EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORY
Opponents of developer Michael Harrah’s proposed 37-story office tower in downtown Santa Ana filed suit against the city and Harrah. The suit calls for a new environmental report on One Broadway Plaza, which would be OC’s tallest high-rise. Meanwhile, about 12,700 signatures were submitted to the city in a bid to call a special election on the tower proposal, which has been approved by the City Council. The county registrar of voters must OK about 8,500 signatures for the issue to get on the ballot.
TECHNOLOGY
Irvine-based Quest Software Inc. said it sold 132,000 licenses for its database software to the Army. Quest also said it plans to sell its Vista Plus unit to Canada’s Open Text Corp. for $24 million. Vista Plus accounted for about 6% of Quest’s sales last year … Santa Ana-based computer products distributor Ingram Micro Inc. said it was on track to meet its third-quarter goal of $5.7 billion to $5.9 billion in sales … Shares of Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. fell 5% to 26 in early trading Friday after chip bellwether Intel Corp. warned that its third-quarter sales and profit would be weaker than expected … Garden Grove-based DPAC Technologies Corp. said it fired Chief Financial Officer William Stowell, replacing him with controller Steve Vukadinovich. The company also cut 12 other workers as part of the shuttering of its memory-stacking operations.
Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp. said it began clinical trials of a treatment that could be used to relieve hardening of the arteries. Edwards licensed the compound from Richmond-based Sangamo BioSciences Inc. … Irvine-based Cardiac Science Inc. said the British National Health Service plans to buy $3 million of its Powerheart G3 defibrillators … Shares of Lake Forest-based Cooper Cos. rose 7% to 62 after the maker of contact lenses and other healthcare products raised its sales and profit outlook for the quarter ending Oct. 31.
Vancouver, Wash.-based Kiewit Pacific Co. and Long Beach-based Moffat & Nichol Engineers won a $64 million contract from federal wildlife officials to improve the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach to a more natural state. Work is set to begin in October.
Passenger volume at John Wayne Airport in July rose 6.8% to 869,481, versus a year earlier. There were 32,026 takeoffs and landings, up 5.1% compared to last year.
Pimco Funds is close to a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over charges that its stock funds allowed some investors to make improper trades, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The settlement doesn’t affect Pimco’s Newport Beach-based bond fund family, which hasn’t been accused of the improper trading. The stock and bond funds are owned by Germany’s Allianz Group … Software problems and a new worker were blamed for a June accident at Walt Disney Co.’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at Disneyland in Anaheim. Five riders had minor injuries in the crash. Last year, one rider was killed during an accident on the ride, which is set to reopen Friday … The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel said it plans to spend $30 million upgrading the hotel. Work on a new spa and fitness center already has begun, with room renovations and a restaurant makeover also planned … Costa Mesa-based Resources Connection Inc. said it bought Sweden’s Nordic Spring Management Consulting AB for undisclosed terms. Resources Connection said the deal would boost annual sales by about $5 million … Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc. said it won a five-year deal with the Marine Corps to provide up to $41.5 million worth of ceramic body armor. About $3.2 million of the gear will be shipped in the next six months. The company also picked up a $5.1 million order for ceramic-based seats that will be used in military vehicles … Shares of Newport Beach-based SM & A; fell 20% to 6.6 after the contracts consulting company warned that its third-quarter and 2004 revenue would be lower than expected because of delays in awarding government contracts … Some 3,500 food-service Walt Disney Co. workers have split from Local 681 to form their own local. The Disneyland and California Adventure workers, who didn’t like how they were represented by leader Ada Torres, founded Local 50, which plans to negotiate a new contract with Disney before the current one expires Oct. 30. … A pair of Kmart Corp. stores that were sold to Home Depot Corp. are set to close in October. The stores, which employ about 180 workers, are in Huntington Beach and Orange … Shares of Corinthian Colleges Inc. rose 23% to 14 after the for-profit school operator posted a 2% rise in operating income to $30 million in the quarter ended June 30, versus a year earlier, and a 56% jump in revenue to $217 million. The company earlier had lowered its earnings expectations for the quarter, but reconfirmed its guidance for the September period … Bellevue, Wash.-based Esterline Corp. completed its $145 million buy of Buena Park-based Leach Holding Corp. … The Arizona Diamondbacks said former Newport Beach sports agent Jeff Moorad will take over as chief executive on Oct. 15, earlier than the Jan. 1 date initially set. Outgoing chief Jerry Colangelo decided to leave the helm earlier than expected … Morgan Hill-based Fox Racing tapped Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc. to develop Fox-branded sunglasses, goggles and prescription glasses.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Down: Orange County’s housing picture in July, with the amount of time it would take to sell homes on the market at 7.5 months, the longest since November 1998.
