TOP STORIES
Seal Beach-based solar panel maker Amonix Inc. raised $129 million in a second funding round in what’s likely one of the biggest venture investments to date in Orange County. The most recent investment was led by Menlo Park-based Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Amonix said it’s set to use the money to ramp up deployments of its solar power systems and expand its manufacturing. In all, Amonix has raised about $160 million in venture funding and government grants.
TECHNOLOGY
Lake Forest-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. reported blockbuster results for the recently ended quarter with a profit of $400 million, up $50 million from a year earlier and easily topping Wall Street estimates of $311 million. Sales for the quarter were up 62% to $2.6 billion and topped the $2.5 billion expected by Wall Street. For the current quarter, the company offered a forecast that was better than what analysts were expecting, sending its shares jumping late last week.
Irvine-based chipmaker Microsemi Corp. gave a tepid outlook for the current quarter that fell flat with investors. For the June quarter, Microsemi said it expects adjusted profits of about $23 million to $25 million, in line with analysts’ expectations of $24 million. The company is expecting sales of about $122 million to $124 million, topping the $120 million analysts were looking for. Microsemi’s results for the March quarter beat Wall Street’s view for sales at $118 million but fell short on profits of $21 million. In other news, Microsemi was cleared early last week by a federal trade watchdog in a patent lawsuit it was named in by Santa Clara-based 02 Micro International Ltd. The commission plans to issue a final ruling in August.
HEALTHCARE
Irvine-based heart valve maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. reported a lower quarterly profit in line with Wall Street expectations while sales fell short. The Irvine heart valve maker’s first-quarter profit came in at $47.7 million, down 22% from a year earlier. Analysts were looking for a $47.2 million profit. Edwards said the decline came about because 2009’s first quarter included a milestone payment. First-quarter sales were up 9% to $340.5 million but fell short of analysts’ projections of $347 million.
Aliso Viejo-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International struck a deal to acquire another Brazilian drug maker a month after buying Instituto Terapeutico Delta Ltda of Sao Paulo. Valeant said it is paying $56 million for an undisclosed maker of generic and over the counter drugs. The Brazilian company had 2009 sales of about $28 million. The deal is set to close in the current quarter.
San Clemente-based ICU Medical Inc. reported a sharply reduced first-quarter profit. ICU, whose products include needleless connectors used in intravenous procedures, said that its first-quarter profit was $4.3 million, 40% lower than the $7.1 million profit in 2009’s first quarter and below analysts’ expectation of $5.8 million. Revenue rose 18% to $64.4 million, slightly below Wall Street’s expectation of $64.5 million. ICU said its first-quarter selling, general and administrative costs shot up 30% to $19.7 million. Research and development costs rose 24% to $918,000.
REAL ESTATE
Irvine-based Standard Pacific Corp. reported an unexpected quarterly loss and revenue fell short of Wall Street expectations last week. The homebuilder, which is in the midst of an ongoing turnaround, reported a loss of $5.1 million for the first quarter, down from a loss of $49.5 million a year earlier. Analysts on average were expecting the company to break even for the quarter. First-quarter revenue fell 16% to $175 million, well below the $279.4 million analyst were expecting on average. The company had fewer homes available for sale in the quarter, driving the lower revenue, according to Standard Pacific.
Santa Ana-based First American Corp. said it is paying $314 million to buy out a 20% partner in a subsidiary that offers property valuation, title, tax and other real estate-related data to mortgage financiers and other companies. The subsidiary, St. Petersburg, Fla.-based First American Real Estate Solutions LLC, was formed in 1997 with Britain’s Experian PLC, which has its North American headquarters in Costa Mesa. The buyout of Experian is expected to close by year’s end.
OTHER NEWS
Costa Mesa-based Pacific Mercantile Bank, the largest based in the county by assets, climbed back into profitability in the first quarter. The bank said it earned $126,000 in the quarter, versus a loss $2.1 million a year earlier. Pacific Mercantile credited most of its first-quarter gains to a 57% increase to $3 million in interest income from loans and investments. At the same time, Pacific Mercantile said it cut the amount it provisioned for bad loans to $2.3 million, or some 65% less than a year earlier.
Job growth is seen for Orange County later this year but at a slower rate than originally predicted, according to an updated forecast by California State University, Fullerton economists. The school now predicts jobs will grow here by a subtle 0.5%, or about 7,000, by the end of 2010, down from an earlier forecast of 9,900 added jobs.
