News & Announcements
Masimo Suing Tyco Over Medical Devices
Irvine-based medical device maker Masimo Corp. is suing Tyco International Ltd. for alleged antitrust violations.
The suit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, focuses on sales of pulse oximeters, which measure oxygen levels in critically ill patients.
Masimo claims Tyco’s Mallinckrodt Inc., which has operations in Irvine, used rebates and fees paid to hospitals and buying groups to outmuscle products from Masimo and others.
The company claims Tyco used its “illegal monopoly” position to stifle competition, which led hospitals to “pay higher prices for inferior products.” The suit claims Tyco has 90% of the U.S. oximeter market.
Tyco “has done everything in its power to shut us out of the market,” said Joe E. Kiani, Masimo’s chief executive.
Kiani, an Iran native and electrical engineer by trade, helped found Masimo in 1989 in a Mission Viejo garage. He financed the company through $175,000 worth of loans and a second mortgage.
Masimo made waves earlier this year in a New York Times story about hospital buying groups. Kiani told the Times he can’t sell his oximeter to many hospitals because Nellcor Puritan Bennett Inc., a large rival owned by Mallinckrodt, had sole-source contracts with two large nonprofit buying groups, San Diego-based Premier Inc. and Novation, based in Irving, Texas.
Tyco, which is based in Bermuda and has U.S. operations in New Hampshire, declined to comment on Masimo’s lawsuit.
Marsh Adding Space In Newport Beach
Insurance services company Marsh Inc. is taking more space at 4695 MacArthur Court in Newport Beach where it plans to move about 75 workers from Orange next year.
Marsh, part of New York-based Marsh & McLennan Cos., signed a 10-year lease with The Irvine Company for 59,000 square feet at MacArthur Court. Marsh now has about 20,000 square feet and 150 workers at MacArthur Court.
Next year Mercer Human Resource Consulting, also part of Marsh & McLennan, plans to move from Orange to MacArthur Court. Marsh Advantage America, a division of Marsh that focuses on small business insurance, also plans to move its Orange County operations to MacArthur Court as soon as upgrades are done.
Marsh provides services to large and midsize businesses in Orange County and the Inland Empire.
,Chris Cziborr
Keith Companies Nabs Two Deals
The Keith Cos. won a $1.5 million contract from Temecula-based Pacific Century Homes for a large housing development in Murrieta, Calif.
Keith, a Costa Mesa-based engineering and consulting business, will be responsible for engineering, surveying and mapping for the Murrieta Oaks project, which requires off-site sewer and water facilities. Plans call for 543 residential home lots, a school, and open space with hiking trails.
The company’s new Michigan-based unit, ALNM Group Inc., recently won a $500,000 consulting and engineering contract for a Genesee County, Mich., sewer system flow monitoring and rain gauging system.
,Candice Baker
New Transit Service Debuts in Anaheim
An $8 million transportation service three years in the making debuted last week in the Anaheim resort district.
Using both electric and propane-driven trolleys, the 35-vehicle fleet will transport visitors on eight routes around the resort area that serves Disneyland, the Convention Center and many of the area’s hotels. At peak times, the service will run every 10 minutes. Passengers can transfer between routes at the Disneyland Esplanade.
The service, run by the Anaheim Transpor-tation Network, is free for now, but a $2 per day fee will be charged beginning next January.
,Sandi Cain
TraveLeaders Boosts Airfare Search Service
TraveLeaders Group Inc., a Coral Gables, Fla.-based travel agency with operations in Irvine, last week launched a new Web-based system that aims to help business travelers find the lowest fare.
The system combines Internet airfare searches with private inventories accessible only by special contract and traditional booking sources.
The Irvine office of TraveLeaders, formerly Sundance Travel, was ranked No. 4 among Orange County’s largest travel agencies on the most recent Business Journal list.
The system, dubbed RealityFares, was the first such system to be announced by a major travel agency since the country’s biggest airlines stopped paying travel agency commissions in March.
,Sandi Cain
