Compiled by Julie Leupold
TOP STORIES
Mission Viejo-based U.S. Education Corp. is being bought by vocational school operator DeVry Inc. of Illinois for $290 million. U.S. Education runs for-profit schools under the Apollo College and Western Career College names. The company’s schools have more than 8,700 students at 17 campuses in California, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona and New Mexico. U.S. Education is partly owned by Newport Beach-based private equity firm ClearLight Partners LLC. The buyout, which is expected to close in September, is intended to boost DeVry’s healthcare training programs.
TECHNOLOGY
Jazz Technologies Inc., the parent of Newport Beach-based contract chipmaker Jazz Semiconductor, narrowed its losses in the second quarter. In May, Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd. said it’s set to pay $40 million plus $129 million in debt for Jazz. Including charges of $1.5 million for the buyout, the company narrowed its loss to $5 million, down from $13 million a year earlier. Analysts were expecting Jazz to lose about $6 million. Jazz saw sales of $48 million, down 8% from a year earlier but beating expectations of $46 million. The sale to Tower Semiconductor is expected to close by the end of the year.
Santa Ana-based circuit board maker TTM Technologies Inc. gave an outlook for the current quarter that fell short of expectations. TTM is looking for profits of $8 million to $11 million on sales of $163 million to $171 million. Analysts are expecting profits of $12 million on sales of $178 million. The company reported second-quarter sales of $173 million, up 7% from a year earlier and just shy of analysts’ expected $174 million. Including a $3 million charge related to a loan, TTM posted profits of $9 million, up 52% from a year earlier and in line with expectations.
Irvine’s Lantronix Inc., a maker of networking gear, cut 28 jobs as part of its ongoing restructuring. The move is expected to save about $3 million a year. The company said it expects to take charges of $400,000 to $500,000 for severance pay and other costs in the current quarter. Including the most recent round of cuts, Lantronix has slashed its work force by 22%, a total of 38 jobs.
HEALTHCARE
Allergan Inc. reported second-quarter profits in line with expectations and sales that beat them, but was cautious about the current quarter. The Irvine drug maker’s profit before charges came in at $192.1 million, in line with expectations and up 17% from a year earlier. Second-quarter sales rose 20% to $1.16 billion, above Wall Street expectations of $1.13 billion. For the current quarter, Allergan expects profits of $195.2 million to $198.2 million, versus analysts’ expectations of $204.3 million. It expects sales to come in at $1.09 billion to $1.12 billion, versus analyst expectations of $1.13 billion.
Newport Beach’s Alliance Imaging Inc. bought another provider of medical scanning services for $20 million in cash and debt. The company bought Medical Outsourcing Services LLC of Illinois to build up its diagnostic scanning businesses, particularly for cancer screening, Chief Executive Paul Viviano said.
Lake Forest-based home healthcare provider Apria Healthcare Group Inc. released partial second-quarter results last week but delayed final figures because of a possible accounting issue. The company, which is being bought and taken private by Blackstone Group LP for $1.6 billion, is looking into a possible overstatement of accounts receivable reserves used to offset customers that don’t end up paying their debts.
REAL ESTATE
Santa Ana-based First American Corp. reported better than expected second-quarter earnings. First American posted net income of $42 million, compared to a loss of $66 million a year earlier. Analysts expected the company to earn about $37 million. Second-quarter profits were due to reduced costs, rather than a turnaround in First American’s business.
Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp. posted another big loss in the second quarter of $248.2 million. That compares to a loss of $165.9 million a year earlier, and a loss of $216.4 million in the first quarter. The second-quarter loss included $149 million in impairment charges, including write-offs for the lowered value of unsold homes and undeveloped land.
FINANCE
Federal regulators closed three-branch First Heritage Bank of Newport Beach, which was owned by First National Bank Holding Co. of Scottsdale. The bank was sold to Mutual of Omaha Bank of Nebraska and will reopen under that name.
