APPAREL
St. John Knits International Inc. will cut 72 jobs in Irvine, effective Dec. 11, according to a filing with the state. Cutbacks include an in-house boutique store. The company cut an additional 130 jobs in Irvine in June after it retooled elements of its manufacturing.
— Paul Hughes
EDUCATION
University of California-Irvine Chancellor Howard Gillman was named co-chair of an advisory board for a new UC-system center dedicated to free speech issues. The National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement will be housed at UCDC, the system’s Washington, D.C. location. Funding will come from the UC presidential endowment and private philanthropic efforts, according to a news release. Former UCI Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, now dean of UC Berkeley’s law school, will be the other advisory board co-chair.
— Deirdre Newman
The University of California-Irvine is part of a group that received a five-year, $14.6 million U.S. Department of Education grant to improve literacy instruction. It will be the research lead on the project via its School of Education. Some 300 schools and 100,000 students in kindergarten through third grade will be served by the grant. The money is meant, among other goals, to “identify and remove critical barriers” to wider technology-based literacy instruction.”
— Deirdre Newman
The Orange Coast College Foundation said it received a gift of $1.8 million, the largest donation in its 32-year history, from the estate of the late philosophy professor David Johnston to establish the M.F. & Marvel Monia Johnston Scholarship Fund. It said the gift will provide scholarships for financially deserving philosophy students, and that the first grants will be awarded at the Costa Mesa college’s Honors Night in May. Johnston also left a bequest of the same amount to the University of California-Berkeley for students majoring in philosophy, according to the foundation.
— Deirdre Newman
LAW
A Newport Beach attorney had his $417 million verdict against New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson overturned by the trial judge. Mark Robinson Jr. of Newport Beach-based Robinson Calcagnie Inc. represented plaintiff Eva Echeverria, who blamed her ovarian cancer on the company’s talc, in the first California trial over the product. In August, an L.A. jury made its decision on behalf of the 62-year-old woman. The jury found Johnson & Johnson and its consumer-products unit liable for failing to warn Echeverria about the risk of Johnson’s Baby Powder. Judge Maren Nelson cited jury misconduct among other factors in setting aside the verdict. Robinson told the Business Journal he’ll appeal.
— Deirdre Newman
RESTAURANTS
Bear Flag Restaurant Group in Newport Beach plans to open a restaurant at Lido Marina Village. Circle Hook, a 1,200-square-foot fish-and-chips restaurant, is scheduled to have a year-end opening in a row of eateries at the Village, a DJM Capital Partners renovation that’s nearly complete. The company has Bear Flag Fish Co. stores in Lido, Newport Coast and Huntington and a Wild Taco site at 31st and Newport Boulevard, all fresh fish-focused.
— Paul Hughes
RETAIL
MerchSource LLC launched retail websites for its FAO Schwartz and 5th Avenue Bergdorf Goodman brands. The latter is a shop-within-a-shop element of the FAO web presence. MerchSource is an Irvine-based unit of toy and gadget designer, maker and distributor ThreeSixty Group Ltd. in Hong Kong. New York private-equity firm AEA Investors bought a majority stake in it in 2015.
— Paul Hughes
TECHNOLOGY
Aliso Viejo-based Microsemi Corp. reached a deal to acquire the timing device business of Vectron International for $130 million. The transaction is expected to close by year-end. New Hampshire-based Vectron, part of the Knowles Corp. in Itasca, Ill., specializes in designing and manufacturing frequency controls, sensors and hybrid technologies geared for telecommunications, data communications, frequency synthesizers, and timing, navigation, military, aerospace, medical and instrument systems.
— Chris Casacchia
