BRIEFCASE.

Byline: -- Staff and Wire Services

MWD, SBA join business effort

The Metropolitan Water District and the Los Angeles District of the U.S. Small Business Administration joined forces Wednesday to try to increase future prospects for small businesses throughout the region.

Representatives of the MWD and SBA agreed to pool resources, exchange data and cooperate on programs helping to enhance contracting opportunities for small businesses.

``Small businesses are and will continue to be the cornerstone of Southern California's economy,'' said MWD general manager Jeff Kightlinger. ``This agreement furthers Metropolitan's long-standing commitment to support small business enterprises through the district's bidding and contracting processes.''

Established in August 2001, the MWD's Regional/Small Business Program has doubled the district's small business participation levels. Since the program's inception, the district has awarded about 65 percent of all its contracts to small businesses.

Shamrock gets NextWave stake

BURBANK -- Shamrock Capital Growth Fund II announced Wednesday that it has acquired a 35 percent interest in NextWave Media Group LLC, an Internet advertising company based in Chicago.

NextWave Media, which serves advertisements on a network of third party publisher sites, as well as its own Internet sites, was founded by Thomas Lubin in 2003.

Shamrock Holdings, founded in 1978 by Roy E. Disney and Stanley P. Gold, manages more than $1.5 billion of alternative assets on behalf of institutional investors through five separate funds.

Ex-Gemstar CFO drops her claims

The former chief financial officer of Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. has dropped all claims for $8.4 million in compensation the company has been holding since the executive was forced out in a November 2002 corporate restructuring.

The settlement with Elsie Ma Leung fully resolves pending arbitration claims of both parties, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday.

Leung and former chief executive Henry Yuen were sued by the SEC in 2003 over an alleged scheme to inflate company revenue from March 2000 through September 2002 to meet financial targets. Leung settled with the SEC in February, agreeing to return $600,000 and pay $750,000 in civil penalties.

Accounting hires expected to rise

The hiring of full-time accounting and finance professionals in the Los Angeles area is expected to increase in the third quarter of 2006, according to an index released Wednesday.

Nine percent of chief financial officers surveyed for the Robert Half International Financial Hiring Index plan to add staff during the quarter, while 3 percent anticipate reductions in personnel.

The net 6 percent increase is up four points from the second-quarter 2006 forecast and up seven points from the same quarter a year ago. Results are two points above the national average.

DirectTV Group to expand center

El Segundo-based DirecTV Group Inc., the nation's largest satellite television provider, said Wednesday it will expand its national operations center in Denver next year, creating as many as 1,000 jobs.

The center, to be established in a 257,000-square-foot building in the southeast metropolitan area, will house sales and service support operations. Initial hiring is expected to begin late this year.

The company did not release financial terms of the expansion project.

Nielsen rolling out new tech

The company that measures television viewing said Wednesday it will roll out new technology during the next few years to measure viewing over the Internet, on cell phones and on TV sets outside of the home.

Nielsen Media Research said the technology supplements its recent effort to figure the use of digital video recorders in its weekly TV ratings.

Television's entire economic system of advertising prices is based on Nielsen's ratings, and its customers have long grumbled that the company hasn't kept up with technology that is changing the way people are watching TV.