Compiled by Julie Leupold
The University of California, Irvine withdrew an offer to Erwin Chemerinsky to be the school’s first dean of its planned law school. Chancellor Michael Drake said he had lost confidence in Chemer-insky, in part because of recent opinion articles that made him a “lightning rod,” including a scathing rebuke of outgoing Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Officials said the turnaround on Chemerinsky could delay the opening of the law school, which is planned for 2009.
Shareholders have filed two lawsuits over Irvine-based Gateway Inc.’s pending sale to Acer Inc. of Taiwan. The suits take issue with Gateway’s $710 million sale price. Gateway once was valued in the billions, before the tech bubble burst and the company lost ground to bigger rivals. In the suits filed a few days after the Acer deal was announced in August, stockholders and their lawyers called the sale price “inadequate and unfair.” The suits charge that Gateway directors “breached their fiduciary duties to stockholders” by approving the buyout, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The 25 shareholders who filed the suits aren’t named. The suits are unlikely to derail the deal, unless Gateway’s biggest shareholders start to take issue with the price of the deal.
Lake Forest’s Western Digital Corp., a maker of disk drives, upped its outlook for the September quarter. Western Digital cited a pickup in demand and higher prices as the reasons. The company said it is looking for sales of $1.6 billion to $1.65 billion for the quarter. That’s up from its previous forecast of $1.45 billion to $1.5 billion. Western Digital expects profits of $133 million to $142 million, up from an earlier forecast of $94 million to $103 million. The forecast doesn’t include the company’s $1 billion buy of San Jose-based Komag Inc., which closed last week. Komag is seen adding to sales in the quarter and lowering profits because of acquisition-related charges.
A longtime benefactor of Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian donated $16 million to bolster cancer and diabetes treatment and to recruit specialists. The second-largest contribution in the hospital’s history came from the George Hoag Family Foundation. Officials say $10 million of the gift will go toward technology and construction of new facilities. A diabetes program will receive $1 million. The remaining $5 million will create an endowment for recruiting surgeons and oncologists. The expansion is set to wrap up around 2011.
South Coast Repertory unveiled a fundraising campaign with a $10 million gift from real estate investor George Argyros and wife Julianne. The donation, announced during the Costa Mesa theater company’s annual gala at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, equals its biggest previous private contribution: $10 million from Emulex Chairman Paul Folino in 2002, which helped to build its current theater. South Coast Repertory hopes to raise $39 million.
Option One Mortgage Corp. of Irvine is cutting 575 jobs as part of the troubled subprime mortgage lender’s ongoing restructuring, parent company H & R; Block Inc. said. The Kansas City-based tax preparer said last week it plans to take a quarterly charge of about $19 million for the layoffs. In May, Option One announced 615 job cuts. About 85 of the latest job cuts are coming in Irvine, where Option One has about 1,000 workers. H & R; Block is trying to salvage a sale of Option One to New York-based private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP after failing to meet the deal’s requirements for credit and loan volume. The sale originally was estimated at about $800 million.
Newport Beach-based Tarsadia Group sold the 202-room Atrium Suites Hotel in Las Vegas for $50.5 million. The new owners, Asia Pacific Capital Co. and Financial Capital Investment Co., plan to upgrade it.
The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Irvine-based Real Estate Partners for deceiving investors as part of an alleged $50 million fraud. According to the lawsuit, Real Estate Partners defrauded 1,600 people with promises of lucrative returns,54%,from real estate it was buying. Instead, the money raised from January 2003 to January 2006 was used for employee sales commissions and to pay off earlier investors, the SEC said.
Irvine-based El Pollo Loco Inc. is moving its Park Place headquarters to Costa Mesa. The company is expected to occupy its new space at 35535 Harbor Blvd. by mid-October.
