Investors

We've reached a point in the global recession where things no longer look universally bleak. Maybe just mostly bleak -- but that still counts as an improvement to some investors who are getting restless sitting on markets' sidelines. They're particularly restless in the People's Republic of China, which boasts the world's hottest stock markets in 2009. The Shanghai composite index jumped 6.4% this week, boosting its year-to-date gain to 27.

Lionsgate has a new Tyler Perry film opening this weekend. But that's not what Hollywood and Wall Street are buzzing about when it comes to the movie and TV industry's biggest independent studio. One of the investment community's most feared corporate raiders -- Carl Icahn -- has taken center stage as he continues to snap up shares in the company behind the Tyler Perry and "Saw" movies and the cable shows "Mad Men" and "Weeds."

Activist shareholder Carl Icahn, tightening his grip on the independent movie and TV studio Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., is making veiled threats of waging a proxy war for the company if it doesn't consent to add his nominees for the board. Icahn has not yet nominated candidates. But in a regulatory filing he said he "may seek to add nominees" and may call a "special meeting" of shareholders, a signal that he is willing to take a hostile action if Lions Gate doesn't comply.

First Bank of Beverly Hills, a Calabasas institution under federal orders to raise more funds, was rescued Tuesday by a Chicago financial firm that pledged to provide new capital and convert the bank into a conventional small-business operation.

Stephen and Linda Drake cast aside concerns about owning property in Mexico because they believed in Donald Trump. The Southern California couple made a $250,000 down payment on a 19th-floor oceanfront condo in Trump Ocean Resort Baja in 2006 before the first construction crew arrived.

A group of Walt Disney Co. shareholders wants a say on the wages and benefits paid to the company's executives. The proposal would give Disney investors a nonbinding, advisory vote on the pay packages given to Chief Executive Bob Iger and other top executives. The measure reflects growing investor ire over generous executive compensation.

Setting the stage for a nasty proxy fight, activist shareholder Carl Icahn halted talks with Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. over his request for board seats. The breakdown occurred Wednesday after the investor refused to stop accumulating stock in the film and television studio. For the last three weeks, Icahn, Lions Gate's third-biggest shareholder, has been negotiating with the company's management to get several seats on its 12-member board.

The latest development in the mortgage market fomenting outrage in the streets and condemnation across the media spectrum is the spectacle of rich investors -- Wall Street traders, hedge fund operators, even former executives of the detested Countrywide Financial Corp. -- buying up delinquent home loans, reworking terms for borrowers, and selling them off to new investors at a handsome profit. Here's what I think about these bottom feeders: God bless them.

Today is the day that people who entrusted their money to Bernard L. Madoff have anxiously awaited. Since the financier allegedly admitted in December to running one of the largest investment frauds in history, victims have clamored for him to be carted off to prison. With Madoff expected to plead guilty today, a federal judge will decide whether the defendant will be led away in handcuffs or allowed to remain at his multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment pending sentencing later this year.

It looks as if Mark Rachesky, the biggest shareholder in Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., wants to be in the picture. Just as the company is girding for a potential proxy battle with corporate raider Carl Icahn, Rachesky has changed his status to "active" from "passive" investor and says he may seek a board seat.