An analyst in Citigroup’s Australia office estimated that Billabong International Ltd. could sell its Irvine-based namesake brand, RVCA and Dakine for $103.69 million. Craig Woolford said Costa Mesa-based RVCA alone could go for about $50 million. Billabong International recently confirmed that it’s exploring a sale of its Canadian retail chain, West 49, which it bought in 2010 for $93 million. The update on West 49 came earlier this month after Billabong International said that talks with two groups had officially ended, and it would look into refinancing debt sales of individual assets.
Shares of for-profit school operator Corinthian Colleges Inc. slid last week on word of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation. The Santa Ana-based company’s shares were down about 7% in afternoon trading Friday to a market value of about $184 million. They fell by nearly 20% since its disclosure of the probe in a filing with the SEC earlier last week. Corinthian said that it received a subpoena from the SEC on June 6 requesting documents from the company with information related to student recruitment, attendance, completion, placements, federal loan defaults, alternative loans, and compliance with U.S. Department of Education financial rules, in addition to matters related to company finances, accounting and operations. Corinthian said in its filing that it “intends to cooperate with the SEC in its investigation.”
Newport Beach-based private equity firm ClearLight Partners LLC agreed to sell The Outsource Group Inc. to Parallon Business Solutions LLC in Franklin, Tenn., on undisclosed terms. St. Louis-based Outsource Group provides revenue-cycle management services to more than 160 hospitals and other physician practices in 38 states.
3M Co. subsidiary Ceradyne Inc. plans to lay off 90 workers at its Costa Mesa facility at the end of July, according to a filing with the state Employment Development Department. Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne makes ceramics-based body armor components and other products for the defense, commercial and industrial markets. St. Paul, Minn.-based 3M acquired the company last year for $860 million. Ceradyne had about 400 workers in Orange County out of a companywide total of more than 2,000 at the time of the acquisition.
MillerCoors, the second-largest beer company in America, named Costa Mesa-based Casanova Pendrill Inc. its Latino-American market advertising agency of record for its Miller Lite brand. Casanova Pendrill will handle the creative portion of the account, including the development of a new strategy and campaign. MillerCoors doesn’t disclose its advertising budgets, but industry estimates point to well more than $100 million a year.
Newport Beach-based golf club owner and operator Concert Golf Partners acquired the Emerald Greens Gold Resort & Country Club in Tampa, Fla., from Convergent Capital Partners LLC, a private equity firm there.
Game maker Cryptozoic of Irvine raised $2.2 million through Kickstarter for a new digital card game. The company, which also makes board games, used Kickstarter for the wrap-up funding for its “HEX: Shards of Fate,” a combination of a multiplayer online game and a trading card game.
Laguna Hills-based private equity firm Parallax Capital Partners LLC acquired Fox Technologies Inc. in Mountain View on undisclosed terms. Parallax specializes in investing in software companies and typically looks for firms with revenues ranging from $5 million to $100 million. Fox Technologies makes products that help businesses manage access control to their servers and databases.
Social media site Myspace relaunched last week via a $20 million ad campaign focusing on its music emphasis. The site, once popular, now has an “existing brand issue,” Chief Creative Officer Keith Tilford told Adweek. Myspace is owned by Irvine-based Specific Media LLC and Justin Timberlake.
Cypress-based Yamaha Motor Corp. USA said it finished moving manufacturing for most of its all-terrain vehicles from Japan to Georgia. Yamaha is a local unit of Japan-based Yamaha Motor Co. and makes motorsport vehicles, such as motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
UP: The outlook on jobs in Orange County for the rest of this year and 2014, according to an updated economic forecast presented by Chapman University’s Argyros School of Business and Economics last week. The midyear update sticks with an earlier projection of 2.3% for employment this year, with the addition of 32,000 jobs. Chapman forecasts a 2.6% growth rate on local jobs next year.
