Apparel
The Wet Seal LLC in Irvine hired Judd Tirnauer as executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective May 1. Tirnauer, 47, most recently served as chief financial officer of Destination Maternity Corp. in Moorestown, N.J., where he spent 15 years overseeing the finance team and real estate, procurement and marketing partnerships. He will succeed Thomas Hillenbrandt, “who is leaving to pursue new endeavors,” according to the women’s apparel, footwear and accessories retailer.
Education
Brandman University in Irvine added a second “competency based education” online bachelor’s degree program, this one in information technology. The move for the school, which is part of the Chapman University system, follows the debut last year of a CBE bachelor’s in business administration. Competency-based programs assess students’ knowledge and experience and grant college credit on that basis.
Finance
Irvine-based Banc of California was added to the S&P SmallCap 600 Index and the S&P SmallCap 600 GICS Regional Banks Sub-Industry Index. The S&P SmallCap 600 Index measures the performance of 600 publicly listed companies with market caps between $400 million and $1.8 billion. Companies eligible for the index must meet Standard & Poor’s requirements for public equity, sector classification, and financial viability. The indices are meant as an indicator of the small cap sector of the U.S. equity market and that portion of the U.S. economy.
Healthcare
Newport Beach-based Alliance HealthCare Services Inc. said Fujian Thai Hot Investment Co. completed its purchase of a majority stake in the medical imaging company. Fuzhou, China-based Fujian Thai Hot said in September that it would buy 5.5 million of Alliance shares for $102.5 million, giving it ownership of 51.5% of the company. Three Fujian Thai Hot executives—founder Qisen Huang, Heping Feng and Tao Zhang—were appointed to Alliance’s board, replacing Michael Harmon, Curtis Lane and Aaron Bendickson.
Marketing
Adaptive Medias Inc. in Irvine said it plans to combine with AdSupply Inc. and move its headquarters to Culver City. The new company will continue as Adaptive Medias and trade over the counter under the ticker symbol ADTM. Adaptive Medias shareholders, under the terms of the agreement, will own 47% of the combined operation, and AdSupply’s shareholders will get the remaining 53%. Adaptive Medias also will pay $8 million in cash to AdSupply. The deal is expected to close this quarter.
Media
Freedom Communications Inc. Chief Executive Rich Mirman was let go last week along with about 70 staffers, including Editor and Senior Vice President of Content Rob Curley. The Orange County Register and the Riverside-based Press Enterprise became part of a new Southern California News Group headed by Publisher and President Ron Hasse after the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Santa Ana approved the sale of Freedom to Denver-based Digital First Media for $49.8 million. It remains unclear who will be the highest ranking executives in the Register’s sales and circulation departments in Santa Ana.
Sports
Orange County’s lone daily fantasy sports operator doesn’t plan to follow the segment’s leaders in immediately closing contests involving college sports. Aliso Viejo startup FantasyAces LLC is waiting to make a decision on the matter as developments unfold between NCAA representatives, state lawmakers, and the segment’s two largest operators, FanDuel Inc. in New York and Boston-based DraftKings Inc., which announced they’ll close down college contests on their websites this week.
Technology
Broadcom Ltd. said in a lawsuit that Space Exploration Technologies Corp.—SpaceX—recruited engineers away from the chipmaker after soliciting Broadcom’s services and then declining to work with it. The San Jose-based company, which has offices in Irvine, filed the lawsuit March 23 in Orange County Superior Court. SpaceX is the Hawthorne-based rocket maker founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk. Broadcom alleges in the suit that SpaceX violated a nondisclosure agreement in order “to procure a family of sophisticated, customized computer chips without bearing all of the research and development costs inevitably involved in creating such chips.”
Transportation
Southwest Airlines will fly from Long Beach Airport to Oakland International Airport starting June 5. It plans to add four flights daily in each direction under an allocation Long Beach Airport made in early February.
