Anschutz Entertainment Group Aeg

KB Home and billionaire Philip Anschutz have agreed to take over development and ownership of a planned $600-million hotel and condominium project across from Staples Center, officials announced Thursday. The partnership all but ensures completion of what is seen as the linchpin in downtown Los Angeles' transformation into a viable entertainment and residential district.

LAS VEGAS -- Would AEG and Harrah's Entertainment form a partnership for a privately financed $500-million arena project set to open here in 2010 without a commitment from the NBA or NHL? Yes . . . and no. Turns out, it depends on how you want to define commitment.

In late June, a few days after billionaire Philip Anschutz's big-budget movie "Around the World in 80 Days" had crashed at the box office, his top two film lieutenants sent a buck-'em-up e-mail to their dispirited troops. "While the overall performance of '80 Days' is unfortunate, it will have no impact at all on our ambitious development and production plans," the executives assured Anschutz Film Group staffers.

An unlikely winner in Wednesday's decision by the International Olympic Committee to award the 2012 Summer Games to London was Anschutz Entertainment Group, the Los Angeles company that owns Staples Center and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League.

Over the weekend, Sony Pictures emerged as the front-runner in a frenzied bidding war to acquire Hollywood's hottest entertainment property: film rights to footage from Michael Jackson's rehearsals for his "This Is It" comeback concert series.

AEG, the Los Angeles company controlled by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, has acquired Ken Ehrlich Productions, producer of such programs as the Grammys, the Emmys and the MTV Movie Awards. The deal, terms of which weren't disclosed, will provide AEG with a major new source of live entertainment for its venues, including a 7,250-seat Nokia Theatre opening next year in downtown Los Angeles.

Legislation approved in a post-midnight rush has positioned Anschutz Entertainment Group, a major political contributor and owner of Staples Center, to tap millions of dollars in state funds to spruce up the area near the downtown arena and the company's $2.5-billion L.A. Live development. The bill's approval early Wednesday, only a few hours before the Legislature adjourned for the year, angered several lawmakers and advocates of affordable housing, including some who called for Gov.

The big party in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday was meant to unveil the proposed Farmers Field football stadium, which its developer hopes will link Staples Center and a refurbished convention facility into an entertainment destination spectacular enough to draw tourists from everywhere. An airship idled overhead, expensive champagne flowed, politicians and titans posed with footballs -- their presence aiding developer AEG's efforts to frame the proposal as a foregone conclusion, a train easing out of the station.

Anschutz Co. has recruited a National Basketball Assn. executive to help direct its full-court press in the international sports and entertainment markets. Andrew L. Messick, who helped the NBA establish footholds in China and other countries, joins Anschutz's AEG subsidiary as executive vice president, marketing and international, the company said Monday.

Anaheim and the Anschutz Entertainment Group have tentatively agreed to a five-year deal that would bring some 50 concerts, family shows and sporting events annually to the 7,500-seat Anaheim Arena, city officials said Monday. Greg Smith, Anaheim's convention, sports and entertainment director, said AEG Live, the concert-promoting arm of Anschutz's entertainment empire, would have exclusive entertainment booking rights to the arena.