EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORY
Shares of Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. fell 15% to 10.59 after the company said it would cut its operating expenses 10% to 12% and lay off an undisclosed number of workers as it faces a weak sales outlook for its communications chips; Broad-com said its third-quarter operating loss was $14.4 million vs. $46.1 million a year ago on a 36% rise in revenue to $290 million; the company, which had previously said it would break even in the fourth quarter, said it will post a loss Chicago-based Boeing Co., which employs about 10,500 workers in Orange County, said its third-quarter operating profit fell 47% to $562 million on a 7.2% decline in revenue to $12.7 billion; Boeing said its Seal Beach space business lost $36 million on a 1.7% increase in revenue to $2.7 billion meanwhile, Boeing said it plans to hire about 500 engineers at its Anaheim, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach operations after it won three military contracts in the past year worth an initial $1 billion.
TECHNOLOGY
Shares of Lake Forest-based Western Digital Corp. rose 15% to 5.70 after the disk drive maker said its September-quarter operating profit was $25.3 million vs. a loss of $557,000 last year on a 32.3% rise in revenue to $582.9 million Shares of Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp. surged 20% to 28 after the company said its September-quarter operating income grew 61% to $35.2 million on a 33% increase in revenue to $108.5 million vs. last year; the company’s board approved a $100 million stock buyback in the next two years Costa Mesa-based FileNet Corp. said it had a third-quarter operating profit of $759,000 vs. a loss of $4.5 million last year on a 3.1% increase in revenue to $83.1 million Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc. said it cut 50 workers; most of the workers were sales staff, with some of the cuts coming in Santa Ana Shares of Santa Ana-based Troy Group Inc. fell more than 40% in two days to 1.28 after the company said about $750,000 worth of wireless networking gear was missing after the company closed its Boise, Idaho, and Irvine factories and moved the work to Wheeling, W.Va.; the company, which has delayed the filing of its quarterly report in light of the missing inventory, said its third-quarter revenue was flat at $13.6 million; Troy said it posted a net loss of $1.1 million for the first nine months of the year Anaheim-based DDi Corp. said it would take a charge of $8 million to $10 million in the September quarter for costs related to job cuts, sales office closures and other restructuring; the company will take a goodwill charge of $10 million to $15 million to reflect loss in market value.
HEALTHCARE
Shares of Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc. slumped 23% to 28.42 after the company said its third-quarter profit would be about 16% less than expected on revenue of $501 million, 3.7% lower than prior estimates San Clemente-based ICU Medical Inc. said its third-quarter operating profit grew 34% to $6.4 million on a 24% gain in revenue to $20.1 million; ICU said it saw healthy sales growth from Abbott Laboratories and its other U.S. distributors.
GOVERNMENT
Some 150 federal security workers started screening passengers at John Wayne Airport; officials said that the airport would meet the federal government’s Dec. 31 deadline for the new checked-bag screening procedures The University of California, Irvine, said it will add a third section this spring for its Fully Employed MBA program to meet strong demand Preliminary plans for remaking Crystal Cove’s 45 cottages into overnight rentals, a State Park learning center, State Park operations, a beach store and snack bar were unveiled; the $13 million plan could go before the Parks and Recreation Department for approval in February.
FINANCE
Newport Beach-based Downey Financial Corp. said low interest rates led to a third-quarter net income decline of 33% to $14.5 million vs. last year; Downey’s net interest income grew 5.3% to $76.5 million and its assets of $12.5 billion were 16.8% higher than a year ago Regulators charged Irvine-based National Capital Securities Inc. with issuing fraudulent research reports on 25 companies without telling investors that auditors had warned the companies that they might not survive; National Capital formerly known was as Donner Corp. International.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Irvine-based St. John Knits International Inc. said chief executive and chairman Robert Gray would retire Nov. 3; the privately held company said daughter Kelly Gray, who is co-president and creative director, and Bruce Fetter, co-president and chief operating officer, will share the chief executive role; Jim Kelley, managing director of Vestar Capital Partners, St. John’s biggest shareholder, will assume the chairman position with Robert Gray retaining a board seat Laguna Beach-based Festival of the Arts named Steven L. Brezzo as executive director Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc. said it inked a three-year sunglasses, shoes and clothing contract with nationally ranked Long Beach Polytechnic High School Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp. said it sold the technology staffing unit of its Aliso Viejo-based TRS Staffing Solutions subsidiary to Calabasas-based National Technical Systems Inc. for undisclosed terms; Fluor said the sale was part of its plan to divest itself of its non-engineering staffing businesses.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Up: Orange County’s housing picture in September, with the median price of all homes sold up 20.7% to $368,000 vs. last year, with the number of homes sold up 3% to 3,848, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
Down: Housing affordability in the county, with 23% of OC households able to afford a median-priced home in August vs. 27% a year ago, according to the California Association of Realtors.
