This past week’s news from www.ocbj.com and other sources
TOP STORIES
Irvine-based automotive research website operator Kelley Blue Book is being bought for an estimated $500 million by Atlanta-based AutoTrader.com LLC. Kelley Blue Book is set to become an AutoTrader subsidiary and continue to be based in Irvine. Chief Executive Paul Johnson is expected to stay in place. AutoTrader.com is owned by Atlanta-based cable TV operator Cox Enterprises Inc. and private equity firms Providence Equity Partners LLC of Rhode Island and Silicon Valley’s Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer.
Shares of Irvine-based communications chipmaker Broadcom Corp. jumped after the company reported record revenue for the third quarter and gave a fourth-quarter outlook that trumped Wall Street’s expectations. Investors sent shares up nearly 12% to a market value of $21 billion. Broadcom had $1.81 billion in sales in the third quarter, up 44% from a year earlier. The company had $373 million in profits excluding various charges, a gain of 86%. Broadcom projects fourth-quarter revenue of $1.8 billion to $1.9 billion, up about 38% from a year earlier and topping the $1.75 billion analyst had been expecting. The company didn’t give a profit outlook. Analysts expect adjusted profits of $342 million, a gain of about 40%. Broadcom also said it’s buying Israel’s Percello Ltd. for up to $98 million in cash. Percello makes chips that help extend wireless coverage indoors where signals are weak. Broadcom also sold $700 million worth of bonds in its first debt offering.
The Anaheim City Council approved a plan that roughly doubles the number of homes and commercial space and triples the amount of offices that can be built in the Platinum Triangle. The plan allows for 18,909 homes, 4.9 million square feet of retail space and 14.3 million square feet of office space in the 825-acre area near Angel Stadium of Anaheim and the Disneyland Resort.
HEALTHCARE
Brea-based Beckman Coulter Inc. beat expectations with $70.5 million in profits in the third quarter, up 14% from a year earlier. The company, which makes testing machines and supplies for hospitals and laboratories, reported $894 million in revenue, up 9%. The results came as Beckman deals with a costly product recall that led its former chief executive to step down. The company projected full-year revenue of $3.65 billion to $3.7 billion, in line with analysts’ projections.
TECHNOLOGY
Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc. beat expectations on sales but fell short on profits for the third quarter. The company, the biggest distributor of technology products, had sales of $8.45 billion, up 14% from a year earlier. Excluding one-time charges, profits came to $65 million, up 54% but just shy of the $66 million expected by analysts.
REAL ESTATE
The Buena Park City Council agreed to provide $50 million to cover a financing gap on a proposed $203 million retail, homes and office project that would cover 12.5 acres. The deal calls for the city to recoup the money through sales taxes the project would bring in. The plan, by Donald Chae and his M&D Properties, calls for 428,000 square feet of retail space, 193,000 square feet of office space and 1,000 condominiums or apartments.
Santa Ana-based title insurer First American Financial Corp. reported third-quarter profits of $33.1 million, down about 15% from a year ago but in line with expectations. The company, which emerged in a June split of what used to be First American Corp., reported $1 billion in revenue for the quarter, down 9% but slightly more than analysts expected.
Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. named Devin Chen executive vice president and commercial real estate portfolio manager. Chen most recently served as managing director of McLean, Va.-based real estate investor JER Partners.
OTHER NEWS
The number of venture capital funding deals in Orange County fell to seven during the third quarter, a 46% drop from a year earlier, according to Dow Jones VentureSource. Funding here totaled $72.5 million, down 23% from a year earlier. A recent $50 million investment in Foothill Ranch-based Tri Alpha Energy was one of the biggest in the U.S. during the third quarter. Tri Alpha keeps a low profile and is working on nuclear fusion technology based on research by University of California, Irvine, professor Norman Rostoker.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to open a store in Anaheim in a long-vacant building that used to house a Food 4 Less store. The retailer signed a lease for the 100,000-square-foot building near the Riverside (91) Freeway. The store, which would be Wal-Mart’s second in Anaheim, is set to open in late 2011 and operate around the clock.
San Juan Capistrano’s Redevelopment Agency agreed to give $5 million to Tuttle-Click Automotive Group to take over operations of Capistrano Ford, which is expected to close at year’s end. The deal calls for Tuttle-Click to move the dealership within the city. Tuttle-Click has exclusive rights to buy the Ford dealership franchise. San Juan Capistrano has seen five auto dealers close in the past six years.
Richard S. Stevens, a co-owner and president of the Balboa Bay Club in the 1960s who also served as president and chief executive of Disneyland Hotels from 1977 to 1982, died Oct. 14 at his home in Newport Beach after a long illness.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
Up: Jobs, which are projected to rise by 65,000 to 1.4 million in OC in the next two years after five years of declines, according to the University of California, Los Angeles, echoing a similar forecast from California State University, Fullerton.
