This past week’s news from www.ocbj.com and other sources
TOP STORIES
Brea-based medical testing and research products maker Beckman Coulter Inc. is drawing interest from several bidders, according to Bloomberg. Among those considering offers are Danaher Corp., a Washington, D.C., conglomerate that owns Orange-based Sybron Dental Specialties Inc.; Waltham, Mass.-based Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and private equity firms. Analysts say other potential bidders could include Eli Lilly & Co. of Indianapolis, Johnson & Johnson of New Brunswick, N.J., and fellow medical diagnostic makers Abbott Laboratories of the Chicago area and Germany’s Siemens AG. First-round bids for Beckman, which had a recent market value of about $5 billion, are due this week. Beckman has declined to comment on any talk of a sale, which emerged last month.
Art Buser left as chief executive of San Clemente-based Sunstone Hotel Investors Inc. after a clash with the company’s board over the pace of acquisitions, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Buser helped Sunstone shed unwanted hotels by turning them over to lenders and oversaw some $400 million in stock sales to fund acquisitions. The company looked at “a number of transactions that we did not execute on that, in retrospect, we should have,” Kenneth Cruse, Sunstone’s former chief financial officer and newly appointed president, told the Journal. Sunstone owns 31 hotels across the country.
REAL ESTATE
Palo Alto-based Essex Property Trust bought a 250-unit apartment complex in the Platinum Triangle near Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Essex is believed to have paid less than what it cost to build the complex. Anavia was built in 2009 as condominiums before being converted to apartments by developer KB Home of Los Angeles.
Newport Beach-based Irvine Company completed its purchase of Chicago’s 48-story Hyatt Center office building, the first office buy outside California for the company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Estimates put the price at $625 million.
A California appeals court issued a restraining order that delays the proposed sale of the OC Fair & Event Center pending a decision on a lawsuit challenging the deal in hopes of keeping the 150-acre property under public ownership. The state has agreed to sell the site to Newport Beach-based Facilities Management West Inc. for $100 million.
RESTAURANTS
San Clemente-based Pick Up Stix has been sold and is set to move its headquarters to Minnesota. Lorne Goldberg of Sherman Oaks-based investment company West Coast Capital acquired the chain of 74 restaurants from Carrollton, Texas-based Carlson Restaurants Inc. for undisclosed terms. Goldberg also owns the Mandarin Express and Leann Chin chains, both of which are based in Bloomington, Minn.
Costa Mesa-based El Pollo Loco Inc. narrowed its search for a new advertising agency to three candidates: Goodness Mfg. and McCann West/Casanova Pendrill in Los Angeles, and Santa Monica’s Rubin Postaer and Associates. Venice-based Krueger Communications now is the lead agency on El Pollo Loco’s account, estimated at $15 million to $20 million in annual billings. Cruz/kravetz: Ideas in Burbank now handles El Pollo Loco’s Hispanic advertising. Neither took part in the account review.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Newport Beach-based insurance brokerage Alliant Insurance Services Inc. bought ArlenGroup, a San Francisco employee benefits firm. Alliant, the county’s largest insurance brokerage, said ArlenGroup will keep its name and continue to focus on technology and professional services for companies with 50 or more employees. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
TECHNOLOGY
Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. received what it called a favorable preliminary ruling in a patent dispute with onetime acquisition target Emulex Corp. of Costa Mesa. Broadcom claims that Emulex products infringe on nine of its patents for chips related to networking and data storage technologies. It’s seeking damages and an injunction. A spokeswoman for Emulex said the company “has a policy of vigorously defending the company against assertions of this kind.”
Costa Mesa information technology consulting firm SpeakTech was acquired by Perficient Inc. in Missouri. The deal calls for Perficient to pay about $7.5 million in cash, with another $7.5 million based on future performance. SpeakTech employs about 120.
HEALTHCARE
San Clemente-based medical device maker ICU Medical Inc. won a patent infringement case against Franklin, Tenn.-based RyMed Technologies Inc. A federal jury found that InVision Plus, an intravenous connector made by RyMed, infringed on two patents owned by ICU. The jury confirmed that ICU’s patents were valid, according to the company. ICU, which has annual sales of about $280 million, makes needleless connectors and other devices used to deliver fluids and cancer drugs.
