Other news items of interest from the Orange County Business Journal
Paul Naudé resigned as a company director and Americas President of Australia-based Billabong International Ltd. Naude was part of a consortium that recently tried to buy the company, which sold to another group of bidders. The competing group has hired former Oakley Inc. Chief Executive Scott Olivet for the same post at Billabong International. The company said in a statement that Naude left “to pursue other opportunities.” He worked from the company’s Billabong USA office in Irvine, where the majority of its portfolio of apparel and accessories brands is based, and was credited with helping expand the brand and acquire other apparel labels and retail chains.
Chapman University named Joel Moskowitz, founder and longtime head of Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc., to its 42-member board of trustees. Moskowitz oversaw Ceradyne’s sale to St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M Co. last year for $860 million. Chapman also named attorney Zeinab Dabbah a trustee. Dabbah and her husband, Daniel Temianka, recently gave $2.5 million toward the Henri Temianka Professorship in Music and the Henri Temianka Scholarship in String Studies, named after Daniel’s father.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is cutting 245 jobs from its mortgage lending unit in Irvine. The bank said “several hundred” employees will remain in the Irvine location after the cuts. The downsizing is part of JPMorgan’s two-year plan to trim about 15,000 mortgage jobs nationwide, a plan that was announced in February.
Pacific Investment Management Co. and other bond investors are trying to stop the Northern California city of Richmond from using the power of eminent domain to force the sale of homes that remain underwater in terms of their mortgages. The city’s plan calls for reductions in the mortgages and refinancing for loans in a bid to keep homes from being foreclosed and adding to blight. Pimco and other bond investors argue in a complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco that the use of eminent domain would be unconstitutional and hurt retirees and savers.
Santa Ana hired Phoenix city manager David Cavazos for the same role at OC’s largest city and will pay him among the highest municipal salaries in the state. The new top administrator’s first-year salary and benefits package totals $558,625.
Laboratory Corp. of America will lay off 156 workers at its Integrated Oncology specialty testing unit in Irvine, according to a state filing. The layoffs will start Oct. 19 and continue through Dec. 31, according to the filing.
Burlington, N.C.-based LabCorp got the Irvine facility in 2005 through its $155 million buy of US Labs, which was based in Irvine. LabCorp also bought the assets of Santa Ana-based Westcliff Clinical Laboratories Inc. in 2011 for $57.5 million.
Ambry Genetics in Aliso Viejo countersued Salt Lake City-based Myriad Genetics Inc., claiming Myriad sent threatening letters to doctors. Myriad sued Ambry and Houston-based Gene By Gene Ltd. in July, accusing them of infringing its patents for tests for genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancers and for synthesized DNA.
Pimco co-founder Bill Gross and his wife, Sue, will have their names on a ship-based hospital. The couple’s Gross Family Foundation has donated $20 million to Texas-based nonprofit group Mercy Ships. The group’s hospital ship travels to West African countries to provide free medical care to the poor. The Gross foundation’s donations will go toward the addition of a second ship.
Irvine-based Taco Bell Corp. expanded its new breakfast menu to about 100 additional restaurants in Fresno, Omaha, Neb. and Chattanooga, Tenn. It already offered the menu at locations in 10 Western states. The chain said its waffle taco was its top breakfast seller at five Southern California restaurants in testing this year.
John Carmack has been named Irvine startup Oculus VR’s new chief technology officer. The creator of the Doom shooting video game will open a second development office in Dallas.
Kingston Technology laid off 55 employees in July as part of reduced production and packaging in Fountain Valley. The computer memory products maker recently shifted more work to plants in Asia.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
UP: The outlook for Orange County hotels in June, when the average daily rate rose 5.1% from May levels to $161.62, according to PKF Consulting USA. Revenue per available room—a key industry measure that multiplies occupancy by the average daily rate—rose 5.4% to $136.86 countywide. Occupancy in June was up 0.4% from May to 84.68%.
