Healthcare
Newport Beach lifestyle healthcare startup Alphaeon Corp. named Bob Rhatigan chief operating officer. He joins Alphaeon from Carlsbad-based SkinMedica Inc., part of Allergan Inc. in Irvine, where he was senior vice president, general manager and chief executive. He worked at Allergan before SkinMedica as a senior vice president for the drug maker’s facial aesthetics business.
Media
Advantage Sales & Marketing LLC in Irvine acquired StoreBoard Media LLC in New York on undisclosed terms. StoreBoard specializes in advertising on security equipment at retailer entrances. Rick Sirvaitis, president and co-founder of StoreBoard, will lead the new business unit, which will continue to operate out of New York under the same name.
Real Estate
Orange County homes are selling at a faster clip than in most other major U.S. metropolitan areas. Fewer than half the homes listed here two months ago or longer were still for sale last month, according to online residential real estate website Trulia. That’s up from 38% from the year-ago period, when more homes were on the market. 55% of for-sale homes remained on the market nationally for two months or longer.
Restaurants
El Pollo Loco plans to stop offering Fosters Freeze soft-serve ice cream in June. The company said it didn’t renew its licensing contract for the product, which is sold at fewer than 40 restaurants in Southern California.
Retail
Buena Park-based furniture chain Easy Life Furniture Inc. filed for bankruptcy and plans to liquidate operations over the next two months. The family owned and operated furniture retail chain that’s been in business for 18 years filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, listing assets of $6.7 million and liabilities of approximately $12.4 million. The company plans to close its 14 stores in Southern California over the course of this month and close its headquarters and wind up operations by the end of June, according to court documents.
Easy Life has two locations in Orange County, in the Tustin Marketplace and The Row in Laguna Hills.
Sports
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim executives, displeased with the city’s appraisal of Angel Stadium, are considering whether to end discussions on developing land next to the stadium as part of a proposal to keep the team in Anaheim. The Angels said the appraisal might exclude its parking rights, which could require it to spend about $100 million on parking structures. City council last fall approved a deal that would keep the Angels at the stadium in exchange for the team spending up to $150 million to improve the facility. The team would in turn get development rights for parking lots surrounding the stadium. The city and the team have since argued over terms of the deal and blamed each other for making changes to it.
Technology
ZeniMax Media Inc., the former employer of Oculus VR engineer John Carmack, said Carmack took intellectual property with him to Oculus when he joined the company last August, according to news reports. Facebook Inc. is in the process of buying Irvine-based Oculus in a $2 billion deal that was expected to close by the end of this quarter. ZeniMax said it recently sent Oculus letters claiming it has rights to research and development Carmack did “over a number of years.” Carmack posted on Twitter that, “No work I have ever done has been patented. Zenimax owns the code that I wrote, but they don’t own the [viritual reality].”
Flatirons Solutions in Irvine acquired Corena in Denmark on undisclosed terms. Flatirons provides technology consultation and outsourcing of technical publications. Corena develops document management software for the aerospace, defense, marine, rail and energy industries. It’s Flatirons’ third acquisition in two years.
Tourism
The Anaheim/Orange County Visitor & Convention Bureau hired Charles Harris to fill the new position of senior vice president of marketing. He was previously vice president of marketing for Luxe Hotels and L.E. Hotels.
Transportation
An application center for an expedited screening program at John Wayne Airport opened in Terminal C. The Transportation Security Administration’s PreCheck lets participants leave their shoes on and keep their laptops in their carry-on bags during security check-in, among other perks. The application center allows travelers to pre-enroll for PreCheck online and finish the enrollment process at the airport. TSA plans to open more than 300 application offices throughout the U.S. The first opened in December at Indianapolis International Airport.
