EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Orange County Business Journal, Nov 26-Dec 2, 2007 by Leupold, Julie

This past week's news from www.ocbj.com and other sources

TOP STORIES

Billionaire investor Gerald J. Ford bought a 6.8% stake in Newport Beach-based savings and loan operator Downey Financial Corp. Ford made the investment through his Hilltop Holdings Inc. of Colorado. Ford met with Downey Chairman Maurice McAlister, who owns 20% of the company, and plans further talks about long-term options, including a possible acquisition, according to Reuters.

The subprime mortgage meltdown at Irvine's Option One Mortgage Corp. claimed a high-profile causality: the chief executive of parent company H&R Block Inc. The Kansas City-based tax and accounting services company said last week Mark Ernst had resigned as its chairman, chief executive and president amid rising bad loans at Option One. Alan Bennett, a former chief financial officer at Aetna Inc., was named interim chief executive as H&R Block searches for a permanent replacement. Richard Breeden, a former securities and Exchange Commission chairman who won three H&R Block board seats in September after a proxy fight, was named chairman.

Ford: held talks with Downey's McAlister

TECHNOLOGY

Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. is set to get nearly $20 million in damages from San Diego's Qualcomm Inc. for its infringement of tiiree patents for chips mat go into cell phones. Broadcom could have gotten twice as much, based on a Santa Ana jury's finding tiiat Qualcomm's infringement of Broadcom's patents was "willful." But a judge reconsidered the decision to double damages after a change in federal law stemming from an unrelated case involving disk drive maker Seagate Technologies. Broadcom had the option of accepting a smaller settlement or seeking a new trial.

HEALTHCARE

Beckman Coulter Inc., the Fullerton maker of medical testing instruments and supplies, said last week that it's buying a business of Dako Denmark AS. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Beckman is buying Dako's flow cytometry instrumentation business, which is used by researchers to examine and sort microscopic cells suspended in blood or other fluid. Dako's flow cytometry business is based in Fort Collins, Colo. Some 200 workers are set to transfer to Beckman in the buy, which is expected to close by the end of the year.

Quality Systems Inc. in Irvine said me securities and Exchange Commission has dropped its investigation of stock trading by an executive at the company without taking action. In February, the company said the sec was looking into trading and requested documents and records concerning Chief Financial Officer Paul Holt.

Cooper Cos., which is moving to Pleasanton from Lake Forest, settled a patent infringement lawsuit with rival Ciba Vision, the eye care unit of Switzerland's Novartis AG. The settlement stems from Cooper and Novartis trading patent infringement suits in 2006. Under the settlement, CooperVision will pay a royalty to Novartis on domestic sales of its Biofinity contact lenses until 2014 and on international sales until 2016. Ciba is licensing patents to CooperVision as part of the deal. Financial and other terms weren't disclosed.

Aliso Viejo-based Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said its president, Wesley Wheeler, is leaving to become chief executive of Patheon Inc., a Canadian contract drug maker. Wheeler, a 29-year drug industry veteran, had been with Valeant since early 2003. He came to the drug maker, which then was called ICN Pharmaceuticals Inc., from DSM Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Greenville, N.C. unit of Dutch drug maker DSM NV Wheeler, like Valeant Chief Executive Tyson and several other executives, earlier worked for GlaxoSmithKline PLC.

REAL ESTATE

Aliso Viejo-based Shea Properties, part of Walnut-based J.F. Shea Co., is developing 350,000 square feet of retail space in Legacy Park, an 820-acre mixed-use project on the former Tustin marine base. About 193,000 square feet will be restaurants and boutique stores. The rest is set to be neighborhood shopping centers.

ECONOMIC INDICATORS

* Mixed: Excluding farm jobs, 1.53 million people were employed here in October, up from 1.52 million in September and in August but unchanged from a year earlier. The October unemployment rate was 4.2%, unchanged from September and August but up from 3.2% a year earlier.

* Mixed: Occupancy at Orange County hotels and motels fell to 69.7% in September from 71.8% a year earlier. The average daily room rate rose 4.8% from a year earlier to $146.59.

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