EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORIES
Irvine-based Broad-com Corp. said it would cut 500 workers as part of a plan to reduce costs by 10% to 12%; the chipmaker said about 200 workers would be eliminated from its Irvine, San Diego and El Segundo operations; after the cuts, a third of Broad-com’s 2,500 people are set to be based in Orange County Unions representing longshoremen reached a tentative six-year deal with the operators of West Coast ports, which will avert a strike if approved by union members in a vote set for Dec. 7.
TECHNOLOGY
San Diego law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP filed a shareholder lawsuit against Santa Ana-based Troy Group Inc. seeking to prevent the company from being sold to Chief Executive Patrick Dirk and his majority-owning family; Aliso Viejo’s The Amara Group has a higher offer out for the maker of check printing and wireless networking products, though the Dirks say they’re not interested Clearwater, Fla.-based Tech Data Corp., the nation’s second-biggest seller of technology products behind Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc., warned that it expects a weaker-than-expected fourth quarter after seeing sales slow in the past few weeks; shares of Ingram,which said late last month that it expects a 3% to 5% increase in fourth-quarter sales,fell 6.4% on Tech Data’s forecast Irvine-based Comarco Inc. said its third-quarter grew 61% to $2.3 million vs. a year ago on a 5.8% gain in sales to $13 million; Comarco said it’s seeing strong demand for its ChargeSource mobile power products line and raised its annual sales estimate for the product to $17 million Video game developer Electronic Arts Inc. chose Irvine-based GameSpy Industries Inc. to convert its games to an online format; the multiyear deal is in the “six figures.”
HEALTHCARE
Costa Mesa-based ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it would pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit brought in 1999 by the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging the drug maker made misleading statements about its hepatitis C treatment ribavirin; ICN’s former chairman and chief executive Milan Panic was fined $500,000 and the company agreed to an annual regulatory review of its drug-related press releases Standard & Poor’s revised its ratings on Cypress-based PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. to stable from negative; the ratings agency praised PacifiCare’s “good business position” and recent earnings results, though it said the company’s high amount of goodwill and “marginal capitalization” were factors to watch Irvine-based Cardiac Science Inc. and Burlington, Mass.-based medical device competitor Zoll Medical Corp. settled a patent lawsuit; Cardiac Science will receive a one-time payment and royalties under the settlement, which also calls for the companies to cross-license some patents Irvine-based Allergan Inc. said it will license the right to develop and commercialize a non-melanoma skin cancer and actinic keratosis treatment from Australia’s Peplin Biotech Ltd.; Peplin could receive up to $23 million in milestone and other payments and royalties per the deal.
GOVERNMENT
In an expected move, the Orange County Transportation Authority voted to buy a 10-mile private toll road stretch of the Riverside (91) Freeway for $207.5 million; taking the private section public allows the agency to make improvements along the Riverside Freeway, including adding lanes and interchanges The University of California, Irvine, reached an $11 million settlement with insurers of bankrupt San Diego-based Diversified Turnkey Construction Co.; UC Irvine sued over construction defects to the school’s Arroyo Vista housing complex meanwhile, the University of California system said it would cut nine of its 24 money managers and hire outside help after the UC system’s $47.4 billion pension and endowment funds underperformed the benchmark indexes in the past 10 years, earning an annual 10.3% for its stocks portion vs. 11.6% for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.
REAL ESTATE
Irvine-based Hearthside Homes Inc.’s lawsuit against the Coastal Commission was tentatively rejected; Hearthside alleged the commission illegally recommended a scaled-down development for the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach; if the decision is upheld, the homebuilder will be forced to submit new development plans or sell the property.
FINANCE
First American Title Insurance Co., a unit of Santa Ana-based First American Corp., closed its acquisition of Yakima, Wash.-based Yakima Title; the deal, for an undisclosed price, gives First American Yakima’s title and escrow officers.
WHAT ELSE IS NEWS
Costa Mesa-based Resources Connection Inc. added A. Robert Pisano to its board of directors, boosting its board to nine members, including six independents; Pisano is the national executive director and chief executive of the Screen Actor’s Guild; from 1993 to 1999, he was executive vice president and then vice chairman of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. … Vern Winchell, founder of Santa Ana-based Winchell’s Donut Houses Co., died at 87.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Mixed: Orange County bankruptcy filings in the third quarter, up 1.9% to 20,722 vs. a year ago but below the 12% increase nationally to 401,306.
