TECHNOLOGY
Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp. filed a lawsuit against spurned suitor Broadcom Corp. alleging anti-competitive practices at the Irvine chipmaker. The lawsuit comes two months after Broadcom filed a patent suit against onetime acquisition target Emulex, a maker of electronics for data storage networks. Emulex denies the patent infringement claims and alleged Broadcom uses corrupt business practices, citing its history of stock options backdating. Emulex is seeking damages, legal costs as well as an injunction on controller chips that run 10-gigabit Ethernet networks.
Irvine’s Netlist Inc., a beaten-down maker of computer memory products, won Wall Street’s favor last week on the prospect of a turnaround. The company announced a new strategy in which it would shift focus to niche memory modules with specialized controller chips and market them to server makers including IBM Corp., Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and others. Up to now, Netlist has sold basic memory modules—circuit boards with memory chips—to server makers. Shares of Netlist had lost nearly all of their value from early 2007 to early 2009, before doubling last week on a market value of $55 million.
HEALTHCARE
Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc., an Irvine drug maker, signed a deal with Japan’s Nippon Kayaku Co. to develop and commercialize a cancer drug. Spectrum and Nippon Kayaku will work on developing apaziquone, which is being looked at for treating cases of bladder cancer that haven’t invaded the bladder’s muscle layer, for Asia. Spectrum also is working on developing apaziquone with Irvine-based Allergan Inc. In other Spectrum news, the company announced third-quarter results in which it narrowed its loss to $8.4 million from $8.8 million a year earlier. Revenue was $7.1 million.
Edwards Lifesciences Corp., an Irvine heart valve maker, said it expects its revenue to grow more than 10% in 2010. The forecast topped what Wall Street had been expecting. Analysts had expected Edwards’ revenue to come in at $1.42 billion in 2010, up 8% from this year.
Newport Beach-based Alliance HealthCare Services Inc. plans to issue $200 million in debt as part of a larger reworking of its finances. Alliance, which operates medical imaging and cancer treatment centers, also said it plans to strike a new credit deal with a syndicate of lenders for a $450 million term loan and a $120 million revolving credit line. Proceeds from the debt offering, along with proceeds from the term loan, will be used by Alliance to finance the purchase of an outstanding $300 million in debt that’s due in 2012.
REAL ESTATE
Santa Ana-based real estate brokerage and investor Grubb & Ellis Co. reported a smaller third-quarter loss as the company cut administrative expenses and saw fewer write-downs in the value of real estate from a year earlier. The company reported a net loss of $21.4 million, versus a loss of $56.3 million a year earlier. Write-downs on real estate to reflect lower values went from $35 million a year ago to $2.4 million. Revenue fell 11% to $136.1 million. In other news, Grubb & Ellis named Thomas P. D’Arcy as its president and chief executive, effective this week. Also, Boston-based mutual fund manager FMR LLC reported a 13% ownership stake in the brokerage.
OTHER NEWS
Seal Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp., which runs natural gas fueling stations, reported a wider than expected third-quarter loss and saw sales fall short amid low prices for natural gas. Clean Energy reported a loss of $18.5 million, widened from $12 million a year earlier. A $15.5 million charge related to accounting for debt that converts to stock drove the loss. Without it, Clean Energy lost $3 million, more than the $2.4 million analysts expected. Sales were down 8% to $31.2 million and below the $35 million analysts had expected on low natural gas prices, which also reduce Clean Energy’s costs.
Fountain Valley-based Hyundai Motor America Inc. was named marketer of the year by industry publication Advertising Age. The automaker, part of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co., beat out other notable marketers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., McDonald’s Corp. and Seattle-based online retailer Amazon.com Inc. in a reader poll at Adage.com.
Irvine-based Freedom Communications Inc.’s unsecured creditors are mounting a fight against the company’s bankruptcy reorganization and hope to submit a competing plan of their own. A court-appointed committee of unsecured creditors recently asked the judge overseeing Freedom’s bankruptcy to order the company to hand over financial details so it can draft an alternative plan. Currently, Freedom plans to turn over about 90% of the company to New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. and 26 other secured creditors. The plan would cut Freedom’s debt from nearly $1 billion to $325 million. The creditors committee has asked the court to hear their request this week.
Broadcom Corp. cofounder Henry Samueli was cleared by the National Hockey League to resume involvement with the Anaheim Ducks, which he owns with wife Susan. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said late last week Samueli has been “reinstated” as owner of the hockey team. Samueli retained ownership of the team but was suspended from involvement in June 2008 amid legal issues surrounding backdated stock options at Irvine chipmaker Broadcom. He’s pled guilty to one count of lying to investigators looking into options at Broadcom and awaits sentencing.
