EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TOP STORIES
Tustin-based MTI Technology Corp. said it will stop making storage gear and instead resell products from former rival EMC Corp. The company said it doesn’t plan to make further cuts to its workforce as part of the restructuring. Struggling MTI has cut its worker count to 300 from about 700 in 2000 … The Coastal Commission OK’d Irvine-based Lusk Co.’s 313-home development on the 250-acre Marblehead property in San Clemente. A 675,000-square-foot mall also is set for the development, which could break ground in less than nine months if San Clemente’s City Council signs off, as expected.
TECHNOLOGY
Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. said it will exchange up to 57 million options to buy stock held by workers whose current options have become worthless following the chipmaker’s plummeting stock price in the past few years. The move will lower the company’s earnings per share by as much as 4.5%. But Broadcom said the move is a critical incentive to retain workers, most of whose salaries top out at $110,000. The company will take a $238 million charge in the second quarter to pay for the plan. Shares of Broadcom fell 2.5% to 13.16 on the news … Costa Mesa-based Seagate Removable Storage Solutions, a unit of investment group New SAC, was renamed “Certance.” The unit has about 1,100 workers, including 300 in OC, and is a former division of Seagate Technology Inc., also a unit of New SAC.
HEALTHCARE
Shareholder Douglas Chinn asked directors at troubled Irvine-based Endocare Inc. to step down, citing what he sees as their mishandling of an accounting scandal at the medical device maker. Chinn, a urologist and former company consultant, holds the patents to some of Endocare’s technology. He owns less than 5% of the company’s shares … The Food and Drug Administration said Irvine-based Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Vitrase drug was “approvable,” but that the agency needed more data before it gave its OK. A regulatory advisory panel voted 7-5 that Vitrase offers benefits that outweigh the risks for treating bleeding in the eye … Anaheim-based Alliance Imaging Inc. named President Paul Viviano as chief executive, replacing company founder Richard Zehner, who remains chairman.
REAL ESTATE
Newport Beach-based The Irvine Company submitted a revised general plan for its Irvine Ranch development east of Orange. The plan calls for 4,000 homes on 1,500 acres. The initial 1989 plan had called for 12,000 homes … Los Angeles-based Colliers Seeley International Inc. was picked to provide marketing and other services for the U.S. General Services Administration’s online sale of 3,500 acres of the former El Toro Marine base this fall. Colliers has tapped Newport Beach’s Richard Lee & Associates LLC to handle site tours and other services, and Brower, Miller & Cole Inc., also of Newport Beach, for advertising and public relations.
ENERGY
Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana), who headed the state’s two-year investigation into energy market manipulation by private electricity providers, wants to roll back deregulation. Dunn proposed Senate bill 888, legislation that would gut California’s energy market deregulation. Electricity producers said the bill would undermine the stability of the energy market.
FINANCE
Irvine-based WFS Financial Inc. was hit with a lawsuit accusing it of discriminating against minorities by levying higher interest rates for auto loans than rates charged on whites with similar credit ratings. Others charged in the suit include lending units for Honda Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. … Irvine-based subprime mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp. said its March loan volume rose 83% to $1.8 billion.
GOVERNMENT
The Costa Mesa City Council nixed plans for a 96,000-square-foot Kohl’s department store on Harbor Boulevard between Adams Avenue and Mesa Verde Drive, citing congestion and size issues. The store was to replace Kona Lanes, which is set to close in May … University of California, Irvine’s Graduate School of Management was ranked No. 46 in the country this year by U.S. News & World Report. UC Irvine, which tied with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was dropped from the list last year … Directors of the Foothill-Eastern and San Joaquin toll roads OK’d an exploratory merger of their operations.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Retail results: Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. said its March same-store sales grew 9.5%, higher than the 5.5% gain expected. Meanwhile, Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. said its same-store sales fell 27.1% in March … Irvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. said it plans to buy Calgary-based Global Thermoelectric Inc. for $75 million in stock. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter … About 80% of Fanstastic Sams’ 36 regional owners have hired Los Angeles-based investment bank Seidler Cos. to help it buy master franchiser FS Concepts, a unit of Anaheim-based Opal Concepts Inc. The buyer group is competing with another regional franchiser,Cheveaux,for the assets of Opal, which filed for bankruptcy protection in July … Boeing Co. will get $45 million from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to continue developing an orbital space plane, with much of the work done at its Huntington Beach operation. Boeing is competing with two others for the contract, with the U.S. space agency picking a winner in 2004 … Shares of Ceradyne Inc. jumped 12% to 10.15 after the company released its preliminary first-quarter sales and backlog results. Ceradyne, which makes ceramic products, including body armor for the Army, said sales rose 30% to $19.1 million, vs. a year earlier while backlog was up 66% to $45.6 million … Aliso Viejo-based RemedyTemp Inc. warned that increases in state unemployment costs would result in an operating loss of $700,000 to $1 million in the March quarter, vs. a slight profit previously forecast. The temporary worker agency said it would close 10% of its offices and cut 5% of its 500 workers … Australia’s Barbeques Galore Ltd., which has its U.S. headquarters in Irvine, said its fourth-quarter operating profit doubled to $2.2 million on flat sales of $50.8 million. The company had four net store closing in the year and a same-store sales increase of 0.4% in the fourth quarter.
