BUSINESS BRIEFS
KB Home reports 3rd-quarter losses; revenue off 56%
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — KB Home, one of the nation's largest home builders, said yesterday its third-quarter loss quadrupled from the year-ago period, missing Wall Street's expectations as revenue plunged by 56 percent amid falling sales and home prices.
Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger said weak demand for new homes — half of the company's homebuyers backed out of their contracts in the quarter — and falling home values don't appear likely to improve significantly in the near term.
The Los Angeles-based company reported a net loss of $144.7 million, or $1.87 a share, for the three months ended Aug. 31. Those results paled compared with the loss of $35.6 million, or 46 cents a share, in the same period last year, when KB Home recorded a generous gain from the sale of its French operations.
But without those gains, the year-ago losses totaled $478.6 million, or $6.19 a share.
TAINTED PRODUCTS ADDED TO CHINA LIST
BEIJING — The list of products caught in China's tainted milk scandal grew yesterday to include baby cereal in Hong Kong and snack foods in Japan, while Taiwan reported three children and a mother with kidney stones in the island's first cases possibly linked to the crisis.
The Japanese government also said it had suspended imports of milk and milk products from China, where some 54,000 children have developed kidney stones or other illnesses after drinking baby formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. Four deaths have been blamed on the tainted milk.
The latest problematic foods were Heinz baby cereal and Silang House steamed potato wasabi crackers in Hong Kong.
127-YEAR SENTENCE IN PONZI SCHEME
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A businessman was sentenced yesterday to 127 years in prison for running an investment scam in Southern California that bilked 1,800 people.
Daniel W. Heath, 51, was found guilty of running a Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors said victims were cheated out of $187 million.
Heath, his father and a third man were convicted of 522 felony charges that included fraud and money laundering. He received the maximum sentence in prison.
His father, John Heath, was sentenced in February to 28 years in prison but later died at age 81.
