Dazzling Comeback

Pyro Spectaculars has literally risen from the ashes to prepare giant fireworks displays this evening at Anaheim Stadium and the Rose Bowl.

The main bunker of the Rialto-based fireworks company exploded last September in a 1,500-foot-high fireball after an employee with marital troubles apparently set off the blast in an act of suicide. The company’s manufacturing facilities were destroyed, and those of Astro Pyrotechnics across the street were damaged.

“We’ll never forget that devastation,” says James R. Souza, Pyro’s vice president, “but some good came of that.”

A good business deal, at least.

In the wake of the tragedy, Pyro Spectaculars bought Astro. Astro’s traditional strength was in producing small fireworks “concerts” for theme parks, while Pyro lit up the sky over the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games and the Golden Gate Bridge’s 50th birthday celebration.

Custom-made exotic fireworks are now made at the former Astro facility, while common commercial varieties are imported. The result, says Souza, is a stronger company.

Inside Source?

Author Connie Bruck had some interesting sources for the season’s most controversial business book, “The Predators’ Ball,” a highly unflattering portrait of “junk bond king” Michael Milken of Beverly Hills and his employer, the Drexel Burnham Lambert investment banking firm.

Files at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington contain numerous message slips showing that Bruck had called Drexel managing director and bad boy Dennis B. Levine in 1985 and 1986, before he was busted.

And Bruck’s office and home numbers are in Levine’s Rolodex, which was among the documents subpoenaed by the SEC in its investigation of insider trader Levine. It was his cooperation that opened the whole can of worms.

Bruck acknowledges her interviews with many Drexel employees in the book, but she makes no mention of any inside information on the firm that may have been passed along by Levine.

Business Is Business

Only a youngster, LA Business magazine is slick and hip. But it’s a money loser, too. So its parent is taking some action.

In April, California Business, a monthly statewide magazine with a circulation of 135,000, launched LA Business in Southern California for about $2 million and began sending it to the 90,000 California Business subscribers in Southern California.

Shortly after that there were shake-ups in California Business’ management, followed by a big push to cut costs.

Now LA Business will be folded each month into California Business, where it will run as a separate regional section starting with the August issue. The San Francisco area will get its own version in September.

Howard Fish, who became California Business president last month, says combining LA Business into California Business is needed to stem the operation’s losses. He won’t say how big those losses are, but he does say the move should save about $1.5 million a year.

“A business magazine, of all things, ought to know how to run a business,” Fish says.

Not Such a Great Address

Stanford business school grads going for the gold aren’t going to Wall Street. The October stock market crash has dimmed the allure of investment banking careers for those emerging from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

The percentage of graduates taking jobs with investment banking firms plunged to 8% from 21% a year earlier, the school reports.

“Investment banks did not make as many offers as in the past, but, more importantly, our students didn’t accept all the offers made,” said Elizabeth Meyer, director of the school’s Career Management Center. She said students were “concerned over their future career prospects on Wall Street.”

The median salary for those MBAs who opted for Wall Street was $52,500. That may be plenty of gold for most folks, but Stanford MBAs could find more elsewhere.

Consulting was the most popular profession, with a median pay of $65,000.

How to Beat the Rush

You’re in downtown Los Angeles, and your meeting goes late. Now it’s rush hour and you have to get to LAX fast. What’s the best way to get there?

Here’s a suggestion Traveler magazine has for its readers: Tell the cabbie to go south on Flower to Exposition Boulevard, west to Rodeo Road, west to La Brea, south to Stocker, and make a left turn on La Cienega to the airport.

Anyone have a better idea?