Mgm Mirage Company

You can take a pyramid out of Egypt, but can you take Egypt out of a pyramid? The Luxor hotel-casino, whose giant pyramid is an icon on the Las Vegas Strip, is spending $300 million to tone down its sphinx-and-mummy motif and transform itself into a hipper venue. In the next few months, owner MGM Mirage Inc.

MGM Mirage will slash prices of its high-end CityCenter condos by 30%, the company said Monday, a move intended to mollify buyers who were unsure they could close on units purchased during the Las Vegas real estate boom. The price cuts underscore the reversal of fortunes on the Las Vegas Strip. Just a few years ago, condominiums were being touted as the next stage in its seemingly unstoppable growth. Although the reductions mark a significant reversal by the gaming giant, which took deposits on about half of its 2,400 residential units, it was unclear whether the cuts were deep enough to satisfy some buyers.

The Dubai developer building an $8.6-billion complex on the Las Vegas Strip with casino company MGM Mirage Inc. is suing MGM Mirage because it's worried about the project's viability. Dubai World subsidiary Infinity World claims in a lawsuit filed Monday in Delaware Chancery Court that MGM Mirage's statements about its financial condition put the project at risk.

MGM Mirage said it booked a first-quarter profit including a hefty gain from selling its Treasure Island hotel and casino in Las Vegas, but its revenue suffered from an increase in convention cancellations at its resorts on the Strip. MGM Mirage shares jumped 74 cents, or 7.8%, to $10.18 in after-hours trading, after gaining $1.58, or 20.1%, to close the regular session at $9.44. For the quarter that ended March 31, MGM Mirage earned $105.2 million, or 38 cents a share. But those results include a 44-cent-a-share one-time gain from selling the casino and smaller one-time gains related to a fire at MGM Mirage's Monte Carlo resort and casino.

* MGM Mirage Inc. said it's delaying a development adjacent to its Bellagio casino in Las Vegas to focus on a new resort next to a $1-billion hotel and casino that it's building in Atlantic City, N.J. * Guide to Our Staff: Need to reach Business section reporters or editors? A guide to the section's staff can be found at: http://www.latimes.com/bizstaff.

Alex Yemenidjian, former chief executive of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, has resigned from the board of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's MGM Mirage to seek another position in the casino industry, the company said. Yemenidjian served as president of the casino company before taking over the MGM studio for Kerkorian, eventually selling it to an investment group led by Sony Corp.

MGM Mirage Inc. reported a more than 25% drop in fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday but still beat analyst expectations thanks to increased gambling at the company's Las Vegas Strip properties. For the three months ended Dec. 31, the gambling giant earned $67.9 million, or 47 cents a share, down from $91.7 million, or 62 cents, a year earlier.

Mandarin Oriental International Ltd., the luxury hotel arm of Asia's Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., said it planned to open a 400-room hotel in Las Vegas in 2009 with MGM Mirage. The hotel will be part of the $5-billion Project CityCenter that MGM Mirage is building on the Las Vegas Strip. The Mandarin chain will have a management contract and won't be taking an equity stake.

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian said he would purchase an additional 444,573 shares of MGM Mirage, less than 3% of the original 15 million shares he sought through a tender offer. Kerkorian, through his Beverly Hills-based Tracinda Corp. investment company, will buy the shares for $55 each, or $24.5 million, increasing his stake in the world's second-largest casino company to 55.9%. Kerkorian now has a stake worth $9.07 billion based on Thursday's closing price of $57.10, an increase of $1.

Does Kirk Kerkorian have a hot hand? Wall Street thinks so. Investors went "all in" on shares of MGM Mirage on Tuesday, the day after Kerkorian's Tracinda Corp. disclosed that he wanted to buy two of the hotel and gaming company's prime Las Vegas assets. MGM Mirage's stock zoomed more than 27% despite few specifics from the billionaire investor concerning his plans. Other gaming stocks rallied as investors bet that Kerkorian was on to something.

The Dubai developer building an $8.6-billion complex on the Las Vegas Strip with casino company MGM Mirage Inc. is suing MGM Mirage because it's worried about the project's viability. Dubai World subsidiary Infinity World claims in a lawsuit filed Monday in Delaware Chancery Court that MGM Mirage's statements about its financial condition put the project at risk.

MGM Mirage, the casino company majority-owned by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, named Jim Murren to replace Chief Executive and Chairman Terry Lanni. Murren, 47, is the Las Vegas company's chief operating officer and was Lanni's pick to succeed him. The appointment is effective Dec. 1, an MGM spokesman said.

Shares of MGM Mirage, the casino company majority-owned by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, rose the most in almost 19 years after it shelved two planned casino developments and outlined cost reductions that would save $500 million a year. Chief Executive Terrence Lanni said most of the expense cuts were permanent. He is halting work on the company's planned MGM Grand Atlantic City casino resort and indefinitely delaying a joint venture on the Las Vegas Strip with Kerzner International Ltd., the owner of the Atlantis casino in the Bahamas.

Shares in MGM Mirage Inc. surged after the company said it had secured commitments for $1.65 billion of the final $3 billion in financing for CityCenter, its next major casino project on the Las Vegas Strip. The company said last week that a deal was delayed because of tight financial markets. Executives had expected the deal to be in place in June or July but said Tuesday that it would be done in the third quarter. MGM Mirage shares leaped $4.85, or 15.7%, to $35.85 the same day the company reported a 68.6% drop in second-quarter profit.

Casino operator MGM Mirage Inc. said Wednesday it would help build a $3-billion nongambling hotel resort in Abu Dhabi with that government's development firm, Mubadala Development Co. The property is expected to open in 2012. The project, planned for 50 acres on a downtown waterfront site on Abu Dhabi Island, will consist of an MGM Grand hotel and two other MGM-branded luxury hotels with more than 1,200 rooms.

atlantic city, n.j. -- MGM Mirage Inc. plans to build a mega-casino resort worth as much as $5 billion that will dwarf anything Atlantic City has seen before, the company said Wednesday. The move is part of a gamble by casino operators to polish Atlantic City's image and attract upscale customers who want to do more than just bet money. The project, which will be called MGM Grand Atlantic City, will cost $4.

MGM Mirage Inc. said Thursday that it had decided to increase the size of its planned CityCenter project on the Las Vegas Strip, boosting its cost to $7 billion. The 66-acre development would include more residential space than planned, MGM President James Murren said. "They're higher and we keep tweaking the unit sizes to hit the sweet spot in the market," he said of the planned residential towers.

Dubai World's offer to buy 14.2 million shares of MGM Mirage, the world's second-largest casino company, expired with investors selling less than 3% of the stock the firm was seeking. The investment company, run by Dubai's government, said Monday that it would still buy 14.2 million MGM shares directly from the Las Vegas-based company at $84 each. The firm said last week that it might purchase more stock on the open market.

The Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai anted up Wednesday, announcing it would invest $5.1 billion in MGM Mirage for a 50% stake in the massive Las Vegas CityCenter project now in development and a 10% interest in the gaming company. The deal continues Dubai's investments in name-brand and hospitality destinations around the world, but also infuses Las Vegas-based MGM Mirage with cash to quickly pursue other projects without being laden with debt.