Partnerships

Typically, a foreign consulate in the United States doles out passports, helps travelers in crisis and serves as a liaison to the home country. But the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles has become an almost de facto public agency in recent years, forming partnerships with government officials and nonprofits here to provide healthcare, offer mental health counseling, fight labor violations and hold literacy classes.

When it comes to marketing movies to kids, fast food wasn't to Disney's taste. But 20th Century Fox sees nothing wrong with a Big Mac. The News Corp. studio has struck a partnership with McDonald's for five of its major movie releases through 2010, beginning with the summer sequels "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" and "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs."

The NBA on Thursday detailed plans to dramatically expand its digital business deal with Turner Broadcasting System by turning over operation of its league website, a 24/7 digital television channel and a cable and satellite television package that lets avid fans watch out-of-town games. NBA Commissioner David Stern's decision to partner with a media company on digital rights runs counter to the go-it-alone strategies adopted by the NFL and MLB.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has made good on its threat to break ranks with its more powerful sister union, the Screen Actors Guild. AFTRA's board of directors voted Saturday to separately negotiate its upcoming prime-time television contract with the major studios -- without SAG at the bargaining table. The decision effectively ends a 27-year partnership between the two unions under which they had jointly negotiated film and prime-time TV contracts.

Yahoo Inc.'s negotiations with Google Inc. have intensified as Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang races to find alternatives to Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited $44.6-billion takeover offer, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Yang told Yahoo employees in an e-mail that the board of directors was evaluating "a wide range of potential strategic alternatives" and had "made no decisions" about the Microsoft bid, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If Cal Poly San Luis Obispo had wanted to start an engineering program for a university in someplace like Norway, the proposal probably would have sailed through without much comment either on campus or off. But the school's plan to start an engineering department in Saudi Arabia is a different story.

The U.S.-brokered coalition government that has run this country since 2005 has survived Cabinet reshuffles, oil revenue disputes and even armed skirmishes this year. But can the partnership that ended a 21-year civil war between Muslim Arab northerners and mostly Christian and animist rebels from the south survive a knock-down, drag-out presidential race?

Netflix Inc. continues to expand the reach of its "Watch Instantly" video streaming service, striking a deal to make its movie and TV shows available to about 1 million TiVo owners who have high-speed Internet connections. The partnership represents a bit of back to the future for Netflix and TiVo Inc. They originally announced a video-on-demand deal in fall 2004. That earlier agreement unraveled because of a combination of technology and rights issues.

"If we are to prosper as a nation," Teamsters head James Hoffa Jr., told union members in Oakland in July, "our future lies in a green economy." That might seem like an unusual declaration for a union leader. But then, Hoffa went a step further in announcing that Teamsters was abandoning its push for oil drilling in the Arctic. Environmental activists and union bosses are known for their rancor.

The Gotham Group, the Los Angeles talent management firm, is banding together with a provincial government in South Korea and other investors to capitalize on the global appetite for animated movies.