Top business news: March 23-29, 2007

San Diego Business Journal, April 2, 2007

Monday, March 26

Serco Serves Spawar: Serco Inc., a Vienna, Va.-based defense contractor, announced that the company was awarded a contract from the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command worth $64 million after exercising all options.

Serco's San Diego location, with 370 employees, will carry out the five-year contract, providing engineering and technical services for surveillance and intelligence systems at U.S. Navy ports.

Serco Inc. is part of the 45,000-employee Serco Group plc based in the United Kingdom.

--Andy Killion

Tuesday, March 27

From McLean To Mission Valley: McLean, Va.-based Alion Science and Technology announced that it is opening an office in San Diego to support the company's contracts with the U.S. Navy.

The new office in Mission Valley will be occupied by 10 employees, already working in the San Diego area for the employee-owned company.

Defense contractor Alion has 3,700 employees worldwide.

--Andy Killion

Wednesday, March 28

Days Numbered For Toxic Site: Cleanup of a 44-acre factory site near Lindbergh Field will proceed under a legal settlement reached among the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, the San Diego Unified Port District and Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Technologies/Teledyne Ryan Inc. and subsidiaries.

Teledyne Ryan used hazardous materials on the site during decades of aerospace manufacturing.

The deal settles a federal lawsuit over the matter.

The site, which includes an area named Convair Lagoon, had been an aerospace factory from 1938 to 2002. In 2004, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board ordered Allegheny Technologies/ Teledyne Ryan Inc. to clean up hazardous substances on the site, and amended that order in 2005. Allegheny challenged the orders.

"The settlement agreement is significant because it requires an expedited cleanup for these contaminated sites," said a statement released by the airport authority.

Additionally, the deal provides for the demolition of buildings on the site.

--Brad Graves

Nasdaq Delisting Appealed: WFI, the company formerly known as Wireless Facilities, announced that it filed for an appeal hearing with the Nasdaq exchange. Nasdaq officials notified WFI on March 22 that the San Diego company would be delisted from the exchange for not filing its 2006 annual report in a timely manner.

The company's stock will remain listed on the Nasdaq as WFII until the company receives word on the hearing from the exchange.

The company delayed filing its form 10K to voluntarily review its past practices for granting and pricing stock options. Recently, WFI has been targeted by a bevy of shareholder lawsuits pertaining to its accounting of stock options. There have been allegations of backdating.

WFII stock closed March 28 at $1.28, down 2 cents from the previous session.

--Andy Killion

Group Stays On Its Toes: San Diego-based Bekaert Specialty Films, which manufactures films for tinting windows, announced March 28 that the company has gone one year without a lost-time accident or an Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordable injury.

Bekaert Specialty, a subsidiary of the Belgium-based Bekaert Group, has 200 employees in its San Diego facility and credits the achievements to internal safety controls.

--Andy Killion

Thursday, March 29

Loud, Extremely Loud: American Technology Corp. announced that it shipped new orders of long-range acoustic devices and supporting equipment totaling $1.5 million in the fiscal second quarter of 2007.

The company anticipates year-over-year growth from the second quarter of 2006, when revenue was slightly less than $1.5 million. In 2005, revenue for the second quarter was $2.8 million.

The company's long-range acoustic device serves as a hailing device or a deterrent, focusing intense sound at targets.

American Technology Corp. is traded on the Nasdaq as ATCO and closed March 28 at $3.85, down 9 cents from the previous session.

--Andy Killion