Divestment

Five months after he opened PNK Pro Beauty Supplies in Glendale, owner Karhen Abramyan has put the shop up for sale. He's gotten a few lowball offers in the last few weeks, but no deal. "I have $60,000 in inventory here, I can't just sell it for $50,000," said Abramyan, who is asking $95,000. Blame the bad economy. Buyers and sellers of California businesses are hampered because the vast pools of money that once fueled sales have dried up.

A family-owned business that started with a local newspaper more than 100 years ago and became best known as owner of the Weather Channel is looking into selling its businesses, including nine daily newspapers. Frank Batten Jr., Landmark Communications Inc.'s chairman and chief executive, announced Thursday that the privately held company had retained investment banks JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Lehman Bros. to help it look into possible sale scenarios.

William J. Pulte, founder and chairman of Pulte Homes Inc., said Monday that he would sell as many as 3.8 million shares under an accord that allows him to buy back the stock by the end of the year. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pulte said he was selling as much as 9% of his stock in the Bloomfield, Mich., company to raise cash for transactions involving friends and family members.

The 103-year-old Hollywood trade paper Variety went on the auction block Thursday when Anglo-Dutch company Reed Elsevier put its publishing unit up for sale. The company said the planned sale was strategic -- part of a move away from advertising-dependent to subscription-based publications and information services -- and no reflection on the performance of its Reed Business Information unit.

H&R Block Inc. said Monday that it had signed an agreement to sell its troubled mortgage servicing business for $1.1 billion to billionaire investor Wilbur Ross. Option One Mortgage Corp., which has been rocked by the nationwide mortgage crisis, services about $53 billion of sub-prime mortgages, ranking it the fourth-largest in the nation.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. has agreed to sell to the University of Southern California both USC University Hospital and USC Norris Cancer Hospital, it was announced Monday. Financial terms were not disclosed. The facilities near downtown Los Angeles are staffed by USC medical personnel and include a teaching facility. The university owns the land and Dallas-based Tenet manages the buildings and equipment.

Time Warner Inc. said Wednesday it would formally split off its cable TV business, giving the media conglomerate a $9.25-billion windfall and allowing it to focus on cable network, entertainment and publishing operations. The separation of Time Warner Cable Inc. would get Time Warner out of the media distribution business altogether, something investors had been clamoring for.

The California Public Employees Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, may sell part of its $2 billion in residential land holdings after the investments lost 31% last year amid falling home prices and forecasts of further declines. Sacramento-based CalPERS hired investment bank Morgan Stanley to review seven land deals that it made with joint-venture partners and real estate advisors, fund spokeswoman Pat Macht said.

Petty Enterprises, the venerable NASCAR team led by Richard Petty, sold control of the family business Wednesday to investment firm Boston Ventures. Once one of stock car racing's most powerful teams with "The King" himself at the wheel, Petty Enterprises fell into mediocrity during the last two decades and hasn't won a race since 1999. "The time has come for Petty Enterprises to take the steps necessary to get back to victory lane," Petty, 70, said in a statement.

With divorce between DreamWorks SKG and Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures a given, the only issue now is who gets custody of the children. Like custody battles anywhere, this one could get nasty. In the coming weeks, DreamWorks will begin the complicated business of dissolving their bitter 2 1/2 -year union, leaving in limbo hundreds of movie projects, employees, talent and producers who work for the company.