Other items of interest Orange County Business Journal
APPAREL
The founder of the Ambiguous and Comune brands launched a Costa Mesa-based apparel company called Chapter. Frank Delgadillo’s latest venture will feature jeans and tops for men and women. Delgadillo and some former sales and marketing executives left Commune last month before the label announced plans to relocate to Los Angeles. Delgadillo launched Comune in 2005 after leaving Ambiguous Industries, which he started in 1996 while a student at Chapman University. Irvine-based Ray’s Apparel Inc. bought Ambiguous in 2005.
ECONOMY
Bankruptcy filings for individuals and businesses fell in Orange County in May to 1,569, a 4.3% decline from a month earlier, according to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. Filings were flat compared to totals a year earlier.
MEDIA
Irvine-based search engine operator Local.com Corp. bought a local daily deals company and signed a key contract with Mountain View-based Google Inc. Local.com paid $12.5 million in stock, cash and debt assumptions for San Juan Capistrano-based Screamin’ Media. The deal to provide display results for Google will bring a cut of advertising tied to the service. That could offset a drop in revenue seen after Local.com’s largest client, Yahoo Inc., aligned with Microsoft Corp.’s Bing search engine earlier this year, a move that led to lower payments to other search engines that display Yahoo’s results.
REAL ESTATE
The Fullerton City Council approved Pacific Coast Homes’ plan for the 760-home West Coyote Hills project on a 510-acre former oil field in the city’s northwest section. The plan calls for townhomes, houses, about 68,000 square feet of retail space, 283 acres of open space and the preservation of the 72-acre Robert W. Ward Nature Preserve. The approval came after Pacific Coast Homes, which is owned by San Ramon-based Chevron Corp., agreed to drop a lawsuit if an earlier vote against the project was reversed. Some residents of the area who want the entire 510-acre site to be left as open space said they hope to place the matter on an upcoming citywide ballot.
RESTAURANT
Delphi Display Systems Inc., a Costa Mesa-based provider of restaurant technology, added drive-through timers with the purchase of the assets of Fire and Safety Electronics Inc. in Santa Ana. The deal, for undisclosed terms, includes Fast Track 2+2 drive-through timing systems, which allow restaurants to keep tabs on efficiency. Delphi specializes in providing digital drive-through menus, order confirmation displays, and gas pump digital screens. It also makes the Insight RPM, which displays data that allows managers to monitor drive-through efficiency and compare locations.
TECHNOLOGY
Denver-based Latisys Corp. leased a 90,000-square-foot office near a 50,000-square-foot data center it operates in Irvine. The company employs 40 here and runs other data centers in Denver, Chicago and Ashburn, Va. The new center in Irvine is expected to bring 25 additional jobs for engineers and sales people in the next year.
Irvine-based Newport Corp., which makes lasers and related equipment, announced acquisitions of an Austrian laser designer and manufacturer for undisclosed terms and an Israel-based competitor for $230 million. The company said High Q Technologies GmbH in Austria, a family-owned maker of “ultrafast lasers,” will strengthen its business in precision industrial manufacturing. Ophir Optronics Ltd. in Jerusalem had revenue of nearly $112 million and operating income of $12.5 million for the 12 months through March.
San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc.’s Irvine-based home networking unit will cuts 60 jobs, about 15% of its local workforce, based on the pending sale of its Flip video camcorder business. The company will lay off another 166 workers in San Francisco and 55 in San Jose, according to filings with the state’s Employment Development Department. Other reports indicate bigger cuts coming, with as many as 10,000 workers expected to be let go companywide, about 15% of Cisco’s total workforce.
OTHER NEWS
The City of Laguna Beach will be reimbursed for $2.5 million it spent on repairs from floods and mudflows brought on by torrential rains last year as well as several projects intended to prevent future damage. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, various other state and federal agencies, and insurers will provide the money. The city is expected to contribute about $300,000. FEMA approved 29 repair projects and three others to reduce future risks. It rejected applications for three other projects, a decision the city plans to appeal.
ECONOMIC INDICATOR
UP: Property assessments by the Orange County Tax Assessor, which determined an increase in value of 0.87% for 2010-2011. The $3.6 billion uptick brought the total value of properties here to $420 billion, the first gain in three years and a sharp reversal from a decline of $7.2 billion for 2009-2010. State officials have ruled that property tax hikes based on the new assessment can be no more than 0.75%.
