EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORY
The nonprofit Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau said recent reform signed by Gov. Gray Davis would save about $4 billion, less than the $5 billion to $6 billion expected by lawmakers. The bureau plans to recommend a 2.9% reduction in workers’ comp rates next year … Board members of Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc. met to consider bids for the company, which includes Santa Ana’s Orange County Register among its daily and weekly newspapers and TV stations. Shareholders of the privately held company are expected to vote on a sale later this year.
TECHNOLOGY
Thieves tied up workers from Irvine-based memory chip maker Dane-Elec Corp. USA and took an unknown amount of the company’s computer products … Irvine-based Lantronix Inc. said the Department of Justice is investigating the company for using improper accounting methods that led it to restate financial results for 18 months in 2002. The Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a separate civil inquiry into Lantronix … Irvine-based VitalStream Holdings Inc. said it raised $900,000 in funding from N.Y.-based Dolphin Equity Partners and the company’s executives. VitalStream plans to use the money to restructure its debt … Costa Mesa-based FileNet Corp. said it signed a deal with Australia’s defense department for the software maker’s forms management program. The pact is valued at about $500,000 … Irvine-based Rainbow Technologies Inc. named PricewaterhouseCoopers as its new auditor to replace Ernst & Young LLP.
HEALTHCARE
Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. sold a unit that provides radiation exposure detection services to Bethesda, Md.-based American Capital Strategies Ltd. for $58 million. ICN said the sale marks the end of the company’s move to sell its nondrug making operations … Troubled Irvine-based medical device maker Endocare Inc. said an independent audit found that its sales were 16% lower and net loss $16.9 million larger than previously thought between January 2000 and July 2002. The company is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department over its accounting practices … Irvine-based Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. raised $20 million in a sale of preferred stock to institutional investors. The funds will be used to develop drugs to treat bladder cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Meanwhile, Spectrum said it won’t up its bid for bankrupt Protarga Inc. after another company made a higher bid … Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp. plans to start selling a couple of stents used in the treatment of biliary and peripheral vascular diseases. Edwards will target the U.S. and Europe for sales of the stent.
REAL ESTATE
Santa Ana-based First American Corp. wrapped up its $375 million buy of Transamerica Finance Corp.’s real estate tax service and flood hazard certification businesses. The title insurer expects the deal to add annual pretax profit of $50 million and revenue of $245 million … An environmental impact report for Pacific Coast Homes’ 760-home proposed development in Fullerton’s West Coyote Hills was released. The 510-acre project by Pacific Homes, a unit of Chevron Corp., would add 400 children to local schools and 9,000 car trips to the area’s roads. About 280 acres would be left as open space. The City Council is expected to consider the project by January.
FINANCE
Anaheim-based investment bank Fairmont Capital Inc. said it plans to buy San Diego-based Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. for about $140 million in cash and assumed debt. Publicly traded Garden Fresh owns 97 restaurants, including 33 Souplantations.
GOVERNMENT
Los Angeles public TV station KCET-TV backed out of a joint bid with Orange County’s KOCE-TV Foundation for Huntington Beach-based channel 50. Their $10-million offer was much lower than competing bids. The Coast Community College District said it would pick a winning bidder Oct. 15, with the KOCE Foundation saying it still expects to make a bid.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Chicago’s Boeing Co. won a spy satellite contract from the Air Force for a 2005 launch. The win comes despite Boeing’s suspension from rocket launch bidding after it was found with thousands of stolen documents from rival Lockheed Martin Corp. during bidding in the 1990s. The launch will use a rocket from Boeing’s Huntington Beach-based Delta IV unit. Boeing was awarded the launch exception because Lockheed Martin doesn’t have launch capabilities on the West Coast … The Transportation Corridor Agencies said fees collected on the San Joaquin Hills (73) Toll Road will be less than half the $489.3 million initially projected to be taken in by the time the bonds sold to finance the road come due in 34 years. The Transportation Corridor Agencies are considering whether to merge the units that run the toll road with those that operate the more successful Foothill/Eastern (241/261/133) Toll Road … Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc. signed a pact with the Department of Defense for small-arms armor for the Army. The deal calls for $29 million worth of gear in 2004 and the option for three more years of contracts valued at $4 million to $14 million a year. Ceradyne shares rose 13% to 26.5 on the news … Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp. nabbed contracts worth $116 million to build U.S. embassies in Jamaica and Kazakhstan. Fluor also said it won a $22 million contract with Abu Dhabi Gas Industries Ltd. in the United Arab Emirates. Fluor will upgrade the company’s gas processing plants … Meade Instruments Corp. founder John Diebel said he will step down from the Irvine-based company’s board of directors Oct. 30. Diebel resigned as chairman and chief executive of the telescope maker in May … Milwaukee-based Midwest Airlines started flying two daily routes from Kansas City to John Wayne Airport.
