Compiled by Julie Leupold
TOP STORY
Aliso Viejo-based Valeant Pharmaceu-ticals International said it’s paying $95 million to buy skin drug maker Coria Laboratories Ltd. Valeant is buying Coria from DFB Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas, and other shareholders.
Newport Beach-based developer Igor Olenicoff filed a $500 million lawsuit against UBS AG and others, claiming they orchestrated a massive fraud that led to federal tax charges against him. The lawsuit is tied to a long-running tax dispute that Olenicoff, the billionaire founder of Olen Properties Corp., resolved with the government earlier this year.
TECHNOLOGY
Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc. lowered its outlook for the current quarter. For the three months through Sept. 27, Ingram Micro expects sales of $8.3 billion to $8.6 billion, less than analysts’ expected $8.7 billion in revenue. Including about $5 million in charges for a cost-cutting program in North America and Europe, the company is looking for profits of $30 million to $39 million, down from a previous outlook of $51 million to $60 million and well short of analysts’ expectation of $61 million. The company is set to report third-quarter results on Oct. 23.
Shareholders of Newport Beach chipmaker Jazz Semiconductor Inc. gave the green light to a deal that would allow the struggling company to be bought by Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd. In May, Tower said it was paying $40 million plus an additional $129 million in debt for Jazz. Last month, federal regulators signed off on Tower’s Securities and Exchange Commission filing outlining the deal. Jazz is set to continue operating under its own name with just a few initial changes under Tower.
REAL ESTATE
Orange County’s median home price now is off more than $200,000 from a year ago, after prices dropped another $21,000 in August from July. The median price of a home was $440,000 in August, a 4.5% decline from July, according to La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems. Median prices here are down $202,250, or about 32%, from a year earlier. Sales increased 19% from a year earlier to 2,713 home sales in August, with foreclosures making up half. Sales were down 3% from July.
Irvine-based mortgage investor Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. posted a loss of $16.4 million in the second quarter, part of a $20.9 million loss for the first half of the year. The results for the first and second quarters had been delayed by accounting issues. The six-month loss was narrowed from the $148 million loss Impac reported for the first six months of 2007.
Hyundai Motor Finance Co. signed a lease for about 100,000 square feet at Maguire Property Inc.’s 3161 Michelson office tower in Irvine. The credit and finance unit of Hyundai Motor America Inc. is expected to move into the space, which should total about four floors of the 20-story tower, in the second quarter. The unit had been based in Fountain Valley at the U.S. headquarters of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. The building originally was expected to hold the headquarters of Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp.
Anaheim has put the brakes on plans to drastically expand the Platinum Triangle, an urban redevelopment around Angel Stadium, after a lawsuit challenged the development. The City Council twice approved plans to quintuple the amount of office space and add thousands more homes than originally anticipated in the Platinum Triangle. But two residents groups sued the city saying officials failed to adequately study the potential strain on traffic, water, air and other services. City officials have agreed that the study was “defective” and plan to start over. The council is expected to rescind its approval and reconsider the plan after a new study is completed in six to nine months.
OTHER NEWS
Forbes magazine is out with its list of the 400 richest Americans, with some surprising numbers for the list’s Orange County contingent. Some of Forbes’ figures for local executives are higher than the Business Journal’s conservative estimates, which appeared in the Aug. 4 issue of the paper. Donald Bren, chairman and owner of Irvine Company, is the highest-ranking executive from OC on the Forbes list at $12 billion, down from $13 billion a year earlier. He’s the richest real estate owner in the country, according to the list. Next from OC is Jim Jannard, founder of Oakley Inc., at $3 billion.
