Column: California Inc.: Bam! Pow! It’s Comic-Con time!
Welcome to California Inc., the weekly newsletter of the L.A. Times Business Section.
I’m Business columnist David Lazarus, and here’s a rundown of upcoming stories this week and the highlights of last week.
One company hoping for a fresh start is Los Angeles’ Herbalife. The purveyor of nutritional supplements agreed to pay $200 million to consumers and change its business practices to settle a two-year federal investigation triggered by allegations by activist investor Bill Ackman. The Federal Trade Commission said Herbalife rewarded distributors of its products for recruiting others to join the company instead of basing compensation on “actual retail demand for the product.” But it stopped short of using the words “pyramid scheme.”
LOOKING AHEAD
Yahoo sale: Monday is the deadline for bidders hoping to buy the core Internet business of Sunnyvale, Calif.,-based Yahoo. Yahoo put its Internet assets up for sale this year as it considers selling off almost everything it owns except lucrative stakes in China’s Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. Verizon has been seen as the front-runner to buy the Yahoo business as it bulks up in its own media arm. Also on Monday, Yahoo will announce its second-quarter earnings.
Coal ban: The Oakland City Council is expected to give final approval Tuesday to a ban on the storage and handling of coal within city limits, likely killing an effort to build what would be the largest coal export facility in California. The council voted unanimously for the ban on June 29 and must vote one more time to finalize the measure. Supporters of the proposal cited pollution risks to West Oakland and said the ban would curtail the burning of fossil fuels in Asia, the intended market for the coal.
Comic-Con: North America’s biggest pop-culture event kicks off with a preview night Wednesday at the San Diego Convention Center, followed by four full days of shows and exhibits. This year’s Comic-Con will feature a 30th anniversary “Aliens” reunion panel featuring Sigourney Weaver and James Cameron, an art exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Star Trek,” premieres of upcoming Warner Bros. TV shows “Riverdale” and “Powerless,” and the annual Eisner Awards for comic books.
Oscars leadership: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the results of its first open election for its board of governors on Thursday. Before this year, candidates for the board had to be vetted by a committee to run. A new process allows any member to run for the board. The 54 film academy governors — three each from the group’s 17 branches, plus three at-large spots — meet several times each year, directing, in the words of the academy’s website, “strategic vision.”
Rate hikes: California’s Public Utilities Commission will hold five “public participation” hearings this week to seek comment on a proposed rate increase by Pacific Gas & Electric. There will be one hearing Monday evening in Richmond, two in Oakland on Tuesday and two in San Francisco on Wednesday. If PG&E’s rate request is approved by the CPUC, PG&E would increase revenue $333 million in 2017, followed by an additional increase of $469 million in 2018.
THE AGENDA
Monday’s Business section turns its attention to Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport, where layers of security measures have kept the facility free of hijackings and terrorist attacks since the 1970s. U.S. airport executives and lawmakers have increasingly debated whether the security measures used at Ben Gurion could prevent the kind of bloodshed that took place in the Brussels and Istanbul airports this year. “A lot of what the Israelis are doing has informed what we’re doing,” Peter Neffenger, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, said during a Senate committee hearing on airport security last month.
STORY LINES
Here are some of the other stories that ran in the Times Business section in recent days that we’re continuing to follow:
Studio sale: Viacom Inc.’s plan to sell a stake in its historic Hollywood movie studio, Paramount Pictures, suffered another setback when the Redstone family publicly reaffirmed its opposition. Sumner Redstone and his daughter, Shari Redstone, are against the proposed sale of a 49% stake in the struggling Melrose Avenue studio because that would complicate other possible transactions — such as a sale of all of Viacom. Despite the boardroom opposition, Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman has been busy trying to stitch together a deal. Dauman, according to knowledgeable people, has been negotiating with Chinese entertainment giant Dalian Wanda Group, which appears interested in adding Paramount to its growing portfolio.
Trucking settlement: A group of trucking companies in Southern California will pay $5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by drivers who alleged that they were improperly treated as independent contractors, according to a court filing. The settlement marks the latest victory for port truck drivers in a years-long battle they have waged, with the help of union organizers and plaintiffs lawyers, to force companies to compensate them as if they were employees, rather than freelancers. It’s unclear, though, whether the case will prompt a radical transformation in the trucking business, which has clung to a contractor model despite an onslaught of legal challenges brought by drivers.
Payday loan ads: A trade group for online payday lenders has started to comb the Internet for sites making misleading claims, part of an effort to clean up the reputation of an industry beset by complaints from consumer groups and regulators. The Online Lenders Alliance, which represents short-term lenders and the companies that steer customers to them, started the new monitoring project after The Times reported in May that many websites advertising online loans say customers are not subject to a credit check — a claim that’s usually not accurate. Last month, OLA hired an outside firm to build a program that will search the Web for sites using the term “no credit check.”
Happy tax cut: The operators of the Happiest Place on Earth are a bit happier. Following lengthy debate, the Anaheim City Council voted to give Disneyland a tax break of about $267 million over the next 20 years to build a luxury hotel on what is now a parking lot near the theme park. The tax break, which was created last year to promote the construction of high-end hotels in the city, calls for a 70% break on the city’s transient occupancy tax for any hotel that is rated as four-diamonds or above by AAA’s hotel standards.
Cheaper Tesla: Tesla Motors cut the starting price of its Model X to $74,000 for a more limited-range version of its sport utility vehicle as the electric carmaker tries to boost sales. The new Model X 60D has a range of 200 miles, compared with 237 miles for its prior entry-level version, the 75D. That car costs roughly $9,000 more. Top-level versions of the Model X, which have added range and faster acceleration, can cost more than $100,000.
WHAT WE’RE READING
And some recent stories from other publications that caught our eye:
Fuel flim-flam: Bloomberg reveals a Texas biodiesel factory that’s impressive in every sense except for actually producing fuel. The guy behind it can be called “the king of the latest government playground for con artists.”
Food waste: An eye-opening report from the Guardian, which says Americans throw away almost as much food as they eat because of a “cult of perfection,” deepening hunger and poverty. “Vast quantities of fresh produce grown in the U.S. are left in the field to rot, fed to livestock or hauled directly from the field to landfill.”
Drone zone: The Wall Street Journal looks at how regulators are struggling to keep pace with fast-developing drone technology. “They’re seeking lots of input to make sure industry desires are reflected and potentially useful technologies aren’t trampled.”
Pocket protector time: Programming types are geeking out over newly available computer code that was written to get America to the moon. As Quartz notes, “it’s like a 1960s time capsule.”
Your cheating heart: Remember Ashley Madison, the website for people looking to cheat on their spouses? It got hacked and the identities of users were leaked online — a PR disaster. Fast Company explores how “the company is now trying to rise from the ashes.”
SPARE CHANGE
Unfaithfulness and inspiration go hand in hand for song writers, especially of the country-and-western variety. Hank Williams nailed it with the above classic. Dolly Parton served up a memorable tearjerker. And Kenny Rogers managed to make adultery seem worse than the Vietnam War. For God’s sake, Ruby, turn around.
For the latest money news, go to www.latimes.com/business. Until next time, I’ll see you in the Business section.
David Lazarus’ column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV Channel 5 and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.
