EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORIES
Tustin agreed to transfer 22 acres of the former 1,600-acre Tustin Marine base to Santa Ana Unified School District for an elementary school; Santa Ana, which wanted 100 acres, also gets $38 million to buy land for a high school elsewhere, while Tustin will set up $60 million in credit in case the land is too contaminated to build a school; Tustin said most of the base will be sold to developers for homes, offices and a golf course; the Navy will sell 234 acres for housing Ahead of its May 29 directors vote, Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. nixed one board candidate, Richard Koppes, replacing him with Rosemary Tomich, who’s term on the board is expiring; Koppes is on a slate of directors proposed by a disgruntled shareholder group.
ENERGY
Federal regulators ordered more than 100 energy companies to detail their electricity trading during last year’s energy crisis to see if they copied power trading tactics in which Enron Corp. diverted power out of the state only to resell it back at higher prices.
TECHNOLOGY
Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc.’s chip making spinoff unveiled its new name, Jazz Semiconductor Inc. Irvine-based Lantronix Inc. fired CFO and COO, Steven V. Cotton, for “performance reasons”; former Lantronix Chief Executive Jim Kerrigan will come out of retirement to replace Cotton until a permanent replacement is found Motorola Inc. said it will buy chips for its high-speed cable modems from Texas Instruments Inc. instead of Irvine-based Broadcom Corp., whose shares tumbled 17% on the news (see Technology column, page 43) Irvine-based Microsemi Corp. sold its Montgomeryville, Pa.-based chip plant to Bend, Ore.-based Advanced Power Technology Inc. for $12.2 million in cash Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp. said its March quarter operating income fell 21.9% to $26.8 million on an 8.2% decline in revenue to $92.3 million; QLogic said its weaker sales were a result of fewer orders by big buyers such as EMC Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc., which were hurt by lower corporate technology spending Shares of Anaheim-based DDi Corp. continued their roller-coaster ride, surging 40% to 3.77 after Robertson Stephens upgraded the company to a “strong buy”; the gain came after DDi shares had fallen 45% when Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating on the company Boeing Co.’s Irvine-based Connexion unit received regulators’ OK to provide Internet service on airlines; American, United and Delta airlines held off on installing the service after the terrorist attacks in the fall, though it is in use in some private and government aircraft … Santa Ana-based Astech Inc. was bought by London based GKN PLC for $32 million.
HEALTHCARE
University of California medical center nurses voted to strike unless the university raises pay and nurse staffing levels and reduces mandatory overtime; the California Nurses Association covers 795 nurses at UCI Medical Center.
GOVERNMENT
Supervisor Cynthia Coad said she’s reviewing an Irvine plan to fund North County parks from the development of the former El Toro Marine base; Coad wants at least $800,000 a year in property tax money from future El Toro development to fund the parks Costa Mesa’s City Council rejected a request by the Orange County Regional Airport Authority to join a lawsuit challenging anti-El Toro airport Measure W; meanwhile, Retired Brig. Gen. Art Bloomer resigned as executive director of a coalition formed by the airport authority to back an airport at the base The Rancho Santiago and Coast community college districts said it’s likely they will ask voters in November to approve a tax increase for campus repairs and retrofits State regulators proposed rules to standardize operating and maintenance procedures at amusement parks ahead of a June 20 public hearing; park inspections are set to start this year.
REAL ESTATE
The Orange County Planning Commission approved a scaled-back proposal to build 388 homes on the upper Bolsa Chica mesa; the development, to be built by an affiliate of Irvine-based Signal Landmark, has been the focus of a 30-year battle and moves on to the California Coastal Commission Supervisors backed a conceptual plan for the 6-acre Live Oak Plaza shopping mall and gas station in Trabuco Canyon; the plan, which still needs final county approval, has been fought for decades by landowners and an American Indian tribe that says the mall could disturb ancestral remains that might be buried there ChinaTrust Bank foreclosed on part of upscale Hewes Park Estates in Orange; ChinaTrust was owed about $4 million by Costa Mesa-based developer, TNR Development Corp., which sold homes under the Compass Homes name Supervisors approved a contribution of $670,000 to help build a 30-unit affordable housing complex three blocks from the beach in Laguna.
FINANCE
Santa Ana-based First American Corp. bought an undisclosed stake in Knoxville, Tenn.-based MarketLinx Solutions; meanwhile, its First American Title Insurance Co. unit bought Portland, Maine-based Guaranty Title Corp. Irvine-based Fidelity National Financial Inc. said it would buy back $75 million of its stock in the first year of a three-year repurchase plan A suit filed in Orange County Superior Court charges that City National Corp., U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo & Co. facilitated a scheme by bankrupt Irvine investment company DFJ Italia to defraud 700 investors of up to $45 million; the suit seeks $36 million from the banks, which allegedly allowed DFJ Italia officers to open accounts without sufficient checks of their background information.
