Compiled by Mark Mueller
TOP STORIES
Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc. saw a week of ups and downs in its $4.2 billion takeover bid for Bausch & Lomb Inc. Early in the week, Bausch’s board said it planned to reject the bid unless Advanced Medical proved it could overcome shareholder opposition (see story, page 1). Its cash and stock bid competes with an existing cash offer of $3.67 billion from private equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC. Last week, two investors in Bausch & Lomb, whose shares total about 4%, came out Thursday against the Warburg Pincus bid, giving some hope to Advanced Medical.Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc., a distributor of technology products, saw quarterly sales climb and gave a positive outlook for the current quarter. Ingram’s second-quarter sales were $8 billion, up 11% from a year earlier, helped by stronger European currencies. Profits were about $52 million, down about 3% from a year earlier. Ingram took a $15 million charge during the quarter related to a Securities and Exchange Commission probe. It warned investors of the onetime charge last month. Separately, Ingram said its president and chief operating officer, Kevin Murai, plans step down at the end of 2007 to care for his extended family in Toronto. Alain Monie, executive vice president and president of Ingram Micro Asia-Pacific, is set to fill the position as of Aug. 1. Murai joined Ingram nearly two decades ago as a manager in Canada, then rose through the ranks to head North American operations before he was promoted to president. He was once in the running for the top job, which ended up going to Chief Executive Gregory Spierkel in 2005.
Takeover speculation sent shares of Beckman Coulter Inc., the Fullerton-based medical testing company, up nearly 10% last week. Rumors were fueled by Deerfield, Ill.-based rival Dade Behring Holdings Inc.’s acceptance of a $6.3 billion offer from Germany’s Siemens AG. The news sent Beckman, the only major stand-alone company in the $10 billion diagnostic testing sector, up to a market value of $4.5 billion.
Shares of Irvine-based Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. hit a five-year low last week, while the Alt-A lender announced another round of layoffs. Impac, which invests in loans that are in between the best mortgages and more risky subprime loans, cut almost 190 jobs, or roughly 20% of its workforce. Some 40 of those jobs were local. Its shares were down roughly 20% for the week with a recent market value of about $250 million.
Irvine-based homebuilder Standard Pacific Corp. said it will stop offering earnings guidance for the rest of the year amid an uncertain housing market. The company also is withdrawing its prior 2007 financial guidance, the company said in its second-quarter earnings release. In February, Standard Pacific came out with a 2007 earnings outlook above Wall Street estimates. At the time, the company said it expected a 2007 profit of $113 million, versus analysts’ $105 million. The guidance withdrawal came after Standard Pacific posted a second-quarter loss of $165.9 million last week. The company’s homebuilding revenue dropped to $695 million from $1 billion a year ago.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
MIXED: The price of an existing Orange County detached home rose nearly $10,000 from May to June as higher-priced homes dominated dwindling sales. The median price for an existing home sold here in June was $723,860, a 1.4% increase from a month ago, according to the California Association of Realtors. Prices were flat from a year ago. Higher priced homes drove the median upward as sales slumped among mid- to lower-priced homes, in part because of stricter mortgage lending policies. Sales were off 22% from a year ago.
