Joint Venture

It's time for South Korea to face facts: The Kaesong experiment has failed. The ideologically motivated joint business venture with North Korea known as the Kaesong industrial complex is not economically viable, nor has it achieved any of its political objectives. To protest recent sanctions against it, the North pulled its workers out this month and locked out workers from the South. Seoul tried to engage North Korea to resolve the dispute, coupled with an uncharacteristic deadline and a warning of "grave consequences.

Universal Music Group Inc., the largest music company in the world, is forming a joint venture to manage musicians with Live Nation Entertainment Inc., the world's biggest ticketing, concerts promotions and artist management firm. The deal puts Universal's small cluster of four management companies under Live Nation's Front Line Management Group, whose 90 executives manage 250 artists, including the Eagles, Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney and Christina Aguilera. Under the agreement, Front Line will oversee the joint venture.

The top candidate to build the first 29 miles of California's bullet train in the Central Valley bid just under $1 billion, below the state estimate of the cost, project officials announced Friday. The California High-Speed Rail Authority said Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons, a joint venture of U.S. firms, submitted a bid of about $985 million and was ranked first out of five competitors. The team offered the "apparent best value" based on price and technical proposals, evaluators said.

The top candidate to build the first 29 miles of California's bullet train in the Central Valley bid just under $1 billion, below the state estimate of the cost, project officials announced Friday. The California High-Speed Rail Authority said Tutor Perini/Zachry/Parsons, a joint venture of U.S. firms, submitted a bid of about $985 million and was ranked first out of five competitors. The team offered the "apparent best value" based on price and technical proposals, evaluators said.

"Temples of Chance" by David Johnston, reviewed by Nick Tosches Nov. 15, sounds like a must research book as I prepare to write my own memoirs. When I was 17 I hung out with Texas underworld characters and shilled for for a San Antonio after-hours gambling joint. Although I never met the legendary Benny Binion, I'm willing to bet that both David and Nick missed his point when quoting "Better to have a little joint and a big bankroll than a big joint and a small bankroll." The "players" I knew were sexy guys, and rather than advising someone on real-estate size, Binion was much more likely to have been referring to their anatomy.

Creative Artists Agency and one of the top talent agencies in India, Kwan Entertainment & Marketing Solutions, have formed a joint venture to represent Bollywood talent, in a move that underscores the importance of the growing Asian market to the entertainment industry. The newly formed CAA Kwan will pursue opportunities for talent in film, television, music, commercial endorsements, sports consulting and other businesses. The company will be based in Mumbai, with offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Sotheby's will expand its presence in China with a new, 10-year joint venture that will see the auction house giant team up with a state-owned Chinese art company. The deal will create a new entity called Sotheby's (Beijing) Auction Co., Ltd.  Sotheby's said the new company would be the first international fine-art auction house in China. The agreement is subject to approval from the Chinese government. Under the new deal, Sotheby's said it would focus on auctions and exhibitions.

Broadcasting giant CBS Corp. is the latest U.S. media company to enter the fast-growing Indian television market, teaming up with a company backed by one of India's wealthiest men. CBS announced Wednesday that it had structured a 50-50 joint venture with Anil Dhirubhai Ambani's Reliance Broadcast Network that initially will launch three English-language channels in India. The pay television channels, expected to go on the air in October, will target India's younger and more affluent audiences, showcasing programs that CBS owns including "NCIS," " CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and its eagerly awaited remake of " Hawaii Five-0.

L.L. Knickerbocker Co. said it has formed a 50-50 joint venture with Arkenol Holdings L.L.C. to use Arkenol's technology to make chemicals, biomass solids and liquid fuels to sell in some Asian markets. L.L. Knickerbocker said the joint venture will acquire licenses for Arkenol's technology to convert plant materials into ethanol and other chemicals. The joint venture, which is called Arkenol Asia, will sell the chemicals in Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam, Laos and India.

Creative Artists Agency and one of the top talent agencies in India, Kwan Entertainment & Marketing Solutions, have formed a joint venture to represent Bollywood talent, in a move that underscores the importance of the growing Asian market to the entertainment industry. The newly formed CAA Kwan will pursue opportunities for talent in film, television, music, commercial endorsements, sports consulting and other businesses. The company will be based in Mumbai, with offices in Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Sotheby's will expand its presence in China with a new, 10-year joint venture that will see the auction house giant team up with a state-owned Chinese art company. The deal will create a new entity called Sotheby's (Beijing) Auction Co., Ltd.  Sotheby's said the new company would be the first international fine-art auction house in China. The agreement is subject to approval from the Chinese government. Under the new deal, Sotheby's said it would focus on auctions and exhibitions.

A quarter century ago, Fox figured there was room for more than just three big TV networks. It created Fox Broadcasting, which would redefine television with shows such as "Married ... with Children,""The Simpsons,""24" and"American Idol. " Now, Fox is hoping to stage an encore. Rupert Murdoch's company on Monday unveiled MundoFox, a new Spanish-language broadcast network. A joint venture with Colombian powerhouse RCN Television Group, the network will challenge the Spanish-language media dominance of entrenched rivals Univision Communications and Telemundo.

A new Chinese joint venture said Monday that the third installment of DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda" will be made in China as a co-production, the first for any major Hollywood animated feature film. "Kung Fu Panda 3," set for worldwide release in 2017, will be the debut feature-length animated film to be created by Oriental DreamWorks, a Shanghai-based entertainment company launched in February that will develop and produce Chinese animated and live-action content for distribution within China and around the globe.

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details. Toymaker Jakks Pacific is joining forces with Los Angeles tech firm Nantworks to develop and sell a new line of toys tied to smart devices. The toy collection will incorporate a free app designed by Nantworks that uses image-recognition technology to recognize objects and trigger photos, animations and other data to pop up on a smartphone or tablet computer. For example, a smartphone with the app open can be pointed to a costume tiara -   and on the phone's screen, hair could be programmed to digitally grow from the crown, said Stephen Berman, Jakks' chief executive.

The Dodgers should not be required to reveal the conditions that govern use of the land surrounding Dodger Stadium, the team argued in a court filing Monday. Those restrictions include "sensitive non-public commercial information" that should remain sealed, the team claimed. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Gross is set to hear the matter Friday, as part of a hearing in which he is expected to approve the sale of the team. Frank McCourt has agreed to sell the Dodgers to Guggenheim Baseball Management for $2.15 billion, with the parties jointly owning the parking lots that circle the stadium.

In the last few years China has emerged as one of the world's fastest-growing movie markets, but government restrictions have limited the ability of American studios to export their films there. Now a top Hollywood finance and production company is turning that formula around with a deal to make big-budget movies in China for export around the world. Legendary Pictures, known for its role in such blockbusters as "The Dark Knight" and "The Hangover," has formed a China-based joint venture called Legendary East.

In the latest sign of China's rising importance in the global aviation industry, Cessna Aircraft Co. said it would develop a plan to build business jets with the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China. The announcement paves the way for Cessna of Wichita, Kan., to become the first U.S. aircraft maker to manufacture business jets in China, the fastest-growing market for the multimillion-dollar planes. "We believe China represents a significant opportunity for growth," said Scott Donnelly, chief executive of Cessna's parent company, U.S. conglomerate Textron Inc., at a signing ceremony Friday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer has taken back full control of its legendary film label United Artists, is booking a loss on its recent release "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and has added a top TV executive to its board of directors, the independent studio revealed in financial filings this week. Formed in 1919 by film luminaries including Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, UA became part of MGM in 1981. In 2006, UA became a joint venture between MGM and Tom Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner, who together got 30% of the company.