Column: California Inc.: Tesla set to open its new ‘gigafactory’

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.

It’s a whole new day in TV World. Last week, Fox News’ big dog, Roger Ailes, resigned only a few weeks after being confronted with allegations that he had sexually harassed former anchor Gretchen Carlson. He dismissed the allegations but was subsequently confronted with additional claims of misconduct. Rupert Murdoch assumed the role of acting chairman and chief executive of Fox News, in addition to his role as executive chairman of 21st Century Fox. Ailes received a golden parachute worth about $40 million.

LOOKING AHEAD

Airport expansion: Burbank will host a public hearing Monday to discuss plans for building a 14-gate replacement terminal at Burbank Airport. The City Council is scheduled to vote on the project Tuesday. The proposal calls for a new 355,000-square-foot terminal on either the northeast quadrant or the southwest quadrant of the airport property. If the council chooses the northeast parcel, the project still must be authorized by voters.

Yahoo sale: Verizon is reportedly nearing a deal to purchase Yahoo for close to $5 billion, bringing an end a months-long bidding process for the troubled company that was once an Internet trailblazer. The company has struggled to keep up with competitors Google and Facebook in search and advertising revenue and lagged far behind as the industry moved to mobile.

Rate watch: Federal Reserve policymakers meet Tuesday and Wednesday to consider the state of the U.S. economy and the possibility of adjusting the central bank’s benchmark short-term interest rate. Because of the uncertainty caused by the “Brexit” vote, observers expect the Fed to hold the interest rate steady. The Fed raised the target for the interest rate in December for the first time since 2006, and economists have since been pushing out predictions for when the next increase may occur.

Tech earnings: A slew of California-based technology companies will be releasing their quarterly earnings this week. Apple and Twitter announce theirs Tuesday, Facebook on Wednesday and Alphabet — parent company of Google — on Thursday. Analysts expect Apple’s iPhone sales to be tepid as the company awaits a bounce from the new iPhone release in September. Meanwhile, the picture is rosy at Facebook, where shares hit an all-time high last week.

Battery plant: Palo Alto-based Tesla will hold a “grand opening” late this week of its huge “gigafactory” lithium ion battery plant in northern Nevada. The new facility, near Reno, makes Powerwalls, a rechargeable home battery that uses electricity from solar panels, and Powerpacks, a backup power unit for commercial solar users. The factory is scheduled to make batteries for Tesla cars starting next year. A select number of Tesla car owners have been invited to the event.

THE AGENDA

Monday’s Business section goes shopping. Major apparel retailers have been hurt by stiff competition from lower-price rivals and Internet players such as Amazon. Macy’s in January said it would close 40 of its 770 stores. Kohl’s reported sharply lower sales and profit in the latest quarter. And things aren’t much better for Nordstrom, which until last summer had been enjoying steady growth. “Then all of a sudden” that growth began stalling in a “very strong” way, Michael Koppel, Nordstrom’s chief financial officer, told an industry conference in June. “For something that happened that quickly, it just begs a lot of questions.”

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:

Well groomed: Dollar Shave Club, one of the most recognizable brands to emerge from Los Angeles’ start-up scene, set out to overhaul the razor blade business four years ago with an online subscription service for affordable blades. Now the Marina del Rey company is joining forces with the kind of corporate giant it aimed to undermine. Unilever, the London-based consumer goods and food behemoth, is paying $1 billion to acquire Dollar Shave Club Inc.

Tesla plan: After more than a week of teasing about its existence, Elon Musk revealed Part 2 of his “master product plan” for Tesla. Or, as he calls it, “part deux.” Musk introduced a multiyear strategy that includes new kinds of Tesla vehicles, expanded solar initiatives, updates on Tesla’s “autopilot” technology and a ride-sharing program. While the plan is bold, financial analysts see it as vague with no hard timelines, a distraction from here-and-now concerns such as getting the upcoming Tesla 3 onto the market.

Mergers blocked: The Obama administration went to court to block two major health insurance mergers, siding with consumer advocates and medical groups worried that the consolidation of large national health plans could lead to higher premiums. The long-anticipated move by the Justice Department and attorneys general in California and 10 other states will at least temporarily prevent Anthem’s $48-billion purchase of Cigna, a combination that would create the nation’s largest health insurer. And it will stop Aetna’s $34-billion bid to acquire Humana, a merger that would have combined the nation’s third- and fifth-biggest health plans.

Coup attempt? Hyperloop Technologies Inc. is seeking at least $250 million in damages from four former high-ranking employees who the company says tried to incite rebellion within the Los Angeles start-up. Now referring to itself as Hyperloop One, the firm says then-Chief Technology Officer Brogan BamBrogan and his fellow “conspirators” launched a failed coup attempt and then tried to form a competitor. BamBrogan went as far as registering the Internet address hyperlooptoo.com.

Potter push: The magic of Harry Potter has boosted attendance at Universal Studios theme parks across the country, with millennials in particular falling under the spell of the boy wizard, according to the tech company Foursquare. When the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened April 7, visits to the park jumped 38%, with millennials driving about 60% of that traffic. Universal Studios enjoyed a similar surge in attendance from millennials when the Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley opened at Universal Orlando in 2014.

WHAT WE’RE READING

And some recent stories from other publications that caught our eye:

Profitable ties: An eye-opening report from the San Francisco Chronicle. UCSF Medical Center’s chief executive, Mark Laret, “sits on the boards of two companies that together do millions of dollars of business with his hospital and have paid him more than $5 million in stock awards and cash fees since 2007.”

Midas touch? Donald Trump has been sending mixed signals to Wall Street, says the New Yorker. As a result, Wall Street has been keeping a tight grip on donations to the Republican nominee. Four years ago, Mitt Romney received more than $32 million from the money mavens. “So far, Trump’s haul from the securities industry is under $400,000”

Vaya con Dios: The Atlantic serves up an intriguing premise — that some of America’s Rust Belt cities should embrace their inevitable decline. “We’re going to have to let some of them go, while these other newer cities are going to sprout up and take off with modern-age industries,” one expert says.

RIP VCR: Slate laments the demise the VCR after it was announced that the Japanese company Funai Electric would stop producing the things. “Since it was reportedly the last company to make the increasingly obsolete players, the news effectively rang the death knell of a technology that had survived long past its own moment.”

Happy cuts: Fast Company takes a look at the Washington Post, where other businesses can learn lessons about how execs can “walk that tightrope of slashing funding (and potentially jobs) while keeping spirits at least somewhat high.”

SPARE CHANGE

Getting sacked can be a life-changing experience, but it also can make for great movie scenes. High on my list would be Kevin Spacey being handed his hat in “American Beauty,” or Edward Norton going not-so-quietly in “Fight Club.” But no recent movie captured the terror and indignity of being shown the door like “Up In The Air.”

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.