The Digest A ROUNDUP OF SAN FERNANDO VALLEY NEWS Homestore to Restate Earnings Homestore.com Inc. will restate its 2000 financial results and file new numbers by mid-March. Following Homestore’s announcement on Feb. 13, Nasdaq halted trading in Homestore shares until the company fully satisfies the exchange’s request for additional information. The sale price was 72 cents when trading was halted. Homestore, whose shares have fallen 97 percent in the last year, already had said it would restate financial results for the first, second and third quarters of 2001. That announcement led to the suspension of trading Dec. 21. Trading resumed Jan. 7. Homestore announced the resignation of Chief Executive Stuart Wolff on Jan. 7 and named board member Joe Hanauer as chairman. Jack D. Dennison, formerly with WebMD, was named chief operating officer, and Lewis R. Belote III was appointed chief financial officer. The company said last week that it expects its cash flow from operations to be positive for 2002. It said it had about $48 million in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash of about $100 million as of Dec. 31. At least a dozen suits contend that Homestore and some of its officers sought to prop up the stock by issuing a false and misleading picture of company finances. Executives sold at least $16 million in Homestore shares while the stock price was still high. In December, Homestore said it overstated revenue in 2001 by as much as $95 million. The company said it was firing 300 employees this quarter, after reducing its work force by 20 percent in October. Dick Clark Productions Purchased Dick Clark Productions Inc. is being acquired in a deal worth $140 million. A group of investors led by Mosaic Media Group Inc., Capital Communications CDPQ Inc. (which does business as CDP Capital Communications) and Jules Haimovitz, a senior television executive, will acquire all of the outstanding shares. The agreement provides that stockholders other than Dick Clark will receive $14.50 per share in cash. Clark, who owns about 70 percent of all outstanding stock, will receive $12.50 per share in cash for a portion of his shares. Henry Winterstern, co-founder and managing partner of CDP Capital Entertainment, will also invest in the acquiring entity. Dick Clark Productions will continue to operate as an independent television production company with Dick Clark serving as the chairman and CEO. Founded in 1957, Dick Clark Productions is an independent producer of a wide range of television programming for broadcast networks, cable networks, distributors and advertisers. Encino Accounting Firms Merge The Encino accounting firm of Kirsch Kohn & Bridge LLP of Encino has merged with Bernard Lewak & Co., also of Encino. The merged firm will now operate as Kirsch Kohn & Bridge LLP. Kirsch Kohn & Bridge has specialized in the construction, manufacturing, publishing, real estate, health care, food service and wholesale industries. Bernard Lewak & Company has specialized in the entertainment, restaurant, real estate, manufacturing, retail and service industries. SR Technics eliminates 44 jobs SR Technics Palmdale has cut 44 jobs and the company’s president and four other Swiss nationals have returned to Switzerland. Alex Kugler, the company’s president and chief executive officer, who oversaw the start-up of the company, will retain his position and will continue to oversee the company, but will do so from an office in Zurich. Also returning to Switzerland are Jakob Straub, director of product management; Christoph Kunz, manager of production engineering; and two engineers who supported operations since the company began working on aircraft in August. The company also announced that Gordon Fast, director of operations, will become the general manager of the company and will be responsible for day-to-day activities. The company, which at one point had close to 600 workers, now has a work force of 285. Iwerks, SimEx Complete Merger Iwerks Entertainment Inc. of Burbank and Toronto-based SimEx Inc. completed their previously announced merger on Jan. 9. As a result of the merger, Iwerks became a wholly owned subsidiary of SimEx Inc. Each of Iwerks’ 3.5 million outstanding shares of common stock can now be exchanged for 63 cents in cash.