Revenue

Los Angeles police will not pursue through the courts scores of motorists with unpaid tickets from the city's defunct red-light camera program. The city Police Commission voted this week to end its contract with the company that operated L.A.'s cameras until they were shut off last summer. And authorities are now planning to reassign a small group of officers who regularly appeared in court to testify in contested photo enforcement cases. With the cancellation of the contract, officers will no longer have easy access to the photo and video evidence that courts require.

Facebook has made a habit of advancing its interests at the expense of its customers, whether by weakening its privacy policy, tracking users' movements around the Web or radically reconfiguring the way information is displayed on the site's pages. So it probably shouldn't surprise anyone that while the company's initial stock offering was a boon to the company and insiders, it's been a costly disappointment for the general public. Now, some investors are accusing the company and its bankers of playing the public for suckers, sharing pessimistic revenue projections with a few insiders but not average investors.

There wasn't much to like about Facebook's first day as a public company. The social media giant's stock rose by mere pennies in its initial public offering. The shares closed at $38.23, barely above the $38 IPO price. The performance fell far short of the grandiose expectations of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, and raised questions about whether the company's stock will be the sure bet many had counted on. "There was all this pressure and hype and attention with all eyes on Facebook — and the starlet tripped on the red carpet," said Max Wolff, an analyst at GreenCrest Capital Management in New York.

When historians of such things seek the moment the U.S. Olympic Committee found a way to forge the agreement Thursday that put the U.S. back in the game as a potential Olympic Games host, they need look no further than Oct. 7, 2009. It was five days after Chicago had suffered a humiliating first-round loss in the International Olympic Committee vote for host of the 2016 Summer Olympics. There quickly followed calls for heads in the USOC leadership to roll. It was the day USOC Chairman Larry Probst got so angry about being called out by some of his constituents, including athletes and the heads of the national sports federations, that he vowed to show them.

Time Warner Inc. wants more juice out of TMZ, the celebrity website that is the brainchild of former Los Angeles TV newsman Harvey Levin. The media giant hopes to wring more advertising revenue out of the property and use some of the money to expand the news operation, according to people close to the site who were not authorized to speak publicly. That's the plan once Time Warner takes full control of TMZ today, when the media giant spins off AOL to shareholders. Since its launch by former KCBS-TV Channel 2 reporter Levin in December 2005, TMZ has been run as a partnership of AOL and the Telepictures unit of Warner Bros.

A weak film slate drove Lionsgate Entertainment Corp. revenue down in the quarter ended Sept. 30, causing its stock to fall 5% despite a previous warning by the independent studio. The Santa Monica company told investors in late September that the box-office underperformance of movies "Conan the Barbarian," "Warrior" and "Abduction" would cause it to lose more money than expected in its fiscal second quarter. But investors still seemed mildly disappointed Wednesday as Lionsgate reported that its revenue dropped 22% from the same period a year earlier, to $358.1 million.

Home goods seller Williams-Sonoma Inc.said its fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose 8% on strong performances from its Pottery Barn and West Elm brands. The results released Thursday beat Wall Street estimates, but the company offered fiscal 2012 earnings guidance that was slightly below what analysts expect. Its revenue forecast for the year, however, was above analysts' estimates. The company also announced that Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer Sharon McCollam has retired.

Although revenue was up, higher costs for rights to sporting events and a less than spectacular performance by Warner Bros. meant smaller profits for media giant Time Warner Inc. The addition of the NCAA college basketball tournament meant more advertising dollars at Time Warner's Turner networks. But it also increased programming costs. That and some disappointing movie releases from Burbank-based Warner Bros., including "Hall Pass," led to a nearly 10% drop in net income to $653 million for the company's first quarter.

Tourism will become Cuba's second-highest hard currency earner after sugar by 1992, with an annual revenue of $500 million, the head of the National Tourist Board was quoted as saying Wednesday.

Local governments, including the one that runs the city of West Hollywood, are trying to provide the most and best services with the least amount of revenue. The city of West Hollywood could use more revenue to benefit the community. But the question is how can revenue collected by the city be increased with the least amount of pain to the residents? One way to raise a little money might be the sale of commercial time on the West Hollywood cable television broadcasts. We must consider that even KCET public broadcasting sells brief commercial spots to "corporate donors."

Maybe what Facebook really needs is a "buy" button. After a lifeless opening last week, Facebook shares tumbled on their second day of trading, losing about $10 billion in market value Monday as investors questioned the company's revenue prospects. Shares of the Menlo Park, Calif., social network fell to as low as $33 before closing down $4.20, or 11%, to $34.03. It was unclear if Facebook shares got help from traders at the company's lead underwriter, Morgan Stanley, who stepped in Friday to prop up shares just a hair above their $38 offering price.

The Dodgers' new owners could reap hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits from the confidential terms of a U.S. Bankruptcy Court settlement between former owner Frank McCourt and Major League Baseball. The terms can be enforced for up to 40 years, with final authority over distribution of the Dodgers' television revenue granted to the court rather than to MLB, according to two people familiar with the sale process but not authorized to discuss it. As a result, the Dodgers' new owners could retain millions each year that otherwise would be shared with other teams.

In a world that's gone mobile, Facebook Inc. has a lot of catching up to do. Facebook pocketed a cool $3.1 billion last year from ads viewed from laptop and desktop computer screens, but it hasn't figured out a way to make big money on the 500 million people - more than half its users - who log in with smartphones and tablets. An iPad application for Facebook wasn't released until last fall. And Facebook didn't offer advertising for mobile devices until two months ago, when it began showing mobile users "sponsored stories" ads in their news feeds.

CADIZ, Calif. - Three decades ago a group of businessmen pored over NASA satellite imagery as part of a worldwide hunt for large groundwater reserves they could tap to grow desert crops. They found the signs they were looking for here in the sun-blasted mountain ranges and creosote-freckled valleys of the Mojave Desert, 200 miles east of Los Angeles. The group, which founded Cadiz Inc., bought old railroad land, drilled wells and planted neat grids of citrus trees and grapevines, irrigating them with water that bubbled out of the desert depths at the rate of 2,000 gallons a minute.

General Motors Co.plans to pull its paid advertising from Facebook Inc. after the nation's largest automaker determined its ads on the social network had little effect on consumers. The move represents an ill-timed setback for Facebook, which is gearing up for what is expected to be the largest ever initial public stock offering of an Internet company. In the run-up to its IPO, expected Friday, investors have been weighing Facebook's revenue prospects and have questioned the effectiveness of advertising on the social networking site.

KHARTOUM, Sudan - It has come to this: The Sudanese government is sending out text messages to the population begging for donations to help the cash-strapped military. "Please help support the army," the messages plead. "If you want to contribute 10 Sudanese pounds, send number 10, and if you want to contribute 50 pounds, send the number 50. " This would not appear to an optimum moment to get into a war with its newest neighbor, South Sudan. But pride on both sides of their disputed border is undermining hope of peace, analysts warn, with neither side willing to reach a deal on the oil both depend on. South Sudan independence in July has cost Sudan three-quarters of its oil revenue, paralyzing the nation's economy.

Sinking oil and gas prices lowered Newhall Resources' revenue by 9% last year but the Valencia-based oil-and-gas partnership enjoyed a 2% increase in earnings because of reduced expenses. For 1985, Newhall Resources' net income was $5.7 million, or $1.31 per partnership unit, on revenue of $13.3 million. In a statement, James F. Dickason, Newhall Resources' general partner, said oil prices fell 3.5% and gas prices declined 12% last year.

State of the Art Inc. said profit nearly doubled in 1995 on a 24% increase in revenue. Net income for the accounting software developer increased last year to $5.7 million, or 51 cents a share, from $2.9 million, or 27 cents a share, the previous year. Revenue rose to $46.1 million from $37.3 million. Net income for the fourth quarter more than doubled to $2 million, or 18 cents a share, from $977,000, or 9 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Revenue was up 14% to $13.

Los Angeles County voters face two tax measures on the June 5 ballot, and they are unusual for several reasons: They ratify taxes that are already in place and have been for more than two decades; the taxes apply only in unincorporated areas of the county; and all residents benefit from the taxes although few ever will have occasion to actually pay them. Measure H keeps the hotel tax in place at its current level. Measure L keeps a tax on landfill operators in place. H for hotels, L for landfills.

Los Angeles clothier American Apparel Inc. reported a narrower financial loss and improved sales in its first quarter of 2012, but it continued to struggle. For the quarter that ended March 31, the retailer reported a loss of $7.9 million, or 7 cents a share, an improvement from the loss of $20.7 million, or 28 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales totaled $132.7 million, a 14% jump from $116.1 million in the year-earlier period. "We're beginning to see the results of greater efficiency in merchandise planning, systems for delivery to markets and inventory control," said Peter Schey, a lawyer for American Apparel.