Business briefs

Tesla Motors to raise up to $214.3 million

Electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. says it plans to raise up to $214.3 million by selling common stock.

A portion of the proceeds will be used to develop a crossover vehicle.

Tesla plans to sell 5.3 million shares to the public, and up to 795,000 more to the underwriter, at $26 each, according to a regulatory filing. That would raise up to $158.5 million.

CEO and co-founder Elon Musk will also buy 1.5 million shares at the same price in a private sale. Blackstar Investco LLC, an affiliate of Daimler AG, will buy 644,475 shares directly from Tesla at the public offering price. That would bring total proceeds of $214.3 million.

Martha Stewart firm shopping for investors

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. said Wednesday it has hired investment company Blackstone Advisory Partners to explore partnerships and investments, triggering speculation that the whole company is for sale.

The company also announced that its founder will rejoin its board in the third quarter after a five-year exclusion after a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in her insider-trading case.

It's all part of a plan to quadruple the size of the brand to $1 billion, Stewart said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Calif. Pizza Kitchen selling for $470 million

Private-equity firm Golden Gate Capital is buying California Pizza Kitchen Inc. for about $470 million, three months after the restaurant chain put itself up for sale.

The $18.50-per-share cash bid is an 11 percent premium to the restaurant chain's $16.71 closing stock Tuesday.

California Pizza Kitchen, which got its start in 1985, has 265 restaurants, with 205 company-run and 60 under franchise or license agreements.

GM to add 2,500 jobs at Detroit-area factory

General Motors Co. will add 2,500 jobs at a Detroit-area factory, investing $69 million so the plant can make two new Chevrolet sedans.

The factory, which straddles the border between Detroit and the small enclave of Hamtramck, now makes the Chevrolet Volt and its European counterpart, the Opel Ampera. GM announced on Wednesday that it will upgrade the plant so that it can run around the clock making the new Malibu midsize car and a revamped Impala, a large sedan.

About 1,200 of the jobs will be new hires, since GM still has to recall about 1,300 laid-off workers in the U.S.

U.S. may get $7.1 billion from AIG stock sale

The U.S. government is selling off a chunk of its stake in American International Group Inc., narrowly squeezing out a profit as it moves to bring an end to its bailout of the insurance giant.

The New York company and the Treasury Department said they were selling 300 million shares of AIG at $29 each. The per-share price was the low end of the insurer's expected $29 to $30 dollar range but just above the $28.73 price per share that the government needs to recoup its investment in the company.

Treasury said in a statement late Tuesday that the government could get gross proceeds of $7.1 billion if the underwriters exercise their option to buy an additional 45 million shares owned by the government.

Toll Brothers posts smaller quarterly loss

Homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. reported a quarterly loss of $20.8 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with a loss of $40.4 million, or 24 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 3 percent.

Toll said it signed 879 contracts for new homes, 7 percent more than a year earlier, and the value of those contracts rose 8 percent to $501 million. Home deliveries increased 9 percent, and the contract-cancellation rate fell to 3.9 percent from 5.3 percent.

Greek official warns about leaving euro

A Greek EU commissioner warned that the country's participation in the euro is under threat, though the prime minister insisted Wednesday that his government will see through new austerity measures and keep Greece in the joint currency.

Greece's debt load is so big that many investors don't believe it will be able to avoid reneging on its repayment terms in some way. In the longer term, if Greece's problems prove to be unmanageable, some say it could have to leave the currency bloc.

Businesses cut orders for durable goods

Businesses cut back on their orders for heavy machinery, computers, autos and airplanes in April, reducing demand for long-lasting manufactured goods by the largest amount in six months.

Orders for durable goods fell 3.6 percent, and a key category that serves as a proxy for business investment was down 2.8 percent, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday.

Conde Nast to sign $2 billion WTC lease

The agency that controls the new landmark tower rising at the World Trade Center has approved a deal that will bring in magazine publisher Conde Nast as a tenant.

The board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey voted Wednesday to approve a $2 billion lease with the publisher for new offices at 1 World Trade Center, the skyscraper formerly known as the Freedom Tower.

Conde Nast publishes Vogue and The New Yorker, among other magazines.

The tower is slated for completion in late 2013. At 1,776 feet, it will be the tallest building in the U.S.

China urges safety after iPad plant blast

Beijing urged Foxconn Technology Group and other Taiwanese companies on Wednesday to ensure safety in their mainland China factories after a fatal blast at a facility that makes Apple iPads.

Last Friday's explosion at the facility owned by Foxconn, Apple's main manufacturing contractor, killed three employees. Foxconn blamed combustible dust in a workshop that polishes products and suspended production at the factory in the western city of Chengdu, prompting questions about whether supplies of the popular iPad 2 might be disrupted.

From wire reports