Business Briefs

Harley DeLano, the former president of Cala Foods, had been negotiating with Kroger since December. DeLano said he entered escrow Tuesday; the stores will likely be transferred to DeLano Retail Partners this year.

DeLano, 69, said he will keep the stores' union intact. "We will work with the employees in the stores there already," he said. All 11 stores will remain open during the transition.

A spokeswoman for Ohio-based Kroger confirmed an agreement had been reached but the price of the sale was not released.

Investors shrug on TiVo's lower-than-expected loss

SAN FRANCISCO -- The red ink swelled in TiVo Inc.'s second quarter as the maker of digital video recorders amassed heavy legal costs to litigate an intellectual property dispute.

The Alviso, Calif., company reported a quarterly loss of $6.45 million, or 7 cents a share, up from $892,000 or a penny per share in the same period of 2005.

Revenue rose 50 percent to $59.2 million, from $39.3 million a year ago, with the company boosting its year-over-year subscriber count by 24 percent to 4.4 million as of July 31.

Despite the wider loss reported Wednesday, TiVo easily beat Wall Street's expectations. Analysts, on average, were expecting a loss of $10.54 million, or 14 cents per share, on sales of $51.32 million, according to a survey by Thomson Financial. TiVo shares rose 59 cents, or 7.7 percent, to close at $8.25 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Electronic Arts putting

real-time ads in some games

The upcoming video game "Need for Speed Carbon" will have more than just gleaming sports cars and streets to race on: Drivers also will be speeding past real-time advertisements for upcoming films, automobiles and other products.

Like many other games, previous versions of "Need for Speed" had static ads and product placements that cannot be changed once the game was packaged and sold on store shelves.

But with "Need for Speed Carbon," available in late October, players with PCs connected to the Internet or using Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live service will see ads that change over time.

In two deals announced Thursday, Electronic Arts Inc. said it will start bringing dynamic ads to its video games for the Xbox 360 and PC platforms this fall.

Redwood City, Calif.-based EA, the world's largest video game publisher, said it was partnering with Microsoft's Massive Inc. to deliver the ads to up to four games, including "Need for Speed Carbon." Separately, EA inked a deal with IGA Worldwide Inc. in New York to deliver ads in the upcoming sci-fi shooter "Battlefield 2142."<