IN BRIEF
Aspiring filmmaker wins LV ad contest
An aspiring filmmaker from Venice — the one in California — will be in charge of luring people to The Venetian and the rest of Las Vegas.
Brian Lazzaro of Venice, Calif., won a Las Vegas ad contest that included the chance to direct a nationally televised commercial as a prize.
The contest, held by the hotel-booking Web site Vegas.com, was part of the CineVegas film festival.
The contest attracted more than 100 entries from across the country with the winner selected by a panel of film festival judges.
CARSON CITY
Employment agency director selected
Las Vegas community leader and former IBM executive Larry Mosley was named Tuesday by Gov. Jim Gibbons to head the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
Mosley is replacing Terry Johnson, who is leaving to pursue a law degree. Mosley assumes his new role as director July 2. He will earn $122,809 in the position.
Gibbons called Mosley a “people person” with outstanding organization and management skills proven during three decades with IBM.
Mosley has served as interim director for the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at the Community College of Southern Nevada for the past year. He has also served as interim director and chief executive officer of the Las Vegas-Clark County Urban League and is co-founder and president emeritus of 100 Black Men of Las Vegas.
WASHINGTON
Regulators clear Chrysler buyout
Federal antitrust regulators have cleared Cerberus Capital Management’s $7.4 billion purchase of Chrysler.
Peter Duda, a Cerberus spokesman, said Tuesday that the Federal Trade Commission made its decision before the end of a standard 30-day review.
Early termination of an FTC review typically signifies there will be no conditions placed on the deal. The FTC declined to comment Tuesday.
DaimlerChrysler agreed last month to transfer an 80.1 percent stake in its money-losing Chrysler unit to New York-based Cerberus.
As part of the deal, Cerberus agreed to invest $6.1 billion in Chrysler and its financing arm and to pay DaimlerChrysler $1.4 billion. DaimlerChrysler would remain liable for certain expenses that could result in it paying Cerberus up to $1.5 billion to complete the deal.
MINNEAPOLIS
Best Buy earnings dip 18 percent in quarter
Best Buy Co., the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer, said first-quarter earnings fell 18 percent, partly in response to the inclusion of the company’s new lower-margin business in China.
Profit for the quarter ended June 2 dropped to $192 million, or 39 cents per share, from $234 million, or 47 cents per share, a year earlier.
Revenue rose 13.9 percent to $7.93 billion, from $6.96 billion. The revenue increase included the addition of 230 new stores, including 131 through acquisitions.
DALLAS
Foods exec talked of trimming competition
The chief executive of Whole Foods Market told his board that if it bought its leading rival, the company would “eliminate forever” the possibility that anyone else could create a nationwide competitor in the natural and organic grocery business, government lawyers say.
Chairman John Mackey also said that buying Wild Oats Markets would let Whole Foods “avoid nasty price wars” in several cities where the two compete, the lawyers wrote in a court document unsealed on Tuesday.
Federal Trade Commission lawyers reported the comments in a request this month for a temporary injunction to block Whole Foods from buying Wild Oats. A federal judge approved the request.
Whole Foods announced in February it agreed to buy smaller rival Wild Oats Markets for $18.50 per share, or about $565 million. But this month, the FTC filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Washington and won a temporary restraining order to block the deal.
LOS ANGELES
Grocery deal seems unlikely, union says
It is “increasingly unlikely” that negotiators for three supermarket operators and their Southern California workers will reach a contract deal in time to meet a deadline set by the employees’ union because labor talks have stalled, the grocers said Tuesday.
Earlier this month, union negotiators set a noon Thursday deadline for reaching an acceptable contract deal with the employers — Supervalu’s Albertsons, Kroger Co.’s Ralphs and Safeway’s Vons and Pavilions.
In their statement Tuesday, the supermarkets accused union negotiators of delaying the talks and failing to discuss funding levels for the workers’ health plan, wages and other issues.
The United Food and Commercial Workers, however, blamed the contract talk delays on the supermarkets.
LOS ANGELES
Veoh Networks aims to alter video habits
Veoh Networks, a site backed by media mogul Michael Eisner, hopes to radically change how people watch video online, offering software that finds and plays programs from anywhere on the Web and offers the look and feel of traditional TV.
Veoh TV will display both user-generated videos from sites such as Google’s YouTube and episodes streamed by TV networks like ABC and Fox, organizing them in channels much the way a standard TV program guide does.
NEW YORK
Bond prices gain after choppy trading session
The Treasurys market ended Monday’s session with modest gains, although the quiet close obscured choppy action earlier in the session.
The 10-year Treasury note was up $1.56 per $1,000 in face value, or 0.16 points, from its level Friday. Its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, fell to 5.09 percent from 5.14 percent. The 30-year bond rose 0.78 points. Its yield fell to 5.20 percent from 5.26 percent.
