EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORIES
Irvine-based Fidelity National Financial Inc. said it plans to buy a financial services technology unit of Little Rock, Ark.-based Alltel Corp. for about $1 billion, including $775 million in cash and $275 million in Fidelity stock … Irvine-based Exult Inc., a provider of human resources outsourcing services, posted its first profit with fourth-quarter net income of $1.8 million as sales rose 36% to $121.6 million.
TECHNOLOGY
Broadcom Corp., Irvine, bid $8.5 million for the assets of bankrupt Gadzoox Networks Inc. of Santa Clara, a move that could mark the chipmaker’s entry into data storage networking, the realm of Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp. and Aliso Viejo’s QLogic Corp.; separately, Broadcom filed a second patent infringement suit against Plano, Texas-based Microtune Inc. over Broadcom tuner and power amplifier patents Electronic Arts Inc. said it will combine its Irvine and Las Vegas studios in Los Angeles … Microsoft Corp. is closing its Costa Mesa office and moving 33 workers to Redmond, Wash., or Findlay, Ohio Shares of Costa Mesa-based Tickets.com Inc. will trade on the over-the-counter Bulletin Board Tuesday after the online ticket seller failed to meet Nasdaq’s minimum equity rule; Tickets.com fell 23% to 50 cents a share following the delisting news … A trio of software makers reported fourth-quarter earnings: Costa Mesa-based FileNet Corp. said its operating profit more than doubled to $3.6 million on a 19% increase in sales to $36.4 million vs. a year earlier; Irvine-based Quest Software Inc. posted an operating profit of $4.2 million vs. a loss of $15.7 million a year earlier, on a 22% sales jump to $72.4 million; and Irvine-based Epicor Software Corp. said it had an operating profit of $953,000 vs. a loss of $3.3 million a year ago, despite an 8.1% decline in sales to $36.7 million … Santa Ana-based wireless electronics maker Powerwave Technologies Inc. said its fourth-quarter operating loss narrowed 15.3% to $5.4 million on a 9.8% decline in sales to $76.1 million; Powerwave said more than half of its sales were to Nortel Networks Ltd.
HEALTHCARE
Irvine-based Allergan Inc. said its fourth-quarter operating profit rose 15.2% to $100 million vs. a year earlier on a 23% jump in sales to $378 million; the maker of Botox and other drugs expects its 2003 sales to rise 16% to 22% … Fullerton-based medical device maker Beckman Coulter Inc. said its fourth-quarter profit fell 31% to $51.9 million on a 3% rise in sales to $595.5 million vs. a year ago … Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., OC’s biggest hospital operator with 10 facilities, said it would offer discounted prices to the uninsured and would no longer take legal action against poor patients who haven’t paid their bills; the move comes as Tenet settled 10 lawsuits, including six in OC, that accused the company of charging uninsured patients higher rates than members of health maintenance organizations … Irvine-based Interpore International Inc. was sued by Warsaw, Ind.-based Biomet Inc. for allegedly stealing technology relating to its spinal-implant surgery devices.
GOVERNMENT
Republican Bill Campbell, a former state assemblymen, won a special election for a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors vacated by Todd Spitzer, who left for the assembly; Campbell’s victory could be fleeting: a court already has ruled that the special election is unconstitutional, with an appeal set to be heard Feb. 24 … Irvine said developers and landowners would foot the $353 million bill to create its Great Park on 4,700 acres of the former El Toro Marine base; builders will bid on the land in an online auction … The University of California, Irvine, which hired fund-raising chief Thomas Mitchell last summer, said it raised $30.5 million in private funds in the six months ended Dec. 31, nearly the same amount it nabbed in the previous 12 months.
REAL ESTATE
County supervisors unanimously approved Irvine-based developer Rutter Development Corp.’s 162-home plan near the entrance to Trabuco Canyon.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Boeing Co.’s Huntington Beach-based Delta IV rocket program is unlikely to be cut from the Pentagon’s new satellite-launch program aerospace analysts said after a published report indicated Boeing or Lockheed Martin Corp. may be dropped to cut costs South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. said it would start work this year on a $50 million, 4,300-acre testing site in the Mojave Desert about 100 miles north of Los Angeles; the automaker, whose Hyundai Motor America unit is based in Fountain Valley, will share the test facility with its Irvine-based affiliate, Kia Motors America Inc. … Troy, Mich.-based Delphi Corp. said its Anaheim battery plant is one of 12 money-losing units that faces elimination or restructuring; a decision on the 300,000-square-foot Anaheim operation, which employs 300, could come soon as the company said it wants to move “as urgently as possible” … Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp. said it bought Palos Verdes-based Del-Jen Inc. for about $50 million; privately held Del-Jen, which does military base maintenance and training for the Labor Department, expects sales to be $140 million this year … Newport Beach-based convention services company Ambassadors International Inc. said it plans to buy San Francisco-based Bluedot Software Inc. for an undisclosed amount … Irvine-based The Keith Cos. said it bought Brazilian consulting company Universal Energy do Brasil for an undisclosed amount … Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc. said its operating profit in the quarter ended Dec. 31 nearly doubled to $27 million vs. a year ago on a 56% surge in sales to $127.1 million; Corinthian, which said its student count rose 38% to more than 40,000 in the past 12 months, said it expects its revenue in fiscal 2003 to grow 44% to 46% … Long Beach-based retailer Mr. Rags Acquisition Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection; the company, with 114 stores, was bought last year by OC apparel industry veterans Ivan Spiers and Bruce Friedman from Claire’s Stores Inc.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
Down: Venture capital raised by Orange County startups in the fourth quarter, down 13% to $106.4 million vs. a year ago, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Venture Economics and the National Venture Capital Association. For the year, OC startups raised $447 million, the lowest sum in five years.
