EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TECHNOLOGY
Santa Ana-based Powerwave Technologies Inc. said it plans to buy Sweden’s LGP Allgon for $407 million in stock. The deal, set to close in the first quarter, is expected to add to Powerwave’s earnings in the period. The combined company will have about 1,900 workers … Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc. said its fourth-quarter sales should be at the top of its forecast of $5.7 billion to $5.9 billion. Meanwhile, the computer products distributor said its general counsel, James E. Anderson, Jr., plans to retire Jan. 31. … Germany’s Siemens AG said it plans to buy privately held IndX Software Corp. in Aliso Viejo for undisclosed terms … Irvine’s GameSpy Industries Inc. said it will be bought by San Francisco-based rival IGN Entertainment Inc. for undisclosed terms. IGN’s chief executive, Mark Jung, will head the new company, which will be based in San Francisco … Shares of Santa Ana-based SimpleTech Inc. fell 10% to 5.2 late last week after the company said it settled a patent suit filed by Lexar Media Inc. … Newport Beach-based Mindspeed Technologies Inc. said it will begin trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange Dec. 15 under the symbol “MSPD” … U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved Anaheim-based DDI Corp.’s restructuring.
HEALTHCARE
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Alcon Inc. and Bausch & Lomb Inc. could continue selling a generic version of Irvine-based Allergan Inc.’s Alphagan glaucoma treatment. Allergan’s sales of the drug are expected to be about $265 million this year … Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc. filed a patent suit against Switzerland’s Alcon. Advanced Medical claims Alcon is unfairly using its cataract-removal technology … Lake Forest-based Cooper Cos. said it paid about $3 million to privately held SURx Inc. in Livermore for a product line used to treat female urinary incontinence.
REAL ESTATE
Anaheim-based Diversified Title & Escrow Services Co. was fined $1 million by the California Department of Insurance for paying $500,000 to agents and brokers in return for business.
GOVERNMENT
Former nine-term Republican Rep. Robert Dornan said he plans to run against Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher in the March primary. Rohrabacher’s seat in the 46th District, which includes Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Seal Beach. Dornan’s last political race was a loss to Democrat Loretta Sanchez in 1998 … Orange County Republican chief Tom Fuentes filed for reelection in the GOP’s Central Committee in OC … The Costa Mesa City Council approved a new plan for the proposed 8.5-mile CenterLine light-rail project that includes an underground section near the Orange County Performing Arts Center. The county transportation authority is expected to vote on the final route by early next year.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said rates charged by workers’ compensation insurance providers will fall an average of 3.6% in California next year. The cut is far short of Garamendi’s call for a 14.9% decline in light of a workers’ comp reform package signed by former Gov. Gray Davis earlier this fall. California’s biggest workers’ comp underwriter, the public State Compensation Insurance Fund, is planning a 2.9% rate cut Jan. 1, though overall rates are likely to rise for most businesses because a 19% rate hike introduced by the state fund in the summer has yet to kick in … Orange-based CheckMate Staffing Inc. will pay more than $5 million to settle a suit filed by the State Compensation Insurance Fund, which sought unpaid workers’ comp premiums from the staffing company. CheckMate also is the target of a criminal probe over workers’ comp fraud … The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it has extended a deadline for awarding two contracts to repair Iraq’s oil fields worth about $2 billion to Jan. 17 from the end of December. Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp. has made a joint bid with United Kingdom’s AMEC PLC … Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. said it plans to cut 20%, or 200, of its workers here. The struggling Japanese automaker has seen its sales fall 24% this year … State Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed a $50 million suit against Irvine-based Caliber Holdings Inc., which operates 68 auto repair shops in California and Texas. The suit charges Caliber with fraudulent repairs and billing irregularities … Shares of Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc. fell as much as 32% late last week before recovering most of the losses to trade at 55. Rival Career Education Corp. saw its shares tumble after a former worker charged the company with rigging student enrollment numbers, which Career Education disputed … Costa Mesa-based Hurley International picked Anaheim-based Lunada Bay Corp. to make its debut line of young women’s bathing suits. Hurley is a unit of Nike Inc.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Up: The outlook for Orange County’s economy next year, with Chapman University forecasting a 4.9% rise in personal income, a 4.4% increase in taxable sales and the creation of 24,000 jobs, versus a year earlier.
Up: Sentiment among Orange County residents, with the consumer confidence index rising seven points to 97, versus a year earlier, according to a survey by the University of California, Irvine, and San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California.
