TOP STORIES
PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., Santa Ana, sued Orange-based St. Joseph Health System over St. Joseph’s decision to stop accepting new HMO patients; a judge ordered St. Joseph to provide care to PacifiCare members, pending a full hearing … FutureLink Corp., Irvine, signed a 10-year lease for a 77,000-square-foot building in Lake Forest and will consolidate five existing OC offices, including its headquarters, there … Fluor Daniel, the engineering arm of Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp., received an $800 million contract to build a petrochemical plant in Saudi Arabia … Cisco Systems Inc. signed a lease to occupy an additional 480,000 square feet and be the sole tenant in the Irvine Co.’s McCarthy Center business park in Milpitas, where Cisco already leases 572,000 square feet … Boeing Co. said it will demolish unused, 50-year-old buildings on 230 acres of its Long Beach plant and develop 5 million square feet of commercial space there … Conexant Systems Inc., Newport Beach, partnered with Hughes Network Systems and Cisco Systems to design and produce faster dial-up modem chips … Chairman Mark A. Vidovich and three other directors of Fullerton-based Day Runner Inc. resigned; no new chairman was named … Jack Croul, co-chairman of Behr Process Corp., Santa Ana, donated $6 million to the University of California, Irvine’s Earth Science System department … Richard Beattie, president and CEO of Mazda North American Operations, will leave Sept. 1 to become VP of investor relations at Ford Motor Co. … Former Disneyland president Paul Pressler was promoted to chairman of Walt Disney Co.’s parks and resorts division … OC Republican Party chairman Tom Fuentes was appointed to complete the unexpired term of South Orange County Community College District trustee Steven Frogue, who resigned.
TECHNOLOGY
Buy.com Inc., Aliso Viejo, will acquire wireless phone retailer Telstreet.com, Indianapolis, for about $8 million in stock … Worldwide Wireless Networks Inc., Orange, secured an equity investment package worth up to $20 million … Synch Research Inc., Irvine, said it will close its Norton, Mass., plant and take a charge of $2.5 million to $3 million when it reports final quarterly results on Aug. 2 … Flashcom Inc., Huntington Beach, acquired Worldwide Axcelerant Group Inc., Irvine … Interplay Entertainment Corp., Irvine, signed a distribution agreement with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. … QLogic Corp., Aliso Viejo, was chosen to provide fibre channel adapters for IBM Corp.’s Netfinity storage area network product line … Continuus Software Corp., Irvine, warned that its second-quarter operating losses would triple estimates and its shares fell 25% to 2 7/16 on the news … Jeff Erle was named president and CEO of SageTree Inc., an Irvine-based subsidiary of Western Digital Corp. … MTI Technology Corp., Anaheim, named Paul W. Emery II COO and interim CFO, replacing in the latter position Dale Boyd, who resigned; MTI also issued an earnings warning … Pixelon Corp., San Juan Capistrano, was hit with a shareholder lawsuit … InterGame, Costa Mesa, named CFO and COO Arvin Erickson to the additional post of president, a new position at the firm … James P. Butler was named CFO and COO of ICX Electronics.com, San Clemente … IJNT.net Inc., Irvine, changed its name to Universal Broadband Networks.
GOVERNMENT
Ngo Trong Nguyen was appointed to the OC Superior Court bench by Gov. Gray Davis … The Seal Beach City Council approved a leave of absence for City Manager Keith Till and named Assistant City Manager Dan Dorsey acting city manager … The Westminster City Council designated the entire city a redevelopment area, to make revenue available for infrastructure improvements.
HEALTHCARE
Tenet Healthcare Corp. sued Santa Ana-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. alleging the HMO owes Tenet $4.7 million for services rendered at a Palm Springs hospital … NeoTherapeutics Inc., Irvine, said its Neotrofin treatment helped improve the memories of Alzheimer’s disease patients in a clinical trial … William A. Albright Jr. was named president and COO of Nexell Therapeutics Inc., Irvine, replacing L. William McIntosh, who will remain a director … Perigon Medical Distribution Corp. moved its headquarters from Laguna Hills to 10,500 square feet in Foothill Ranch.
REAL ESTATE
Hearthside Homes, Irvine, acquired and will develop an 89-unit subdivision in the Chapman Heights masterplanned community in Yucaipa … GME Development, Irvine, submitted scaled-down plans for a retail-residential development on the 24.5-acre Maag Ranch site in Anaheim … Lawyers for William Lyon and his William Lyon Management Co. asked a judge to throw out a $54 million jury verdict against them in a suit by a former partner.
WHAT’S NEW
A joint venture of Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp. and Duke Energy Corp. received a five-year contract to provide operating services to four California power plants … Water Pik Technologies Inc., Newport Beach, received a favorable IRS ruling that cuts the amount of equity capital it will have to raise from $50 million to $15 million … Global Systems Integration Inc., Irvine, acquired Pipeline Solutions, Orangevale … HomeBase Inc., Irvine, partnered with Foreshock, Irvine, to create a Web site for its new home-furnishings retail concept, House2Home … Diedrich Coffee Inc., Irvine, signed a franchise agreement with Coffeehouse Colorado … Newport Corp. and Quest Software, both of Irvine, were added to the Russell 1000 index; FutureLink Corp., Irvine, and StarBase Corp., Santa Ana, were added to the Russell 2000 small-cap index; Techniclone Corp., Tustin, was added to the Russell 3000 index; OC firms Autobytel.com, CKE Restaurants Inc., Hines Horticulture Inc., HomeBase Inc. and New Century Financial Corp. were dropped from the Russell 3000 … John Martin, chairman of Irvine-based Diedrich Coffee Inc. and two other firms, was elected to the board of Anaheim-based FSbuy.com … Tyr Sports, Huntington Beach, filed a protest of a U.S. swimming authority’s ban on the use of its full-body swim suits in the upcoming Olympic Trials … A West Virginia minister filed a copyright-infringement suit against Tustin-based Trinity Broadcasting Network over its film “The Omega Code” … Dennis Rodman said he will broadcast over the Web parties held at his Newport Beach home, which have drawn dozens of complaints from neighbors since he moved in a year ago.
