Compiled by Julie Leupold
TOP STORIES
Santa Ana-based eye surgery device and contact lens solution maker Advanced Medical Optics Inc. is being bought for $2.8 billion by Abbott Laboratories of suburban Chicago. The deal values Advanced Medical at 150% more than what the company was worth before the offer. Abbott is paying $1.4 billion for Advanced Medical and taking on $1.4 billion in the company’s debt. Shares of Advanced Medical shot up as high as 150% after the announcement. Abbott is buying Advanced Medical at a discount. The company’s shares traded for twice as much as they do now at the start of 2008 and four times as much in 2007. Advanced Medical has slumped this year on de-clining laser vision correction surgeries, which patients pay for themselves (see story page 1).
TECHNOLOGY
An e-mail in which Broadcom Corp. cofounder Henry T. Nicholas III allegedly talks about a drug binge can be used as evidence during his criminal trial, a federal judge ruled. Lawyers for Nicholas had argued that the 2002 message to his former wife was privileged because it was a personal communication. But U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney noted that the e-mail was written on a Broadcom computer, passed among Broadcom executives, turned over to federal investigators and mentioned in a newspaper article.
Aliso Viejo’s Quest Software Inc., a maker of business software, said it bought a small maker of software that manages data storage networks. Quest bought Redwood City-based MonoSphere Inc., which is privately held. The company didn’t disclose terms of the deal.
REAL ESTATE
University of California, Irvine, is being forced to suspend construction on two major buildings due to the state financial crisis. The university has stopped building the 64,000-square-foot Arts building; the $42 million project is 36% complete. The campus only has enough money to keep working on the Telemedicine/Medical Education Building through the end of January. The $40.5 million, 67,000-square-foot building is 40% complete.
APPAREL
Longtime Quiksilver Inc. executive Marty Samuels stepped down from the Huntington Beach-based clothing maker as it deals with a downturn and restructuring. Samuels had overseen Quiksilver’s largest unit, its Americas division covering the U.S., Canada and Latin America, since 2005. Craig Stevenson, most recently its global president, was named interim president of Quiksilver Americas. In other Quiksilver news, Moody’s Corp. lowered the company’s overall credit rating and its probability of default rating deeper into junk bond status. The agency said its outlook on the company is “negative” as it has $400 million in unsecured debt due in 2013 with a quarter of that debt coming due this year.
FINANCE
Irvine-based WaterHealth International Inc., a water purification company focused on developing countries, raised $10 million in venture backing. Sail Venture Partners LP in Costa Mesa and Dow Venture Capital, a unit of Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co., took part in the funding.
Foothill Ranch-based Kaiser Aluminum Corp. warned of a charge-driven loss for the recently ended quarter and said it reworked the terms of a credit line. Kaiser expects a net loss of $185 million for the fourth quarter, most of it from falling prices for aluminum and other metals. The company said it has reworked a credit line with JPMorgan Chase & Co. to allow for dividends, as long as it maintains more than $100 million in unused credit.
OTHER NEWS
John D. Gantes, who operated 110 restaurants in OC and four states from his Rancho Santa Margarita-based Breckenridge Group, filed for personal bankruptcy last month and is trying to reorganize 25 companies under court supervision. His companies owe at least $280 million, according to court records,including about $200 million that he personally guaranteed.
The Anaheim City Council voted unanimously to end its legal challenge to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim’s name change. After losing in an Orange County Superior Court jury trial in 2006 and before a state appellate court panel, the city’s only recourse would have been to appeal to the California Supreme Court.
Volkswagen AG’s U.S. credit arm in court documents accuses former Lamborghini Orange County owners Vik, Astrid, Nora and Sossi Keuylian of the “outright theft” of Lamborghinis. The dealership reportedly sold the $200,000-plus cars at deep discounts and managed to move some 54 models in only eight days,which equates to 8% of all U.S. Lamborghini sales in 2008. Volkswagen Credit provided financing to the dealership and its sister location in Calabasas and covered the cost of the cars before their sale. There is no indication of where the car’s sales proceeds ended up, Volkswagen says. The case goes to a hearing on Wednesday.
The Orange County Performing Arts Center has laid off a number of employees, but didn’t disclose how many. It is not clear whether additional cuts would be made at the center, which employs about 100 people. The arts center announced in August that it suffered $13 million in losses during its 2007-08 fiscal year.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Down: Home ownership, as foreclosures rose 96% in December from November to 2,423 notices of default, according to Foreclosureradar.com.
Down: UC college entry students, as University of California, Irvine, plans to cut enrollment by 12%.
