Other news items of interest from the Orange County Business Journal
Anaheim-based Fisker Automotive Inc. hired Huron Consulting Group Inc. to manage its day-to-day operations while the cash-strapped maker of luxury hybrid automobiles seeks an investor, according to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek. The report also said that Hugh Sawyer, an executive with Chicago-based Huron, has been brought on to serve as chief administrative officer. Fisker has been searching for an investor since last year, when it hired Los Angeles-based Evercore Partners Inc. to assist with the process. The U.S. Department on Energy last year suspended $335 million of a $529 million loan to Fisker after the automaker missed certain sales and production milestones with its Karma sedan. The suspended loan, coupled with a shortage of batteries resulting from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Waltham, Mass.-based supplier A123 Systems, has led to delayed production of Fisker’s second model, the Atlantic.
Agendia BV, a Netherlands-based cancer diagnostic laboratory with U.S. headquarters in Irvine, named Dr. Neil Barth as its chief medical officer. Barth is a former chief of staff at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach.
St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, St. Joseph Hospital-Orange and Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo have been selected to participate in a new payment program by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Orange-based St. Joseph Health owns the three hospitals. The pilot plan calls for the hospitals to receive a single payment for acute-care hospital stays by Medicare patients who get total hip and knee joint replacement procedures. The payment would include all services furnished by the hospital, doctors and other practitioners during patient stays and related readmissions for 30 days after hospital discharge. CMS said that the objective is to cut costs and improve quality of service. Three other hospitals in California were picked for the pilot program.
Newport Beach-based Irvine Company Retail Properties’ joined with the Anaheim/Orange County Visitor and Convention Bureau for a kickoff of a marketing campaign to draw international tourists to its Fashion Island and Irvine Spectrum shopping centers. The effort comes amid an upswing in visitors, with significant increases in traffic from China. Irvine Co. will work with tour operators and online travel agencies to offer free trips to Newport Beach and shopping sprees. It will also highlight discount packages from retailers and restaurants at the two shopping centers as well as its Corona del Mar Plaza and Crystal Cove Shopping Center.
Cincinnati-based CECO Environmental Corp. acquired Adwest Technologies Inc. in Anaheim on undisclosed terms. Both companies make air-quality systems designed to remove pollutants created at factories at other sites. Adwest has about $12 million in annual sales and 40 workers here. Its management is expected to remain in place under the new owner.
Santa Ana-based Powerwave Technologies Inc. was delisted by Nasdaq and now trades over-the-counter. The company, which designs and manufactures antennas, filters and other equipment for cell phone towers, declared bankruptcy last week amid mounting troubles with lagging sales and heavy debt. Its market value had fallen under $2 million prior to Nasdaq’s action.
Passenger traffic at John Wayne Airport rose 5.5% in December from a year earlier to 735,626 passengers. The count for the full year rose 2.9% to more than 8.85 million passengers. Air cargo shipments in December grew by 17% to 1,630 tons, marking the fourth straight month of double-digit percentage increases. Air cargo was up nearly 15% for the year to 17,870 tons.
The Orange County Business Council named attorney Michael Hornak chairman of its board of directors for 2013. Hornak is a senior partner at Costa Mesa-based Rutan & Tucker LLP, the second-largest law office in Orange County by the number of lawyers here, at 134. He succeeds Julie Miller-Phipps, senior vice president at Kaiser Permanente Orange County. The Orange County Business Council is based in Irvine and represents businesses that account for about 250,000 jobs here.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
