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A week after Fullerton’s Beckman Coulter Inc. raised its takeover bid for San Diego’s Biosite Inc., rival suitor Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. of Massachusetts upped the ante again. Inverness, a maker of medical testing and consumer products, last week said it’s offering $92.50 a share for Biosite. Earlier this month, Beckman raised its bid by $5 a share to match Inverness’ prior $90 offer. The latest Inverness offer values Biosite at $1.72 billion. The public bidding for Biosite, a maker of diagnostic tests for heart diseases and other conditions, started in March when Beckman Coulter offered $85 per share, 53% more than what Biosite was worth before. Inverness already owns 5% of Biosite, which is holding talks with Inverness about its latest offer.
Santa Ana-based NNN Realty Advisors Inc.,parent of real estate investor Triple Net Properties LLC,plans to raise up to $423 million in an initial public offering. NNN filed plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week. The offering is the largest proposed for an Orange County company in several years.
Anaheim’s Multi-Fineline Electronix Inc. said profits dropped 75% for the recently ended quarter on falling prices and weak sales to dominant customer Motorola Inc. The maker of flexible printed circuit boards for flip phones and other devices reported a profit of about $3 million, down from $12.5 million a year earlier. Sales were down 8% to $113.4 million.
Irvine PC maker Gateway Inc. last week reported a smaller first-quarter loss than a year earlier amid a fall in sales. Gateway lost $8.6 million in the quarter, versus a loss of $12.3 million a year before. Revenue fell almost 7% to $1 billion. The results topped Wall Street estimates. Gateway sold 1.25 million PCs during the quarter, a 9% decline from a year earlier. Sales through stores continued to make up the bulk of revenue at $766 million. The company held its spot as the No. 3 PC seller in the quarter, after Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co.
Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp. said last week it’s suing CoreValve Inc. of Irvine for alleged patent infringement. Edwards, which is developing a new type of heart valve that doesn’t require major surgery, charges CoreValve infringed a patent for the catheter-inserted valve. Edwards said it’s open to talks with CoreValve, which moved to Irvine from France last year.
Pegasus Biologics Inc., an Irvine medical device company, said last week that it raised $20 million in a third round of venture funding, bringing its total raised to $32 million. The company plans to use the money to further expand its markets, increase usage of its products and bolster its line of new products. Pegasus’ products include the OrthAdapt Bioimplant, which helps repair soft tissue in orthopedic and sports medicine surgeries.
New Century Financial Corp., the largest subprime lender in bankruptcy, agreed to sell $170 million worth of loans to Old Greenwich, Conn.-based hedge fund Ellington Management Group LLC for less than 30 cents on the dollar. Ellington won a court-supervised auction, agreeing to pay $58 million for the loans and a batch of mortgage-backed securities. Many of the loans are delinquent. Others are “second-lien” loans that may be worthless after first liens are satisfied. Separately, New Century in a court filing shot back at a government bid to replace its executives with a bankruptcy trustee. The Justice Department is looking to replace Chief Executive Brad Morrice and others overseeing the company’s winding down because of accounting issues at New Century. The bankruptcy judge in the case is set to consider the issue Tuesday.
Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. of Irvine laid off 120 local workers last week, the latest mortgage company to announce cuts amid rising late loan payments. The company let go about 15% of its 800-plus workers due to the housing and mortgage downturn. The real estate investment trust last week said it saw a first-quarter loss of $121.7 million, compared to a profit of $85.6 million a year earlier. In the fourth quarter, Impac reported a loss of $59.5 million, due to delinquencies. The company said it “liquidated” $52 million in delinquent loans in the first quarter.
Anaheim-based mall retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc.’s big jump in March same-store sales didn’t carry over to April, prompting a warning about a loss for the recently ended quarter. Pacific Sunwear, which sells surfwear and hip-hop clothes, saw April sales at stores open at least a year fall 16.5%. The showing dashed hopes for a turnaround at the retailer, which has been working to reverse a running slump. March same-store sales sparked expectations of a recovery with a 14% rise. The company now expects a loss of about $3.5 million for the recently ended quarter. Analysts had been expecting a profit of about $3.5 million. Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc., the county’s other major mall retailer, saw April same-store sales fall 9.6%. Analysts expected an 8.3% drop at the seller of clothes for girls and young women.
