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Irvine-based El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. filed to raise up to $135 million in an initial public offering. New York’s Trimaran Capital Partners LLC, which also owns the Charlie Brown’s restaurant chain, paid $436 million to buy El Pollo Loco from American Securities Capital Partners LP of New York in November. El Pollo Loco has 146 company-operated and 194 franchised restaurants primarily in California. Other locations are in Arizona, Nevada, Texas and Illinois. The chain reported a loss of $11.8 million on revenue of $237 million last year. Banc of America Securities LLC and Merrill Lynch & Co. are lead underwriters on the stock offering. The Mexican fast-food chain has applied to have its shares listed on the Nasdaq National Market under the ticker symbol “LOCO” Victor and Janie Tsao,founders of Irvine-based Cisco-Linksys LLC,said they are stepping down from running the networking gear company they sold to Cisco Systems Inc. three years ago. J. Michael Pocock, who had headed up Polaroid Corp.’s push into digital media, is taking over for the Tsaos. The Tsaos,who share senior vice president titles and are general managers of Linksys,are set to stay with Cisco to work on new investments for the company in China.
Video game developer Blizzard Entertainment is moving from the computer screen to the big screen. The Irvine company, part of France’s Vivendi, plans to team with Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.’s Legendary Pictures to make a movie based on its “World of Warcraft” online game. “World of Warcraft,” a fantasy role-playing game where players face off with each other via the Internet, has more than 6 million online users around the world Anaheim circuit board maker Multi-Fineline Electronix Inc. saw its stock tumble more than 24% after it fell short of Wall Street expectations and warned for the current quarter. The company, which sells flexible circuit boards that go into Motorola Inc.’s slim cell phones, reported earnings of $12.5 million in the quarter ended March 31, up 59% from a year earlier. Analysts were expecting $13.3 million. Revenue shot up 60% to $124 million but still short of expectations of about $130 million.
Irvine-based Allergan Inc. said it hired Robert Grant to head its recently acquired Inamed unit. Grant was former chief executive and chairman of San Clemente-based BioLase Technology Inc. BioLase named Jeffrey W. Jones, the company’s former chief executive and chief technology officer, as Grant’s replacement. Allergan earlier this year closed its $3.2 billion buy of Santa Barbara’s Inamed, which makes breast implants, obesity treatments and cosmetic products Meanwhile, the Allergan Foundation gave $2 million to the University of California, Irvine, to advance eye research and treatment. The foundation is Allergan’s philanthropic arm Dr. Thomas Cesario, dean of UCI’s School of Medicine and College of Health Sciences, said he plans to leave his post as of Nov. 1. Cesario, 65, has been the medical school’s head since 1995. Cesario’s announcement comes at a time of turmoil for the university’s medical programs. Dr. Ralph Cygan stepped down as chief executive of UCI Medical Center in January, in the wake of a burgeoning scandal around its liver transplant program Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc. delayed filing its quarterly report with the Securities and Exchange Commission after a former employee alleged improper accounting for about $25 million in inventory. Beckman said it’s investigating the charges.
Irvine-based SunCal Cos. outbid Donald Trump and others with a $110.2 million bid for a 2-acre parcel on Santa Monica Boulevard in Century City. The company said it plans to build a condo tower on the site.
The Orange County Transportation Authority agreed to ask the federal government to help pay for a $15.8 million study looking at the possibility of building a tunnel linking OC to the Inland Empire through the Santa Ana Mountains. The study would be done by government water and transportation agencies. Plans for a tunnel would include a water pipeline through the mountains. Meanwhile, the transportation authority said it planned to buy 250 buses that run on natural gas.
Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., a real estate investment trust, said it’s buying the 393-room Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel from Chicago’s Strategic Hotel Capital LLC, a related privately held company, for $330 million. The deal, set to close in July, will take the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel from the privately held unit to ownership under the publicly traded hotel owner … RemedyTemp Inc., an Aliso Viejo employment services company, is being acquired for $169 million by Select Personnel Services of Santa Barbara. The sale is expected to close in October. Both companies have yearly sales of about $515 million and provide workers to companies in a range of industries … Lake Forest-based Sole Technology Inc. said it bought a 315,000-square-foot warehouse in Fontana where it plans to have up to 100 workers.
