EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORIES
Emulex Corp., Costa Mesa, projected sales for the 12 months ending next June could come in up to 10% lower than analysts’ average estimate; it shares dropped by about a third on the news. Shares of Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp. also fell OC development pioneer and Fullerton native Irvine C. “Ernie” Chapman died at 91; Chapman was the nation’s longest-serving university board member,at Chapman University, named after his father. Chapman pushed urbanization in the county when he sold off his father’s orange orchards in Fullerton for housing and industry after World War II.
TECHNOLOGY
Aliso Viejo-based Fax.com Inc. was fined $5.4 million by federal regulators for violating a law that bans “junk faxes”; Fax.com has 30 days to contest the ruling and says the fine, which is the largest levied under the law, violates a constitutional ruling in federal court last year Anaheim-based DDi Corp. said it would be delisted from the Nasdaq exchange if it can’t keep its stock price above 1 for 10 consecutive days by Nov. 4; DDi shares were trading at 53 cents at a recent check AT & T; Corp. started offering residential phone service in parts of California where SBC Communications Inc.’s Pacific Bell unit has been the long-time incumbent; SBC, meanwhile, is close to getting the OK to offer long-distance service in the state.
HEALTHCARE
Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceutical Inc. said its second-quarter operating income fell 12% to $41 million on a 16% increase in revenue to $237 million; the results beat recently lowered expectations and shares of the company rose 11% to 10.30 on the report; ICN said it would release an operations review within 90 days; meanwhile, Steven Lee, a dissident director elected to ICN’s board last year, retired as chief executive of Woburn, Mass.-based PolyMedica Corp., which is being investigated for overbilling Medicare; the company says the investigation has nothing to do with the retirement of Lee ICN’s Costa Mesa-based spinoff Ribapharm Inc. filed a patent suit against a unit of Switzerland’s Roche Holding AG for Ribapharm’s ribavirin drug; Ribapharm also reported a second-quarter net profit of $31 million, up 62%, and sales of $66 million, up 72% A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine says Irvine-based Allergan Inc.’s Botox can help stroke victims regain the use of their hands.
GOVERNMENT
A federal judge temporarily halted Cypress from using eminent domain to seize property owned by the Cottonwood Christian Center so it could be used for a Costco store Irvine officials proposed ending the planned CenterLine rail project at Irvine City Hall and cutting off six miles; Orange County Transportation Authority officials are reviewing the idea but expressed doubts about stopping the line short of Irvine’s business hubs Tony Lam, the first Vietnamese-American elected to public office, said he won’t seek a fourth term on Westminster’s City Council OC Supervisor Charles Smith’s hope for a fifth vote on the former El Toro Marine base was quashed after he didn’t get a board majority to back it; Smith said Irvine’s Great Park proposal calls for more development than initially planned Voters will decide whether the Navy should clean up toxic material at El Toro before it is sold to developers, according to an advisory measure that supervisors OK’d for the November ballot Supervisors will pay $110,000 to Alameda-based museum consultant LORD Cultural Services to study whether it’s feasible to turn one of the Tustin base blimp hangers into a museum The University of California, Irvine, said it would double the number of mice it uses to more than 40,000 to accommodate its fast-growing School of Biological Sciences and other research units.
REAL ESTATE
Anaheim-based Anderson/White Con-struction Corp. has walked off the $3.4 million Costa Mesa City Hall retrofit; the city plans to hire a new contractor to finish the project, which is a year behind schedule.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Moody’s Investors Service is reviewing Walt Disney Co.’s long-term credit rating because of weakness at its theme parks and ABC; Disney warned that its September quarter earnings could be lower than expected due in part to reduced tourism expectations David Weber, marketing chief for the Fountain Valley-based U.S. unit of Hyundai Motor Co., resigned because of a disagreement in strategy for the South Korean automaker Newport Beach-based consultant SM & A; said its second-quarter operating profit rose 57% to $2 million on a 30% increase in revenue to $13.7 million; the aerospace consultant said its win rate for clients stands at 86% for proposals worth more than $222 billion Huntington Beach-based Chicago Pizza & Brewery Inc. said its sales grew 14.5% to $18.3 million in the second quarter vs. a year ago as it opened restaurants in Irvine and Arizona, but the pizza chain’s operating income fell 1.4% to $1.3 million, partly on costs associated with the restaurant openings Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc. settled a patent suit with V-2 Optic LLC with V-2 saying it will change the lenses of two brands of goggles and agreeing not to make or sell goggles that were said to infringe on Oakley’s patents Irvine-based Stussy Inc. filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Orem, Utah-based Downeast Outfitters Inc. and Monterey Park’s Bings Merchandising Inc. The Drug Enforcement Agency said it seized guns, drugs and at least 60 Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Porsches and other exotic cars from Costa Mesa-based Auto Market of Orange County, which is suspected of being used in a money laundering and methamphetamine operation; the car dealer owner, Nader Amirvand, was among 15 people arrested and pleaded not guilty to charges.
GENERAL INDICATORS
Mixed: Orange County’s new-home market in the second quarter, as sales fell 1% to 1,736 vs. a year ago while the median price rose 14% to $500,000, according to Irvine-based Meyers Group.
Up: Permits issued for home and apartment building in the first half of the year, up 20% to 5,538 vs. last year, according to the Construction Industry Research Board.
