TOP STORIES -- Jan. 19-24

Stock Market Reels

as Worries Mount

War fears and disappointment over 2003 corporate earnings prospects sent Wall Street reeling last week and drove more investors into gold.

The Dow industrial average sank 455.73 points, or 5.3%, to 8,131.01, its lowest since Oct. 16.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index also closed at a three-month low, ending at 861.40, down 4.5% for the week.

The technology-dominated Nasdaq composite held up better than blue chip indexes, falling 34.05 points, or 2.5%, to 1,342.14 for the week. Nasdaq still is slightly positive year-to-date, helped by some surprisingly upbeat forecasts from tech firms.

Worries about a potential U.S.-Iraq war continued to boost gold, which closed Friday at a six-year high of $368.40 an ounce in New York futures trading, up 3.3% for the week.

*

Sports Executive

Pitches Bid for Dodgers

Former New York sports executive David Checketts has offered to pay $650 million for the Los Angeles Dodgers -- but only if he can wrest control of the prized cable channel that airs the team’s games, sources said.

News Corp., owner of the Dodgers, had no comment, but has recently retained New York investment bank Allen & Co. to seek possible suitors. What remained unclear was whether News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch would be willing to part with regional sports channel Fox Sports Net 2.

Checketts, 47, who ran the NBA’s Knicks and NHL’s Rangers, would say only: “It would be premature for me to comment on anything at this time.”

Talks of a possible sale of the money-losing Dodgers come as News Corp. needs cash to buy satellite TV provider DirecTV. Checketts’ bid figure includes a value for the team, its 300-acre stadium site and the TV channel.

*

Broadcom CEO Resigns;

Quarterly Loss Widens

Broadcom Corp. Chief Executive Henry T. Nicholas III, the brainy, swashbuckling billionaire who championed Orange County as a high-tech center, resigned from the communications chip company he co-founded in Irvine in 1991.

Though Broadcom has hemorrhaged billions of dollars in the last three years as the tech sector has crumbled, Nicholas, 43, said he decided to step down from the job that made him a business celebrity because of “serious family matters,” including his pending divorce.

Broadcom also reported its fourth-quarter loss, including charges, widened considerably to $1.76 billion, or $6.40 a share, from a loss of $329.6 million, or $1.27, a year earlier. Revenue rose 30% to $295.9 million.

Broadcom Chief Operating Officer Alan E. Lanny Ross will serve as CEO during a search for a permanent replacement.

*

Dreary AT&T; Outlook

Damps Telecom Sector

Hope for a rebound this year in the telecommunications industry was dashed as long-distance leader AT&T; Corp. reported dismal fourth-quarter results and predicted that sales will continue to slide into 2004.

AT&T; said earnings were $516 million, or 66 cents a share, contrasted with a year-earlier loss of $1.4 billion, or $1.97 a share. The New York company’s latest results included a $1.3-billion gain from the November sale of its AT&T; Broadband unit to Comcast Corp. On continuing operations, its loss was $611 million, or 79 cents a share. Sales fell 8.6% to $9.3 billion.

After a fourth-quarter run-up in telecom stock, AT&T; led a downturn Thursday as its shares dropped 19%.

*

No Holiday Break for

Southland Home Prices

Southern California home prices and sales activity showed double-digit gains in December, driven in part by first-time buyers who snapped up relatively affordable condos and lower-priced properties.

Analysts said low mortgage rates and expectations that they will soon rise continued to draw buyers into the market.

Led by Los Angeles and San Diego counties, the median sales price for all new and existing homes sold in December in Southern California rose 17%, to $289,000 from a year ago, according to data released by DataQuick Information Systems. The number of sales in the six-county region jumped 18%, to 29,480, compared with December 2001.

In Los Angeles County, December’s median price surged 20% to $279,000, and sales were up 16% to 10,207. In Orange County, the median sales price last month rose to a record $385,000, up 16% from a year earlier, and sales that month increased more than 14% to 4,435.

*

Dockworkers Ratify

Hard-Won Labor Deal

Three months after a labor showdown closed West Coast ports and sent shivers through the U.S. economy, union dockworkers have overwhelmingly ratified a six-year contract.

The deal was approved by nearly 90% of the voting members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. In return for concessions on labor-saving technology, the agreement raises pensions by more than 50% to a maximum benefit of $63,000 a year. Wages will increase 11% in the next six years. Employers agreed to absorb all increases in health-care costs.

The deal, which takes effect Feb. 1, allows shipping companies to begin using satellite tracking, electronic data transfer and other technologies. These changes are expected to eliminate several hundred high-paying union clerical jobs.

*

Verizon Ordered to

Name Web Customer

Ruling that there is no right to anonymity when sharing music online, a federal judge ordered the Internet unit of Verizon Communications Inc. to reveal the name of a customer accused of piracy by the Recording Industry Assn. of America.

The decision, which Verizon plans to appeal, is a boon not only to major record labels but also to Hollywood studios, book publishers, video game developers and other copyright holders whose works are copied online.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates in Washington ruled that a copyright holder can force an Internet service provider to disclose names of customers accused of piracy without having to file individual lawsuits against alleged violators.

If upheld, Bates’ ruling would make it easier for the RIAA to take its fight against piracy directly to the heaviest users of online file-sharing networks. Critics, however, said the decision gives people accused of copyright infringement less legal protection than those accused of other crimes.

*

Judge Finds Ford

Concealed Evidence

Calling its conduct “totally reprehensible,” a federal judge imposed sanctions on Ford Motor Co. after finding that the company had “willfully concealed” evidence in a lawsuit stemming from a deadly rollover of one of its 15-passenger vans.

U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman in Chicago ruled at a sanctions hearing that Ford had falsely denied the existence of test data showing its large-capacity vans are rollover-prone. Gettleman said he will instruct jurors that Ford hid tests because they showed the “van was unsafe in handling and stability.”

His ruling came in Johnson vs. Ford, a case stemming from a rollover in Kentucky that killed two passengers of a Ford E-350 Super Club Wagon and seriously injured several others. The trial is scheduled for Feb. 24.

“We look forward to trying this case on its merits and will prove” that the vans “are safe vehicles,” Ford said.

*

E-Trade’s Chief

Resigns Unexpectedly

Christos Cotsakos, chairman and chief executive of E-Trade Group Inc., known as much for his lavish pay as for his company’s role in helping to spark the late-1990s Internet-trading frenzy, resigned unexpectedly.

The resignation came two days after the online trading firm announced its second straight annual loss and warned that it would fall short of Wall Street profit estimates this year.

E-Trade named Mitchell H. Caplan, its president, as CEO. George Hayter, a board director, was appointed chairman.

The company did not explain the reasons behind the resignation but indicated that it was Cotsakos’ decision.

*

At Fox, Summer’s Time

for Debut Television

Fox Broadcasting Co. said it plans to break from decades of TV tradition by launching new shows in summer instead of fall.

The News Corp.-owned network will try to get a six- to eight-week head start on its broadcast rivals, who plan to stick with tradition and introduce new prime-time programs in late September. Fox is drawing on its success last summer with “American Idol: A Search for a Superstar.” The network’s executives learned that advertisers would pay big money for commercial time during a summer hit -- a departure from years past.

The network now plans to debut new comedies and dramas in the summer. In the fall after the baseball season is finished, the network plans to begin new episodes of its established and popular shows such as “24” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”