EDUCATION
University of California-Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business launched a master’s degree program in business analytics, which the school says is in response to high demand from businesses, recruiters and students. The one-year, full-time program is meant to align analytics expertise with business practices; students will work on projects with local companies. Classes begin in August.
FINANCE
Irvine-based Banc of California Inc. said it has reached an agreement with Legion Partners Asset Management LLC to avoid a proxy battle. The bank agreed to add two independent directors to its current seven-member board. Legion Partners, which owns 6.6% of the bank’s shares, had threatened a proxy battle unless its candidates were nominated. The board will consist of nine independent directors after the election of the additional members, with no representatives employed by the bank. Legion candidates Marjorie Bowen and Roger H. Ballou will be considered along with others, the bank said. A date hasn’t yet been set for the new seats to be filed or the bank to hold its annual meeting (see related story, page 1).
Whittier Trust, a private family office in South Pasadena that serves 349 families and has $11 billion in assets under advisement, appointed Chapman University President Emeritus Jim Doti to its board of directors. He joined Chapman’s faculty in 1974 and served as president from 1991 to 2016. He currently teaches there and holds the Donald Bren Distinguished Chair of Business and Economics (see related OC Insider item, page 3).
HEALTHCARE
Orange-based Western Dental bought 14 Smile Wide practices spread across Orange, Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Terms of what the company said is its first acquisition in a decade were undisclosed.
The only hospital in Tustin has reopened under a new name and ownership, the Orange County Register reported. Foothill Regional Medical Center has a five-bed emergency department and a 42-bed subacute unit. It’s owned by Prospect Medical Holdings in Los Angeles, which bought it in 2014 from Tustin-based Pacific Health Corp. for an undisclosed sum. The facility, last called Newport Specialty Hospital, went through a rocky stretch starting in 2007, when its emergency department closed. The FBI raided it the following year as allegations surfaced that it was recruiting homeless people to fill beds and get unneeded procedures. Pacific Health and other hospitals paid a $16.5 million fine to settle the allegations. It closed the facility in 2014.
HOSPITALITY
Tom Donovan will join Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast at the end of the month as managing director. He replaces Giuseppe Lama, whose 9-year tenure at the resort ended in January. Pelican Hill is owned by Newport Beach-based Irvine Company and run by its resort properties division. Donovan “brings more than two decades of luxury hospitality experience,” Grippo said via email. Donovan has been managing director of Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort, on the island of Maui for three years.
MANUFACTURING
Vitamin and supplements maker The Nature’s Bounty Co. will lay off 223 people at its plants in Garden Grove and Santa Fe Springs, most of them in Garden Grove, according to the Orange County Register. The company is moving operations to other locations, including in New York, where it will receive state tax breaks, the news report said. It planned to provide severance pay to the laid-off workers.
TECHNOLOGY
Newport Beach-based startup Veritone Inc. aims to raise up to $15 million in an initial public offering, according to a registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, which provides audio and video search analytics through artificial intelligence, sold a minority stake last year to Acacia Research Corp., a Newport Beach-based company that primarily licenses patents. Veritone last year had sales of nearly $9 million and a net loss of $23.2 million. It plans to use the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes, including funding growth strategies, according to the regulatory filing.
