Get your scorecards out as you get ready to close the books on 2012.
Orange County’s business scene saw a number of big deals, several high-level retirements, and various other corner office departures—some planned, some not.
Keep those scorecards handy. The effects of new ownership will settle in on several companies here in 2013, and there are a still a few top jobs to fill on the local business landscape.
You’ll find recaps of the business persons and companies we identified as particularly watchable for 2012 starting on page 6 in this issue. Most lived up to the billing in one way or another—and there was no shortage of action elsewhere over the past year.
Orange County-based companies were the buyers in a couple of large deals.
Irvine-based disk-drive maker Western Digital Corp. managed to clear regulatory hurdles in markets around the globe to complete its $4.3 billion buy of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Ltd.
Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc. paid $840 million—the priciest deal ever for the company—to get BrightPoint Inc. in Indianapolis. Ingram Micro is world’s largest technology distributor, while BrightPoint is among the biggest wireless device distributors.
Local sellers included Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software, which touched off an auction when it went on the market and ended up selling to Dell Inc. in Round Rock, Texas, for $2.4 billion. Quest Chairman and Chief Executive Vincent “Vinny” Smith is expected to part ways with the company after a brief stretch of consulting.
Stanley Black & Decker Inc.’s Hardware & Home Improvement Group in Lake Forest, where about 400 employees work on design and marketing, was acquired by Madison, Wis.-based Spectrum Brands Holdings Inc. for $1.4 billion. It is expected to operate as a separate unit within Spectrum Brands.
San Clemente-based Cameron Health Inc., which makes heart defibrillators, sold to Boston Scientific Corp. in Nattick, Mass., in a deal that could be worth more than $1 billion if certain incentives are met. There are no plans to shift Cameron’s operations out of OC, and Kevin Hykes remains in charge of the unit under Boston Scientific’s ownership.
Joel Moskowitz struck a deal for Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc., which makes ceramic-based armor and other products. Ceradyne has an $860 million sale to 3M Co. in St. Paul, Minn., pending.
Restaurant Sale
Steele Platt became an entrepreneur-without-portfolio when the Irvine-based restaurant chain Yard House sold to Darden Restaurants Inc. in Florida for $585 million. Platt founded the chain and owned about 25% when private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners LLC of San Francisco bought it in 2007. He had a 10% stake by the time of sale to Darden, which also owns the Red Lobster and Olive Garden chains, along with Capital Grille and Seasons 52.
Now he has another restaurant concept in mind—and a noncompete agreement that gives him room to pursue the idea. Platt told the Business Journal earlier this year that he plans to get to work in earnest on a new chain early next year.
Other Deals
Among other OC companies that enter 2013 with new owners are:
• Aliso Viejo-based startup Gaikai Inc. sold for $380 million to Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., which plans to use its technology to create a cloud-streaming service allowing users to play “a broad array of content” on a variety of Internet-connected devices.
• Sun Healthcare Group Inc. of Irvine is acquired for $275 million by fellow nursing home operator Genesis HealthCare LLC in Kennett Square, Pa.
• Cypress-based restaurant chain operators Real Mex Restaurants Inc. went to a group of creditors operating as RM Opco and made up of Santa Monica-based investment manager Tennenbaum Capital Partners LLC, JP Morgan Investment Management Inc. in New York, and Lake Forest, Ill.-based Z Capital Partners LLC. They got an 85% stake in a deal valued at about $126 million.
• Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc., parent company of the Orange County Register, sold to Boston-based 2100 Trust LLC for an estimated $200 million.
• Costa Mesa-based OC Weekly and 12 other alternative weekly newspapers were sold in a management buyout of parent company Village Voice Media Holdings LLC’s assets on undisclosed terms in September.
OC also saw a new arrival, when steakhouse chain Sizzler USA moved its headquarters from Culver City to Mission Viejo and laid out plans to renovate the chain, with redesigns of restaurants and a reworked menu.
Then there were personnel changes, including a prominent dismissal that came about midyear, when Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. fired Chief Executive Susan McGalla a little more than a year after she arrived at the long-struggling retailer. A search is on for her successor.
David Goronkin’s hire in June 2011 as chief executive of Real Mex Restaurants turned out to be a short-term assignment. Goronkin shepherded Real Mex—which operates about 160 restaurants as part of the El Torito, Acapulco and Chevys Fresh Mex chains, among others, and was in a three-year downward spiral on sales—through its bankruptcy sale.
Goronkin resigned a few months later, and now heads up the San Diego-based Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp.’s Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes chains. The top job at Real Mex remains open.
Retirements
High-profile retirements also reshaped the local landscape:
• Western Digital Chief Executive John Coyne announced plans to step aside after the New Year, and President Steve Milligan has been tapped to take his place.
• Jim Mazzo, president of Abbott Medical Optics in Santa Ana, will step down at the end of this month. Mazzo’s decision to retire came prior to civil charges of insider trading related to the 2009 sale of Advanced Medical Optics to Abbott. Mazzo has said he expects to be exonerated of the charges (see related OC Insider item, page 3). Murthy Simhambhatla, who runs another Abbott unit, has been named to take the top spot at Abbott Medical Optics.
• Huntington Beach-based BJ’s Restaurants Inc. named Gregory Trojan president of the chain, with plans for him to become chief executive when Gerald Deitchle retires in February.
• Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau President Charles Ahlers announced plans to retire at the end of this year after 20 years as head of the organization. A search is ongoing for a replacement.
The changes touched academia, too.
Andy Policano announced plans to step down as dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at University of California, Irvine. Policano will continue with UC Irvine as faculty director for the school’s Center for Investment and Wealth Management.
Policano has been dean of the Paul Merage School since 2004. He will remain in that role for another seven months—which leads us to next year, the subject for the 2013 Preview that will appear in next week’s Business Journal.
