Compiled by Julie Leupold
TOP STORIES
Aliso Viejo drug maker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said that it’s undergoing a sweeping restructuring and narrowing of its business. The company plans to sell its Poland-based European operations and has hired Goldman Sachs & Co. All members of the senior management team except for its chief financial officer and general counsel are being replaced.
Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp. gained a 45-day extension for violating terms of the homebuilder’s bank credit lines. As part of the extension, Standard Pacific cut its credit line from $900 million to $700 million. The waiver was to expire at month’s end but was extended to May 14. Separately, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which owns $1.5 million worth of Standard shares, highlighted the company as a target for reform. Stephen Scarborough, who recently resigned as chief executive, received $1.25 million in cash and 42,000 shares of stock as part of a severance deal.
TECHNOLOGY
Lake Forest-based Western Digital Corp. is laying off about 800 employees, mostly in Malaysia, as it stops making magnetic media and polished disks for other companies as part of its September purchase of Komag Inc. The cuts also will affect about 30 jobs in San Jose. In other news, shares of the disk drive maker slumped late last week after an analyst downgraded the stock and that of its top rival, Seagate Technology LLC. Western Digital was down nearly 6% on a recent market value of about $6 billion.
HEALTHCARE
Anaheim Memorial Medical Center is being sold by Huntington Beach-based Memorial Health Services Inc. for $57 million to Pacific Health Corp. of Tustin. The deal for the hospital still needs state approval.
REAL ESTATE
The price of an existing Orange County home fell 2.1% in February from January, while the pace of sales continued to fall, the California Association of Realtors said. The median price for an existing stand-alone home sold in February was $596,520, a $12,510 drop from a month earlier. Prices in the county are down 13.9% from a year earlier.
A bankruptcy examiner’s report on New Century Financial Corp. accused the Irvine company’s executives of improper accounting and that auditor KPMG LLP allowed the company to change its accounting practices so it could report a profit rather than a loss in the second half of 2006.
Shares of Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc., Orange County’s second-largest office landlord, were down 20% last week as the company said it was no longer considering a sale. The real estate investment trust cited credit market conditions and lack of viable proposals as the reason it was no longer exploring a sale.
APPAREL
France’s Look Cycle International, a maker of bicycling equipment, could bid for Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc.’s struggling Rossignol skis business, according to a report.
Shares of Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. surged last week as the company reported quarterly results that beat estimates and investors looked past a more cautious outlook for the current quarter. The retailer’s stock was up about 10% on a market value of about $275 million. Wet Seal swung to a profit of $12.2 million for the three months ended Feb. 2, versus a loss of $5.7 million a year earlier. Wall Street was looking for a profit of $9.4 million. Sales for the quarter were up 8% to $179.6 million (see story page 4).
OTHER NEWS
Steven Myers, the founder, largest shareholder and former chief executive of Newport Beach-based SM & A;, is waging a battle to change the management of the aerospace and defense consultant. Myers said he and three other candidates plan to run for SM & A;’s board, saying poor management has caused its stock to fall 40% in the past year to a recent market value of about $90 million.
Henry Nicholas, the embattled cofounder and former chief executive of Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp., is giving $10 million to start after-school programs for poor students. The money is slated to build and operate the Nicholas Academic Center in Santa Ana. Nicholas tapped retired superior court judge Jack Mandel as executive director of the new Henry T. Nicholas Education Foundation, which is set to pay out the donation over time in $500,000 increments.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Down: jobs, as Orange County employers shed 21,800 workers in the 12 months through February, according to the Employment Development Department.
Mixed: Local hotel rates, which rose 5.2% year-over-year in January, but occupancy dropped 0.4%, according to PKF Consulting.
Down: New vehicle registrations, down 18% in February from a year earlier, the Orange County Automobile Dealers Association reported.
