Another big year.
12 months ago we picked a person to watch and a company to watch in six industries.
More recently we reviewed a year’s worth of coverage with an eye on identifying the biggest stories of 2016.
The roster of people, companies and events ran the gamut from buyers and sellers of real estate to the largest local public companies past, present and perhaps future. There were marketers, financiers, hoteliers and retailers in the mix, along with car guys and flyboys, women who run hospital chains and the doctors and nurses who work for them, insurers, apparel makers and sellers.
The value of the deals that made the lists of big stories you’ll find for each of the six sectors approaches $50 billion.
Square feet of real estate affected—office and industrial, commercial and residential—topped 1 million.
Jobs added—and subtracted—at the companies and by the people we said to watch were in the thousands.
Executive Summary
Areas covered include real estate, technology, healthcare, finance, hospitality, and marketing. Our picks and people and enterprises involved in those industries saw a litany of ups and downs that included:
n Big real estate stories of office rates and home prices on the rise (see sector review, page 4).
n Technology sector action involving three acquisitions, and two firms that each scored $100 million funding. Cuts at Broadcom Corp.—and a different plan for its campus at Great Park (see related story, page 1; sector review, page 6).
n Moves among healthcare players that saw some of OC’s biggest names in the action: a still-bustling Allergan Plc made some acquisitions, as did our largest local public company, Edwards Lifesciences Corp. One of OC’s big hospital chains merged, and Joe Kiani’s patient-safety movement added heft (see sector review, page 8).
n PIMCO’s move to poach from across the pond for a new chief executive. Banks were bought and sold—and shuttered or started—and a large insurance company’s aircraft leasing unit named a new captain to its flight team. (see sector review, page 11).
n OC’s hospitality sector upping its bet on sports, placing a bid for a new kind of local tourist, and changing airline seat assignments (see sector review, page 12).
n The world of marketing and retail being especially active, with apparel retailers and carmakers, legacy companies and startups all taking part—two acquisitions that made big news this year totaled nearly $2 billion (see sector review, this page).
See next week’s issue for our picks on what and whom to keep an eye on in 2017, along with our annual predictions.
