Compiled by Mike Mason
Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc. said it plans to restate results from 2000 through the first quarter of this year as part of its ongoing look at stock option grants. A special committee looking into Quest’s options found that stock compensation expenses should have been recorded for option grants and recognized over the vesting period of the options. The additional expense will be “significant,” the company said. In early June, Quest said it received an informal SEC inquiry about past stock option grants.
Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. charged San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. with stifling competition in South Korea’s modem chip market. Chipmaker Broadcom joined with Texas Instruments Inc. to make the charges against Qualcomm, similar to charges against Qualcomm in Europe. South Korean chipmakers already had made similar charges. Broadcom and Qualcomm are locked in a bitter patent infringement battle. Broadcom has filed a suit claiming Qualcomm’s devices infringe on at least 10 of its patents related to communications and multimedia technologies. Qualcomm has filed three patent infringement suits of its own against Broadcom.
William “Bill” Gross, chief investment officer and bond fund manager at Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co., and his wife, Susan, said they’re giving a $10 million grant to the University of California, Irvine. The funds will fund stem cell research at the university.
Pasadena-based IndyMac Bancorp Inc. nixed plans for an initial public offering of its Irvine-based Financial Freedom Senior Funding unit. Financial Freedom makes reverse-mortgage loans to seniors. IndyMac said it plans to pay $40 million to James Mahoney, chairman and chief executive of Financial Freedom, to buy his 6.3% stake in the unit. IndyMac will own all of Financial Freedom when the deal closes.
Brad Morrice took over as chief executive of Irvine-based subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. The company’s former chief executive, Robert Cole, said earlier this year he was stepping down. Cole remains chairman of the mortgage lender.
Irvine-based Composite Technology Corp. said it closed the acquisition of Britain’s EU Energy Ltd. for $61 million in stock. EU Energy makes turbines used to generate power from wind.
Irvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. said it sold $12.5 million worth of shares in a private sale to existing shareholders and new investors. Quantum plans to use the funds for “near-term strategic initiatives.”
Costa Mesa-based Commerce Energy Group Inc. signed a pact to provide natural gas to Accor North America Corp. hotels Red Roof Inn, Motel 6 and Sofitel in California, Georgia and Ohio.
Foothill Ranch-based retailer Wet Seal Inc. said the Securities and Exchange Commission ended its formal investigation of the company with no enforcement action taken. The SEC investigation began in early 2005 and was related to Wet Seal’s quarterly results in 2004. In their probe, regulators looked at the 2004 sale of Wet Seal stock by Canadian lingerie retailer La Senza Corp. Montreal-based La Senza’s chairman and chief executive, Irv Teitelbaum, stepped down as Wet Seal’s longtime chairman in 2004 to focus on expanding La Senza. Meanwhile, Wet Seal reported a 4% drop in June same-store sales, marking a reversal of the rebounding company’s big gains of the past year.
Anaheim-based retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. posted a 2.7% drop in June same-store sales and warned second-quarter earnings would fall short of projections.
Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc. said it inked a five-year pact worth up to $612 million to supply ceramic body armor to the Army. The first order under the pact is worth $60 million. Ceradyne said it would start shipping armor under the deal this month to the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Ceradyne said it would use plants in Costa Mesa, Irvine and Lexington, Ky., to make the body armor. There’s no guarantee that the Army will buy the full amount of armor under the contract.
