Anaheim-based Targus Group International Inc., a maker of computer accessories, said its owner, Greenwich, Conn.-based Saunders Karp & Megrue, is shopping the company to prospective buyers. The company could fetch as much as $425 million in a sale … Irvine-based Cardiac Science Inc. and Quinton Cardiology Systems Inc. of Bothell, Wash., agreed to combine under the Cardiac Science name. Cardiac Science’s shareholders, together with senior bondholders, stand to own about 51% of the combined company. Quinton’s shareholders will get 49%. The headquarters would move to Bothell, with Cardiac Science keeping 60 to 65 sales and marketing workers in Lake Forest, down from about 75 in the county. The new management team will be led by John R. Hinson, Quinton’s current chief executive. Raymond W. Cohen, Cardiac Science’s chairman and chief executive, will serve as chairman of the combined company. Meanwhile, New York-based Wolf Popper LLP filed a class-action lawsuit seeking to block the combination. The law firm alleges Cardiac Science’s shareholders aren’t getting enough from the proposed deal.
Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp. said treating stock options as expenses would have cost some $677 million last year and resulted in a loss. Broadcom would have lost about $395 million last year instead of posting a $207 million profit. The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to require companies to account for options as expenses starting in June … Laguna Hills-based Interchange Corp. said it posted sales growth in the fourth quarter. But shares of Interchange, which links online advertisers to Internet searchers, tumbled in after-hours trading on the company’s outlook for 2005. Interchange reported sales of $6 million in the period, up 115% versus a year earlier. Operating income fell 12% to $413,000. Shares of Interchange fell more than 30% to $13.5 after the earnings release … MAI Systems Corp., a Lake Forest maker of software for hotels and government agencies, engaged in a game of dueling press releases last week. The first salvo: a release from Salt Lake City-based Appian Inc. saying it had made an offer to buy MAI in a convertible stock deal. A couple of hours later, MAI shot back with its own release, rejecting the offer and saying it lacked “any demonstrable financial support.”
A judge tentatively ruled Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t have the power to delay a nurse staffing ratio law that requires more nurses at California hospitals. Another hearing was set for last Friday, with a permanent ruling expected … San Clemente-based ICU Medical Inc. said it plans to pay Lake Forest, Ill.-based Hospira Inc. $35 million for a Salt Lake City plant. The pact also calls for ICU, a maker of medical connectors and intravenous systems, to make critical care products at the plant, plus develop catheters, angiography kits and cardiac monitoring systems with Hospira under its name … Foothill Ranch’s Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. is selling its pharmacy unit to Louisville, Ky.-based Kindred Healthcare Inc. Terms of the deal, set to close by the end of the month, weren’t disclosed. Skilled Care Pharmacy runs two pharmacies that mainly serve nursing homes and assisted-living facilities in Southern California … Jacqueline Schiavo, one of the highest-ranking women in business in Orange County, is retiring as an executive vice president of Allergan Inc. Schiavo is stepping down as the drug maker’s executive vice president of global technical operations after nearly 25 years with the Irvine-based company. She plans to step down April 29.
Irvine-based homebuilder Standard Pacific Corp. said it bought the Bakersfield operations of Probuilt Homes, scooping up 1,000 lots for homes in the area. The price wasn’t disclosed.
Irvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. said it will receive $2 million from the federal Defense Appropriations Bill to fund its mobile hydrogen fuel cell refueling research for the Army. Quantum also said it completed its buy of Goshen, Ind.-based Starcraft Corp.
The city of Anaheim asked an appeals court to overturn a judge’s decision to allow the Angels to use the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim name until a trial later this year. Anaheim says the name change will hurt the city and violates the team’s lease, while Angels’ owner Arte Moreno says he needs wider appeal to boost revenue and field a winning team. Meanwhile, a judge rejected the Angels’ request to throw out three of the four counts in the city’s suit to block the name change. The judge ruled the city can go ahead with the heart of its case, which claims breach of contract, implied bad faith and unfair dealing on the part of the Angels.
San Francisco-based private equity firm Gryphon Investors said it plans to buy Consolidated Fire Protection LLC in Irvine from Costa Mesa-based Westar Capital LLC, Los Angeles-based Caltius Private Equity Partners and others. Terms weren’t disclosed … Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. said that sales at its continuing stores rose 16.4% in February. That’s a reverse from a year earlier, when Wet Seal’s same-store sales fell 12.4% in February. The teen retailer also said it closed 95 Wet Seal stores during the four-week period through Feb. 26. The closures are part of the company’s plan to shutter 150 stores … The Air Force said it expected to end its suspension of Boeing Co. from getting satellite launch contracts since mid-2003.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
Up: Orange County’s employment picture in January, with the total number of nonfarm jobs up 2.1% to 1,458,800 from a year earlier, and the unemployment rate at 4%, down from 4.7%, according to the state Employment Development Department.
