Takeover

NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeffrey Zucker will step down once Comcast Corp. completes its takeover of the company, giving the new owners a chance to reshape management. Zucker, 45, told employees today of his decision to leave the company where he has spent his entire working career. Parent General Electric Co. also announced the decision in an internal memo.

True Religion Apparel Inc., the Southern California purveyor of pricey designer denim, may have gotten too small for its britches. More than half a year after putting itself up for sale amid growth struggles and fluctuating stock, the high-end-jeans seller said its board unanimously accepted an $835-million takeover offer from investment firm TowerBrook Capital Partners. The $32-a-share deal for the Vernon label represents an 8.7% premium on Thursday's $29.44-a-share closing price and a 52% increase from the stock price Oct. 9, the day before True Religion said it would explore strategic alternatives.

Sirius XM Radio Inc. Chief Executive Mel Karmazin said he would likely leave the company when Liberty Media takes control of the satellite radio broadcaster. Liberty, the largest shareholder in SiriusXM, currently holds just under 50% of the stock and has already told the Federal Communications Commission that it plans to acquire more than that and would like the regulatory agency to approve it as the outright owner when that happens. Speaking at the Merrill Lynch Media, Communications and Entertainment Conference in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, Karmazin said he is willing to talk about staying but added, "If I were Liberty I would say, 'I'm not sure we need Mel.'" Karmazin's contract with SiriusXM is up at the end of the year.

NASCAR's title sponsor, Sprint Nextel Corp. is in the middle of a takeover battle. Dish Network Corp. on Monday made an unsolicited $25.5-billion offer to buy Sprint, which already had agreed to merge with SoftBank Corp., a Japanese telecommunications company. Regardless of which company prevails in buying Sprint, it raises the question of whether the change in control could affect the company's title sponsorship of NASCAR's top-tier Sprint Cup Series. It's too soon to tell because the answer would depend on the new owner's willingness to stay invested in NASCAR.

Ogilvy Group Inc. today said that it has begun talks with Britain's WPP Group PLC, which has made a $50-a-share takeover offer for the American advertising company and has indicated its willingness to increase the bid. Ogilvy said there is no guarantee that the discussions will produce an agreement on WPP acquiring Ogilvy, the world's fifth-largest advertising concern based on 1988 billings. Takeover speculators on Wall Street have expected WPP to make a more generous offer.

A group of Native Hawaiians claiming to be the state's legitimate rulers occupied the grounds of a historic palace in Honolulu for two hours before being arrested by state officers in the second recent takeover of its kind. A staff member of the Iolani Palace said she was assaulted and slightly injured during the takeover Friday night, then snubbed by city police who said they didn't have jurisdiction. Gov. Linda Lingle said there would be an inquiry into the police response to the takeover.

Speaking to a meeting of the National Petroleum Refiners Assn. in San Antonio, Unocal Chairman Fred L. Hartley said: "Clearly, the immediate need is for a congressional moratorium on hostile takeovers--a sort of 'cooling off' period while the nation has a chance to pause and think, the speculators have a chance to realize that this speculative chain letter can't go on forever and Congress has a chance to make needed chances in the tax code and elsewhere." An investor group led by Texas oilman T.

At first flush, neither T. Boone Pickens nor Jack Daniels was a welcome guest at the 63rd annual convention of the National Assn. of Broadcasters, meeting here through Wednesday. Corporate takeover artists and demon alcohol were twin targets in association President Edward O. (Eddie) Fritts Jr.'s state of the industry address to an estimated 35,000 TV and radio executives. Many of those men and women work for firms that have been targets of hostile Wall Street takeovers in recent months.

The Los Angeles investment firm, headed by former Financial Corp. of American head Charles W. Knapp, said it has acquired an option to purchase 23% of Mineba Co. Ltd. of Japan, a maker of miniature bearings and electronic parts. Trafalgar Holdings said it wants to acquire either Mineba or Sankyo Seiki, another Japanese electronics company that currently is a takeover target of Mineba. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Micropolis Corp.'s board of directors have approved an anti-takeover shield designed to discourage a hostile takeover bid by making the company more expensive for a suitor to buy. The plan gives stockholders the right to buy more shares if a hostile suitor should buy 20% or more of the company's stock or launch an unsolicited tender offer for 30% or more of Micropolis' stock. Micropolis, a Chatsworth maker of disk-drive data storage equipment used in computers, has suffered recently from an glut of product on the market, as well as its own production problems.

In a bizarre twist of fate, the Kardashians are weighing in on Amanda Bynes' latest shenanigans. The reality TV family - mom Kris Jenner and Kourtney, Kim and Khloe Kardashian - took over E!'s late-night reality show "Chelsea Lately" Monday ahead of the June 2 premiere of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians. They set about to discuss the latest celebrity headlines, including those about themselves and the former Nickelodeon star. The sisters opened the show, and Jenner spearheaded Chelsea Handler's signature round-table banter, with her daughters sitting in instead of comedians.

Is Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art all-in when it comes to its own independence? The question arises from a recent comment by museum director Jeffrey Deitch in the New York Post. MOCA this week announced the launch of "MOCA Independence," a campaign to ensure its autonomy and financial security by boosting its endowment to $100 million. PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Times The Post reported that it asked Deitch whether that meant MOCA “was basically telling [the Los Angeles County Museum of Art]

Could Michael Dell lose it all? With a bidding war now underway for Dell, efforts by its founder to regain control of the once-mighty computer maker could be backfiring. Dell announced Monday that it had received two competing offers - one from a group led by private equity firm Blackstone Group and the other from activist investor Carl Icahn. The rival bids came after investors slammed Michael Dell's $24.4-billion buyout plan, saying it undervalued the company. If one of the competing offers is accepted, it could be a blow to Chief Executive Michael Dell, who last month announced a deal to take the company private in the biggest leveraged buyout since the Great Recession.

Michael Govan came to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art seven years ago with a mission to make it one of the most prestigious institutions in the country, one worth mentioning alongside New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art. Now he's trying to seize an opportunity to gain ground on them in a single stroke. Govan and LACMA's trustees have proposed a takeover of L.A.'s financially adrift Museum of Contemporary Art and its crown jewels: a 6,000-piece collection that's one of the world's most admired troves of post-World War II art. But Govan has an imposing rival in billionaire Eli Broad, L.A.'s eminence grise of art philanthropy.

Michigan's Republican governor, Rick Snyder, took the unprecedented step last week of announcing that he considers Detroit's elected leaders incapable of fixing the city's fiscal problems, and so he will appoint an emergency financial manager with sweeping authority. That's a flawed approach. The problem in Detroit is not the people in charge (though some Detroit leaders have certainly failed the city). The real problem is the broader structure of government in the region. And therein lies a lesson for other urban areas and, perhaps, a template for avoiding what befell the Motor City.

Richard Schulze, Best Buy Co.'s largest shareholder, missed his window this week to attempt a takeover of the electronics retailer. But if its fourth quarter financials are any indication, the struggling company may not need him. Best Buy, beleaguered by several quarters of slipping earnings, narrowed its loss to $409 million, or $1.21 a share, from a loss of $1.82 billion, or $5.17 a share during the same period a year earlier. During the quarter, which ended Feb. 2, revenue was mostly flat at $16.7 billion.

The company, owner of the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Cubs and KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, devised a plan by which it can issue additional shares if anyone mounts a tender offer for the company or acquires 20% of its common stock. It will distribute to shareholders the right to buy one new share for every share they already hold. The right to buy these shares only goes into effect after a takeover attempt is started.

Mobil Corp., an oil giant with $35 billion in assets, is urging its shareholders to approve a series of corporate bylaw changes aimed at making a hostile takeover more difficult. One measure would stagger the terms of members of the board of directors, making it impossible to unseat a majority of the board in one election.

A concert and cuisine: If you're looking for Friday date night ideas, there are still tickets available for tonight's Salastina Music Society performance at the Wine Vault in Glendale. This evening's program will include a musical performance, featuring the likes of Mozart and Brahms, followed by a five-course menu from Gary Menes of Le Comptoir. Tickets are $155 per person and include the concert, dinner and wine pairings. Tickets can be purchased online . 929 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale, (323)

Bourbon pairing dinner at Cafe del Rey: On Feb. 7, chef Daniel Roberts of Cafe del Rey will be pairing a four-course menu with handcrafted bourbon cocktails from Heaven Hills Distilleries. The menu will feature dishes such as day boat scallops with fennel, faro and a vanilla-almond sauce; pork cheeks with apple and sweet potato hash; venison rack with artichokes, blood oranges, butter beans and juniper; and for dessert, spiced gingerbread served with smoked raisin compote, malted ice cream and barley tuiles.