EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORY
Directors of the Foothill/Eastern (241) Toll Road nixed a plan to take over the financially struggling San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road. The merger would have included a $4 billion bond sale, one of the largest municipal offerings ever. Instead of merging, officials voted 10-5 to pursue Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell’s plan for the Foothill/Eastern tollway to loan money to the San Joaquin Hills, which is in danger of defaulting on its future bond payments.
TECHNOLOGY
Gateway Inc. said it planned to move its headquarters from Poway to two buildings in the Irvine Spectrum. The move is expected by the end of summer. The company is finalizing a lease with The Irvine Company to take space at 7555 and 7565 Irvine Center Drive … Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola Inc. said it sold a $216 million stake in Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. Motorola plans to spin off its chip business as a separate company this year … Brea-based Twilight Technology Inc. wrapped up its buy of the industrial, defense and aerospace memory products line from Garden Grove-based DPAC Technologies Inc. DPAC expects the sale to net more than $1 million … Santa Ana-based MSC.Software Corp. said it would delay filing its quarterly earnings report until an investigation into whether some information was withheld from its auditors is completed.
HEALTHCARE
Shares of Irvine-based CorVel Corp. fell 14% to 25 after the company said a decline in workers’ compensation claims and legal reform in California and Colorado hurt earnings in the quarter ended March 31. CorVel, which provides services to help corporations and insurance companies manage medical costs from workers’ comp, healthcare and automobile insurance claims, said income before taxes in the quarter fell 27% to $5 million, versus a year earlier, on a 3.7% gain in sales to $76.8 million … Shares of Irvine-based Sun Healthcare Group Inc. fell 33% to 5.6 after the company reported its first-quarter earnings results. Sun said its loss before taxes and discontinued operations rose to $10.3 million, versus $7.3 million a year earlier, on a 7% gain in sales to $211.5 million. Shares of the company bounced back 17% later in the week after Sun’s chief executive said the selloff was unwarranted.
REAL ESTATE
Rising steel prices were blamed for the delay of an 85,000-square-foot expansion of Rowland Hall at the University of California, Irvine. The low bid for the project,$24 million,was $6 million more than expected. The university said bids for the science building expansion will be taken when steel prices decline … Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp.’s board OK’d a $75 million stock buyback plan.
FINANCE
Newport Beach-based Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. said it plans to sell 1.5 million shares at $19.75 each. The real estate investment trust said it plans to use the $28.1 million raised in the stock sale for general corporate purposes.
GOVERNMENT
California State University, Fullerton, said about 1,000 students who want to attend the school will have to go to community college for two years before enrolling. Proposed state budget cuts stand to limit the number of people the California State University system will accept … State Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Irvine, was named Republican leader of the Senate … Orange County cities would lose about $84 million in state funding for each of the next two years, according to a proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to reduce the state’s budget deficit. Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger’s latest budget revision restores funding for health programs for the poor, among other spending.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Shareholders representing a 58% stake in Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc. said they plan to sell their shares to private equity firms Blackstone Group LP and Providence Equity Partners in a deal set to close Tuesday. Blackstone and Providence initially will be able to buy 49.9% of the company’s voting shares, which will give descendants of founder Raymond Cyrus Hoiles control over the media company when the deal closes. Freedom owns Santa Ana-based Orange County Register, 27 other daily papers, 37 weeklies and eight TV stations … Former Boeing Co. worker Larry Satchell of Newport Beach was charged with conspiracy, theft of trade secrets and obstruction of justice as part of the alleged theft of rocket data from Lockheed Martin Corp. in the late 1990s. Satchell, who was working at Boeing’s Huntington Beach-based Delta rocket program, is the third Boeing employee to be charged in the case that stems from its winning bid for rocket launch business from the Air Force. Satchell was expected to plead not guilty … Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. said attendance at its Anaheim theme parks, Disneyland and California Adventure, rose 8% for the three months ended March 31. Operating income at Disney’s parks and resorts unit, which also includes Euro Disney and Walt Disney World among others, rose 21% to $188 million, with revenue up 12% to $1.7 billion, versus a year earlier … Norio Karashima was named managing director of Yokohama Rubber Co. in Fullerton. Karashima replaces Koji Ikawa, who resigned after 40 years with the company.
