Compiled by Julie Leupold
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Down: Home prices, as the median sales price fell 7% to $370,000 in January from December and is down 29% from a year earlier, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
TOP STORIES
Irvine-based homebuilder John Laing Homes filed for bankruptcy reorganization last week, citing turmoil in the housing market. The filing lists assets of more than $1 billion and debt of $500 million to $1 billion. The company said it plans to get out of markets other than California. It will focus on building in select projects in its core Southern California market and its luxury division. John Laing was bought in 2006 for $1.1 billion by Dubai’s Emaar Properties PJSC, which has invested more than $613 million in John Laing since the acquisition.
Cypress-based Universal Electronics Inc., a maker of remote controls for home electronics, said it bought assets of San Jose’s Zilog Inc., which it tried to take over in a hostile bid a year ago. In early 2008, Universal Electronics sent Zilog an unsolicited bid of $76 million to buy the company,a 70% premium at the time. It was rejected. Universal Electronics likely bought the assets for much less. Terms weren’t disclosed, but Zilog said the sale and another deal with Sunnyvale’s Maxim Integrated Products Inc. totaled $31 million.
TECHNOLOGY
A former personal assistant for Henry “Nick” Nicholas filed suit in Orange County Superior Court alleging she was fired after she testified to a federal grand jury investigating her boss, an allegation that could mean Nicholas violated terms of his release in a criminal case. Katherine Nichols worked for the cofounder of Broadcom Corp. from June 2007 to June 2008, according to the suit, which demands unspecified compensation for 10 alleged offenses, including wrongful termination and sexual harassment.
Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc. started a round of layoffs that’s set to slash roughly 300 jobs, including 150 in Santa Ana and other sites in the U.S. Another 50 cuts are in Canada. Local layoffs included Carol Kurimsky, who was vice president of marketing for North America. The layoffs come as Ingram Micro is struggling with slumping sales. The company expects first-quarter sales to be off about 20% from last year’s $10 billion in revenue for the same period. It didn’t give a profit outlook.
The disk drive business of Fujitsu Ltd. that was sought by Lake Forest-based Western Digital Corp. late last year is being sold to Toshiba Corp. Toshiba and Fujitsu, both based in Tokyo, haven’t agreed on a price yet, which was a sticking point for Western Digital. Fujitsu originally sought $660 million to $945 million for its drive business.
Disk drive maker Seagate Technology LLC dropped its patent infringement lawsuit against Santa Ana’s STEC Inc., a maker of flash memory drives. Scotts Valley-based Seagate along with its subsidiaries claimed that STEC violated four patents that it registered from 2002 and 2006. No money was exchanged and neither party li-censed technology to the other, according to STEC.
HEALTHCARE
Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc. said its fourth-quarter earnings, its last as a public company before being acquired by Abbott Laboratories, beat Wall Street’s expectations. Advanced Medical swung to a $25.1 million fourth-quarter profit from a $12.3 million net loss a year earlier. The company said its earnings were increased by $14.4 million because of certain items, including a gain associated with early debt retirement.
APPAREL
Directors at Anaheim-based Pacific Sun-wear of California Inc. called a planned board battle by a takeover-minded shareholder a waste of time and money and said they back efforts by the retailer’s chief executive to turn around the business. The response sets the stage for a battle with small Miami retailer Ad-renalina at Pacific Sunwear’s annual meeting.
FINANCE
Costa Mesa-based Volcom Inc. said it saw sales to stores run by Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear fall 27% to $10.4 million in the fourth quarter. The drop led to flat overall sales of $69.6 million for the quarter, which Volcom reported last week, along with guidance of a profit of $3.1 million to $3.9 million for the current quarter, well below the $6.3 million analysts had been forecasting. Pacific Sunwear was Volcom’s largest source of sales at 15% during the quarter.
Costa Mesa-based Pacific Mercantile Bancorp, operator of the largest bank based in Orange County, has gotten approval to receive $25.5 million in federal money aimed at spurring lending. Pacific Mercantile Chief Executive Ray Dellerba said his bank doesn’t need the money, and its board still is con-
sidering whether to pursue an investment. Pacific Mercantile has more than $1 billion in assets.
OTHER NEWS
An administrative hearing officer has ordered a group of online travel companies to pay the city of Anaheim $21.3 million dollars in back taxes, interest and penalties. The companies have been collecting transient occupancy tax on the retail price guests pay for the room, but have been remitting to the city only the tax on the wholesale price paid by the online travel companies.
Foothill Ranch-based Kaiser Aluminum Corp. reported a charge-laden quarterly loss and was cautious about the current quarter. Kaiser reported a fourth-quarter loss of $108 million, versus a profit of $24.4 million a year earlier. Charges of $192 million drove the loss. Before charges, Kaiser made $31 million, down 20% from a year earlier.
