AMUSEMENT
The last surviving child of the founders of Knott’s Berry Farm died at 92. Marion Knott died at her home in Newport Beach. She was instrumental in developing a roadside attraction into a theme park after convincing her family to fence it in and charge admission. Knott later steeped herself in philanthropy, including donating to the film school at Chapman University in Orange (see OC Insider item, page 3). The Knott family sold the theme park in 1997 to Cedar Fair Entertainment Co. in Ohio.
APPAREL
Wet Seal Inc. named Thomas Hillebrandt its interim chief financial officer. He has served as vice president and corporate controller at Foothill Ranch-based women’s apparel retailer since last September and takes on the duties given up by Steven Benrubi, who resigned last month, effective Dec. 1.
ENERGY
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved a settlement that calls for ratepayers of Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to pay $3.3 billion over 10 years to cover the shutdown costs of the San Onofre nuclear power plant near the Orange and San Diego counties line.
EDUCATION
The University of California-Irvine will work with three community colleges to recruit and retain women and minority students to study science, technology, engineering and math at the schools, an effort supported in part by a $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Funds will also help launch FabWorks, a “rapid design, innovation and prototyping” workshop at UCI’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering with “open studio space for students to design and build things,” the university said.
HEALTHCARE
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission halted trading in Anaheim-based Wholehealth Products Inc. and three other penny stock companies that “claim to be developing products and services in response to the Ebola [virus] outbreak.” The SEC cited a “lack of publicly available information on the companies’ operations” as a reason to stop trading.
REAL ESTATE
The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to accept a donation from the Irvine Company of 2,500 vacant acres, said the parks unit of the county’s Community Resources department. The company previously planned to build 5,000 to 5,500 homes on the land, which is in the third district east of the city of Orange and represented by Supervisor Todd Spitzer. He said the gift will “create an unbroken stretch of preserved land” when coupled with 20,000 acres the Irvine Co. donated to the county in 2010. The 20,000 acres largely surrounds the newly donated land.
TECHNOLOGY
Garden Grove-based Bar Code Specialties Inc. will be acquired by Quest Solution Inc., a Nevada IT integrator.
Under the deal, BCS founder and sole shareholder David Marin will remain with Quest with an option to purchase up to 2.5 million shares of common stock upon reaching certain service and revenue milestones.
Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s latest World of Warcraft expansion sold more than 3.3 million copies in its first 24 hours on the market. The hot start for “Warlords of Draenor”—which was released Nov. 13 in North America, Latin America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia—pushed the Irvine-based company’s subscription base past 10 million players.
OTHER
The Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa said it plans to open a children’s dance school next September with American Ballet Theatre. Center board member William J. Gillespie helped fund the school, which will be named after him. Gillespie is an heir of a founding investor in the Farmers Insurance Group and is an Orange County real estate investor, according to reports.
