Allen Co

H. Wayne Huizenga is on an acquisition tear, and he's relying on Allen & Co. rather than his traditional banker, Merrill Lynch & Co. Huizenga, the billionaire owner of Republic Industries Inc. and the Florida Panthers hockey team, Florida Marlins baseball team and Miami Dolphins football team, used Allen for more than $1 billion of private stock sales in the last six weeks. Since May 1995, the investment bank reaped an estimated $75 million in fees from Republic.

Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates, is being honored for his cultural philanthropy at this year's annual National Arts Awards. The list of honorees also includes stage actor Brian Stokes Mitchell, artist James Rosenquist, singer Josh Groban and arts patron Lin Arison . The awards are scheduled to be handed out Oct. 15 at a benefit ceremony in New York. Allen's support of the arts is made through the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which issues grants to groups in the Pacific Northwest.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office is investigating whether a South El Monte councilman who listed a local hotel as his address on his voter registration and nomination papers really lives in that city or in nearby Alhambra. Councilman Allen Co, elected in March, was interviewed by prosecutors shortly after his victory and last week a district attorney's investigator reviewed Co's nomination papers at the South El Monte city clerk's office.

Looks like the media and tech moguls attending investment bank Allen & Co.'s conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, this week will be spending much of their time learning about foreign affairs. The closely guarded agenda for the annual gathering features several panels aimed at bringing the captains of industry up to speed on current events across the globe.  On Wednesday, a panel on Iran and Israel features Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. On Thursday, former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw will moderate a panel focusing on China that will feature Muhtar Kent, chairman and chief executive of Coca-Cola Co. On Friday, Charlie Rose will interview Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Richard C. Gallop, president and chief operating officer of Columbia Pictures Industries, said Thursday that he will resign to join Allen & Co., an investment banking firm with close ties to Columbia and its parent company, Coca-Cola Co. No replacement will be named, according to a statement issued by Columbia Chairman and Chief Executive Francis T. Vincent Jr., who said he intends to continue to call upon Gallop as a consultant.

Looks like the media and tech moguls attending investment bank Allen & Co.'s conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, this week will be spending much of their time learning about foreign affairs. The closely guarded agenda for the annual gathering features several panels aimed at bringing the captains of industry up to speed on current events across the globe.  On Wednesday, a panel on Iran and Israel features Washington Post columnist David Ignatius. On Thursday, former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw will moderate a panel focusing on China that will feature Muhtar Kent, chairman and chief executive of Coca-Cola Co. On Friday, Charlie Rose will interview Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft with Bill Gates, is being honored for his cultural philanthropy at this year's annual National Arts Awards. The list of honorees also includes stage actor Brian Stokes Mitchell, artist James Rosenquist, singer Josh Groban and arts patron Lin Arison . The awards are scheduled to be handed out Oct. 15 at a benefit ceremony in New York. Allen's support of the arts is made through the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which issues grants to groups in the Pacific Northwest.

Allen Rivkin, a one-time electrician who became a screenwriter and then helped found the Writers Guild of America, has died at age 86, the guild announced Tuesday. Rivkin died Saturday of kidney failure at his West Hollywood home, said a Writers Guild of America spokeswoman. The veteran writer and unionist had been ill for more than a year.

Robert Allen, 73, composer of popular songs in the 1950s and '60s, most notably works performed by Johnny Mathis. With his songwriting partner, lyricist Al Stillman, Allen wrote "Chances Are" and "It's Not for Me to Say," which were major hits for Mathis. They also wrote several songs that were hits in the mid-1950s for the Four Lads, including "Moments to Remember," "Enchanted Island" and "There's Only One of You."

Three workers were killed and three others were badly hurt Thursday afternoon in an explosion on the edge of Kern County's Mojave airport during the test of a propellant system for a pioneering private spaceship. The blast occurred at a private test site run by Scaled Composites, a company founded by high-profile aviation entrepreneur Burt Rutan. In June 2004, the firm became the first business to launch a reusable manned rocket into space, a craft known as SpaceShip One.

AOL Inc., which is struggling to halt a sales slide, said Thursday that it retained investment bank Allen & Co. and law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz as advisors. Its stock jumped. Graham James, a spokesman for New York-based AOL, confirmed the hiring of the firms but declined to comment further. AOL has posted losses of almost $800 million in less than two years as a stand-alone company as it has struggled to make money from online advertising and its profitable dial-up Internet business has become increasingly obsolete.

Security is tight at investment bank Allen & Co.'s annual conference. Held at the tony Sun Valley Resort nestled in the northern Rocky Mountains, the fairly secretive gathering of media kingpins, technology geniuses, billionaire investors, politicians and even the occasional star athlete also is filled with moonlighting detectives and retired police officers watching everyone and everything like a hawk. One question: What exactly are they guarding?

Continuing a recent tradition, Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt held court with the press Thursday at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, where he called the current economy "the new normal." Companies need to "figure out how to be happy and get our lives together in this new configuration," Schmidt said, adding, "You can't waste money, credit is tight." Schmidt, who was joined by Google co-founder Larry Page, spoke on a variety of topics, including Apple Inc.

How much would you pay a month to look at YouTube? Apparently, investor Warren Buffett is willing to shell out five bucks for the pleasure of seeing dogs skateboard, kids making their own videos and the occasional piece of unlicensed material. At least that's what he told Liberty Media Corp. Chairman John Malone at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Malone shared that tidbit with reporters Wednesday after the morning sessions here.

Kobe Bryant may have four championship rings, but it's the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James who wrangled an invitation to hobnob with moguls at this week's Allen & Co. media-industry conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. James, who already has ties to the New York investment bank and is busy building his own empire, will be in good company.

In a sign of the Internet's rapid transformation of the advertising industry, Web-based agency Spot Runner Inc. has raised $40 million from an investor group that includes broadcasting giant CBS Corp. The new investors in the Los Angeles-based company also include two of the world's largest advertising holding companies -- WPP and Interpublic Group -- as well as investment banker Allen & Co. and Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, company executives said.

In a sign of the Internet's rapid transformation of the advertising industry, Web-based agency Spot Runner Inc. has raised $40 million from an investor group that includes broadcasting giant CBS Corp. The new investors in the Los Angeles-based company also include two of the world's largest advertising holding companies -- WPP and Interpublic Group -- as well as investment banker Allen & Co. and Lachlan Murdoch, the eldest son of News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, company executives said.

Raider tailback Nick Bell knows all about being patient. He probably could write a book about it after spending most of his first two seasons playing behind Marcus Allen and Roger Craig, then Allen and Eric Dickerson. "I understood that I was playing behind some of the greatest who ever played the game," said Bell, the Raiders' second-round draft choice from Iowa in 1991. "I just dealt with it as it came and tried to stay as positive as I could. I never tried to make myself the focus.

The last great cavalry charge in the United States occurred within sight of the White House on a hot July day in 1932. It was led by saber-wielding Maj. George S. Patton Jr. under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Mounted troopers were followed by tanks, machine gunners and soldiers with fixed bayonets hurling teargas bombs.

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office is investigating whether a South El Monte councilman who listed a local hotel as his address on his voter registration and nomination papers really lives in that city or in nearby Alhambra. Councilman Allen Co, elected in March, was interviewed by prosecutors shortly after his victory and last week a district attorney's investigator reviewed Co's nomination papers at the South El Monte city clerk's office.