Acquisitions and economic upheaval have made Orange County’s largest public companies a smaller group than a year ago, according to Business Journal’s annual list appearing in Monday’s paper.
Seven buyouts and two mortgage lender failures had a big impact on the 75 largest public companies here, taking away $5 billion in revenue from this year’s group.
2008 sales at the 75 companies were $92 billion, flat with revenue at those same companies a year earlier.
But compared to the 75 companies that appeared on 2008’s list, revenue at this year’s group was down 5% from $97 billion.
The list saw an acceleration of the reshuffling usually seen among local public companies each year. Last year’s list saw five companies depart because of acquisitions and a bankruptcy.
For some of this year’s departures, selling to private equity firms proved more appealing than being public, according to Greg Presson, a senior managing director in B. Riley’s Newport Beach office.
Being public “used to be the golden ring,” he said, but “the public markets haven’t been a wonderful place to be.”
This year’s departures:
Lake Forest-based Apria Healthcare Group Inc., which ranked No. 9 on last year’s list and was acquired for $1.7 billion in November by private equity firm Blackstone Group LP.
Santa Ana-based Advanced Medical Optics Inc., last year’s No. 15, which was acquired in February for $2.8 billion by Abbott Laboratories.
Newport Beach-based Downey Financial Corp., which ranked No. 18 last year and is winding down in bankruptcy after regulators seized the company’s savings and loan in November and shifted deposits to U.S. Bancorp’s U.S. Bank.
Brea-based Fremont General Corp., last year’s No. 32, which also is winding down in bankruptcy after the subprime mortgage and bank company ran into trouble with regulators last year and sold its branches to Maryland’s CapitalSource Inc.
Newport Beach-based TriZetto Group Inc., which ranked No. 33 last year and was acquired in July for $1.4 billion by private equity firm Apax Partners Inc.
Newport Beach-based Jazz Technologies Inc., last year’s No. 54, which was acquired in September for $169 million by Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd.
Tustin’s Cherokee International Corp., which ranked No. 61 last year and was acquired in the fall for $105 million by Lineage Power Holdings Inc., part of Los Angeles-based private equity firm Gores Group LLC.
Newport Beach-based SM & A;, last year’s No. 68, which was acquired in December for $119.6 million by private equity firm Odyssey Investment Partners LLC.
Irvine’s HireRight Inc., which ranked No. 73 last year and was bought last summer for $195 million by Virginia’s US Investigations Services LLC.
The county could see more acquisitions this year as big companies look to buy to spur growth or to take advantage of lower valuations, Presson said.
For more on this story and the Business Journal’s annual list of public companies, see the April 6 edition.
