Apparel
Costa Mesa-based Volcom Inc. sold Electric Visuals in San Clemente to the eyewear subsidiary’s chief executive, Eric Crane, for an undisclosed amount. Volcom, part of Paris-based Kering, bought Electric in 2008 for $25.3 million.
Education
University of California-Irvine School of Law moved up two places to No. 28 on U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of U.S. graduate school programs for law schools, tying with the University of Alabama’s law school in Tuscaloosa. The report ranked 144 law schools altogether. Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law was ranked No. 136 in a four-way tie.
Finance
Bond fund manager Bill Gross’ lawsuit against the firm he co-founded can proceed, a California state judge ruled. Gross says in the breach-of-contract suit that he was forced out of Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. by executives who wanted to further their careers and take part of his bonus. He’s seeking $200 million in damages that a spokesperson said he would donate to charity. Gross left PIMCO in 2014 to join Denver-based Janus Capital Group Inc.
Healthcare
Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp. appointed Steven Loranger to a new seat on its board of directors, bringing the heart valve maker’s board size to nine. Loranger was most recently chief executive of Rye Brook, N.Y.-based global water technology company Xylem Inc.
Hospital
Two luxury hotels in Orange County, the Montage Laguna Beach in Laguna Beach and the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, have a new China-based owner. Chicago-based Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc., which owned both hotels, was sold by its parent company, New York-based private equity firm the Blackstone Group LLC, to Anbang Insurance Group Co. for $6.5 billion, Bloomberg reports.
Former Knott’s Berry Farm Chief Executive Terry Van Gorder died March 2 at age 82, the Orange County Register reported. He led the amusement park from 1981 to 1998 when it was still family owned. The park licensed Peanuts cartoon characters and added rollercoasters during his tenure, which ended when it was sold to Cedar Fair in 1997. Van Gorder died in his sleep at his home in Oregon.
Media
Tribune Publishing Co.’s $56 million offer was selected as the winning bid at the bankruptcy auction of Santa Ana-based Freedom Communications Inc. in Costa Mesa. The Chicago-based owner of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune topped at least two other bidders—one an investment group led by Freedom Chief Executive Richard Mirman; the other Digital First Media Inc., the Denver-based parent of Los Angeles News Group, which publishes the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Los Angeles Daily News and seven other Southern California dailies. Freedom, publisher of the Orange County Register and the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 1. Tribune Publishing’s bid was for Freedom’s intellectual property, inventory, and real estate assets, and is subject to bankruptcy court approval at a hearing scheduled for March 21. It excludes the assumption of an estimated $155 million pension obligation. The winning bid faces legal challenges, including an antitrust lawsuit seeking to block the deal. The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit, seeking a temporary restraining order to delay a decision by the bankruptcy court as it pursues the suit. Tribune Publishing discounted the antitrust case as meritless, saying it overlooks changes in media in recent decades, including the rise of digital-based competition to daily newspapers.
Technology
Irvine-based Ingram Micro Inc. bought NetXUSA in Greenville, S.C., on undisclosed terms. Ingram Micro is the world’s largest distributor of technology products, with 2015 revenue of $43 billion. NetXUSA has about $125 million in annual revenue and 1,200 U.S. clients, for whom it provides products and services that use the Internet for making phone calls, rather than traditional “public switched” telephone networks. Ingram itself is in the midst of being acquired for $6 billion by China-based Tianjin Tianhai Investment Co.
