Explaining Southern California's economy
Top 10 most visited theme parks in 2012: Disneyland ranks No. 2
Loren Javier/Flickr Creative Commons
Disneyland in Anaheim was the second most visited theme park in North America in 2012, according to a report by the Themed Entertainment Association and AECOM. One of the most popular rides at Disneyland is "It's A Small World."
The Walt Disney Co. dominated a list of 2012's most visited North American theme parks, representing six of the top 10 spots, including the Disneyland in Anaheim, which took second place.
In North America, more people visited the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World in Florida, according to the 2012 Theme Index: Global Attractions Attendance Report. Attendance rose 2 percent to 17.5 million people last year, the report said.
Ranking number two was Disneyland in Anaheim. Attendance remained flat at nearly 16 million visitors last year, according to the report.
Several Southern California theme parks also landed in the top 20, including Disney's California Adventure, Universal Studios Hollywood, SeaWorld California, Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain.
A notable decline in attendance in the top 20 list was at Knott's Berry Farm, the report said. The report explained that Knott's attendance declined 4 percent to 3.5 million visitors last year due to the closure of the water ride, Perilous Plunge, and the redevelopment of that area.
How Wal-Mart's sourcing, pricing challenges neighborhoods (poll, photos)
Grant Slater/KPCC
A woman shops for produce at a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Santa Maria, Calif. Part of Wal-Mart’s advantage is size—the retailer has about 150 stores that sell groceries in California.
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Sandi Vaughn unloads her cart, including two bins of strawberries, on to the checkout stand at a Walmart Neighborhood Market in Santa Clarita, Calif.
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The supply chain of strawberries for Wal-Mart in Santa Maria, Calif.
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Juan, a migrant worker, poses for a portrait on a farm operated by Better Produce north of Santa Maria, Calif. The farm sells strawberries to Wal-Mart, Inc.
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A warehouse worker moves palettes of strawberries through a chilled warehouse operated by Better Produce in in Santa Maria, Calif.
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Farm worker Francisco collects strawberries from pickers and loads them for transport to a cooling facility on a farm north of Santa Maria, Calif.
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During peak season, farmer Juan Cisneros of Better Produce delivers 1.5 million to 2.7 million strawberries a day to Wal-Mart, his biggest customer.
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Migrant workers pick strawberries on a hot day in farm fields north of Santa Maria, Calif.
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A migrant worker picks strawberries at a farm in Santa Maria, Calif. that sells the fruit to Wal-Mart.
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A migrant worker poses for a portrait at the Better Produce farm north of Santa Maria, Calif. The workers are paid by the palette for the strawberries they pick.
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A migrant worker uses slips of paper to keep track of how many boxes of strawberries he has picked at a farm north of Santa Maria, Calif.
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A migrant worker runs a palette full of picked strawberries to a truck where they will be loaded up and shipped off to a refrigerated warehouse.
This story is part of a series on the disruptions to local small businesses expected in the community of Altadena when a new Walmart Neighborhood Market opens next year. To read the rest of the series, check out the links at the end of this story.
Wal-Mart is expanding its grocery business in Southern California, opening smaller stores inside buildings that have been vacant for years. As a result, communities previously untouched by Wal-Mart are trying to compete in a pricing war with the nation’s largest retailer.
Part of Wal-Mart’s advantage is size—the retailer has more than 4,000 stores in the U.S., including 154 locations in California that sell groceries. That equates to a lot of buying power with suppliers, who are willing to cut Wal-Mart a discount in exchange for the larger volume of sales, said USC professor Jenny Schuetz.
E3: SoCal companies to get a boost from new PS4, Xbox One games (photos)
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Diablo III will be coming to PlayStation 4.
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A Titanfall statue stands in the South Hall of E3.
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E3 attendees play Battlefield 4, which will come first to Xbox One.
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Minions pose with E3 attendees on June 12th, 2013. The ride Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem will open at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2014.
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An E3 attendee poses at a Zelda sculpture on June 12th, 2013.
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An E3 attendee poses with Bayonetta, the main character of Bayonetta 2, which will be released excluesively for Wii U.
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An E3 attendee plays Pikmin 3, which will be released in Japan on August 4th, 2013.
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E3 attendees play Nintendo games on June 12th, 2013.
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Ryan Hakik, a developer at Electronic Entertainment, spent an hour creating his mohawk with custom stencils for Titanfall, which will launch in the spring of 2014.
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E3 attendees play with the Kinect sensor in the Xbox One, which will be released in November, 2013.
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E3 attendees wait in line to play Payday 2, the sequel to Payday: Heist. The game will be available in August, 2013.
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E3 attendees play Gran Turismo 6, which will be released later this year.
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E3 attendees play Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden 3, an action-adventure video game developed by Team Ninja and published by Tecmo Koei.
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E3 attendees check out the new Xbox One, which is set for release in November, 2013.
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E3 attendees watch videos about the new Playstation 4 on June 12th, 2013.
When new video game consoles PlayStation 4 and Xbox One get delivered to customers later this year, Southern California video gaming companies will likely see a boost in sales, analysts said.
“When you get more consoles out there, they’ll be more software purchased, which means developers will sell more stuff, they’ll work on more projects, and they’ll get paid more," said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. "It should be a growth industry, and it looks like it’s positioned to become one soon."
Research firm NPD Group said that last year the nation's video game industry made nearly $7 billion in sales. The top selling game last year was shooting game "Call of Duty: Black Ops II," NPD said.
Woodland Hills-based Infinity Ward is the developer behind the next game in the genre, called "Call of Duty: Ghosts." The game will be released in November for many different consoles, including the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
E3: Sony's PlayStation 4 undercuts price of Microsoft's Xbox One
KPCC/Wendy Lee
Sony announced at E3 it will sell the Playstation 4 for $399, $100 less than the Xbox One.
There’s a battle brewing between Sony and Microsoft at Downtown L.A.’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, known as E-3. Both companies are touting new video gaming machines.—Sony has its PlayStation 4 and Microsoft, its Xbox One. The competition is fierce and Sony has raised the stakes by trying to undercut Microsoft on price.
It's been several years since both companies released new versions of their video game consoles. Sony responded to the situation by announcing on Monday night that it will charge $399 for the Playstation 4, $100 cheaper than Microsoft’s $499 Xbox One.
Jeff Yanick of Riverside is a huge video gamer. The cell phone salesman can only afford to buy one video game console this year, and Sony’s price has him leaning toward the PlayStation 4.
“Right now, the PS4 makes a good case for it, because it’s $100 cheaper and it has a lot of titles that you want,” he said.
Dole Food's CEO makes $1billion buyout bid
Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Dole Food Company Inc. has evolved from a Hawaiian pineapple purveyor into the world’s largest producer of fresh fruit and vegetables. Dole CEO David Murdock and his family are offering to buy the business. (Photo: Dole Field supervisor Kofi Debrah holds a freshly picked pineapple at the Dole Food Company Inc. plantation in Wahiawa, Hawaii on Jan. 17, 2013. Tim Rue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Dole Food's Chairman and CEO David Murdock and his family are offering to buy the business with a bid that values the entire company at approximately $1.07 billion.
Dole, is a fresh fruit and vegetable company, based in Westlake Village, Calif.
Murdock and other family members are making an unsolicited offer of $12 per share for the shares of the company that they don't already own, an 18 percent premium to Dole's closing price Monday.
Murdock has about a 39.5 percent stake in Dole Food Co., which has about 89.5 million outstanding shares, according to FactSet.
The company said that its board will be meeting over the next several days to create a special committee of independent directors to assess the bid. It said that it is only in the beginning stages of evaluating the offer and that the board has made no decisions about the proposal.
Dole had 2012 revenue from continuing operations of $4.2 billion. In March the company reported a fourth-quarter adjusted loss from continuing operations and revenue that was below Wall Street's expectations. The company earlier this year said it's first quarter 2013 results were in line with expectations.
Last month Dole said it would indefinitely suspend its $200 million share repurchase program and use its cash instead to update its shipping fleet to enhance its growth prospects. The company said that another factor in the suspension of the repurchase plan was the drag on earnings due to recent losses in its strawberry business.
Dole has gone through a lot of major changes recently. It sold its packaged foods and Asia fresh business for $1.69 billion in a deal that closed in April. That allowed Dole to become solely an international commodity produce company, which provides a more narrow focus going forward but makes its earnings more volatile due to the nature of the fruit and vegetable business.
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