ECONOMIC INDICATORS
Mixed: Jobs, as the county is forecast to continue seeing layoffs in the first half of 2010 before ending the year up by 1,000 jobs, according to Chapman University.
TOP STORIES
The judge in the trial of Broadcom Corp.’s former chief financial officer dismissed a felony charge against cofounder Henry Samueli and threw out his plea deal with prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney said Samueli was ambiguous and evasive but didn’t lie to Securities and Exchange Commission investigators about his role in granting stock options at Broadcom (see related story, page 1). This week, the judge is set to hear a motion to dismiss the case against former financial chief Bill Ruehle.
Irvine-based Diedrich Coffee Inc. is going with a $290 million cash buyout offer from Vermont-based Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., ending a bidding war that’s played out for the past few weeks. The move comes after former suitor Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. of Emeryville said it was holding to a $265.2 million cash and stock offer for Diedrich and wouldn’t match Green Mountain’s bid.
TECHNOLOGY
True Games Interactive Inc., a maker of online video games that’s owned by Indian media and entertainment group UTV Software Communications Ltd., is moving its headquarters from Irvine to Austin, Texas. True Games is consolidating two North American offices in Austin, where it has a game development studio.
HEALTHCARE
Aliso Viejo-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International is acquiring a Canadian maker of skincare products for $21.7 million, the latest in a series of deals aimed at boosting the drug maker’s sales of cosmetic products. Valeant is buying Quebec’s Laboratoire Dr. Renaud, a maker of cleansers, toners, moisturizers and other products sold at spas and clinics. Laboratoire Dr. Renaud has yearly sales of $10.4 million and is expected to add to Valeant’s profits next year, the company said. The acquisition is set to close by the end of the year.
Irvine heart valve maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. upped its outlook for 2010 and reaffirmed its profit forecast of $46.4 million to $48.7 million for the current quarter. Edwards could see a 2010 profit of $208 million to $214 million, according to a Business Journal extrapolation based on the company’s expected shares outstanding next year. Edwards said its new outlook represents growth of 15% to 18% from 2009. The device maker said it sees its 2010 sales coming in at $1.43 billion to $1.5 billion, up 10% to 13%.
REAL ESTATE
Hedge fund manager Eric Hovde acquired 1.48 million shares of Irvine-based California Coastal Communities, buying at least 280,000 shares in the past month. Hovde now owns 13% of the company’s stock. California Coastal Communities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October to gain more time to repay $182 million in debt due by next spring. Hovde is chief executive of Hovde Capital Advisors LLC, investment manager of the Financial Institution Partners hedge funds. He also is chairman and majority owner of Tustin’s Sunwest Bank.
FINANCE
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged three former executives of Irvine-based subprime lender New Century Financial Corp. with securities fraud. Cofounder and former chief executive Brad Morrice, former chief financial officer Patti Dodge and ex-controller David Kenneally were named in the suit that alleges the three misled investors about the collapse of New Century’s subprime mortgage business. Separately, the SEC charged Irvine-based Brookstreet Securities and its Chief Executive Stanley Brooks with fraud, alleging the brokerage systematically sold risky mortgage securities to conservative investors.
Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. is expanding into managing stock funds. The company hired Neel Kashkari, who was in charge of the Treasury’s bank bailout program and a former Goldman, Sachs & Co. executive, as the head of “new investment initiatives,” including stock investing. Pimco Chief Executive Mohamed El-Erian said the bond fund manager had been planning a push into stock funds for the past year but delayed it because of the global financial crisis. In other Pimco news, Bill Gross is set to become the biggest mutual fund manager in history by surpassing a record $202.3 billion under management in his Pimco Total Return Fund.
OTHER NEWS
VillageEdocs Inc., a Santa Ana software company, has sold a subsidiary to N. Harris Computer Corp. of Canada for $2.3 million in cash plus up to $700,000 in future payments. VillageEDOCs is changing its core business strategy away from software for medical markets and municipalities, which is what the unit—Tailored Business Systems of Georgia—served.
The president and owner of Irvine-based Bacchus Development was convicted of disturbing the peace and ordered to drug and domestic violence counseling, according to the Orange County Register. Steven Bren, son of Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren, was arrested in late April for charges related to possession of a controlled substance and domestic violence, according to Los Angeles Superior Court records. Charges of domestic violence and dissuading a witness were dismissed earlier this week. A judgment for the charge of possessing drugs without a prescription was reportedly deferred, pending completion of drug counseling. Bren was reportedly given 36 months of probation and ordered to pay about $1,000 in fees. The sentence could be reduced to a year of domestic violence counseling.
