EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TOP STORY
Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc. completed the spinoff of its Mindspeed Technologies Inc. unit, which sells about $80 million a year in telecommunications chips. Conexant has a warrant to buy up to 20% of Mindspeed, which was trading on the American Stock Exchange at 3.70 late last week, giving it a market value of about $330 million. Meanwhile, Conexant said it plans to sell its 40% stake in the chipmaker’s former Jazz Semiconductor Inc. unit. Conexant sold a majority stake in Jazz to Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle Group last year. The share offering is expected in the next 12 to 18 months. Jazz has annual sales of about $200 million.
TECHNOLOGY
Broadcom Corp. settled a patent suit with Santa Clara-based National Semiconductor Corp., which accused the Irvine chipmaker in 2002 of infringing on its chip technology. Broadcom had filed a countersuit. As part of the settlement, the companies agreed to dismiss all claims and signed a licensing deal … Costa Mesa-based Westar Capital LLC boosted its bid for Troy Group Inc., a Santa Ana software and check-printing gear maker, by 14% to $4 per share. Patrick Dirk and his family, who control 65% of Troy, don’t want to sell to Westar and have made a $2.76 a share offer for the 35% of Troy they don’t own … Four senior game developers quit Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, a unit of France’s Vivendi Universal SA. Three of the workers were founders of its San Mateo-based Blizzard North unit. They plan to form their own game company. Vivendi has said it wants to sell its game unit, including Blizzard … Boeing Co.’s Irvine-based Connexion unit expanded its pact with Scandinavian Airlines, which will install Connexion’s high-speed Internet access gear on its long-haul flights.
HEALTHCARE
Milan Panic, founder and former chairman and chief executive of Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., bought ICN’s research and test gear unit for $15 million in ICN stock. Panic said the unit, which will be folded into his Irvine-based company MP Biomedicals Inc., had sales of $42 million last year and 350 workers. Meanwhile, ICN said it sold its Russian drug business to Millhouse Capital. The sale to the Russian investment bank was for a reported $55 million … And a court ruled against ICN in its bid to speed up its buyback of the 20% of Costa Mesa-based Ribapharm Inc. it doesn’t own. Ribapharm has rejected ICN’s $5.60 a share offer and has adopted measures to make it prohibitively expensive for ICN to complete the deal. ICN has challenged Ribapharm’s moves, with a hearing set for Sept. 3 … Irvine-based Allergan Inc. was sued by a San Francisco resident, who claimed the company is advertising its Botox treatment for uses that it doesn’t have approval for. The suit seeks to bar Allergan from selling Botox for off-label use. The Food and Drug Administration warned Allergan in June that some of its advertisements misled consumers about the drug’s risks associated with using Botox for cosmetic purposes … Newport Beach-based Health Care Property Investors Inc. priced a 1.4 million share offering at $41.50 per share. The real estate investor expects to use the $58 million in proceeds to buy property, among other purposes. The offering is set to close Thursday.
REAL ESTATE
Santa Ana-based title insurer First American Corp. said it plans to buy Okemos, Mich.-based Midstate Title Co. and Seattle-based Escrow Partners Inc. Terms weren’t disclosed. First American will fold the acquired companies into its new title insurance unit, Talon Group … Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp. said it will sell $175 million of convertible debt in a private placement to make mortgage loans and fund its stock buyback program, among other uses … Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp. said its second-quarter new-home orders were up 40% to 2,583, versus a year earlier. Gains primarily came from its Florida and the Carolina units, which were acquired last year. California orders fell 4% to 924 in the period … Orange County Supervisors voted 4 to 1 to give tax breaks to developers building apartments for low-income residents. The exemptions could cost the county up to $20 million in the next 55 years.
FINANCE
Irvine-based Westcorp priced its 4.6 million stock offering at $28 a share. The stock sale, set to close Tuesday, will raise about $122 million. Westcorp chairman and chief executive officer, Ernest Rady, and affiliates are expected to buy 700,000 shares in the offering. Rady will own 63% of Westcorp following the stock sale. Westcorp also gave underwriters the option to buy another 674,000 shares.
GOVERNMENT
The city of Newport Beach annexed East Santa Ana Heights and Bay Knolls. The areas, with about 1,000 residents on 250 acres, are two of the last remaining unincorporated sections in Newport … Two pro-El Toro airport groups, The Airport Working Group and the Orange County Regional Airport Authority, sued to prevent Irvine from annexing the former Marine base and turning it into a housing, commercial and parkland development. The groups claim the environmental impact report isn’t complete … The county sanitation board OK’d a 15% hike on homeowner and business sewer fees for next year.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc. plans to sell 1.8 million shares, including 300,000 from an existing shareholder. The $24 million raised will be used to pay down debt, expand production and buy machinery and equipment … The state’s Bureau of Automotive Repair charged that five auto repair shops owned by Irvine-based Caliber Holdings Corp. should lose or have their licenses suspended. The shops are accused of billing for services and parts that weren’t provided, failing to repair cars according to guidelines, among other allegations. The company operates about 70 Caliber Collision shops in California and Texas … Costa Mesa-based freight services company Siriani & Associates signed a pact to jointly sell and market cargo services with Portland-based freight forwarder OIA Global Logistics.
