TOP STORY
Aliso Viejo-based Valeant Pharma-ceuticals International is being acquired by Canada’s Biovail Corp. in a deal valued at $3.2 billion. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year and is set to create a drug maker with $1.8 billion in yearly sales. Shareholders of Biovail, a maker of antidepressant, pain and other drugs, are set to own 50.5% of the new company. The combined company will take on the Valeant name and be based at Biovail’s headquarters south of Toronto. A U.S. headquarters site is set to be selected after the deal closes. Valeant Chief Execu-tive J. Michael Pearson, a native of London, Ontario, is planning to run the company from Barbados, where Biovail has operations.
TECHNOLOGY
Irvine-based Microsemi Corp., a maker of chips for use in aerospace, defense and consumer electronics, signed a patent licensing deal with networking kingpin Cisco Systems Inc. The company said it struck a cross-licensing deal for a technology that’s called power-over-Ethernet, which sends power over computer networking cables, cutting the need for separate energy supplies for routers, switches and other devices. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Irvine-based security software startup MultiFactor Corp. raised $3 million in a round of financing. The latest round brings MultiFactor’s total funding to date to $11 million. All of the company’s funding is from private and individual investors, whose names weren’t disclosed. The company plans to use the money to build up its sales group and continue to grow.
REAL ESTATE
The city of Costa Mesa reached an agreement to buy the Orange County Fair-grounds from the state for $96 million and lease it to a private operator that would continue to stage the annual county fair. The tentative deal for the 150-acre piece of prime property was reached last week after months of negotiations between Costa Mesa and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office. The Costa Mesa City Council approved agreements with the state and Facilities Management West Inc., a Newport Beach-based investment firm. The sale still requires approval from the state Legislature.
The median price of an existing Orange County home increased by more than $14,000 in May from April, the California Association of Realtors said early last week. The median price for an existing stand-alone OC home sold in May was $505,750, a 3% increase from a month ago and a 6.7% jump in median pricing from a year ago. The number of sales here rose about 16% from a month earlier, and increased 18.5% from a year earlier, the Realtor association said.
APPAREL
Jonathan Grassi of Ohio’s Longbow Research upped his rating on Volcom Inc. from “neutral” to “buy” and said he’s looking for the stock to reach $25 per share. The analyst cited “positive channel checks,” or encouraging words about Volcom from retailers that sell its clothes. Volcom’s shares were trading at about $20 late last week with a market value of nearly $500 million.
EDUCATION
Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc. and other for-profit school operators were in the spotlight again with a Senate committee hearing about federal financial aid to their students. The hearing by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee was the first in a series on for-profit school operators, which train students for jobs in healthcare, automotive repair, criminal justice and other areas. A critic of the schools, hedge fund manager Steve Eisman, testified before the Senate committee, likening the companies to subprime mortgage lenders.
OTHER NEWS
Irvine-based Mazda North American Operations awarded its $150 million yearly advertising account to Dearborn, Mich.-based Team Detroit. The advertising group, part of Britain’s WPP PLC, won the account after the automaker launched an advertising review in March. It marked an end to Mazda’s 13-year relationship with the Newport Beach office of Southfield, Mich.-based advertising agency Doner Co.
Irvine-based HireRight, a provider of employment screening and drug screening services, acquired Powerchex Ltd. Financial. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Powerchex provides pre-empoyment screening to companies in Britain and was founded in 2005. As part of the acquisition, HireRight said that Powerchex Managing Director and founder Alexandra Kelly will manage the Powerchex business from its corporate headquarters in London.
Auto sales at OC dealers rose for the fourth straight month in May, according to the Newport Beach-based Orange County Automobile Dealers Association. Sales in May were up nearly 30% from a year earlier to 8,511 autos. South Korea’s Hyundai, which has its U.S. base in Orange County, was up 44% to 382 autos. Luxury car sales improved for the top three brands in OC. Mercedes-Benz was up 25% to 617, Lexus was up 5% to 408 autos, and BMW was up 23% to 381 autos.
