deals that give both online music companies the licenses to distribute content from all five labels.

MusicNet, the joint venture of BMG, EMI and Warner, signed a deal Thursday to add the catalogs of Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group to its distribution offerings; pressplay inked a deal to distribute songs from Warner Music Group, a deal that completes pressplay's package of Big Five offerings.

The deals give pressplay and MusicNet a clear path to begin tailoring their services to more distribution partners. Universal's online catalog is expected to be available through America Online by year's end, Universal said Thursday.