Compiled by Mike Mason
TOP STORIES
Santa Ana-based GeoLogistics Corp. said it plans to raise $175 million in an initial public offering (see story, page 3). The shipping and logistics company is set to trade on Nasdaq … The Irvine Company dropped its interest in buying the portfolio of Los Angeles-based CommonWealth Partners LLC. Formal bids were expected last week, with the Newport Beach-based real estate company showing initial interest in bidding on the portfolio of 30 office buildings in five states.
Lake Forest-based Western Digital Corp. unveiled a line of one-inch disk drives for digital music players and other hand-held consumer electronics. The move is Western Digital’s entry into the gadget market. Most of the company’s drives go into computers while others go into digital video recorders and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox video game console … Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp. saw profit for the quarter ended Dec. 26 surge nearly 300% to $14.2 million from a year earlier. Revenue slipped 3% to $92 million. The maker of products for data networking upped its outlook for the current quarter Sacramento-based KeyEye Communications Inc., a maker of chips for telecommunications gear, is opening a design center in Irvine headed by a former developer at Irvine-based Broadcom Corp.
Fullerton-based Beckman Coulter Inc. appointed Scott Garrett, its president and chief operating officer, as chief executive, effective Feb. 21. Garrett succeeds retiring Chief Executive John Wareham Irvine-based Allergan Inc. said it plans to consolidate its European research and development units into operations in the U.S., United Kingdom and Ireland. The drug maker expects the move to cost $50 million to $60 million and save it $6 million to $9 million a year. Allergan doesn’t expect the consolidation to affect its earnings outlook. Separately, a federal district court dismissed Allergan’s lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration over the reclassification of Restasis, its dry eye drug Doctors group Spectrum Medical Center Partners said it plans to buy Brea Community Hospital, a 140-bed facility owned by Brea Community Healthcare Corp. The deal is expected to close in three months … Kali P. Chaudhuri, whose KPC Medical Management went bankrupt in 2000, is scaling back ties to Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc. of Costa Mesa in a bid to quell controversy over Integrated’s plan to buy four local hospitals being sold by Tenet Healthcare Corp. for $70 million. Chaudhuri is set to withdraw a $20 million pledge toward the deal in favor of an option to buy up to 25% of Integrated and a 49% stake in the land under the hospitals. Orange County Physicians Network, led by Anil Shah, offered to match Chaudhuri’s original $20 million pledge.
Irvine-based Wertz & Co. acquired Tustin-based John Ernest Accountancy Corp. for undisclosed terms. Earlier, Wertz said it bought Irvine-based accounting firm Fox & Cova.
County officials expect 814 workers, three times the average, to retire in July after supervisors last year approved a more generous pension plan that came under fire from county Treasurer John Moorlach and others who called it fiscally irresponsible The anti-airport El Toro Reuse Planning Authority plans to send lobbyists to Sacramento and Washington, D.C., to fight an effort by Los Angeles to lease the former El Toro Marine base and turn it into an airport. L.A.’s bid,a longshot since the Navy already has started auctioning land off for development,includes an offer to lease the land for 99 years and assume some $300 million in cleanup costs.
A proposal from Aliso Viejo-based Fluor Corp. was one of two picked by Virginia officials for widening Interstate 95. Fluor’s proposal came in at $1 billion and includes more work than a $407 million proposal from Bethesda, Md.-based Clark Construction Group Inc. Foothill Ranch-based Wet Seal Inc. closed its $56 million sale of convertible notes. The struggling teen retailer also said an investor agreed to an extension of a $10 million credit line … Santa Ana-based Collectors Universe Inc. said that shareholders and the company plan to sell about $60 million worth of stock. The company, which earns fees for authenticating coins, stamps, baseball cards and other collectibles, registered with regulators to sell 3 million shares. The company plans to sell 1.9 million shares while shareholders are set to unload about 1.1 million … Tustin-based Body Wise International Inc. was ordered to pay a $3.6 million fine for allegedly misleading the public about health supplements it said could cure or treat cancer, AIDS and other conditions. The fine is part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, Orange County district attorney and California attorney general … Slumping Mitsubishi Motors North America in Cypress hired Southfield, Mich.-based turnaround specialist AlixPartners LLC to revive its North American automotive business … The Dirk family dropped its bid to buy the 35% of Santa Ana-based check printing maker Troy Group Inc. Troy Chief Executive Patrick Dirk and his family have been trying to buy the struggling company for a few years, spurning other, higher bids along the way. The Dirks cited resistance from minority shareholders to its bid for withdrawing the buyout offer … Huntington Beach-based BJ’s Restaurants Inc. named former Cheesecake Factory chief financial officer and Fired Up Inc. chief executive Gerald Deitchle as its new chief executive. The pizza chain’s co-chief executives, Paul Motenko and Jerry Hennessy, were named co-chairmen.
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Mixed: Orange County’s housing picture in December, with the median price of homes sold up 18% to $551,000, versus a year earlier, but the number of homes sold falling 10% to 4,214, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
Up: OC’s average apartment rent, up 4.9% to $1,329 in the fourth quarter, versus a year earlier, according to Novato-based RealFacts. Vacancy fell to 4.1% from 4.6%.n
