Other items of interest Orange County Business Journal
FINANCE
Santa Ana-based First American Financial Corp. posted a 39% drop in net income to $78.3 million in 2011, with most of the decline stemming from a $32 million related to a legal dispute with Bank of America and Fiserve Inc. over failed home-equity loans. Revenue at the title-insurance company, which disclosed a settlement of the lawsuit in December, fell 2% to $3.8 billion.
Irvine-based Opus Bank opened a new office on Alton Parkway in Irvine, as well as locations in Encino and La Jolla. The bank now has 18 offices in Southern California and another 22 in Washington. Opus recently completed lease agreements to open an office in Pasadena and two more in Washington later this year. The Pasadena office is slated to open in the second quarter and the Washington location in the fourth quarter.
HEALTHCARE
Anaheim drug maker Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc.—best known for a drug used for treating multiple sclerosis and other diseases—posted a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit of $31.6 million, up from $6.4 million in the final three months of 2010. Sales rose 158% to $75.5 million on growing sales of flagship H.P. Acthar Gel.
Irvine-based patient-monitor maker Masimo Corp. signed a deal with GE Healthcare UK Ltd., the U.K.-based unit of General Electric Co. in Stamford, Conn. GE Healthcare will incorporate Masimo’s Rainbow SET technology into some its own monitor products under the agreement.
REAL ESTATE
A Tustin woman pleaded guilty to defrauding investors in KBS Capital Markets Group, which was billed as a real estate investment trust. Brenda Eschbach—owner of Irvine-based EMA Investment Properties and Aventine Investment Services—was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana to 41 months in federal prison. Eschbach also was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution.
The Orange County Great Park Board re-elected Chairperson Beth Krom and Vice Chairperson Walkie Ray for another year. The board also re-elected to four-year board seats Ray and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido.
RETAIL
The South Coast Collection retail center in Costa Mesa added The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity, featuring sketches and cel-animation works of the late Chuck Jones. The center recently relocated from a spot in Old Towne Orange.
TECHNOLOGY
Irvine-based laser maker Newport Corp. posted a 21% rise in fourth-quarter revenue to almost $161 million. That included $36 million in revenue from recently acquired High Q Technologies, a Rankweil, Austria-based surgical-laser maker, and Ophir Optronics Ltd., a Jerusalem-based optics, instrumentation and measurement company. Newport’s quarterly adjusted profit fell 37% to $9.6 million, as acquisition costs hit the bottom line.
Software made by Smith Micro Software Inc. will be used in an Android phone that Japan-based NEC CASIO Mobile Communications Ltd. plans to sell through Verizon Wireless, a unit of New York-based Verizon Communications. The software simplifies phone functions with one-click wireless access, according to the companies. Smith Micro also posted a 68% drop in fourth-quarter revenue to $11.2 million. The company reported quarterly red ink totaling $4.2 million. The loss compared with an adjusted profit of $13 million a year earlier.
OTHER NEWS
Gov. Jerry Brown appointed an attorney and former business executive to the Orange County Fair board. Ashleigh Aitken is an attorney who was involved in a successful lawsuit in 2010 to stop the sale of the fairgrounds to a private company; Stan Tkaczyk worked at Huntington Beach-based Rainbow Disposal Co. for 33 years until 2004.
