EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORIES
Fifty-two percent of Irvine voters rejected a measure that would have allowed the Orange County Transportation Authority to build a $1.2 billion, 11.4-mile CenterLine light-rail project connecting Santa Ana and Irvine. But in a separate vote, Irvine kept alive the possibility of a rail line … The city of Los Angeles asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to take over the former El Toro Marine base and turn it into an airport under Los Angeles’ control, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times. OC voters rejected an airport at El Toro last year, with plans to develop a “Great Park” on the base’s 4,700 acres, including homes, commercial and park land developments.
TECHNOLOGY
Irvine-based Autobytel Inc. bought Columbus, Ohio-based Applied Virtual Vision Inc. for about $9 million in cash and stock … Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. created a new board seat and named Robert E. Switz, chief financial officer of Eden Prairie, Minn.-based ADC Telecommunications Inc., to fill it. Broadcom now has six members on its board of directors … San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc. closed its deal to buy Irvine-based Linksys Group Inc. for about $500 million in stock. The acquisition was announced in March … Santa Ana-based MSC.Software Corp. said the Federal Trade Commision approved a licensing deal with EDS Corp. … Shareholders with a minority stake in Irvine-based Troy Group Inc. said they plan to fight founder Patrick Dirk and his family’s efforts to buy the 35% of the company they don’t own for $2.70 a share. Competing offers to buy the entire company have emerged, including Costa Mesa-based Westar Capital LLC’s $3.50 per share offer. The Dirk family has said it doesn’t want to sell its shares. A Troy special committee is considering Westar’s offer.
HEALTHCARE
Costa Mesa-based drug maker ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it wants to buy back the 20% of Ribapharm Inc. that it spun off last year. ICN offered $168 million for the stake, or $5.60 a share, a 20% premium over Costa Mesa-based Ribapharm’s share price, but below the $10 a share price that the company sold its stock in the initial public offering a year ago. A shareholder filed a lawsuit seeking to nix the planned sale because the buyout price isn’t high enough … Irvine-based Sicor Inc. got approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s Prochloperazine, a treatment for nausea and vomiting caused by radiation therapy … Shares of Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “PHS.”
REAL ESTATE
Plans for Newport Beach-based Fieldstone Communities Inc.’s 183-home development on a former Sully-Miller sand-and-gravel mine in Orange was denied by the city’s planning department. Fieldstone said it would appeal the decision to the Orange City Council … Irvine-based title insurer Fidelity National Financial Inc. asked state regulators for permission to sell master lien protection loan policies, a cheaper but less comprehensive form of title insurance … Newport Beach-based Health Care Property Investors Inc. and General Electric Co. formed a $600 million joint venture to buy medical office buildings … The Irvine Company sued Wolfgang Puck Casual Dining Inc. for $72,000 in back rent at the chain’s Irvine Spectrum restaurant … A Laguna Niguel-based investment group that includes KenPat Entertainment Group and Calstar Properties Inc. upped its bid for the bankrupt Aladdin Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The group’s previous bid was $425 million, but higher bids from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., among others, have since come in.
FINANCE
OC supervisors lifted a ban on doing business with Merrill Lynch & Co., which was sued by OC for its role in the county’s bankruptcy in 1994. The end to the ban came at county treasurer John Moorlach’s urging … Meanwhile, supervisors tentatively OK’d allowing Chicago-based American Trans Air Inc. and Denver-based Frontier Airlines to make daily flights from John Wayne Airport to Chicago and Denver. A vote is set for July 24.
GOVERNMENT
OC’s troubled Planning and Development Services Department plans to ask county supervisors for $4 million so it can process and conduct inspections on building projects. The department already had asked for an emergency $8 million to keep afloat.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
The State Bar of California filed 36 counts of misconduct against Damian Trevor, Shane Han and Allan Hendrickson of Beverly Hills-based Trevor Law Group LLP. The lawyers are accused of abusing the state’s business practices code 17200. They face permanent disbarment … Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. said its second-quarter operating income jumped 54% to $37.2 million, versus a year earlier, on a 40% gain in sales to $262.2 million … Irvine-based Taco Bell, a unit of Louisville-based YUM! Brands Inc., must pay $30.2 million to two Michigan men after a jury found that Taco Bell took their idea for an advertising campaign based on a Chihuahua. Taco Bell said it would appeal the award … Costa Mesa-based Resources Connection Inc. said it plans to buy Deloitte Resources Property Ltd. in Australia, a unit of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, for an undisclosed amount … Atlanta-based Roark Capital Group said it plans to buy Garden Grove-based Money Mailer LLC for an undisclosed amount. The deal isn’t expected to affect the company’s 280 workers … Shares of Walt Disney Co. rose 4.9% to 20.73 after Chief Executive Michael Eisner said summer bookings at Disneyland and its other theme parks were “encouraging.”
