Sales

Hoping to boost attendance after a year of production cuts and emergency fundraising appeals, the financially stretched Geffen Playhouse has worked in a new marketing wrinkle: using the Web-based ticket-discounter Goldstar to sell season subscriptions at half price. Buyers snapped up the limited offer in a matter of days, purchasing 287 five-play subscriptions for $87.50, plus Goldstar's $10.50 service fee. The successful bargain-hunters -- whose seats are for previews only, in locations at the back of the house -- will take in a 2009-10 season headlined by film stars Matthew Modine, Annette Bening and Laurence Fishburne.

The U.S. manufacturing sector grew in August after shrinking for 18 straight months. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing executives, said today that its manufacturing index rose to 52.9 in August, from 48.9 in July. It's the first reading above 50, which indicates expansion, since January 2008. It's also the highest since June 2007. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a reading of 50.5. The index, which includes new orders, production, employment, inventories, prices and more, is based on a survey of the Tempe, Ariz.

Twenty-five Harley-Davidsons rumbled through the heart of the rain-drenched Indian capital recently, aggressively announcing the arrival of the legendary U.S. company in one of the world's largest motorcycle markets. The American motorcycle's long-awaited journey to India was enabled by what has come to be called the "mango-motorcycle swap" in 2007 trade negotiations, when the United States decided to allow Indian mangoes to be imported in return for the export of Harley-Davidsons.

In an effort to quell its critics, Google Inc. on Thursday said it would open up its vast digital books archive to rival retailers who can access the books and sell them online. The announcement, made during a congressional hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Google's book-scanning project, involves digital copies of millions of so-called orphan books, works that are still under copyright but whose rights holders can't be tracked down. Since 2004, the Mountain View, Calif.

Boom! Not even John Madden and his trademark expressions could avert the crash in video game sales in August, which fell 16% from last year. The drop was the industry's sixth consecutive monthly decline, according to a report released Thursday by market research firm NPD Group Inc. That means sales of games and game consoles must grow 14% in the last four months of the year for 2009 sales to be flat with 2008, NPD analyst Anita Frazier said....

Dan Brown's new novel has passed the 2 million mark and bested Bill Clinton's "My Life" in the record books. Doubleday announced Tuesday that hardcover, audio and e-book sales for "The Lost Symbol" topped 2 million copies for its first week of release in the United States, Britain and Canada. The total is "well over" 2 million for English-language editions worldwide, according to Doubleday spokeswoman Suzanne Herz, who declined to offer a specific number. Herz did say that around 5%, or 100,000 copies, of "The Lost Symbol" were sold as e-books.

Sales of existing homes nationwide fell slightly last month from July's levels, but were higher than the same month a year ago, an industry group reported today. The median price for U.S. resale homes in August was $177,700, practically even with July's $178,400 median, but down 12.5% from August 2008, the National Assn. of Realtors said. It's not unusual for home sales to decline slightly from July to August -- that also happened for the previous three years. August sales fell 2.7% from July to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 5.1 million units.

The drumbeat is growing in Washington for extending -- even expanding -- the popular $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers, a soon-expiring benefit that some experts estimate is on its way to spurring as many as 400,000 additional sales this year. The program has been a component in the federal effort to resuscitate the devastated real estate market. Reversing falling housing prices by stimulating sales is a key to halting the tide of foreclosures that have helped drag down the economy.

It's hard to miss a man with a wooden bucket hat on his head, especially if it's adorned with painted leeks. "There are very few fashion statements that haven't been made," said Guy Klender, 37, an actor, "and this is one of them." The handle of the bucket dangled under his chin. The haberdashery (from "Falstaff") wasn't the strangest item for sale at the Los Angeles Opera's first-ever costume sale held Saturday. That distinction would go to the grotesque rubbery costume worn by bass baritone Daniel Okulitch as the title character in "The Fly," the 2008 opera directed by David Cronenberg.

Vivendi is being un peu mysterieuse . The board of the French media and telecommunications company met in Paris on Wednesday, but the company refused to say whether it had voted to shed its 20% stake in NBC Universal -- or whether the subject was even discussed. Vivendi has time to decide. On Nov. 15, a three-week window opens for Vivendi to notify its partner, General Electric Co., whether it will exercise an option to sell its interest in NBC Universal. That window reopens each year.