EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORY
The Irvine Company said Nordstrom, Target and up to 50 other stores and restaurants would be built in an expansion of its Irvine Spectrum Center set to be completed by late 2005. About 3,700 parking spaces also will be built at the shopping and entertainment center. The Target store is set to take up 135,000 square feet, with Nordstrom moving into a 125,000-square-foot space.
TECHNOLOGY
The founder of Santa Ana-based CenDyne Inc., Ed Meadows, filed suit against majority owner Test Rite International of Taiwan for alleged breach of written agreement, fraudulent misrepresentation and negligence. Test Rite shuttered the DVD-drive seller last month. Meadows seeks $70 million in damages … Irvine-based Microsemi Corp. nabbed a couple of contracts for its semiconductors: a $6.1 million deal from Raytheon Co. and a $3.9 million pact with Smith Industries … Tustin-based MTI Technology Corp., a seller of data storage systems, appointed Todd Schaeffer as chief financial officer, replacing Mark Franzen. Schaeffer has been with MTI for eight years, most recently as corporate controller and chief operating officer Irvine-based SSP Solutions Inc. said it reached a deal with Research Venture LLC to end its Irvine Spectrum lease in exchange for an $865,000 payment and 414,450 shares of SSP stock. SSP, a maker of security devices, said the move will save it about $5.3 million in future rent. Meanwhile, SSP said its second-quarter operating loss narrowed to $608,000, versus a loss of $2.8 million a year ago, on a 65% gain in sales to $3.8 million … Irvine-based Lantronix Inc. said it settled an employment-related lawsuit with the founders of United States Software Corp., which Lantronix bought about three years ago. Lantronix will pay the founders $400,000 and 49,038 shares of stock, which was trading at 1.26 late last week … Costa Mesa-based Tickets.com Inc. tapped Christian Henry as its new chief financial officer to replace Eric Bauer, who joined Gap Inc.’s Banana Republic unit as its finance officer. Henry was Santa Clara-based Affymetrix Inc.’s vice president of finance and controller.
HEALTHCARE
Downers Grove, Ill.-based First Health Group Corp. said it plans to buy the workers’ compensation services unit from Irvine-based Health Net Inc. for about $80 million … Irvine-based Cardiac Science Inc. won $1.5 million in government contracts for its defibrillators.
FINANCE
Santa Ana-based First American Corp. said it plans to buy privately held MarketLinx Solutions, a Knoxville, Tenn.-based online multiple-listing service provider, for undisclosed terms … Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp said it expects to open 163 branches in Vons and Safeway supermarkets, including five in OC, in the next two years.
GOVERNMENT
Orange Coast College’s academic senate said it wanted the Coast Community College District to sell Huntington Beach-based KOCE-TV to the highest bidder to help make up for class cuts due to budget woes. The highest offers are believed to be from four televangelist organizations, which have bid up to $25 million each … OC collected $2.8 billion in property taxes last year, up 9% from the prior year … The University of California, Irvine, said it would reject 710 transfers from community colleges for the winter quarter because of budget concerns. California State University, Fullerton, said in August that it wouldn’t accept any transfers for the winter quarter … The Navy will pay $2 million to remove arsenic-laced soil from its former Tustin base, which is being readied for commercial, residential and recreational development.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Boeing Co.’s Huntington Beach-based Delta Rocket program landed a $56 million Air Force contract. The deal came despite Boeing’s suspension from participating in Air Force contract bidding after it admitted in July that former employees stole proprietary information from competitor Lockheed Martin Corp. Boeing nabbed the contract under an “exception” rule to the suspension August retail sales reports came in for Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. and Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc.: PacSun said same-store sales rose 24% in the month, while Wet Seal posted a 10.7% decline in same-store sales in the period … Santa Ana-based Calavo Growers Inc. said it plans to buy privately held Maui Fresh International Inc. for $4.5 million in stock. Calavo also said that its chief financial officer resigned “to pursue other business opportunities,” and will be replaced by Maui Fresh’s president and cofounder, Arthur Bruno. The deal is expected to close Nov. 1 … Finbarr O’Neill, the new head of Mitsubishi Motors Corp.’s Cypress-based North American unit, backed off his predecessor’s goal of 600,000 auto sales by 2007. He declined to give sales targets. Mitsubishi sold 350,000 autos in North America last year … Meanwhile, Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Inc. named Robert F. Cosmai as acting chief executive to replace O’Neill, who had left the automaker to take the Mitsubishi job. Cosmai is Hyundai’s former vice president of national sales … South Korea’s Kia Motors Corp., whose U.S. operation is based in Irvine, might have to recall 57,340 2001 Rio autos, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which cited engine fires in the vehicles.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Up: Orange County home values in the second quarter, up 10.7% versus a year ago, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
Up: The number of OC hotel rooms opened in the first half of the year, up 80% to 1,328, versus a year ago, according to Costa Mesa-based Atlas Hospitality Group.
