Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp

Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. announced the ouster of Chief Executive Paul A. Toback and said its search for a buyer had been unsuccessful, sending its shares sharply lower. The Chicago-based operator of 390 fitness clubs elected Don R. Kornstein to serve as interim chairman and Barry R. Elson as acting CEO. Both were on a dissident slate of board members nominated by hedge fund Pardus Capital Management, a major shareholder, and elected in January.

LA Fitness, one of the largest gym chains in the country, has become an even more dominant player in the health club industry. The Irvine company last week took over 171 Bally Total Fitness locations in 16 states, including about 40 in Southern California, marking one of the biggest deals by a gym chain in recent years. The $153-million purchase, which gives LA Fitness more than 500 locations nationwide, is a smart move, experts said. LA Fitness picked up tens of thousands of members in prime markets.

Shares of Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. plunged 62% after the struggling fitness center operator said it might seek U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection. The slide accelerated a steep decline in Bally's stock that began last year amid questions about management and failed efforts to sell itself. Bally plummeted $1.24 to an all-time closing low of 75 cents a share. It is down more than 90% in the last year.

Shares of Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. plunged 62% after the struggling fitness center operator said it might seek U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection. The slide accelerated a steep decline in Bally's stock that began last year amid questions about management and failed efforts to sell itself. Bally plummeted $1.24 to an all-time closing low of 75 cents a share. It is down more than 90% in the last year.

Two activist hedge funds succeeded Thursday in electing three candidates to the board of Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. but failed in a bid to remove Paul Toback as chairman and chief executive, the company said after its annual meeting. Chicago-based Bally, the largest U.S. fitness center operator, said Charles Burdick, Barry Elson and Don Kornstein appeared to have been elected to Bally's board, based on preliminary results. Final results are expected within two weeks.

Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp., North America's biggest operator of health clubs, agreed to buy Crunch Fitness for about $90 million in stock and cash to increase its appeal to young, urban clients. New York-based Crunch, which will operate as a separate brand, has 80,000 members at 19 health clubs in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta. Bally will issue about 3 million common shares to holders of closely held Crunch.

After a five-month internal investigation, Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. has fired two mid-level executives and accused its former chief executive and chief financial officer of faulty accounting practices. The gym operator said former CEO Lee Hillman and former finance chief John Dwyer were responsible for "multiple accounting errors and for creating a culture of aggressive accounting." The company said it had ceased severance payments to both men.

Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. is preparing a possible "poison pill" takeover defense because it says two of its largest shareholders may be acting in collusion. The nation's largest fitness-club chain said in a statement Friday that it was "considering its options" to determine whether its shareholder rights plan was triggered because Liberation Investments and Pardus Capital Management were working together.

After helping you put it on, now they want to help you take it off. Yum Brands Inc. -- which owns the Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver's and A&W chains -- is offering free, four-week memberships at Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. clubs in January to people bent on indulging without bulging. The timing of the promotion coincides with the ritual of making a New Year's resolution to lose weight.

Nationwide gym operator Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. is whipping its business into better shape, but that's nothing compared with its stock's calisthenics this year. Bally's shares tripled in price between mid-1997 and mid-July of this year in response to the company's improvement, then dropped like dead weight during the last two months, plunging 48% since July 20. The stock closed Friday at $19.19 a share, up 6 cents on the day, in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. announced the ouster of Chief Executive Paul A. Toback and said its search for a buyer had been unsuccessful, sending its shares sharply lower. The Chicago-based operator of 390 fitness clubs elected Don R. Kornstein to serve as interim chairman and Barry R. Elson as acting CEO. Both were on a dissident slate of board members nominated by hedge fund Pardus Capital Management, a major shareholder, and elected in January.

Two activist hedge funds succeeded Thursday in electing three candidates to the board of Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. but failed in a bid to remove Paul Toback as chairman and chief executive, the company said after its annual meeting. Chicago-based Bally, the largest U.S. fitness center operator, said Charles Burdick, Barry Elson and Don Kornstein appeared to have been elected to Bally's board, based on preliminary results. Final results are expected within two weeks.

Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. is preparing a possible "poison pill" takeover defense because it says two of its largest shareholders may be acting in collusion. The nation's largest fitness-club chain said in a statement Friday that it was "considering its options" to determine whether its shareholder rights plan was triggered because Liberation Investments and Pardus Capital Management were working together.

After a five-month internal investigation, Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. has fired two mid-level executives and accused its former chief executive and chief financial officer of faulty accounting practices. The gym operator said former CEO Lee Hillman and former finance chief John Dwyer were responsible for "multiple accounting errors and for creating a culture of aggressive accounting." The company said it had ceased severance payments to both men.

After helping you put it on, now they want to help you take it off. Yum Brands Inc. -- which owns the Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, Long John Silver's and A&W chains -- is offering free, four-week memberships at Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp. clubs in January to people bent on indulging without bulging. The timing of the promotion coincides with the ritual of making a New Year's resolution to lose weight.

A man was found dead Tuesday in a Bally Total Fitness hot tub, authorities said. The man, 33, appeared to have drowned, but an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death, police said. There was no evidence of foul play, they said. Authorities were called to the facility on South Bundy Drive about 10:30 a.m. after the body was discovered, said Lt. Fred Corral of the coroner's office.

LA Fitness, one of the largest gym chains in the country, has become an even more dominant player in the health club industry. The Irvine company last week took over 171 Bally Total Fitness locations in 16 states, including about 40 in Southern California, marking one of the biggest deals by a gym chain in recent years. The $153-million purchase, which gives LA Fitness more than 500 locations nationwide, is a smart move, experts said. LA Fitness picked up tens of thousands of members in prime markets.

Bally Total Fitness has signed a lease to operate a 28,000-square-foot gym in the Gotcha Glacier, a proposed indoor facility for snowboarding and other action sports in Anaheim, the developers said Wednesday. Glacier of Anaheim LLC, a San Juan Capistrano partnership that hopes to build the Glacier next to Edison International Field, has said it must sign major leases before it can finance the deal.

Bally Total Fitness Holding Corp., North America's biggest operator of health clubs, agreed to buy Crunch Fitness for about $90 million in stock and cash to increase its appeal to young, urban clients. New York-based Crunch, which will operate as a separate brand, has 80,000 members at 19 health clubs in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, San Francisco and Atlanta. Bally will issue about 3 million common shares to holders of closely held Crunch.

Bally Total Fitness has signed a lease to operate a 28,000-square-foot gym in the Gotcha Glacier, a proposed indoor facility for snowboarding and other action sports in Anaheim, the developers said Wednesday. Glacier of Anaheim LLC, a San Juan Capistrano partnership that hopes to build the Glacier next to Edison International Field, has said it must sign major leases before it can finance the deal.