Fidelity Rumored Takeover Target; Kathy Raps Irving

Is Bill Foley the target of an unwanted (but potentially lucrative) takeover bid? Unconfirmed rumors have the OCer-turned-Santa Barbaran-turned Floridian’s title insurance empire, Fidelity National Financial, being stalked by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Texas Pacific Group in a proposed $9 billion buyout. The buzz has quieted in recent days, but Fidelity’s stock price has maintained an upward trend, 10% ahead of where it was when the rumors hit in mid-November. By contrast, the prices of Santa Ana-based First American Corp. and other rivals have moved little. Foley holds just less than 5% of Fidelity; his stock currently is worth almost $240 million and his “in the money” options are worth more than $100 million Sighting: Tiger Woods, dropping into the Starbucks in Corona del Mar on Dec. 4 before heading off to play a round Ailing Wet Seal’s planned $40 million infusion from hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors ends a comeback bid by the fashion retailer’s erstwhile CEO Kathy Bronstein. “No return on the horizon,” she e-mails the Insider. “I did try and raise some capital to buy the company back. But I couldn’t get a deal done, and I couldn’t get any info from the financial advisers Wet Seal had hired, as I think this deal was in the fire for quite some time.” She had this zinger for director and former chairman Irving Teitelbaum: “I suppose two bad quarters after 18 years seemed a good enough reason to fire me and get rid of all the things that bothered him and bring in a retail genius like Peter Whitford.” Whitford, former prez of Disney Stores, resigned after 18 months as CEO It took Marisa Reisman less than one semester to be named one of Yale’s 50 Most Beautiful People (“OC Hottie”) by campus mag Rumpus. P RR joins cartoonist Gary Trudeau and New York Gov. George Pataki among papas whose daughters made the list Jan Mittermeier has gone from planes (John Wayne Airport) to train wrecks (OC government) to automobiles. She’s now senior VP in charge of the 91 Express Lanes for Cofiroute USA, reporting to Gary Hausdorfer. Mittermeier spent five years as OC’s reformer CEO in the wake of the bankruptcy. Ten years after the event, the county’s Iron Lady shares John Moorlach’s concern that another financial crisis is looming: “In reading the articles about the latest pension benefit enhancement, it appears future funding is based on employee unions forgoing raises. I don’t know how realistic that is.” More on the bankruptcy in Comment, page 47 A crowd gathered around court C-1 at the American Sports Center in Anaheim as Newport-Mesa’s All-Net girls basketball team and their head coach, NBA great (but doubtful Laker returnee) Karl Malone, fell to Cypress 27-26. A bystander said Malone worked the two refs as if they were playing in Staples Center.