Stories in this week’s Orange County Business Journal
TOP STORIES
Newport Beach-based chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. is selling to a private equity firm for $282 million. The move comes after original suitor Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Standard Microsystems Corp. declined to up its $270 million January offer for Conexant. San Francisco-based Golden Gate Private Equity Inc. plans to wrap up its buy of Conexant by the end of the second quarter (See related story in Technology > ).
Irvine-based action sports clothing retailer Tilly’s Inc. named Daniel Griesemer, a former head of Coldwater Creek Inc.’s retail and catalog operations, to run the company. He replaces longtime Chief Executive Hezy Shaked, who is set to stay on in the new position of chief strategy officer and remains chairman. Tilly’s sells clothes inspired by skateboarding and surfing, including those from several local companies such as Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. and Billabong USA in Irvine. Tilly’s operates 125 stores, mostly in California. Griesemer was Coldwater Creek’s chief executive from 2007 and 2009 and earlier served as chief operating officer.
The number of homebuilding permits issued here in January rose to 283, more than double the average for the same month for the prior three years and the highest since 2007. Single-family homes accounted for 214 of the recent permits, with the rest for apartments and condominiums. About half of the permits were issued for projects in Irvine. Much of the activity there has been spurred by Irvine Company (See related Special Report stories > ).
ENERGY
Seal Beach-based Clean Energy Fuels Corp. struck a deal to provide 48 natural gas fueling stations for Atlanta-based United Parcel Services of America Inc. Clean Energy already runs more than 200 stations around the country for fleets of taxis, buses and other vehicles. The seven-year deal with UPS calls for the new stations to open in the first half of the year.
HEALTHCARE
A federal judge ruled that the purchase of Santa Ana-based Westcliff Medical Laboratories Inc. by Laboratory Corporation of America can go through over regulatory objections. U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford in Santa Ana denied a challenge by the Federal Trade Commission to LabCorp’s $57.5 million buy of Westcliff that argued that the deal would harm medical laboratory competition. Westcliff, whose laboratories process blood and urine samples, filed for bankruptcy protection last May and said in a court filing that it was planning to sell its assets to LabCorp (See related story in Healthcare > ).
TECHNOLOGY
Irvine’s Vizio Inc. claimed more market share for TVs and the top spot for liquid-crystal display sets in North America for 2010. The company sold 6.9 million TVs last year for an 18% share of the North American market, according to data from DisplaySearch, an Austin, Texas-based unit of market researcher NPD Group. That’s up from 6 million sets and 17% market share in 2009. No. 2 Samsung Group sold 6.7 million sets for a 17.5% share. Vizio didn’t release year-end sales figures. In 2009, the most recent data available, Vizio reported sales of $2.5 billion.
Irvine-based WebVisible Inc., which helps businesses buy and target online ads, is set to shut its doors here and consolidate operations in Playa Vista. The company is cutting some 170 jobs in Irvine and Los Angeles this week. Most of the jobs cut were salespeople and account managers. A year ago, WebVisible secured $20 million in a third round of venture funding, bringing its total raised to about $37 million.
See related stories in Technology >
FINANCE
Irvine-based Tech Coast Angels made 31 investments in early stage companies in 2010, a 29% increase from 2009. A total of $6 million went to 12 startups and 19 relatively new businesses seeking follow-on funding. The same group drew another $33.9 million from other investors last year.
Santa Ana-based First American Financial Corp. posted a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit but signaled that it’s bracing for declines in business related to mortgage originations this year. The title insurer, which completed its split with Santa Ana’s CoreLogic Inc. in June, earned $47 million for the quarter. The figure was off about 6% from a year earlier but still exceeded Wall Street expectations. Revenue came in at $1 billion, flat from a year earlier and beating expectations by about 5%. The company warned that this year could hold challenges and said it plans to maintain a conservative balance sheet.
