Business & Economy

In SoCal business news: Frozen best selling animated film, YouTube takes on TV ads, goodbye DailyCandy

Disney's "Frozen" beat Toy Story 3 as top selling animated film at the box office worldwide, according to The Wrap.
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Wendy Lee | March 31, 2014

Good morning! Welcome to KPCC's business blog, The Breakdown! Every weekday, our staff compiles a list of interesting business news in the region.

'Frozen' is the best selling animated film worldwide at the box office (The Wrap). Reporter Todd Cunningham says Frozen earned $1.072 billion, beating Toy Story 3.
Hobie Alter, the inventor behind a foam and fiberglass surfboard that shaped SoCal's surfing industry, died at the age of 80 on Saturday (Surfline). Alter was born in Ontario and opened his first surf shop there in 1954.
Negotiations continue between the United Food & Commercial Workers and three large grocery chains: Andersons, Vons and Ralphs (Press-Enterprise). Reporter Jack Katzanek says the contract expired on March 2 and the union "agreed to extend the terms of that deal and continue working."
YouTube takes on TV advertising (Wall Street Journal). Reporter Suzanne Vranica says YouTube told marketers it will "guarantee to air ads across its channels until they reach a certain percentage of the target audience that the marketer is trying to reach," similar to what's offered in TV ads. Vranica says marketers would need to "make advanced commitments" to get YouTube's deal.
Roughly a dozen L.A. County contractors were arrested in a statewide sting for contracting without a license (City News Service).
Fashion and food website DailyCandy will shut down, along with website Television Without Pity (Los Angeles Times). Reporter Meg James says parent company NBCUniversal couldn't the right business model to support the websites. She says NBCUniversal's parent, Comcast, bought DailyCandy for $125 million in 2008 and it had about 65 employees.
The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach rolls into town April 11-13 and the city's businesses are getting ready for big crowds. In the past, the three-day event generated $30 million to $40 million in economic activity (Press-Telegram).
Irvine-based Oculus is getting a chief scientist. Michael Abrash will fill that position and is leaving video gaming company Valve Corp. (re/code). Oculus, which makes virtual reality goggles, will be sold to Facebook for $2 billion.
Two men took off with $1 million worth of Nike products after presenting false warehouse papers at the Port of Los Angeles (Press-Telegram). As my colleague Brian Watt says, they "just did it."