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Orange County’s largest privately held company, Newport Beach-based Pacific Life Insurance Co., officially named Jim Morris as its next chief executive, starting next year. Morris, 46, is set to take over for the retiring Thomas Sutton, who plans to stay on as chairman. Sutton has run the life insurer for the past 17 years. He faced retirement at 65 in late 2007, as is the policy at the life insurer. The announcement formalizes a succession plan that’s been in the works. At the start of 2006, Morris was made chief operating officer, a move that put him in line to follow Sutton. Pacific Life counts yearly revenue of about $4.6 billion and does insurance policies, aircraft leasing and investment services.
Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. is paying $62 million for LVL7 Systems Inc. of Research Triangle Park, N.C., a maker of software that works with the company’s networking chips. The deal is set to close in the quarter. Broadcom could see an as yet undetermined fourth-quarter write off for research and development expenses related to the acquisition. LVL7, started in 1999, makes software for networking devices used by small to midsize businesses.
Shares of Irvine memory products maker Netlist Inc. priced at the low end of their $7 to $9 range but climbed some 35% during their first day of trading. Netlist’s initial public offering raised an estimated $43 million, down from earlier expectations of $55 million or so. Netlist makes circuit boards with memory chips for Dell Inc. and other computer makers. The company expects to use proceeds from the offering for acquisitions, paying down around $1 million in debt and for production in China.
Prices of an Orange County detached home dropped noticeably in October from September and now are off 7% from the record highs of six months ago, the California Association of Realtors said last week. The median price for a detached home sold here in October was $681,340, down 3.6% from September, according to the association. The record median high for the county was $729,370 set in April. October’s median sales price was down 2.9% from a year ago. The pace of OC home sales last month showed an improvement from September, rising 2.2%. But they were down 21% from a year ago. The association excludes condominiums from its figures.
The Buena Park City Council last week approved a development agreement with Burnham USA Equities, which has plans to demolish the former wax museum and several businesses surrounding it and replace them with a Best Buy, restaurants and shops.
American Vanguard Corp., a Newport Beach-based chemical company, said it bought a product line from Germany’s BASF AG. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. American Vanguard Chief Executive Eric Wintemute called it the company’s largest yet. American Vanguard acquired BASF’s Counter insecticide line and a patented way to deliver the granules onto crops. Counter had $25 million in sales in 2005. It is used primarily in Latin America to protect crops including corn, bananas, sugar beets and coffee against pests. The deal includes BASF’s Lock ‘n Load, a mechanized way to spread granular insecticide first marketed in the late1980s.
Sales at Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. fell for the four weeks ended Nov. 25, while they rose Wet Seal Inc. of Foothill Ranch. Pacific Sunwear, which runs stores selling surfwear and urban styles, said sales at stores open at least a year fell 3.8% during the period. The company’s PacSun surfwear chain was down 2.6%. Its d.e.m.o. urban chain fell by 10%. The declines are the latest in a string this year for the retailer, which is revamping stores as part of a turnaround bid. Wet Seal, which caters to teens and young women, posted a 5.5% gain in November same-store sales, surpassing Wall Street’s expected 4% increase. For December, Wet Seal said it sees same-store sales growing in low to mid-single-digit percentage.
Wendy’s International Inc. sold Baja Fresh for $31 million to a group led by an Anaheim investor. David Kim of RD Restaurant Group in Anaheim is the key financier behind the deal. His company operates and franchises Sweet Factory, KaBloom, Cinnabon and Denny’s. He now will oversee the operations of 300 Baja Fresh restaurants, a struggling fresh-Mexican grill chain that Wendy’s bought for $245 million in 2002.
Irvine-based Yard House Restaurants LLC, which runs restaurants built around hundreds of beer taps and a classic rock theme, plans to open at Fashion Island in Newport Beach next August. The restaurant is set take over a spot near Bloomingdale’s that used to house Ozumo restaurant, which closed in late 2005. Yard House plans to open a 9,000-square-foot restaurant, including a 1,100-square-foot outdoor patio wrapping around the building. The Newport Beach restaurant will make four in Orange County, along with Costa Mesa, Brea and the Irvine Spectrum Center. The company plans to open 12 more restaurants in the next two to three years, including one in Las Vegas and one at Galleria at Tyler in Riverside.
