Costa Mesa-based Pacific Mercantile Bank announced it’s exiting the residential mortgage market, a move that comes about a year after it got out of the wholesale mortgage business. The bank is expected to close its consumer mortgage unit by April and incur about $3.6 million in related costs. Chief Executive Steven Buster said the exit from consumer mortgages is due to the unit’s operating performance and the bank’s aim to focus on commercial banking.
U.S. Bank named a new Orange County market president to oversee its commercial banking team here. Joseph Hensley succeeds William Cave, who retired this year. Hensley will be based in the bank’s Newport Beach office. Hensley’s group serves local businesses with revenues ranging from $10 million to $500 million. U.S. Bank had about $3.8 billion in deposits as of June 2012 and grew that to about $3.9 billion as of this June.
Freedom Communications Holdings Inc., parent company of the Orange County Register, announced plans to expand into Los Angeles County. The Santa Ana-based company said it will start publishing the Los Angeles Register, a daily newspaper, early next year. Freedom’s co-owner and chief executive, Aaron Kushner, reportedly told the Register newsroom staff in a meeting Thursday that the company also will publish weekly newspapers in a number of communities in Los Angeles County. Kushner said initial plans call for the Register’s existing staff to stock a newsroom in Los Angeles. He also said the OC Register had grown revenue this year but had not met expectations (see related OC Insider item, page 3).
The Orange County Water District approved a lease of 19 acres near the Honda Center to Competitive Power Ventures, which plans to build a power plant there. The district’s board voted 6-4 to approve the lease, which begins with a four-year project design period followed by a 20-year lease period that can be extended by 30 years. Neighbors and nearby businesses had protested the project.
Irvine-based virtual reality headset developer Oculus VR Inc. raised $75 million from a group of investors led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in Menlo Park. The money is expected to help Oculus bring its first product to the consumer market, with a primary target of video gamers. Andreessen Horowitz’ Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon will join Oculus’ board. Other investors in the deal are Spark Capital and Matrix Partners, both in Boston, and San Francisco-based Formation 8.
Irvine-based software maker Mavenlink Inc. got $7 million from Carrick Capital Partners in San Francisco. Mavenlink makes project- and team-management applications designed to “streamline workflow” online. Its services include cloud-based file sharing, expense tracking and security control. Carrick Capital cofounder and Managing Director Jim Madden and Chief Technology Officer Steve Unterberger will join Mavenlink’s board of directors. Carrick Capital typically invests in companies with revenues between $10 million and $100 million.
Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp. will cut about 10% of its workforce and close a Massachusetts plant as part of another restructuring plan to improve finances and operational efficiency. It’s enacted management and board changes this year and will shed about 110 employees companywide and close its engineering facility in Bolton, about 45 miles west of Boston. The company wouldn’t disclose how many workers in OC will be affected, a spokesperson said. Emulex employed 363 people in Orange County through September, down about 20 from a year earlier.
Industry veteran Prasad Rampalli was named chief executive of Aliso Viejo-based networking equipment maker QLogic Corp. Rampalli will take over the post on Feb. 3, taking over from interim chief executive Jean Hu. Hu in May replaced Simon Biddiscombe, who abruptly resigned. Hu will continue her role as senior vice president and chief financial officer.
Westminster’s city council approved a permit for a 2014 Tet parade, despite protests from a gay and lesbian group that the event’s organizers are excluding it. Council members said they’re sympathetic to the Viet Rainbow of Orange County but that they were legally bound to approve the event, which is being organized by the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
UP: Orange County’s relative advantage on travel taxes, according to the Alexandria, Va.-based Global Business Travel Association Foundation. OC ranked sixth-lowest in the U.S. on the group’s recent ranking, based on combined hotel, vehicle rental and meals taxes. Chicago had the highest combined travel taxes, according to the study, followed by New York.
