Top 50 Deals in L.A.

Last year saw the purchase of some of the area's most significant companies, and the emergence of new ones

No. 1

Tribune Co. Buys Times Mirror

WHAT was once inconceivable happened last year - the Chandler family sold their crown jewels, the Los Angeles Times and other holdings of the Times Mirror Co.

The Chandlers, who had owned the flagship newspaper since 1882, found an eager buyer. In a deal valued at $6.8 billion, the Chicago-based Tribune Co. acquired Times Mirror after shareholders approved the merger on June 12.

The acquisition meant that for the first time in its history, the Los Angeles Times newspaper was owned by out-of-towners. It also meant that another Los Angeles-based company had moved its headquarters out of California. With the merger, the Tribune Co. became the third largest U.S. newspaper group, operating 11 newspapers, 22 TV stations and four radio stations generating $7 billion in annual revenue.

The merger ended a tumultuous period at the L.A. Times. The publication, one of the largest and most prestigious newspapers in the country, was chastised by media watchers for sharing advertising profits from a special edition of the Times Sunday magazine with Staples Center, the subject of that Oct. 10, 1999 issue.

When the new owners took over, they put their own hand-chosen executives in top positions. L.A. Times Publisher Kathryn Downing was replaced by John Puerner, longtime publisher of the Tribune-owned Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel. L.A. Times Editor Michael Parks was replaced by John Carroll, former editor of the Baltimore Sun. Mark Willes, chairman, president and CEO of Times Mirror, relinquished all his titles. John W. Madigan, chairman, president and chief executive of Tribune Co., took over as chairman of Times Mirror.

With newspaper veterans again at the helm, the dust appears to be settling at the Times.

Deborah Belgum

No. 2

FTC backs AOL-Time Warner deal

IN the dictionary definition of mass media, there could soon be an entry that reads something like "See America Online-Time Warner."

The two companies are forming the biggest media conglomerate in the world with AOL purchasing Time Warner Inc. in a $126 billion stock deal that cleared its first regulatory hurdle with Federal Trade Commission approval in December.

What that dictionary definition would not offer is an explanation of the future scope or reach of a company as big and diverse as AOL-Time Warner. It's anybody's guess.

The FTC granted its approval - after hundreds of hours of interrogation - when the companies agreed to let AOL's online rivals reach their customers via Time Warner's cable lines.

The deal, which still has to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission, gives the world's largest online service a direct link to Time Warner's 12.6 million cable subscribers.

Time Warner, the world's largest media company, owns 75 percent of Time Warner Entertainment (AT&T Corp. owns the other 25 percent), which includes Warner Bros. and Time Warner Cable. Time Warner's TBS subsidiary includes CNN, New Line Cinema and the Atlanta Braves. A publishing arm of Time Warner publishes Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Time Life books and Warner Books. The company's Warner Music Group spans an array of record labels, including Atlantic and Elektra.

Will AOL-Time Warner meet the goals their CEOs set a year ago, when they promised Wall Street that in 2001 the company's operating profit would grow by 30 percent, to $11 billion? That, too, is anybody's guess. But whatever happens will surely cause big waves in Hollywood and beyond.

Hans Ibold

No. 3

Vivendi buys Seagram

IN a deal that brought a major American movie studio under European ownership for the first time, French media giant Vivendi SA acquired Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s Seagram Co. in a deal initially valued at $34.4 billion.

The three-way transaction, in which Vivendi also purchased European pay-television company Canal Plus SA, was announced in June. It immediately established the new conglomerate, known as Vivendi Universal, as a major global entertainment force. Vivendi Universal combines media, publishing and entertainment content with fixed-line and mobile telephone and Internet access.

Starting in the mid-1990s, Seagram transformed itself into an entertainment powerhouse. Besides Universal Studios, Seagram owned Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company and Universal's growing theme-park business. Universal Studios parlayed a two-year-roll into its biggest year ever in 2000, taking in more than $1 billion in ticket sales for the first time and finishing second to the Walt Disney Co. in total market share.

Vivendi Universal also owns a 43 percent share of USA Networks, which sold off its television operations to Univision Communications in December. As part of the Vivendi deal, Canada-based Seagram unloaded its vast beverage empire for $8.1 billion to two European companies in December.

Darrell Satzman

No. 4

Northrop acquires Litton

CATCHING the aerospace/defense industry off guard, Northrop Grumman Corp. suddenly announced last month that the company would buy Litton Industries Inc. for $5.1 billion in cash and assumed debt.

The deal will combine the two last remaining defense industry giants in Los Angeles and will put Northrop back among the top defense contractors in the U.S., with projected revenues of S15 billion in 2001.

Woodland Hills-based Litton designs and builds ships for the U.S. Navy and provides advanced electronics and information systems for the military. The company had planned to sell its defense electronics business earlier this year, and Northrop had been mentioned as a potential buyer of those operations.

Defense electronics, systems integration and information technology have become Northrop's main focus over the last three years, after the U.S. government halted the merger between the company and Lockheed Martin Corp. The failed merger reduced Northrop to a second-tier defense contractor even though the company has been quite successful in entering the fast-growing and lucrative market for military electronics and information technology.

With the acquisition of Litton, Northrop will be one of the biggest developers and manufacturers of defense electronics.

It is an open question whether the company will hold on to Litton's shipbuilding operations, which are mainly based in Mississippi and Louisiana. Northrop has no experience in shipbuilding, which has been a drain on Litton's bottom line recently, and there is a good possibility the company will sink this operation.

Edvard Pettersson

No. 5

BP completes Arco buyout

IT took a while, but Atlantic Richfield Co. is no more.

Thirteen months after it first bid to take over he Los Angeles-based oil company, U.K. oil giant BP Amoco's $27.8 billion acquisition of Arco was approved by the Federal Trade Commission in April.

BP Amoco's cost-cutting chief executive "Neutron John" Browne and Arco executives had all hoped to conclude the deal much earlier, but the federal watchdog agency moved to dock the deal, citing antitrust concerns. Two particular concerns were that the merged company would control 70 percent of Alaskan oil production - and thereby could manipulate rude oil prices for California refineries - and it would control 40 percent of pipeline and storage capacity in Cushing, Okla., through which flows benchmark West Texas intermediate rude oil.

After much haggling, BP Amoco and Arco greed in March to sell Arco's Alaska oil and as unit to Phillips Petroleum Co. for upwards if $7 billion, and unload Arco's Cushing operations as well. In addition, Exxon Mobil dropped a lawsuit seeking to block the Alaska nit sale to Phillips.

As a result, despite the protests of California Attorney General Bill Lockyear and Sen. Barbarn Boxer, the FTC signed off on the deal. About 2,000 jobs in Texas and California were cut, even as Arco's workforce had shrunk in the year since the merger was announced to around 16,600 worldwide from 18,000. BP Amoco estimated it would save $1 billion annually as a result of the deal, and another downtown L.A. Fortune 500 headquarters faded into history.

John Brinsley

No. 6

Health system gets reprieve

AFTER months of intense negotiations and fears that the county's overburdened health care system may be left to go bankrupt, it finally came down to a June meeting between Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky and President Clinton.

The pair met at the home of billionaire Ron Burkle, who was hosting a fundraiser for Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and within days Los Angeles County had secured another five-year waiver from federal Medicaid rules.

That waiver will allow the county to continue treating patients in neighborhood clinics while still receiving $1.2 billion in federal and state reimbursements. But the gift came with some heavy strings attached: The county must reform its giant health system within five years.

That means the county must continue to boost outpatient care for the 2.7 million residents who are without health insurance, even as it streamlines its system. It has no choice, since the federal bailout provides $246 million in initial funding, but that dwindles to $87 million by 2004-2005.

By the end of 2000, county Supervisors had signed off on a plan that would cut staffing 2 percent over each of the next five years, even as it attempts to boost its outpatient services.

Laurence Darmiento

No. 7

Romer named LAUSD chief

THE six-month search for a new superintendent to lead the huge Los Angeles Unified School District was a difficult and unpleasant time. There was a shortage of qualified candidates, and the No. 1 choice, Henry Cisneros, the former mayor of San Antonio and president of Univision, didn't want it.

In the end, when the Board of Education chose former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer, a seasoned politician with an interest in education, it got someone eager to take on the district's daunting challenges.

And there certainly hasn't been any shortage of challenges.

In rapid succession, Romer has convinced the board to take a second look at the troubled Belmont Learning Center project, which appeared to have been permanently mothballed earlier in the year. He faces the prospect of a teachers' strike in February, but has vowed to work out a solution, and all the while there is a simmering movement to break up the district.

It's all enough to drive any lesser man back into retirement, but the 71-year-old Romer appears to relish what others see as nothing less than intractable obstacles.

Giving his first back-to-school address in August; he put it bluntly to district administrators and teachers: "You're more important than any dot-com out there," he said. "You are going to manage the process that is going to determine the character of this community."

Laurence Darmiento

No. 8

Gemstar buys TV Guide

THE Justice Department surprised most servers -- particularly rival cable companies -- when it gave its approval in July to Gemstar International Group's $14.3 billion purchase of longtime rival TV Guide Inc.

The deal gave the Pasadena-based company a virtual monopoly over the evolution of interactive onscreen TV program guides.

Those guides, potentially worth billions of dollars in advertising and electronic commerce revenue, enable viewers with remote controls to quickly surf through scores of TV listings according to topic, channel and air time. Some analysts predict the guides will become even more powerful when they can be used to order pizza, groceries and other merchandise and services on demand.

Cable companies initially complained that the deal would give Gemstar exclusive control over too many critical patents and prevent others from creating competing guides. But after a lengthy review, the government OK'd the merger, surprising Wall Street investors who quickly bid up shares of both companies.

The merger also put an end to complex patent litigation between the former rivals involving key technologies for the guides.

Suzanne Evans

No. 9

SAG, advertisers settle

AFTER six months of acrimony, Hollywood's biggest strike in years ended in October when members of the Screen Actors Guild settled their contract dispute with advertising agencies, amid conciliatory words and dual claims of victory.

In retrospect, neither the actors nor the agencies got what they wanted out of the three-year deal. Actors did receive a sizable pay raise for their work in commercials, as well as other concessions, such as a guarantee that Internet ads will be made with union workers. However, they did not get residuals for cable ads, agreeing to the flat fee preferred by advertisers. In addition, the new contract -- and corresponding raises -- began in October when the actors returned to work and not in May when the strike began.

Advertising industry officials had argued they were overpaying for talent, particularly on ads running on the major networks, as a result of shrinking audiences due to the proliferation of cable.

Besides costing the actors an estimated $2 million a day in lost wages, the resulting industry-wide slowdown was hard on the hundreds of industry vendors and post-production houses that rely on advertising work as their bread and butter.

The settlement also did little to assuage the fears of those who believe that screen actors and writers will strike when their contracts expire in mid-2001. The key issue -- namely the belief among actors, writers and directors that they are not sharing the profits from a boom in cable and foreign TV markets -- remains as divisive as ever.

Darrell Satzman

No. 10

Boeing buys satellite unit

IN January, Boeing Co. paid $3.75 billion in cash for Hughes Electronics Corp.'s satellite business. The acquisition of the El Segundo-based manufacturing operation, which employs 9,000 people and generated $2.3 billion in revenue in 1999, makes Boeing the No. 1 satellite builder in the world.

The deal underscores the growing importance of Boeing's Space and Communications Group in Southern California, as the company's commercial aircraft business stays in slow- or no-growth mode. Boeing still faces tough competition from Airbus Industrie for new orders for commercial airplanes, and the company hoped to protect its bottom line from market fluctuations in the jetliner business by diversifying further into satellite building and related technologies.

Global demand for satellites and satellite-based communications is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years and Boeing is looking to that market to become a bigger part of its overall business.

The space and communications division, whose programs include the International Space Station, Sea Launch, the National Missile Defense Initiative, and the Global Positioning System, is still a small segment of the Boeing's overall operations. In 1999, space and communications accounted for just 11.8 percent, or $6.8 billion, of the Boeing's total annual revenue.

That is expected to change, though. Boeing executives predict that in a number of years, space and communications will account for 25 percent of the company's total revenue.

Meanwhile, Hughes Electronics, a General Motors Corp. subsidiary, is focusing on its DirecTV business for the moment. General Motors reportedly is looking to sell this remaining part of Hughes in the near future.

Edvard Pettersson

No. 11

MGM inks giant lease

DECADES after the first stylish Century City high-rises soared out of what had been a Twentieth Century Fox back lot, the business district will finally be complete -- thanks to another movie studio.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.'s deal to anchor JMB Realty Corp.'s proposed 34-story office tower with a 425,000-square-foot lease means the developer can now start construction on the final piece of the Century City puzzle.

The Constellation Place office deal, which might be the largest locally on record at nearly $500 million, means the studio will be moving from MGM Plaza in Santa Monica, its home for the last seven years following its move from its longtime headquarters in Culver City.

The studio, which will take up more half of the new building, gets a little something extra for its money: the right to perch its famous Leo the Lion mascot on the building's crest.

Laurence Darmiento

No. 12

Eisner selects No. 2 man

A tap on the shoulder from Chairman Michael Eisner moved former television executive Robert Iger up the corporate ladder and into the No. 2 spot at the Walt Disney Co. in January.

For Eisner, the move came on the heels of the resignations of top Disney executives Rob Moore, the chief financial officer, and studio chief Joe Roth, who quit to start his own movie company. Those defections fueled speculation about Eisner's management style and his ability to keep top personnel in the Disney fold. For their part, Disney officials said Iger's promotion was intended to provide more support for Eisner at the top, but downplayed speculation he was being groomed as Eisner's eventual successor. Iger's ascension makes him the first person to hold the true No. 2 spot at Disney since Michael Ovitz walked away in 1996.

Iger, 49, assumed the titles of president and chief operating officer. Previously, he had been chairman of Disney-owned ABC Group and president of Walt Disney International, Disney's overseas unit, and received credit for helping turn around ABC Television through the introduction of such shows as "Who Want to Be a Millionaire," "The Drew Carey Show" and "The Practice."

Iger joined ABC in 1974, working in the sports division for more than a decade before moving on to a succession of network executive posts.

Despite a strong turnaround in its film business, Disney saw its stock remain flat for most of 2000, and it took a 15 percent hit in November over fears of a softening advertising market.

Darrell Satzman

No. 13

Housing for Playa Vista

IT was just the kind of shot in the arm that the Playa Vista development needed -- a deal with seven leading builders to construct the first 1,600 housing units in the massive residential, commercial and industrial project.

When it was announced in February, the deal marked a step toward the first serious construction of any kind at the project, and came just eight months after Dream Works SKG dropped its plan to build a heralded studio there.

Playa Vista President Peter Denniston didn't make any bones about it at the time: the housing announcement was meant to quash speculation over the future of the project, which was hobbled by the studio's pullout and environmental concerns over its affect on the Ballona Wetlands.

Playa Vista has indeed scored an impressive series of successes since then, putting it on even firmer footing. The city allowed grading and construction to go forward, while deals were announced for a 300,000-square-foot town center and a 426,000-square-foot office complex.

Laurence Darmiento

No. 14

Courts merge

AFTER nearly nine years of controversy and speculation, county officials announced in January that the Los Angeles Superior and 24 Municipal Court systems would merge into a single Superior Court. The announcement came a year and a half after California voters passed Proposition 220, which allowed judges in the state's 58 counties to decide whether to unify their two-tier court systems.

The Los Angeles Superior Court is already the largest trial court of general jurisdiction in the nation. Under unification, the Superior Court increased its number of judges from 303 to 563 and its number of employees from about 2,300 to nearly 5,000. But the number of cases pending before the Superior Court has increased exponentially, from 302,324 before the merger to well over 2.7 million today.

The expectation is that the unified courts will yield significant savings on overhead costs, help speed cases through the judicial system, and provide the courts with increased flexibility to shift judges and cases to minimize backlog.

Suzanne Evans

No. 15

Quackenbush resigns

AT the beginning of 2000, state Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush was one of only two Republican officials elected to statewide office. His star was on the rise and his name was bandied about as a possible gubernatorial candidate in 2002. But in a period of three months, Quackenbush's entire career unraveled, thanks to a scandal largely of his own making.

Faced with almost certain impeachment in the state Legislature, Quackenbush announced his resignation on June 28 and then hurriedly moved to Hawaii in the hope of avoiding criminal prosecution.

The scandal centered on foundations set up by Quacken-bush. He then coaxed insurance companies to pay into those foundations in lieu of anteing up commission-recommended penalties of hundreds of millions of dollars for the insurers' alleged mishandling of Northridge earthquake claims. The money in the foundations was then doled out to various nonprofits, including $500,000 for the Sacramento Urban League and $263,000 to a soccer camp that Quackenbush's children attended. Some of the funds were used for public service spots featuring. Quackenbush; other funds allegedly went to finance his wife's political campaign.

After Quackenbush resigned, Gov. Gray Davis appointed Harry Low to replace him as insurance commissioner. State Attorney General Bill Lockyer has continued to press ahead with his criminal investigation of Quacken-bush's foundations.

As a result of the scandal, the state Legislature acted to reopen the statute of limitations for property owners to file earthquake damage claims until the end of 2000. A flood of claims was expected, adding to the Northridge quake's legacy as the most costly natural disaster in U.S. history.

Howard Fine 

No. 16

Idealab raises $1 billion

REMEMBER when dot-com mania was in full rage way back in March? That's when Pasadena-based Idealab, Bill Gross' incubator of Internet startups, raised $1 billion from corporate investors to expand its operations.

At the time, Idealab was contemplating going public, like several of its offspring, including eToys Inc., GoTo.com, NetZero Inc. and Ticketmaster Online City Search Inc.

Idealab's model of creating and funding Internet businesses and reaping the benefits of their public offerings was widely praised and copied, and at one point the seven public companies in its portfolio of more than 30 had a combined market capitalization of more than $10 billion.

With that in mind, Japanese cellular phone giant Hikari Tsushin plunked down $100 million last January for a 1.34 percent equity stake in Idealab. Two months later, investors including BancBoston Capital, Dell Computer Corp., Ignition Corp., Sumitomo Corp. and Kline Hawkes & Co. put up $1 billion. Gross wouldn't specify the equity stake that money brought, but said 13 percent would be a reasonable extrapolation, based on the Hikari Tsushin deal.

Of course, since then, Idealab has been buffeted by investors' general disenchantment with Internet companies that began last April, and the company has shelved its plans for going public. Many of its offspring have been having trouble on Wall Street as well, so it's unclear what the $1 billion investment is worth today.

It's also unclear how much Idealab realized from the Hikari Tsushin deal. At the time it invested in Idealab, the Japanese mobile phone company's stock was trading at around 180,000 yen per share (a bit more than $1,600) on the Nikkei Stock Exchange. Last week it was trading at around 1,900 yen (about $1.70).

John Brinsley

No. 17

Fox Plaza Sold

IN a record-breaking deal, Donald Bren's Irvine Co. agreed to buy Fox Plaza in Century City from billionaire Marvin Davis for $350 million. The deal, which netted Davis nearly $80 million just three years after he purchased the building, will expand the Irvine Co.'s beachhead on Los Angeles' Westside, where it owns an office complex on Olympic Boulevard and a luxury high-rise apartment building in Santa Monica.

The fully leased, 711,000-square-foot, 34-story tower -- which was featured in the original "Die Hard" movie -- came with a prestigious list of tenants, which includes the Fox Entertainment Group and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. At about $490 per square foot, the deal raised the bar as the priciest in the market.

Interestingly, the transaction wasn't the first time that Davis has sold Fox Plaza. He developed the building in 1987, then sold his interest to News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch for a quick $50 million profit. Murdoch then sold the building to the predecessor of the Chicago-based real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, which, in turn, sold it back to Davis.

Which raises the question: Will Davis buy and sell Fox Plaza a third time?

Suzanne Evans

No. 18

Longshoremen elect new chief

IN August, West Coast longshoremen elected James Spinosa as president of the International Longshore and Warehousing Union, one of the most powerful and militant labor unions in the country.

Although there is plenty of mistrust between the ILWU and waterfront employers, Spinosa's election is seen as a potentially positive development insofar as the union will once again speak with one voice.

Prior to his election, Spinosa was already the de facto leader of the union, and he was in charge during the 1999 negotiations of a new labor contract with the Pacific Maritime Association. Brian McWilliams, who was the nominal head of the union,. lacked the support of the rank and file in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach -- by far the largest longshore workforce on the West Coast and Spinosa's power base.

As chief negotiator for the ILWU in the contract talks with the PMA, Spinosa all but secured his election as president by not giving an inch on the contentious issue of port modernization.

The PMA insists that the West Coast ports are in dire need of automation and computerization, if they hope to stay competitive, but the union wants to protect the well-paying jobs of its membership.

However, Spinosa's reputation as a cunning and tough negotiator and the trust that the union members put in him might just give him the authority to negotiate a breakthrough agreement with the PMA to bring new technology to the overburdened ports.

Edvard Pettersson

No. 19

Northrop divests jets

IN June, Northrop Grumman Corp. agreed to ell its commercial jetliner structures business to a private investment firm for $1.2 billion. The sale, which included Northrop's Hawthorne facilities, further reduced the company's already dwindling presence in Los Angeles County.

The sale of the commercial aerostructures operations to the Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group was the most recent step in Northrop's transformation from airplane builder to key player in the defense electronics and information technology sector, a shift set in motion after the failed merger attempt between Northrop and Lockheed Martin Corp. in 1998.

Northrop's operations in L.A. County have been scaled down steadily over the last decade due to cutbacks in defense spending during the early 1990s and the closing of the B-2 stealth bomber plant in Pico Rivera. The number of Northrop employees in L.A. County fell from a high of about 29,000 10 years ago to about 8,000 last year. With the sale of the Hawthorne facilities, where the main fuselage for the Boeing 747 is built, that number dropped to 7,000.

Northrop's remaining local facilities are in El Segundo, where it builds part of the F/A-18 Super Hornet for Boeing Co. and where about 2,500 people are employed, and in Palmdale, where about 1,500 workers install on B-2 upgrades. An additional 3,000 employees work at Logicon sites in San Pedro and elsewhere in the county and at Northrop's headquarters in Century City.

Edvard Pettersson

No. 20

Superior National seized

IT turned out just to be a hint of things to March when the state took control of the financially troubled Superior National Insurance Group in Calabasas.

The failure of the state's second largest workers' compensation carrier was attributed to management mistakes, as well as to a broad downturn in the state's $5 billion-a-year workers' comp industry.

It turned out to be more like a crisis.

The state ordered all of Superior's accounts liquidated on Sept. 26, sending 30,000 policyholders scrambling for new coverage. At the same time, several major insurance carriers lost their "A" rating, and premiums shot up 50 percent or more.

And just last month, Santa Monica-based Fremont General Corp. announced cuts that brought total job losses at that company to 1,000, or half of its workforce, since June 30.

Among the causes? A fierce premium price war since the industry was deregulated four years ago, coupled with rising medical costs.

Industry observers fear the only solution may be the passage of time, as carriers buildup depleted reserves over the next few years with the higher premiums they are now charging.

Laurence Darmiento

No. 21

Univision buys USA's stations

SIGNALING a retreat from his longstanding efforts to become a major player in the entertainment business, Barry Diller agreed to sell the 13 television stations owned by his USA Networks Inc. to Los Angeles-based Spanish media giant Univision for $1.1 billion.

By incorporating USA's broadcast holdings, Univision, which already commands an 80 percent share of the Hispanic market nationally, will add second stations in key cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Chicago, and extend its reach into Atlanta and Philadelphia. Univision, now owns 32 stations and 33 affiliate stations nationwide.

For Diller, a former Hollywood executive who ran both the Paramount and Fox studios, the sale was a bittersweet end to his five-year bid to parlay USA Networks into an entertainment industry force. Unable to find a suitable partner that would have allowed the company to compete with giants like the soon-to-merge AOL-Time Warner, Diller elected to sell of the TV stations and reorganize USA Networks into three divisions. The company will focus its efforts on starting and acquiring cable-TV networks and Internet businesses, Diller said.

Univision may need the stations to keep pace with Azteca America Inc., Mexico's second-largest network. Azteca stepped up its challenge to Univision by moving forward with its plan to become the country's third Spanish-language network. In December, Azteca received Federal Communications Commission approval to build a full-power station in Los Angeles. Formed as a joint venture between Azteca and Visalia, Calif.-based Pappas Telecasting Inc., the new station will be KIDN-TV Channel 54.

Darrell Satzman

No. 22

Mattel sells Learning Co.

BUY high, sell low.

That was last year's regrettable motto for Mattel Inc., which bought educational software company Learning Co. for $3.5 billion in 1999. The acquisition bled red ink from the start, costing its owner at least $300 million and eventually costing Mattel CEO Jill Barad her job.

The toymaker announced in April that it would try to sell Learning Co. and analysts estimated it might fetch $400 million. When few offers surfaced, estimates fell to around $200 million. But when little-known, Los Angeles-based investment firm Gores Technology Group bought the software maker in October, the deal was even cheaper than expected.

Gores Technology put up no cash in acquiring Learning Co., promising only a share of future profits, while Mattel said it would take an after-tax loss of $430 million on the deal. The local investment community praised Gores Technology, led by Tom Gores, for its negotiating skills, and was amused when it came to light that the other serious bidder was Platinum Equity, a local investment firm run by Tom's younger brother, Alec Gores.

Tom Gores also raised a few eyebrows when he predicted that Learning Co. would be profitable within six months. About four months to go.

John Brinsley

No. 23

Shaq re-ups with Lakers

LAST June, on the day the Los Angeles Lakers won the 1999-2000 NBA championship, team owner Jerry Buss sat at a table in front of the media, next to center Shaquille O'Neal, who was fresh off another monster performance that clinched the victory.

"Extension, extension," O'Neal chanted, grinning at Buss.

"Whatever you want, baby," Buss replied.

And what Shaq wants, Shaq gets.

Along with leading the Lakers to the best record in the NBA and the team's first championship since 1988, O'Neal picked up Most Valuable Player trophies for the All-Star Game, the regular season and the finals, the first player ever to do so. The city cheered his every move (except for his missed free throws) and he engendered all sorts of goodwill when he offered to pay for one of the two police cars trashed during the post-championship celebrations around Staples Center.

So it was no surprise when Buss rewarded O'Neal with a three-year, $88.4 million extension to his original seven-year, $120 million contract -- more than five times the $16 million that Buss had spent to buy the team back in 1979. The agreement should keep the Big Fella in purple and gold through the end of the 2005-2006 season, paying him $32.4 million in its last year. That trails only Michael Jordan's $33.14 million for the last year of his contract as the single-season NBA record.

Of course, with Kobe Bryant up for a contract renewal at the end of this season, the record could tumble.

John Brinsley

No. 24

Davis unveils transit plan

AH, the age of the surplus.

Rather than commit dollars on an ongoing basis to traditional Democratic social welfare programs, Gov. Gray Davis kept to his penchant for caution and committed most of the surplus to one-time capital improvement projects. In April, Davis unveiled his long-awaited state transportation plan, earmarking $5.2 billion for new highways, bridges and -- particularly in L.A.-new bus and rail projects.

After nearly a decade of budget deficits, the state's booming economy finally produced a multibillion-dollar surplus for state coffers in 2000 -- ultimately reaching $14 billion.

While that may seem like a lot, it actually is little more than a downpayment on long-over-due transportation improvements, which the California Business Roundtable estimated would require $90 billion over 10 years to do right.

Among the L.A.-area projects slated to receive funds: $256 million for a busway or light rail project along Wilshire Boulevard to the Westside, $236 million for a busway or light rail to the Eastside and a similar amount for another project along Chandler Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley. The plan also included funds for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to buy 385 buses and for the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Blue Line now under construction.

But there was still one more hurdle before some of the dollars could start flowing: an initiative on the November ballot allowing the California Department of Transportation to contract out design work. The initiative passed by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent; had it not done so, many business and political leaders feared a huge backlog of projects. Now, work on many of these transportation projects will begin this year.

When the Governor's plan went to the state Legislature, instead of hitting roadblocks, lawmakers actually piled on a few more projects -- such as funds to revamp the messy 405/101 freeway interchange in the San Fernando Valley. By the time the budget was signed on June 30, the transportation package had swelled to more than $6 billion.

Howard Fine

No. 25

LAUSD scraps Belmont project

IT'S the project that won't die.

The Belmont Learning Center was conceived 15 years ago as being a mixed-use school and retail complex built on a long-abandoned oilfield on the "West Bank" of downtown, just across from the Harbor (110) Freeway. Designed to house 5,000 Los Angeles Unified high school students, the facility was supposed to replace the overcrowded and dilapidated Belmont High School. The retail portion never attracted interest, but the LAUSD pushed ahead anyway with its plans, pouring in more than $140 million to build the huge structure.

Then, in 1998, revelations surfaced that potentially explosive methane gas -- along with other contaminants -- are lurking underneath the site. It would take tens of millions of dollars more to clean up the site enough for students to be safely housed there. Questions emerged as to how the District could have pushed ahead given the contamination, and the resulting scandal made national headlines, prompted a flurry of lawsuits and the ouster of three incumbent school board members in 1999.

After contentious debate and threats of withholding funds by Sacramento, the new school board voted 4-3 in January to halt construction of the half-built campus and search for alternative sites. The decision, which seemed to end the idea of putting a school on the site, angered Belmont proponents, who felt the District was abandoning area students.

But by last fall, District officials still hadn't put forward practical alternatives, prompting new school Superintendent Roy Romer to propose bringing in private consultants to complete environmental studies of the site, with an option to finish the school. Last month, the school board went along with Romer's request, putting Belmont back on the table.

Howard Fine

No. 26

NBC renews 'ER'

NBC struck a $500 million deal with Warner Bros. Television to keep the highly rated "ER" on its schedule for three more years.

The agreement ensures the program will run until 2004, its 10th season, and will go a long way toward mending the network's fragmented prime-time schedule.

Though the exact terms were not disclosed, the new deal, which puts the per episode price at between $8 million and $9 million, is a relative bargain. For the 22 episodes in the year 2000, NBC paid a reported $285 million, which translates to $12.9 million per show. And with ER grabbing the No. 1 spot in December's Nielsen ratings, the show's popularity remains undiminished.

The new deal, however, is not cast-contingent, which means NBC is locked in even if the show loses its cast, and with Juliana Marguiles' departure, Eriq La Salle and Anthony Edwards may just weigh their options in 2002, the final year of their contracts.

Though the move to sign for such a long renewal seemed bold, the Peacock wasn't done strutting. Three days after the "ER" deal was announced, NBC went against the grain again and signed its other hit drama, "Law & Order," for another five years, guaranteeing the show a lifetime 15-year run. The network also signed the law drama's spin-off program, "Law & Order: SVU," until 2002.

Conor Dougherty

No. 27

Blue Line green-lighted

WHEN the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Metro Blue Line Construction Authority in September chose a contractor team led by Kiewit Pacific Co. to build the 13.7-mile light rail line, there was no shortage of irony at play.

After all, Kiewit had been on the joint venture team chosen by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build the Red Line that caused a huge sinkhole when tunneling through Hollywood. And that was among the many debacles that prompted the creation of a separate Blue Line authority.

Ironic or not, the decision was defended by the new authority as a rational one, given that each of the five finalist teams had done at least some work for the MTA.

Moreover, Blue Line officials said they conducted an intensive review of Kiewet, finding that the company actually had the best safety record of the finalists and that another contractor in fact had been responsible for the sinkhole.

And that's not to mention the bottom line: Kiewet also submitted the lowest bid, promising to build the line from Union Station to East Pasadena for $260 million by mid-2003. That was $30 million less than the next closest bidder.

Laurence Darmiento

No. 28

Mayor kills tobacco plan

IT seemed like an ingenious solution to what was mushrooming into a huge financial debacle for the city of L.A.: use $300 million in national tobacco settlement funds to settle suits against the city stemming from the L.A. Police Department's Rampart scandal. But Mayor Richard Riordan's plan ran into opposition from the City Council and he was forced to abandon it last spring.

As the Rampart scandal unfolded a year ago, the prospect of financial doom for the city hung heavy around City Hall. The cost to settle lawsuits resulting from the scandal was conservatively pegged at $150 million; privately, some estimates were upwards of $1 billion. Such a figure could be a crippling blow for a city with a $4 billion annual budget.

In March, Riordan proposed issuing $300 million in bonds, leveraged against the funds the city was slated to receive from the national tobacco settlement, and then use those bond proceeds to settle the lawsuits. The proposal immediately raised hackles from health advocates, who wanted the dollars to go directly into health care programs to treat cancer and other direct results of smoking tobacco.

But, as often has been the case, Riordan's real problem was getting the proposal past the City Council. Council members vehemently opposed the plan, saying it would be an open invitation for lawyers to seek money from the city. They put forward their own plan to earmark $30 million this fiscal year (ending June 30) and $30 million next year. After counting the votes and realizing he would lose, Riordan quietly dropped his idea and agreed to the Council's plan.

Howard Fine

No. 29

Business.com sells stake

SANTA Monica incubator eCompanies seemed to elicit a collective guffaw from the business world in November 1999 when it plopped down $7.5 million for the rights to the Business.com domain name. But no one was laughing a year later when Business.com sold a large stake in the site for a whopping $61 million to The Financial Times Group, Cahners Business Information, Primedia Inc. and The McGraw Hill-Cos.

The funding allowed Business.com to bolster its site and attract top talent, including former L.A. bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, Peter Gumbel, who heads up news operations, and James Gilliam, the coding genius who was made Business.com's chief technology officer.

Thanks to Gilliam's handiwork, the Business.com site aggregates business news and content generated by various media outlets into 25,000 different categories. A search tool enables users to search for any term on the site's million pages.

Business.com hopes to make money from banner ads, which the company is soliciting by category or subcategory.

After a restructuring announced by eCompanies in December, the incubator's co-founder Jake Winebaum is going to focus solely on Business.com.

Hans Ibold

No. 30

Hanjin expands in Long Beach

HANJIN Shipping Co. of South Korea agreed in October to a 25-year, $1-billion lease for a new container terminal in the Port of Long Beach.

The terminal, Pier T, is under construction at the site of the former Long Beach Naval Station and Naval Shipyard and will be the largest in Long Beach, measuring 375 acres -- roughly the size of 280 football fields. The $500 million development will have a 30-lane truck gate complex, a dockside rail yard and up to 16 "post-Panamax" sized cranes, which can unload ships that are too wide to pass through the Panama Canal.

Hanjin currently occupies a 170-acre terminal in Long Beach, and in 1999, the carrier was the first one in Long Beach to handle over 1 million containers, or about one-quarter of the port's total container cargo volume.

The rapid growth of international trade, however, means that carriers are clamoring for more space in the ports, so they can move containers through as efficiently as possible.

In response to this growing demand for more space from the terminal operators, the Port of Long Beach has developed a new 10-year, $1.9-billion expansion plan. The plan calls for the reconfiguration of most of the existing terminals in the port into five so-called megaterminals with over 300 acres each.

The expansion is crucial if Long Beach is to remain competitive with the neighboring Port of Los Angeles, which last year lured Maersk Sealand, the world's largest shipping line, from Long Beach to its 484-acre Pier 400 container terminal. That move is expected to bring $2 billion in revenue to the Port of L.A. over the next 25 years.

Pier T will be the first of Long Beach's megaterminals and is scheduled for completion in 2003.

Edvard Pettersson

No. 31

Mattel gets new chief

TROUBLED toy manufacturer Mattel Inc. got a new Geppetto last May.

Robert A. Eckert, who had been the head cheese at Kraft Foods Co. for two years, was named chairman and chief executive at Mattel, replacing Jill Barad, who was forced to resign in February after getting a $40 million severance package.

Eckert, 46, who started out in the cheese division of Chicago-based Kraft Foods, was with the packaged-food company for 22 years. He became president and chief executive of Kraft in 1997.

Eckert took over the El Segundo-based toy company plagued with a weak stock price, caused in part by Barad's disastrous decision to spend $3.5 billion to purchase computer software maker Learning Co. in 1999.

One of the first things Eckert did was to get rid of the-software maker that had been a $700,000-to-$1 million-a-day drain on Mattel.

In September, Eckert announced he would reduce Mattel's workforce by 10 percent, about 350 positions, and trim administrative and manufacturing costs.

Shareholders have responded positively to the new chief executive's leadership. Mattel's stock recently has been trading near its 52-week high of $15.12. But it is still down from the $40-plus level it fetched in early 1998.

Deborah Belgum

Comerica buys Imperial

No. 32

THE already thin base of LOS Angeles financial institutions was depleted further when Imperial Bancorp agreed to be acquired by Detroit's Comerica Inc. in October in a stock deal valued at $1.23 billion. It was a significant decision by 81-year-old George L. Graziadio Jr., who co-founded Imperial in Inglewood in 1963. He relinquished both his chief executive title and the bank's name to become chairman of the combined California operations of Comerica Bank.

The combined assets of the new bank will be around $49 billion, almost $13 billion of which is in California, making it the fourth-largest bank in the state.

Over the years, Imperial built a reputation as an aggressive lender to small businesses, and also became known for its lending to the entertainment industry as well as to venture-backed entrepreneurs. It was an early player in the emerging growth business, lending to up-and-coming technology companies such as Yahoo Inc. and reaping the benefits of both their deposits as well as profits from stock offerings based on warrants taken on the companies before they went public.

With the exception of Silicon Valley Bank, which pioneered this activity, Imperial was the second-most active high-tech bank in the state, and first in Southern California. Graziadio pledged that such activity would continue, but analysts said Comerica's more conservative nature might be a hindrance.

Comerica officials wouldn't disclose whether layoffs were on the horizon, but said it expects to cut Imperial's expenses by 20 percent over the next two years by eliminating duplicative costs.

John Brinsley

No. 33

Kodak buys naming rights

IN the largest sale of naming rights outside of the sports world, Eastman Kodak Co. agreed to pay $75 million over 20 years for the right to put its name on a new Hollywood Boulevard theatre that will permanently house the Academy Awards starting in 2002.

Built by the Canadian real estate giant TrizecHahn, the new theater is part of a $567 million commercial project that will include a television studio, numerous restaurants and shops and a new Metro Red Line station. For the venerable photography and technology company, a Kodak Theatre will provide exposure to hundreds of millions of television viewers worldwide who tune in annually to watch the glitzy four-hour Oscar telecast.

The new venue will be the first permanent home for the Academy Awards in the event's 71-year history. It will be located at Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, across the street from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, where the first Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929.

The Kodak deal is part of a growing trend among corporate sponsors who pay huge sums to acquire the right to put their names on sports arenas, music amphitheaters and other entertainment venues.

As part of the deal, Eastman Kodak will receive an undisclosed number of highly coveted Oscar tickets each year.

Suzanne Evans

No. 34

Glendale Oks Disney campus

MORE than 12 months after the project was first announced, Glendale decided in November to make room for the Mouse and about 7,000 of its friends.

The Glendale City Council approved a proposal by the Walt Disney Co. to build a $2 billion "creative campus" on a 125-acre site near the Golden State Freeway that was once home to the Valley's first airport.

The company has approvals to build up to 5.9 million square feet of building space at the Grand Central Business Park; on a parcel that borders DreamWorks SKG's animation campus.

The project, in the city's San Fernando Redevelopment Corridor, is expected to transform the drab office park into a low-rise campus with offices, sound stages and studio production facilities.

There are already several thousand Disney employees scattered throughout the park, including many who work for Walt Disney Imagineering, the unit that designs the company's theme parks.

Those workers will now be brought together on the new campus, which is expected to pump $250 million in new tax revenues to Glendale and its schools over the next 32 years.

Laurence Danniento

No. 35

City bails out Dems

WHEN Mayor Richard Riordan, billionaire businessman Eli Broad and other civic leaders submitted L.A.'s bid to host the Democratic National Convention, they promised that the city would only be on the hook for about $11 million in police and transportation-related costs. In a plan modeled after the hugely profitable 1984 Summer Olympics, the private sector would raise the remaining $35 million needed to put on the convention.

But right from the start, the private-sector host committee, LA Convention 2000, ran into trouble raising funds, largely because it was competing for political dollars against the Democratic National Committee, the presidential campaigns and congressional campaigns. By last January, the situation was so dire that Riordan fired the committee's top executive and placed his own trusted aide Noelia Rodriguez at the helm.

Fundraising got back on track, but then costs started to rise, particularly for planning around the expected protests. By June, the committee had a $4 million shortfall and was forced to go hat in hand to the City Council to make up the difference. An angry debate ensued as several council members expressed disgust that they would have to fork over millions of dollars "to a committee run by billionaires." It turned out that one of those billionaires, entertainment mogul David Geffen, had put in a mere $25,000 and refused to do any further fundraising.

The council ultimately approved the funds, but not before then-Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg demanded as her price for casting the deciding vote that protesters be allowed to use Pershing Square as a staging ground. That in turn prompted a whole new crisis about the ability of the L.A. Police Department to control the protesters and prevent widespread violence and looting from erupting during the convention.

In the end, the tens of thousands of protesters intent on wreaking havoc never materialized as they had in Seattle. And when the bills came due this past fall, the city found itself on the hook for $36 million in total costs, more than triple the original promise. Most of that, $22 million, was for police overtime and related supplies.

Howard Fine

No. 36

Boeing plans development

BOEING Co. unveiled plans in February to bulldoze 230 acres of aging aircraft hangers just north of the Long Beach Airport and convert the land into a commercial development.

The site, located west of Lakewood and south of Carson, is currently worth ad estimated $150 million, though with the addition of gas and sewer lines, street lights, fiber-optic cables and other improvements, its value is expected to skyrocket.

While Boeing will continue to build the 717, a 100-seat successor to the DC-9, and the C-17 military transport plane in Long Beach, employing about 15,000 people there, the announcement put an end to any hope that Boeing would move another manufacturing line into Southern California.

Individual parcels are expected to be in the hands of private developers by mid-2003, with construction to begin by late 2003 or early 2004. The site could be built out by as early as 2007. As envisioned by Boeing, the redeveloped land would accommodate light industry and manufacturing operations, as well as some retail stores.

The estimated value of the proposed development upon completion, including the land, is projected to be about $500 million.

Suzanne Evans

No. 37

Tejon Ranch unveils project

SEEKING to capitalize on its vast land holdings, Tejon Ranch Co. announced in March that it has formed a joint venture partnership with Pardee Construction Co., Lewis Investment Co. and Standard Pacific Corp. to develop a 4,000-acre master-planned community.

The site, on the northern edge of Los Angeles County near the intersection of Interstate 5 and California Highway 33, had been home to livestock for more than 150 years. The move to market the land also meant the venerable ranchland would no longer be a home on the range for cattle operations, which went on the auction block in September as the company began building an industrial park near the juncture of Interstate 5 and US Route 99.

Home furnishings retailer IKEA agreed to build what will be one of California's largest buildings -- a nearly 2 million-square-foot distribution center -- at the new industrial park.

Founded in 1843, Tejon Ranch Co. is the largest contiguous landowner in California, with 270,000 acres along Interstate 5 in Los Angeles and Kern counties. Its decision to sell off even 1.5 percent of its land holdings is a significant example of the northward push of residential and commercial development from Los Angeles in recent years.

Suzanne Evans

No. 38

XFL signs on to Coliseum

It's not the Rams, it's not the Raiders, but smashmouth football (not the Raiders) is on its way back to Los Angeles.

A deal struck in March will see the XFL's Los Angeles Xtreme kick off its first 10-game season in the Memorial Coliseum in February. The new league, which is owned by the World Wrestling Federation and NBC, reached an initial deal to rent the Coliseum for one year with options to renew.

Although competitors to the National Football League have surfaced in the past, the XFL plans to draw on the marketing alchemy of its parent's professional wrestling circuit with the hope of succeeding where the defunct World Football League and U.S. Football League failed. Whether or not the company will solidify its hold over young males remains to be seen.

Regardless, officials with the WWF, which is investing around $100 million in the new football league, say they have enough cash to sustain the XFL for at least three years. By 2005 the league expects to have 16 teams staffed by former college and NFL players and imports from Canada's pro league.

For now, spectators are curious as to what the new league will actually look like.

Conor Dougherty

No. 39

Homestore.com buys rivals

HOMESTORE.COM Inc., the Intenet's largest real estate portal, solidified position with the November acquisition rivals Move.com and Rent.net, units of Cendant Corp., for 26.3 million shares or its stock.

The deal, worth an estimated $760 million, solidified the Thousand Oaks-based company's dominance over competitors like Microsoft Corp.'s HomeAdvisor.com and real estate services provided by Yahoo and eBay. It also drew the attention of the U.S. Justice Department, which is conducting an investigation that focuses on possible exclusionary conduct and monopolization of Internet realty sites.

Move.com and Rent.net, both headquartered in San Francisco, provide apartment-finding and moving resources. The sites add to Homestore's roster of sites that let users buy, sell and build new homes, arrange for a move and repair and restore residences.

If Homestore has its way, real estate transactions will soon be paperless. Instead of simply providing listings for real estate brokers and buyers, Homestore hopes to persuade them to complete more of their purchases online by offering products such as mortgages and title insurance.

In theory, that would allow the company to earn commissions in addition to the ad revenue and small fees it charges Realtors to post their pictures and phone numbers on its sites.

Hans Ibold

No. 40

Burbank Oks Zelman project

BURBANK has struggled for years to find the right reuse plan for the property that Lockheed Martin Corp. abandoned when the company pulled up stakes for Marietta, Ga. in 1991. But that effort took a big jump forward this past fall when City Hall gave thumbs-up to a $100 million proposal by Zelman Development Co. for 103 acres at the site.

The Burbank Empire Center project will transform a former aircraft construction site near the Golden State Freeway into a 750,000-square-foot retail center, with an additional 500,00 square feet of office space. Two hotels also are in the mix. When completed, the center will be the largest in Burbank.

The retail component will include such heavyweight tenants as Target, Costco and The Great Indoors, a new concept store from Sear Roebuck & Co. that carries a broad variety of goods for the home.

The retail center was nearly fully leased by late October, while the office space is expected to be gobbled up by companies seeking room in Burbank, where the vacancy rate has been below 3 percent.

Zelman previously developed the Puente Hills East complex in Industry.

Laurence Darmiento

No. 41

UBS steals star banker

CREDIT Suisse First Boston found out that spending $11.5 billion doesn't buy happiness.

When the Wall Street firm spent that much to buy Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp. in September, it expected to get star investment banker Ken Moelis, a former Drexel Burnham Lambert junk bond specialist who ran DLJ's L.A. operation and had helped it become the No. 1 junk-bond issuer in the '90s. CSFB clearly wanted Moelis, because it had tried to lure him away before deciding to simply take over the whole shop.

But Moelis' outfit was moving increasingly into high-tech banking, and that clashed with CSFB's existing high-tech practice run by Northern California-based Frank Quattrone. As more than one observer predicted, Moelis chaffed under his loss of autonomy, and resigned in November when UBS Warburg offered him a better deal.

Moelis' decision to bolt was doubtless grating to CSFB in more ways than one, since UBS Warburg's parent is a longtime Swiss rival.

Even more damaging, several of Moelis' colleagues and proteges from the former DLJ have decided to leave CSFB for UBS as well, giving UBS a new but well-respected investment banking presence on the West Coast, and leaving CFSB with egg on its face, not to mention drastically reduced influence.

John Brinsley

No. 42

DirecTV, Blockbuster team up

IN a move designed to boost its viewership base of 8.5 million households, El Segundo-based DirecTV Inc., the satellite television provider owned by Hughes Electronics Corp., struck a major joint marketing agreement in May with Blockbuster Inc.

The two companies are offering pay-per-view movies via DirecTV's satellite service and Dallas-based Blockbuster will sell dishes and set-top boxes in 5,000 of its 7,000 chain stores.

DirecTV, the third-largest pay TV service behind cable operators AT&T and Time Warner, is counting on Blockbuster's database marketing expertise to drive up buy rates for both its hardware and pay-per-view services. Blockbuster, the world's largest video-store chain and a unit of Viacom Inc., will get a cut of the pay-per-view revenue from the joint channels. It will also receive financial incentives to sell DirecTV systems and services in its stores and a percentage of DirecTV's subscription revenue from customers who sign up through its retail locations.

Some analysts say that the marketing deal is an admission by Blockbuster that its low-tech means for distributing movies is bound to be challenged by would-be rivals, like DirecTV, which allow customers to order movies from their living rooms with a few clicks of their remote controls.

Suzanne Evans

No. 43

Murdock buys Castle & Cooke

AFTER his first two offers were rejected, developer David Murdock finally succeeded in anteing up enough money to convince the shareholders of Castle &

Cooke Inc. to yield control of the Los Angeles-based real estate company.

Holders of 10.7 million Castle & Cooke shares, representing 62 percent of the company's equity, accepted Murdock's $19.25-per-share offer in July. The agreement gave him control of 89 percent of the company, which owns virtually all of the Hawaiian island of Lanai, thousands of acres of land on the neighboring island of Oahu, and numerous real estate developments in the continental United States.

Murdock, who serves as chairman of Castle & Cooke, initially tried to buy the company and take it private through his Flex-Van Leasing Inc. in March, when he offered $17 a share. But shareholders balked at an offer they said was too low, so he was pressured to twice raise his offer -- first to $18 in June and later to the final $19.25-per-share offer -- to keep negotiations moving forward.

Under the deal, Murdock, who previously had owned 27 percent of Castle & Cooke, also assumed $273 million in Castle & Cooke debt.

Suzanne Evans

No. 44

Winnick buys into Colony

GARY Winnick has gotten most of his press thanks to the rapid expansion of his telecommunications firm, Global Crossing Ltd., and his holdings in it, which at one point made him the richest man in Los Angeles.

But he served notice last May that Pacific Capital Group, the investment firm through which he launched Global Crossing, remains a powerhouse in its own right, when it purchased a 70 percent stake in real estate investment firm Colony Capital Inc.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but Winnick said he intends to expand Colony's investment focus, merging its people with those of Pacific Capital. He pledged that investments would keep away from markets that Global Crossing is in, but look at technology deals that have an impact on the real estate market, like switching facilities, which are in hot demand from telecom firms looking for property to house their technical operations.

Colony has about $6 billion under management in four funds, and has been headed by Thomas Barraek, who became one of Pacific Capital's three managing partners. Winnick and Barrack are now reportedly looking to raise $1 billion for a leveraged buyout firm.

John Brinsley

No. 45

Founders goes national

IN a deal that transforms it into the third largest African-American-owned bank in the nation, Los Angeles-based Founders National Bank merged with Boston Bank of Commerce.

The October deal, which established the merged company as the nation's first African-American-owned banking chain stretching from coast to coast, resulted in an institution with assets of more than $260 million.

Formed in 1991, Founders made its mark by helping to rebuild South Central Los Angeles after the 1992 riots. The bank's owners include Earvin "Magic" Johnson, singer Janet Jackson and former Motown president, Jheryl Busby, who is currently the head of urban music at Dream Works SKG.

The merged bank carries the Boston Bank of Commerce corporate name, but Los Angeles branches will retain the Founders nameplate.

Suzanne Evans

No. 46

Korea Times in venture

NOT all the big media deals last year were of the English-language variety. One of the nation's largest Asian-language media deals, valued at $255 million, was inked when Leonard Green & Partners acquired a stake in the local Korea Times newspaper group and merged the ethnic media company with a Los Angeles broadcasting affiliate.

The merged entities, Korea Times and International Media Group, are now called AsianMedia Group and based in Los Angeles.

Leonard Green, a buyout firm, spent $90 million to acquire a 50 percent stake in Korea Times, which operates 11 Korean-language newspapers in the United States. The Korea Times then spent $165 million to buy the L.A.-based IMG.

IMG owns KSCI-TV Channel 18 in Los Angeles and KIKU-TV Channel 20 in Hawaii, both of which broadcast in Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Japanese languages. The new firm has plans to buy more TV and radio stations nationwide.

AsianMedia Group's emergence as a media powerhouse steps up the competition in L.A. between the Korea Times, the first Korean-language newspaper to be published in this country, and the Korea Central Daily News, which is backed by the large diversified South Korean firm Samsung.

Deborah Belgum

No. 47

Two Rodeo sold for a song

WHEN the posh Two Rodeo retail complex, replete with its faux European cobblestone street, opened in 1990, it immediately became a destination for shoppers with plenty of cash who were prepared to stimulate the economy at luxury shops like Tiffany, Verasace, Cartier and the like.

But the Japanese partnership that owned the 130,000-square-foot shopping lane at Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard shelled out $200 million for it at the top of the market, only to see property values plummet during the grinding recession of the early 1990s.

So Kowa Real Estate Investment Co. and Sogo Co. last year became the latest examples of Japanese investors who had to take painful losses on their U.S. investments when they sold the complex for just $131 million to an undisclosed European family trust.

Now that the Beverly Hills retail market is getting hotter, the new owners stand to make a pretty penny, especially since many of the original leaseholders are leaving and the going rate for retail space is about twice that of a decade ago.

Laurence Darmiento

No. 48

Intertainer in Microsoft deal

HAVING Microsoft Corp. make a substantial financial commitment to your online venture is something like getting the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.

And clearly Microsoft's investment, estimated at $56 million, in Culver City-based Intertainer Inc. was a major coup -- as it would be for any competitor in the, crowded race to provide entertainment content on-demand via broadband.

The deal calls for Intertainer to become a preferred broadband content provider for Microsoft and to be offered as a service to network operators that license Microsoft TV platform software. Terms of the pact weren't disclosed, but Microsoft said it would work with Intertainer to accelerate deployment of Intertainer's broadband entertainment service.

New movie releases and classic movies, music, television programs and shopping are available on PCs and televisions via Intertainer's service over cable and DSL lines.

Also, Microsoft will become the preferred technology provider for Intertainer, which will use Microsoft Windows Media Technologies to deliver music and video entertainment to PCs and televisions.

Besides Microsoft, Intertainer counts among its backers Comcast Corp., Intel Corp., General Electric Co.'s NBC unit and Sony Corp.

Hans Ibold

No. 49

Jim Henson Co. sold

BERT and Ernie speaking German? Not likely, but they do have a new corporate parent. The Jim Henson Co., creator of popular family entertainment franchises the Muppets and Fraggle Rock, agreed to be sold for $680 million in cash and stock to Germany's EM.TV & Merchandising in February.

EM.TV looked to be the perfect candidate: a fast-growing, publicly held media company which had been looking to establish a beachhead in the U.S. market and at the same time source children's programming for its channels overseas.

And Henson, one of a diminishing number of independent entertainment companies, had been searching for a minority investor or strategic partner to underwrite its production costs. In the end, the Los Angeles-based company was the largest U.S. operation to go German since Chrysler was bought by Daimler-Benz in 1998. That same year, German media giant, Bertelsmann AG bought the No. 1 U.S. publisher, Random House.

The buyout gives EM.TV the rights to more than 5,000 licensed Muppet products, including the popular Tickle Me Elmo doll and Muppet books, which have sold more than 30 million copies in 45 countries. It also acquired access to Jim Henson Co.'s science fiction shows, including "Farscape," a top-rated show on BBC and the Sci Fi Channel.

Conor Dougherty

No. 50

Celebrity money manager bought

IT was just three years ago that a seasoned team of financial counselors got together to form Bel Air Investment Advisors, quickly creating a boutique firm catering to the region's entertainment and business elite.

In December, Boston-based State Street Corp. decided it liked what it saw, and announced it would buy a majority stake in the Century City-based money manager for $217 million in cash and stock.

The deal gives the East Coast old-money firm instant access to the growing market of wealthy investors, including such heavyweights as former Chrysler Corp. chief Lee Iacocca, movie mogul Jon Peters and TV talk-show host Geraldo Rivera.

Bel Air has about $3.2 billion under management for some 200 clients, as well as $600 million in client assets in its brokerage unit. The deal makes it a majority-owned subsidiary of State Street, while allowing it to continue to operate independently.

Bel Air actually only represents a tiny portion of State Street Global Advisors, which actively manages $712 billion in assets.

Laurence Darmiento

                    Highlights of Office Deals in 2000
                      Significant Lease Transactions
Building                             Submarket
Constellation Place                 Century City
21271 -21281 Burbank Blvd.         Warner Center
1525 Rancho Conejo Blvd.     Thousand Oaks/Newbury Park
1525 Rancho Conejo Blvd.     Thousand Oaks/Newbury Park
2300 East Imperial Highway      Los Angeles - South
Santa Monica Water Garden           Santa Monica
1500 Hughes Way                 Los Angeles - South
Wilshire Grand Office Centre            CBD
                                                                     Building
Building                                 Tenant              Sq. Ft.  Class
Constellation Place                Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer       425,000    A
21271 -21281 Burbank Blvd.              HealthNet            388,000    A
1525 Rancho Conejo Blvd.                 Xircom              200,000    B
1525 Rancho Conejo Blvd.                 Alcatel             200,000    B
2300 East Imperial Highway   Hughes Communications/Direct TV 157,385    A
Santa Monica Water Garden             U.S. Web/CKS           150,704    A
1500 Hughes Way                          Toyota              143,000    A
Wilshire Grand Office Centre  State Compensation Insurance   113,513    B
                       Significant Sale Transactions
Building                              Submarket
Fox Plaza                            Century City
Media Center Gardens - Phase I Burbank - Media District
505 North Brand                        Glendale
Sony Pictures Plaza                  Culver City
Manhattan Towers                 Los Angeles - South
Grand Avenue Courtyard           Los Angeles - South
6330 San Vicente Blvd.               Miracle Mile
Building                                        Buyer
Fox Plaza                                The Irvine Company
Media Center Gardens - Phase I              M. David Paul
505 North Brand                    CB Richard Ellis Investors, LLC
Sony Pictures Plaza                          Shurl Curci
Manhattan Towers                        Divco West Properties
Grand Avenue Courtyard         Pennsylvania State Employees Retirement
6330 San Vicente Blvd.                 Kearny Real Estate Co.
                                         Purchase
Building                       Sq. Ft.    Price
Fox Plaza                      700,000 $350,000,000
Media Center Gardens - Phase I 585,000 $20,000,000
505 North Brand                311,787 $55,000,000
Sony Pictures Plaza            308,000 $46,000,000
Manhattan Towers               302,984 $55,000,000
Grand Avenue Courtyard         245,000 $52,000,000
6330 San Vicente Blvd.         105,000 $17,000,000
                   Significant Construction Completions
Building                        Submarket             Major Tenant
Santa Monica Water Garden II   Santa Monica              Xdrive
450 North Brand                  Glendale                 IHOP
Howard Hughes Center           Culver City    Fulwider Patton Lee & Utecht
Westside Media Center II     West Los Angeles            Etoys
                                     Percent Completion
Building                     Sq. Ft. Vacant     Date
Santa Monica Water Garden II 600,000   16%     Jul-00
450 North Brand              257,000    3%     Apr-00
Howard Hughes Center         250,000   31%     May-00
Westside Media Center II     150,000   26%     Sep-00
Source: Cushman & Wakefield
                  Significant Projects Under Construction
                                                Major            Percent
Building                     Submarket          Tenant   Sq. Ft.  Vacant
2400 Empire Ave.       Burbank-Media District    N/A     405,000  100.0%
Lennar Warner Center       Warner Center      Health Net 356,000      0%
6080 Center Dr.             Culver City          N/A     300,000     80%
2151 East Grand Ave.    Los Angeles - South      N/A     228,000  100.0%
17777 Center Court Dr.  Los Angeles - South      N/A     165,000  100.0%
                       Comptetion
Building                  Date
2400 Empire Ave.         Apr-01
Lennar Warner Center     Nov-00
6080 Center Dr.          Apr-01
2151 East Grand Ave.     Oct-01
17777 Center Court Dr.   Sep-01
                      Significant Lease Availabilities
Building                      Submarket                  Lessor
Arco Plaza                       CBD            Shuwa Investments Corp.
555 S. Flower St.                CBD            Shuwa Investments Corp.
3550 Wilshire Blvd.          Mid-Wilshire        Paramount Plaza Group
3810 Wilshire Blvd.          Mid-Wilshire      Charles Dunn Company Inc.
8401 Fallbrook Ave.     Chatsworth/Canoga Park     Trammell Crow Co.
505 North Brand Blvd.          Glendale        CB Richard Ellis Investors
5757 West Century Blvd.          LAX             Decron Management Co.
2525 Colorado Ave.           Santa Monica      Tishman Speyer Properties
                        Available Building Possession
Building                 Sq. Ft.   Class      Date
Arco Plaza               791,963     A     Immediate
555 S. Flower St.        395,666     A     Immediate
3550 Wilshire Blvd.      303,516     A     Immediate
3810 Wilshire Blvd.      302,000     A     Immediate
8401 Fallbrook Ave.      160,740     A     Immediate
505 North Brand Blvd.    159,734     A     Immediate
5757 West Century Blvd.  138,695     A     Immediate
2525 Colorado Ave.       104,278     A     Immediate
                  Highlights of Industrial Deals in 2000
                      Significant Lease Transactions
Building, Submarket                                 Tenant           Sq. Ft.
2100 North Gaffey, Los Angeles - South         Performance Team      547,811
9120 Mason St., Chatsworth                Qwest Communications Corp. 318,450
1580 Francisco St., Los Angeles - South        Duty Free Shops       184,815
6979 Cherry Ave. Los Angeles - South        T.A. Chen Int'l. Corp.   163,540
1920 East Maple Ave., Los Angeles - South   Exodus Communications    106,000
1515 Rancho Conejo Blvd., Thousand Oaks             Xircom           100,000
5505 & 5533 E. Olympic Blvd., Commerce           Gruma Corp.         200,000
16040 Stephens St., Industry                    Cross Freight        179,000
                       Significant Sale Transactions
Building                                        Buyer                Sq. Ft.
Los Angeles Regional Dist. Center       T.A. Associates & Whol       638,000
                                            Property Group
10715 Shoemaker Ave.               Bloomfield Commerce Center Corp.  486,742
MC&C Commerce Center              Lend Lease Real Estate Investments 486,700
6301-6325 De Soto Ave.                      Great Oak LLC            189,879
Hayvenhurst Ave.                    Van Nuys Industrial Center LLC   185,000
14527 South San Pedro St.                   Barsky Family            118,923
1920 East Maple Ave.                       Nexus Properties          106,000
20665 Manhattan Place                     Fremont Associates         101,000
                                  Purchase Price
Building                            (millions)
Los Angeles Regional Dist. Center       $25
10715 Shoemaker Ave.                    $33
MC&C Commerce Center                    $33
6301-6325 De Soto Ave.                  $20
Hayvenhurst Ave.                        $23
14527 South San Pedro St.              $4.8
1920 East Maple Ave.                  $7.25
20665 Manhattan Place                  $6.0
Source: Cushman & Wakefield