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Big Acquisitions Offset Spinoffs, Other Public Company Newbies

Download the 2011 OC’s LARGEST PUBLIC COMPANIES list (pdf)


Some big acquisitions are thinning the county’s ranks of public companies, while spinoffs, a relocation and a corporate shift brought newcomers to our annual list.

In the biggest deal of the past year or so, No. 32 Newport Beach-based healthcare real estate investor Nationwide Health Properties Inc. is being bought by Chicago’s Ventas Inc. for $7.4 billion.

The deal, announced in February, is likely the largest ever seen here.

The Nationwide Health deal, set to close in the third quarter, trumped by size a deal announced earlier in February: Washington, D.C.-based Danaher Corp.’s $6.8 billion acquisition of Brea-based medical instruments maker Beckman Coulter Inc., No. 7 on this year’s list.

The Beckman buy, expected to close by July, came after months of offers and jockeying by private equity firms, Danaher and other prospective suitors.

Both Beckman and Nationwide managed to top October’s $3.2 billion acquisition of Aliso Viejo-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International by Canada’s Biovail Corp.

The combined drug maker retained the Valeant name and Chief Executive J. Michael Pearson, and now is based in the Toronto area.

Valeant ranked No. 15 on our 2010 public companies list.

Departures

• Nationwide Health (pending)

• Beckman Coulter (pending)

• Epicor Software (pending)

• Conexant Systems (pending)

• Cardiogenesis (pending)

• Valeant Pharmaceuticals

• Diedrich Coffee

• Primoris Services

• InSight Health

Arrivals

• CoreLogic

• Sabra Health Care

• Questcor Pharmaceuticals

• Identive Group

Epicor

The acquisition trend continued last week with word that Irvine-based business software maker Epicor Software Corp. is being bought for $976 million by London’s Apax Partners LLC.

The private equity firm plans to combine Epicor with Northern California’s Activant Solutions Inc. with Epicor as the surviving entity, albeit as a private company.

Epicor ranks No. 31 on this year’s list.

No. 45 Newport Beach chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. also is going private at the hands of a private equity buyer.

San Francisco-based Golden Gate Private Equity Inc. is paying $282 million for Conexant in a deal that’s set to close in the current quarter.

The private equity firm topped a $270 million January offer for Conexant from Hauppauge, N.Y.-based chipmaker Standard Microsystems Corp.

With deals pending, Nationwide, Beckman and Conexant appear with footnotes on our list.

Valeant and others that have seen acquisitions wrap up no longer are on the list.

That includes Irvine’s Diedrich Coffee Inc., which was bought in 2010 by competitor Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. of Vermont.

The $300 million buyout ended Diedrich’s days as a stand-alone public company. Diedrich ranked No. 57 on our 2010 list.

Others fell off for different reasons.

Construction and engineering company Primoris Services Corp. in January moved from Lake Forest to Dallas, following acquisitions in Texas and Louisiana that brought more business in the central part of the country and Florida.

Primoris was No. 28 on our list last year.

Lake Forest-based InSight Health Services Holdings Corp. emerged from bankruptcy last month as a private company with new ownership.

InSight, which provides medical scanning services, filed for bankruptcy protection in December, the second time since 2007.

After InSight’s 2007 bankruptcy, the company’s shares were lightly traded on the low-profile Pink Sheets stock exchange. It ranked No. 47 on our 2010 list.

Spinoffs

A pair of 2010 spinoffs added companies to our list.

No. 11 Santa Ana-based CoreLogic Inc. emerged as a public company in June as part of a split of First American Corp., last year’s No. 3.

The move also spawned No. 6 Santa Ana-based First American Financial Corp., which is made up of First American’s former title business.

(Technically, First American Financial was the spinoff in the split, though CoreLogic emerged as a new public company in the deal. First American Financial took over its former parent company’s stock symbol.)

In November, No. 9 Irvine-based nursing home operator Sun Healthcare Group Inc. spun off its real estate holdings into Sabra Health Care REIT Inc., also of Irvine. Sabra debuts at No. 59 on our list.

Relocation brought No. 50 Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc. from Northern California to Anaheim Hills.

The company, a growing maker of a drug to treat multiple sclerosis and a rare form of epilepsy, moved here to be closer to Chief Executive Don Bailey, who lives in Yorba Linda.

Santa Ana’s Identive Group Inc., which debuts at No. 55, came here by way of an acquisition.

Identive, formerly Hirsch Electronics Corp., makes scanners, readers, cards and other devices that provide security to buildings, computers and networks.

Hirsch was bought by Germany’s SCM Microsystems Inc., a maker of smart card readers, in early 2009 for about $14 million.

Identive was formed earlier this year when SCM Microsystems combined with Switzerland’s BlueHill ID AG.

The company was renamed Identive with its headquarters placed in Santa Ana, where it has an office, 20,000-square-foot factory and about 100 workers.


Download the 2011 OC’s LARGEST PUBLIC COMPANIES list (pdf)

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