Compiled by Pat Maio
Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. said restatement expenses for accounting of stocks options could double to at least $1.5 billion. The company’s audit committee said it has found additional questionable option grants that could double restatement expenses from the $750 million found in July.
Paul Folino, who’s grown Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp. into a dominant supplier of electronics for data storage networks, handed over the chief executive’s title to become executive chairman. James M. McCluney, who up to now has served as president and chief operating officer, succeeds Folino and joins Emulex’s board.
Santa Ana-based Powerwave Technolo-gies Inc., a maker of amplifiers and other gear for wireless networks, revised terms of its buy of Britain’s Filtronic PLC to include more cash. Powerwave now plans to pay $185 million in cash and 17.7 million in newly issued shares for Filtronic. Before, Powerwave planned to pay $150 million in cash and 20.7 million newly issued shares. The buy is expected to close by October.
Irvine-based mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp. saw a 5% drop in loans last month vs. a year earlier with an even more pronounced dip in subprime lending. New Century made $5 billion in loans to borrowers with imperfect credit last month, down 18% from a year ago. The decline, and a boost in loans to borrowers with good credit, is part of New Century’s strategy.
Merrill Lynch & Co. is buying National City Corp.’s subprime mortgage unit for $1.3 billion, including online lender NationPoint of Lake Forest. National City’s First Franklin mortgage unit, which includes NationPoint, did nearly $30 billion in loans last year. NationPoint, which employs roughly 380 people in Lake Forest, is the ninth largest online mortgage lender in the U.S.
Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc., a San Clemente-based real estate investment trust, promoted financial chief Jon D. Kline to president. Chief Executive Robert Alter gave up the president post to Kline, who will remain chief financial officer through 2006. Kenneth Cruse was promoted to senior vice president of finance and is set to take over for Kline as financial chief in January. Marc Hoffman will take over as senior vice president of asset management from Cruse.
Lake Forest-based Cooper Cos. reported disappointing quarterly sales and profits and warned about results for the rest of this year and next. Cooper, which makes contact lenses and surgical devices, posted a profit of $21 million for the quarter ended July 31, down 44% from a year earlier. Sales were up 1% to $225.8 million.
Shoemaker Vans Inc., founded in Anaheim in the 1960s, is moving its corporate headquarters back to Orange County. Vans, a unit of Greensboro, N.C.-based VF Corp., is leasing 104,000 square feet of office space at 6550 Katella Blvd. in Cypress.
Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. delivered a much lower quarterly profit and cut its outlook for the current quarter. Profits for the three months ended July 31 dropped 78% from a year earlier to $5 million.
Toronto-based IBI Group said it closed on its acquisition of Costa Mesa-based Thomas Blurock Architects Inc., which has a staff of 25 locally. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Seal Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Inc., backed by legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens, filed plans to raise $287 million in an initial public offering. The company, which hasn’t set a timetable for the offering, is looking to raise money to grow its business selling alternative fuel. The offering would be among the larger ones for Orange County in recent years. Clean Energy said it wants to use the money to build a liquefied natural gas plant and other expansion plans. The company bills itself as the largest provider of natural gas for vehicles in North America. Clean Energy serves fleets of trash and other trucks, buses, shuttles, taxis and police cars. Pickens founded Clean Energy as a tiny part of Dallas-based Mesa Petroleum in the late 1980s. He split it off in the late 1990s. Last year, Clean Energy had sales of $78 million and $17 million in profit. Through June of this year, the company lost $4.1 million on sales of $42.5 million
Irvine-based Gateway Inc. named 30-year technology industry veteran J. Edward Coleman to lead the struggling computer maker. Coleman, 54, replaces interim chief Rick Snyder, who remains as chairman. Coleman joined Gateway from electronics distributor Arrow Electronics Inc., where he was senior vice president. He’s the former chief executive of CompuCom Systems Inc. Also, Gateway suitor Lap Shun “John” Hui said he was reviewing his options after the computer maker rejected his $450 million offer to buy the company’s retail business.
