Stories in this week’s Orange County Business Journal
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
UP: The employment outlook for Orange County, which is expected to reverse three years of declines by adding 100,000 jobs in the next three years, according to a recent forecast by California State University, Long Beach. The report projected a gain of 19,000 jobs this year, about midway among several local forecasts in recent months.
TOP STORIES
Anaheim-based luxury hybrid auto developer Fisker Automotive Inc. has raised another $100 million in venture funding as the company prepares to ship its first model next month. The new funding comes two months after the automaker secured $190 million from investors and began production on its Karma sedan. Fisker has raised more than $1 billion in private and government money, including a $529 million Energy Department loan and $21.5 million in grants and loans from Delaware. Earlier this year, Fisker bought Delaware’s Wilmington Assembly plant for $20 million in General Motors Co.’s bankruptcy.
Irvine-based In-N-Out Burgers Inc. expanded into Texas, drawing long lines at openings of two restaurants in the Dallas area. It’s the first move by In-N-Out Burger beyond California and neighboring states. The company has opened a temporary processing and distribution center near Dallas and plans to set up a permanent one that could serve more Texas cities and nearby states. In-N-Out has estimated yearly revenue of $475 million and is one of the largest privately held companies based in Orange County.
Broadcom Corp., Western Digital Corp. and Spectrum Group International Inc., all of Irvine, made big jumps on the 2011 Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest corporations by annual sales. Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc., Pacific Life Insurance Co. in Newport Beach and Irvine’s Allergan Inc. also made the list. Ingram Micro ranked highest among Orange County companies at No. 75. It was No. 1 on the Business Journal’s April list of the largest public companies here with $34.6 billion in yearly sales.
TECHNOLOGY
Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. is paying $42 million in cash for SC Square Ltd., an Israel-based developer of security software. Broadcom makes chips for computers, networking and consumer electronics and cell phones. SC Square makes chips and software used in smartcards for making electronic payments, gaining access to networks and buildings and others uses.
Newly private chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. of Newport Beach raised an undisclosed amount of funding from a Menlo Park venture capital firm. August Capital made the investment in Conexant, which makes chips for multifunction office printers, digital picture frames, PC speakers and other devices. The investment comes about a month after Conexant went private in a $282 million buyout by San Francisco-based private equity firm Golden Gate Private Equity Inc.
Bret Johnsen, the former financial chief of Newport Beach-based chipmaker Mindspeed Technologies Inc., has taken a job at Hawthorne’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., a startup founded by PayPal cofounder Elon Musk. SpaceX makes rockets, a spacecraft and related products and seeks to offer space services to governments at a fraction of what it would cost them to do so themselves. The hiring of Johnsen is seen as part of SpaceX’s plans to go public.
Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc. joined the venture arm of Intel Corp. to lead a $6.5 million funding of a Silicon Valley software developer. Quest and Intel Capital invested in WSO2 Inc. The company makes what’s known as middleware, or software that allows different computers and programs to work together. Quest makes software that builds upon programs by Oracle Corp., Microsoft Corp. and others by making them more efficient.
HEALTHCARE
Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Inc. gave Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange $10 million for pediatric cancer research. It’s the largest corporate donation in CHOC’s history. The hospital recently renamed a building the Hyundai Cancer Institute at CHOC and will put the name on a $565 million, seven-story tower expected to open in 2013. The gift came from Hyundai’s Hope on Wheels program, funded by the automaker’s dealers.
EDUCATION
A gift has paved the way for the University of California, Irvine, to start a center for research of desert environments in northeastern San Diego County. Audrey Steele Burnand of Los Angeles is buying the Desert Club for $650,000 and giving it to UC Irvine. Her father-in-law developed the club in the 1940s. She’ll also spend an undisclosed amount to renovate the 6,500-square foot building for research and housing for up to 24 students.
AEROSPACE
Irvine-based Pasternack Enterprises Inc., a maker and seller of military and aerospace electronics, moved to a larger building in the city to accommodate expansion of its products and workforce. Its new headquarters is 32,000 square feet, up from the 28,000 square feet it had nearby.
