Hyundai Motor America Inc.—headquartered in Costa Mesa while its new Fountain Valley campus is under construction—sold 62,264 vehicles last month, up 1% from April 2010. Brea-based American Suzuki Motor Corp. sold 1,774 vehicles, down 17% from a year earlier. Cypress-based Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. marked a 35% decline to 5,280 vehicles sold.
Blizzard Entertainment Inc. will offer consumer demos of upcoming videogame titles Heart of the Swarm and Starcraft II during the Major League Gaming Spring Championship at Anaheim Convention Center on June 8-10. Blizzard will host a related USA Nationals tournament during the weekend to promote its online games further. The company cancelled its annual BlizzCon fan fest this year.
Brand Affinity Technologies closed a $7.5 million financing round led by Matthew Pritzker Co. The Irvine-based company markets celebrity endorsements and a celebrity-information service for social media.
Onciomed Inc. secured a U.S. patent for a stomach insert for the treatment of obesity and diabetes. Its device has three cylinders that are inserted in a patient’s stomach in a less invasive procedure than used with many obesity-controlling surgeries, according to the Irvine-based company’s patent filing. The GVS System device has yet to be made commercially available in the U.S.
Aliso Viejo-based Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. agreed to acquire the Wyndham Chicago in an $88.4 million cash-and-stock deal. The company, which owns a portfolio of 32 hotels, will pay $30 million in cash and the rest in stock to an affiliate of New York-based investment firm The Blackstone Group. The deal for the 417-room hotel gives Blackstone a nearly 5% stake in Sunstone and is expected to close in the second quarter. Sunstone plans to rename the hotel Hyatt Chicago Magnificent Mile.
A Newport Coast estate known as Villa del Lago was sold on undisclosed terms in an auction conducted following a loan default and bankruptcy, HȎM Sotheby’s International said. The property includes a 16,600-square-foot main house, and once was valued at $87 million. Final construction work on the property was halted in 2010 after lender OneWest Bank cut off funding.
Phoenix Energy Technologies, an Irvine-based provider of software to manage businesses’ energy use, got a $5 million equity investment from Connecticut firms Peaks Capital Management and Bluff Point Associates. The money is tagged for growth initiatives.
Newport Beach-based patent-portfolio company Acacia Research Corp. acquired digital-imaging patents once held by Minnetonka, Minn.-based Polaroid on undisclosed terms. The seller wasn’t identified.
Irvine tied with Calabasas in Los Angeles County as the seventh-fastest growing city in California last year, the state Finance Deptartment said. Irvine grew by 2.5%, adding 5,376 people for a population of 223,729. Brea was the state’s 12th fastest-growing city, with a gain of 2.2%, or 872 residents, to 40,932. Orange County remained the most populous county in California after Los Angeles and San Diego counties, growing by 0.9% to almost 3.1 million in population. The OC growth rate ranked ninth among 58 state counties.
The board of directors of the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa named Vice President of Operations Jerome Hoban to a six-month term as interim chief executive, with a permanent appointment pending an executive background check. He replaces Steven Beazley, who announced plans to step down in January.
Economic Indicator
UP: The market for distressed homes in OC homes. Real estate data service Reports On Housing reported 1,399 listing of foreclosed homes and short sales here as of April 26. That’s 64% fewer listings than a year earlier. Data show OC’s foreclosure inventory at its lowest level since August 2009.
