Hawkeye Ousts Its CEO; Songwriter Nilsson to Stand In

A board room dispute has left singer and songwriter Harry Nilsson with three new labels--acting president, chief executive and chairman for a tiny Los Angeles-based film, music and television production company.

Nilsson, executive vice president and a founder of Hawkeye Entertainment, replaces James Hock Jr., a career investment banker who had pursued an aggressive acquisition policy.

Hawkeye, which agreed in May to buy a small Los Angeles-based advertising agency and was negotiating several other acquisitions, will refocus on show business, Nilsson said. “What we want to do now is stop and take time to smell the roses,” said the 40-year-old Grammy-winning vocalist, best known for his 1969 hit, “Everybody’s Talkin’. “

Hawkeye’s five-member board voted Monday morning to remove Hock because of “divergent philosophies with regard to business and creative decisions,” Nilsson said, adding that Hock unsuccessfully voted against his own removal.

Korn/Ferry International, an executive search firm, was retained to find a permanent president and chief executive who would be “more compatible with the continued growth and future goals of Hawkeye Entertainment,” Nilsson said. The first meeting with Korn/Ferry will take place Friday, he added, with the search expected to take not more than three months.

A company spokeswoman said Hock could be reached Tuesday at the Bel Age Hotel in West Hollywood. A hotel spokeswoman said Hock checked out Monday night and left no forwarding address or telephone number. Hock did not return a phone call to his home in Long Island, N.Y.

Hock helped found Hawkeye in October, 1985, leaving Citicorp’s capital markets group in New York to do so, a Hawkeye spokesman said. As a mergers and acquisitions specialist, he worked on some of Wall Street’s biggest takeovers, including Nestle’s takeover of Carnation in 1984 and Prudential Insurance’s merger with Bache Halsey Stuart Shields in 1981.

Nilsson said his last business experience came more than two decades ago, during his seven-year stint as a computer processing supervisor for Security Pacific Bank. “That was before they started paying me millions for yodeling,” he said.

Explaining his reluctance to become Hawkeye’s permanent president, Nilsson added: “I’m better at ideas than--what is it called?--double-index accounting,” referring to double-entry accounting.

Nilsson and novelist Terry Southern, vice president for literary and script development, wrote the screenplay for the Whoopi Goldberg film “The Telephone,” scheduled for October release by New World Pictures. Hawkeye is the film’s associate producer in what is the five-employee company’s biggest venture to date.

Hawkeye had net income of $21,294 on revenue of $112,000 for the six-month period ending April 30. The company went public March 25, when 14 million shares were sold in the over-the-counter market for 25 cents each.

“This is a penny stock in every sense of the word,” a company spokesman said.

Nilsson said the tune he will call now at Hawkeye will emphasize movie production, but that he would work on whatever interested Southern and him. “I like the idea of a production boutique.”