LIVE Seeks Replacement for Slain Chief Executive

LIVE Entertainment Inc. said today that it has formed a search committee to find a replacement for its slain chairman and chief executive officer, Jose E. Menendez.

Menendez, 45, and his wife Kitty, 44, were found shot at their home in Beverly Hills late Sunday. No suspects have been arrested.

Menendez is credited for the improved performance of LIVE, a publicly held audio and video distributor and retailer with second-quarter revenues of $82.2 million. He began running ailing International Video Entertainment Inc. in 1986 and merged it with Lieberman Enterprises in 1988 to form LIVE.

The search committee includes Peter M. Hoffman, president and chief executive officer of Carolco Pictures, which has a 49% stake in LIVE; Roger R. Smith, formerly senior vice president and chief financial officer of LIVE, and David J. M. Lieberman, co-chairman of Lieberman Enterprises.

LIVE also said its board has confirmed the previously announced interim appointments of Hoffman as acting chairman of the board and chief executive officer of LIVE, and Smith as acting president and chief operating officer for the company.

The company named three of its senior executives to its board: Devendra Mishra, LIVE’s newly appointed executive vice president, operations; David A. Mount, newly appointed president and chief operating officer of LIVE’s home video company, and Gilbert L. Wachsman, president and chief executive officer of Lieberman.

Mishra will also join Hoffman and Smith on the executive committee of LIVE’s board.