TOP STORIES
After a quick bidding war, Irvine-based coffee seller Diedrich Coffee Inc. sided with a $265 million cash buyout offer from Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. Diedrich directors called Green Mountain’s cash proposal “superior” to a $265 million cash and stock offer from Emeryville-based coffeehouse operator Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. It’s now up to Peet’s to up its offer or walk away.
TECHNOLOGY
The board of Anaheim’s DDi Corp., a contract maker of printed circuit boards, agreed to buy Coretec Inc., a smaller Canadian competitor DDi had been eyeing for some time. DDi is set to pay about $24 million in cash and debt for Toronto-based Coretec. Coretec saw $77 million in sales for the 12 months through June. DDi initially went after Coretec last month with an unsolicited bid of $3.4 million and the assumption of about $19 million in debt.
HEALTHCARE
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, an Aliso Viejo-based drug maker, is selling a generic version of an irritable bowel syndrome drug. The drug maker said its Oceanside Pharmaceuticals division will sell an authorized generic of Librax, which was originated by Roche AG of Switzerland.
REAL ESTATE
The median price of an existing OC home declined by $6,500 in October from September and now is on par with year-ago levels, according to the California Association of Realtors. The median price for an existing stand-alone OC home sold in October was $490,290, a 1.3% decline from September, but flat from a year earlier. October was the third month in a row where the area’s home prices have seen a modest decline, reversing a rally that had seen the county’s median price increase by more than $60,000 since April. Sales in OC were unchanged in October from September, but were up 4% from a year earlier, according to the Realtor association.
APPAREL
Irvine-based Billabong USA, a designer and retailer of clothes inspired by surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding, is buying San Clemente’s Swell.com, an online clothes seller. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Swell, which started in 1999, sells surf- and skate-inspired clothes for men and women as well as surfboards, skateboards, wetsuits and other gear.
OTHER NEWS
Irvine-based Quantum Technologies Inc., a maker of parts for alternative fuel-powered cars, is buying Canada’s Schneider Power Inc. in a stock deal worth $20 million. Quantum plans to buy all 71 million of the Toronto-based company’s shares and warrants using its own stock. Schneider develops wind farms and solar power. Quantum also announced a $20 million investment from Norwegian hydrogen energy company New Energy Systems LLC, from which it will build a solar panel factory in Irvine with. New Energy will take a 34% ownership stake in Quantum under the terms of the deal.
Freedom Communications Inc., parent of Orange County Register, has finalized an agreement to sell the East Valley Tribune in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa to a company that owns free papers in Tucson and Telluride, Colo. The deal between Irvine-based Freedom and Boulder, Colo.-based Thirteenth Street Media still needs the approval of a bankruptcy judge. Freedom put the Tribune up for sale shortly after the company filed for bankruptcy protection in September and said earlier this month it couldn’t find a buyer and would close it at the end of the year.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions, an online information services provider, will close its Brea office and lay off 70 workers by mid-December. The company said the closure was part of its efforts to streamline business to cope with the economic climate. The affected employees received 60-days layoff notice and severance. The majority of the positions will be transitioned to other employment service centers, the company said.
