EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., Costa Mesa, will plead guilty to securities fraud, pay $5.6 million and be on probation for three years for misleading investors about its ribavirin drug in the mid-1990s; the plea-bargain ends a six-year criminal probe of ICN, which can ask to end its probation if Chairman Milan Panic steps down Oakley Inc., Foothill Ranch, is resuming sales through rival Luxottica Group SPA’s Sunglass Hut International; sales and earnings should get a boost next year, Oakley said.
ENERGY
Steve Frank, chairman of Irvine-based Mission Energy, is set to replace Alan Fohrer as chairman and chief executive of Southern California Edison when he retires on Jan. 1.
FINANCE
Los Angeles-based United California Bank, which has 17 OC branches, is set to be acquired by BNP Paribas SA’s Bank of the West for $2.4 billion, becoming the fourth-largest lender in California.
El TORO
A San Diego judge ruled in favor of opponents who sued to halt the county’s $8 million airport public-relations campaign; the county said the ruling leaves room for it to keep touting an airport The county misspent up to $400,000 of John Wayne Airport funds on redevelopment plans for El Toro and will have to repay it, according to an initial audit Airport backers filed a California Supreme Court appeal to keep the anti-airport Measure W off the March ballot A study by airport supporters said toxic contamination at El Toro could make a park there impossible; park backers said cleanup required by federal law would clear the way for a park Irvine and the The Irvine Company are looking to put 12,350 homes and commercial, retail and open space in a proposed airport’s northern flight path.
GOVERNMENT
County supervisors awarded a $240,000 yearly lobbying contract to former Assembly leader Scott Baugh’s Manatt, Phelps & Phillips over a rival bid from former Assembly speaker Curt Pringle’s Sloat, Higgins, Jensen & Associates Faculty at University of California, Irvine’s Graduate School of Management opposed business school dean David H. Blake’s reappointment due to declining enrollment and lack of fund raising A fire that destroyed two UCI chemistry labs last summer will cost the university about $3.5 million, including costs of cleanup, equipment replacement and rebuilding Former Orange County Supervisor Gaddi Vasquez’s bid to become the next Peace Corps director won approval by the Democrat-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee Garden Grove hotel workers urged city officials and hotel owners in the city’s redevelopment area to allow them to organize a union.
HEALTHCARE
PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., Santa Ana, plans to sell up to $150 million in stock, or as many as 6.9 million shares, to Acqua Wellington North American Equities Fund Ltd. over 18 months to reduce its $795 million in debt; the company’s shares slide 11% on the news; Woodland Hills-based UniHealth Foundation, once PacifiCare’s top shareholder, plans to sell its remaining 3.2% stake to Acqua.
REAL ESTATE
Sares-Regis Group, Irvine, plans to break ground on a 1.9-million-square-foot distribution center at Northrop Grumman Corp.’s former Pico Rivera facility that produced the B-2 Stealth Bomber San Clemente’s City Council voted down plans for a hotel and church or day-care center at Talega.
TECHNOLOGY
The Defense Department awarded an $11.6 million contract to Interstate Electronics Corp., Anaheim, to complete design work and test kits for a missile radar tracking system for the Navy Irvine-based Microsemi Corp. received a $7.5 million Rockwell Collins Inc. contract for military and in-flight entertainment chips FileNET Corp., Costa Mesa, settled without charges or payments the last patent suit filed by what’s now Wang Laboratories/Eastman Kodak against FileNET’s former Watermark Software subsidiary Broadcom Corp., Irvine, and Conexant Systems Inc., Newport Beach, both announced deals with India’s Impulsesoft Private Ltd. to develop Bluetooth wireless products Access360, Irvine, plans to sell its access-management software through PricewaterhouseCoopers Business software maker Epicor Software Corp. cut an undisclosed number of people from its 1,150-member work force Go2 Systems Inc., Irvine, signed a deal to have its “Go2” Web addresses included in VeriSign Inc.’s registrar service.
TRANSPORTATION
The Orange County Transportation Agency voted to enter talks to buy the 91 Express Lanes from California Private Transportation Co.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Walt Disney Co.’s top Imagineer Timur Galen, who directed California Adventure’s construction, left the company; details on his departure and future plans weren’t disclosed; John Verity, vice president of project management at Walt Disney Imagineering, will replace him; separately, Disney paid more than $900,000 in back wages for 800 employees at KTBA Inc., Laguna Hills, who were paid less than minimum wage to make tiaras and magic wands for the Disney Store chain Sloppy Joe’s closed in the Irvine Spectrum and laid off 52 workers. The restaurant is failing to reach an accord with the Irvine Company on a new lease; former basketball player Dennis Rodman had sought to turn the site into a nightclub.
