Orange County Business Journal articles from September 1991

Orange County Business Journal archives from September 1991

Quiksilver takes action to shake retailing blues. (concentrates on core operations to recover losses)(includes related articles) (company profile)
September 30, 1991... Company refocuses on core operations as earnings slide Quiksilver Inc., one of Orange County's fastest-growing sportswear manufacturers, is moving quickly to recover ground lost during the retail downturn of the last year. Just weeks after...

Mitsubishi plans to boost local content. (Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics America's strategy uses more American electrical components and engineering on television assembled in Santa Ana, California)(includes related article on expected growth of Mitsubishi)
September 30, 1991... With all the publicity about Japanese domination of the consumer electronics industry, Mitsubishi officials like to note that the big-screen projection televisions they assemble in Santa Ana are 50% U.S. content. Americans currently make the...

Koll Co. eyes industrial space in Sacramento. (plans to buy industrial property)
September 30, 1991... Newport Beach-based Koll Co. is planning to buy up to $135 million worth of Sacramento-area industrial property -- mostly warehouse buildings -- from two Central Valley developers. Koll is currently in the process of acquiring an estimated $80...

Soggy harvest. (Vincent Zaragoza of Carrageenan Marketing Corp. sells carrageenan, a thickener in dairy products)(includes related articles) (company profile)
September 30, 1991... OC seaweed vendor sees opportunity Vincent Zaragoza is betting that his carrageenan will sweep across America just as carrageenan's source, seaweed, has swept across the ocean floors. "Carrageenan is an animal that takes time to know," said...

His solar cell is still iffy, but it has made CBS News. (Nick Patapoff of Southern California Edison Co. and Texas Instruments Inc. invent new solar technology system; CBS Evening News television program with Dan Rather) (company profile)
September 30, 1991... Jones bends over and squints at the electric-utility meter attached to the side of his building. The dials are spinning backwards. He nods, satisfied, and saunters back into his business. On the roof lies a vast carpet of new-generation solar...

Western Digital sells LAN unit. (sale of networking products business to Standard Microsystems Corp.)
September 30, 1991... Western Digital Corp. is selling off its profitable networking products business for $33 million to Standard Microsystems Corp. The sale includes LAN networking board products and computer chip designs for Ethernet and Token Ring products. The...

Delayed launch of TV mag fuels skepticism. (Television Listing Co., a television magazine guide) (company profile)
September 30, 1991... A lot of eyebrows were raised in early August when an obscure Costa Mesa company named Television Listing Co. announced it intended to saturate the Southland with a free television guide. Industry observers questioned whether such a guide could...

Lineup changes for Tommy Lasorda's sauce. (new sauce label on Tommy Lasorda Foods Inc.'s pasta sauce bottles) (company profile)
September 30, 1991... Tommy Lasorda's pasta sauce is trying to stage a late-inning rally. For the first time since March, jars of the sauce again are rolling off the line. The jars sport a redesigned label that includes an offer of a baseball signed by the Los...

Archive Corp. announces 2.1-gigabyte tape cartridge drive. (tape drive with a transfer rate of 34 megabytes a minute allowing for faster backup of computer data)
September 30, 1991... Costa Mesa-based Archive Corp. has taken a technology lead in the quarter-inch tape drive market. The company announced it will be making available a cartridge drive that can hold 2.1 gigabytes of data by the end of this year. The drive, with...

PDA buys interest in LMS Int'l. (PDA Engineering; LMS International)
September 30, 1991... Costa Mesa-based PDA Engineering has bought an 11% interest in LMS International, an engineering software company in Leuven, Belgium. PDA, which makes Patran software for analysis engineers, has been working closely with LMS for the past year...

Mission Regional gets biopsy unit. (Mission Regional Imaging Center; Mammotest Biopsy Unit)
September 30, 1991... Mission Regional Imaging Center has acquired a $150,000 machine called a Mammotest Biopsy Unit that tests for breast cancer without need of surgery. The machine, made by Fischer Imaging Corp. in Denver, Colo., uses a needle and a sophisticated...

Businesses lose safety law reprieve. (extension of compliance deadline disapproved; SB 198 law requires employers to draw up workplace safety plans)
September 30, 1991... Bill would have delayed compliance by 6 months A bill that would have promised employers temporary relief from a sweeping safety law failed at the eleventh hour to pass the state Legislature this session, leaving Orange County businesses...

Riding out the recession. (how businesses deal with recession)(Special Report: Business in Hard Times) (interview)
September 30, 1991... A survey of companies Limping forward is how most experts describe the economy. Since dramatic relief is not to be expected in the near future, what can Orange County businesses do to weather these economically cloudy times? James L. Doti,...

John Sturgess. (Advertising & PR)
September 30, 1991... John Sturgess has started a new advertising, marketing and public relations company called The Sturgess Co. in Newport Beach. The firm will focus on health care, high tech and business to business clients. Sturgess formerly worked for a local...

Slow growth seen as cure for MRI firm. (American Health Services Corp.; magnetic resonance imaging) (company profile)
September 23, 1991... Slow growth seen as cure for MRI firm Larry Atkins had a sinking feeling when one of his directors, a representative for Swiss billionaire Werner Rey, failed to show up for a meeting at the Hyatt Newporter. Eventually Atkins got a telephone...

RTC gem Hyatt Newporter close to being sold. (US Resolution Trust Corp.; Hyatt Newporter Hotel)
September 23, 1991... RTC gem Hyatt Newporter close to being sold The Resolution Trust Corp. is close to selling one of its ritziest holdings, the Hyatt Newporter Hotel. The sudden disclosure has caught many industry people off guard and raised speculation...

What slump? Housing for seniors keeps going up. (senior citizen housing in the Orange County area, California)(includes related articles)
September 23, 1991... What slump? Housing for seniors keeps going up Despite facing the same problem of an overbuilt market that's plaguing most other sectors of Orange County's real estate industry, builders of senior citizen housing are pushing forward with a...

Stretching for dollars: OC limo builders adapt to ride out no-frills recession. (Orange County, California)(includes related article)
September 23, 1991... Stretching for dollars Krystal Koach Inc. may well have the smallest auto assembly line in America. From its nondescript manufacturing minicampus on Sunshine Way in Anaheim, near the junction of the 57 and the 91 freeways, Krystal pumped out...

Accountants shed image as boring number crunchers. (Corbin and Wertz launches marketing campaign to enhance public opinion of accounting firms)
September 23, 1991... Accountants shed image as boring number crunchers Prompted by increasing competition and the recession, a new guard of accountants is shaking up business with aggressive marketing tactics. Gone are the days when an accountant's promotion...

Matlow-Kennedy. (Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... Matlow-Kennedy Corporations seeking to relocate, expand, or consolidate, and the economic development agencies seeking to attract them throughout the country, are engaged in a critically important process. This is true at all times, but...

Customs mulls major local content decision: a Honda censure could have wide impact locally. (American Honda Motor Co.; US Customs Service)
September 23, 1991... Customs mulls major local content decision The foreign-trade community in Los Angeles is awaiting word on an 18-month-old audit of Torrance-based American Honda Motor Co. by the U.S. Customs Service, the highest-profile customs investigation...

Gap persists between OC 100 stocks, DJIA. (stock market performance; Orange County 100 index; Dow Jones Industrial Average)
September 23, 1991... Gap persists between OC 100 stocks, DJIA The Business Journal's OC 100 index has been telling a sad story lately. The index, which gauges stock market performance of 100 companies, has been underperforming the Dow Jones industrials...

Award against Kawasaki nixed. (U.S. Federal District Court overturns a judgment in favor of Clayton Jacobson on charges that Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. co-opted credit for the jet ski)
September 23, 1991... Award against Kawasaki nixed A $21 million judgment against Kawasaki for allegedly co-opting credit for the jet ski has been overturned in a U.S. Federal District Court. The judge ordered a new trial. Los Angeles Judge John Davies ruled...

Largest firm on OC architect list bucks down trend. (Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo posts increase in revenues; Orange County Business Journal list)
September 23, 1991... Largest firm on OC architect list bucks down trend Hawaii-based Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo is Orange County's largest commercial architectural firm, according to this week's Business Journal list. The firm reports having 42 licensed...

Newhall Land & Farming Co. (developing exurban business center in Valencia, California)(Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... Newhall Land & Farming Co. "More and more corporations are discarding long-cherished notions and adopting a new policy regarding the best location for their headquarters and other facilities," states Christopher B. Leinberger, managing...

OC firm makes vouchers, but must sell mass transit. (Voucher Corp.; Orange County, California)(includes related article)
September 23, 1991... OC firm makes vouchers, but must sell mass transit It sounds like a good program. Employees are lured out of their cars with vouchers giving them money off on monthly bus passes. Employers get tax exemptions while meeting strict ridesharing...

OC's metamorphosis. (Orange County, California building planning and design)(Special Report)
September 23, 1991... OC's metamorphosis What's in store for Orange County design As the Orange County building community looks to this decade, it is clear a dramatic change is taking place. Undoubtedly some of this transformation is due to the recession....

Louis R. Dilts. (Health Care)
September 23, 1991... Louis R. Dilts Louis R. Dilts has been appointed president and chief executive officer of AMDL Inc., which is developing a cancer diagnostics product. Dilts, 47, was previously director of operations for Nichols Institute. Other positions have...

Hal Hylton. (Health Care)
September 23, 1991... Hal Hylton Hal Hylton has been named president of PacifiCare Health Systems recently established Northern California HMO. He joined PacifiCare in January 1986 as senior director of marketing and was promoted to vice president of marketing and...

Larry D. Young. (High Tech)
September 23, 1991... Larry D. Young EPE Technologies, a makes power protection equipment, has appointed Larry D. Young chief operating officer. Young previously served as general manager of Eaton Corp.'s Power Control Division. He holds a mechanical engineering...

Alan V. King. (High Tech)
September 23, 1991... Alan V. King Alan V. King has been appointed president and chief operating officer of Tustin-based Silicon Systems, a computer chip manufacturer. He was previously vice president and division general manager at Analog Devices in Santa Clara....

A new commitment: state extends more support to business. (California)(Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... A new commitment State extends more support to business There's a new enthusiasm in California - enthusiasm derived from a new administration whose top priority is retaining businesses through practicality and creativity. And...

BellSouth Telecommunications. (Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... BellSouth Telecommunications BellSouth's multi-billion dollar investment in its telecommunications network and its commitment to innovation has brought the "Network of the Future" to the Sunbelt today. Thousands of miles of...

Iowa Southern Utilities. (Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... Iowa Southern Utilites Iowa Southern Uitlities is unique - truly different from most organizations serving site selectors and economic development principals. We're an area of small towns in a rural setting. There are no large cities or...

Despite current woes, LA's future looks good. (Los Angeles, California)(Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... Despite current woes, LA's future looks good There are currently many questions about the economic future of Los Angeles County. The County enjoyed a business boom between 1980-1990, but it is now obvious that the good times are over....

Corporate moves: firms find downtown L.A. attractive. (Los Angeles, California)(Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... Corporate moves: Firms find downtown L.A. attractive "Unocal chooses Downtown Los Angeles" trumpet the headlines. "Bank of America relocates data processing facilities to Arizona." "U.S. Borax returns to Palmdale." All of these corporate...

Southland: economy remains strong. (Southern California)(Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... Southland: Economy remains strong It seems to be fashionable to bash California. The hits have come not only from the national media, but also from local media, academicians, and business sources. Attacks are also coming from other...

Solving the transportation problem. (Los Angeles, California)(Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... Solving the transportation problem Many corporations and individuals have bypassed Los Angeles because they fear transportation problems, both for their goods and their workers. There is a perception that too much time and money is lost...

The Johnston Group. (Corporate Relocation - California)
September 23, 1991... The Johnston Group Productivity. Not long ago, mere mention of the word in the face of mounting foreign business competition drew widespread indifference because it was difficult to measure and few had a notion how to improve it. But...

Software firm sees Windows of opportunity. (RIX Microsofts Inc.; Microsoft Windows)
September 9, 1991... Orange County software developer Rick Brownback is hoping to get a jump on the Microsoft Windows bandwagon by being among the first companies to begin shipping a full-feature color image editor for Windows. While the Macintosh dominates...

More loan writedowns seen at First Interstate. (First Interstate Bancorp.)
September 9, 1991... Real estate main culprit; hit to be $200M or more Hammered by soured investments in Southern California real estate, First Interstate Bancorp is bracing to announce another round of big loan writeoffs, as well as a major corporate...

Threshie makes it official: Elster out at Register. (R. David Threshie has confirmed the departure of Circulation manager Patrick Elster at Orange County Register)
September 9, 1991... In a memo to employees, Orange County Register publisher R. David Threshie has confirmed the departure of Circulation Manager Patrick Elster. Elster's departure comes amid an ongoing audit by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Threshie, in...

Back in the black. (Emulex Corp.'s Robert Stephens and his management techniques) (company profile)
September 9, 1991... Emulex's makeover includes new boss, broader markets A year ago, Emulex Corp.'s fortunes were on a slide. Sales of its disk drives for Digital Equipment Corp. computers had been declining since 1988. A hot-selling networking product...

This OC company really got hurt by Gulf conflict. (Resdel Communications Inc.)(Persian Gulf War of 1991)
September 9, 1991... While many American businesses suffered some sales losses after Saddam Hussein's forces invaded Kuwait last year, one Orange County company really took it on the chin. Santa Ana-based Resdel Communications Inc., a maker of microwave...

Tenant broker James Travers starts OC office. (Travers Realty Corp.)(Orange County)
September 9, 1991... OC is the growth market of the '90s, says Travers James Travers, the Los Angeles-based commercial real estate broker known for bagging big deals, has added an Orange County address to his firm Travers Realty Corp. Within recent months...

Developer scores unlikely victory from RTC. (R. Barry McComic has talked Resolution Trust Company out of three real estate partnership)
September 9, 1991... Feds abandon OC housing project and two others While it seemed impossible to some observers, developer R. Barry McComic has talked the Resolution Trust Corp. out of three real estate partnerships. In a rare pact, the RTC, the conservator of...

Regulators order Assured Thrift to raise its capital or be seized. (Department of Corporations has ordered Assured Thrift and Loan Association to cure its net worth deficiency)
September 9, 1991... Another Orange County financial institution is in trouble with regulators. The state Department of Corporations, which regulates California-chartered credit unions and thrifts, has ordered Assured Thrift & Loan Association to cure its net...

Above Technologies Inc. merges. (with American Public Communications Co.)
September 9, 1991... Above Technologies Inc. of Irvine and American Public Communications Co., a Dallas-based long distance phone carrier, have agreed to merge their companies. Under the deal, American Public Communications shareholders would acquire 87% of...

Pacific Scientific unloads Belfab unit. (sells Belfab Division to TI Group PLC)
September 9, 1991... Newport Beach-based Pacific Scientific has agreed in principle to sell its Belfab Division to TI Group of England for $14 million. The transaction is expected to be completed in the next few weeks. Officials of Pacific Scientific, an...

Pace now largest warehouse chain. (Pace Membership Warehouses)
September 9, 1991... Pace Membership Warehouse became the largest Southland chain of its type with the conversion last week of five Price Savers warehouse, including two in Orange County. Englewood, Colo.-based Pace will operate 14 Southern California...

Petrominerals Corp. to acquire Stocker. (Stocker Resources L.P.)
September 9, 1991... Petrominerals Corp., the Tustin-based producer and marketer of crude oil and natural gas, has announced that it has signed a non-binding letter of intent with Stocker Resources Inc. to acquire 80% of Stocker and its oil-producing subsidiary,...

H. Hendy tops the interior design firms list. (Special Report)
September 9, 1991... Recession forces Stearn to close 35-member office Hendy Associates has taken over the top spot on the Business Journal's list of commercial interior design firms -- by default. In a possible sign of the hard times being encountered by...

Emulex CEO shrugs of DEC suit. (Robert Stephens, patent lawsuit filed by Digital Equipment Corp.)
September 9, 1991... A patent lawsuit challenging Emulex's right to make four storage products for use with Digital Equipment Corp. computers is "an annoyance more than a threat," says Emulex CEO Robert N. Stephens. The products under question accounted for...

David Krickl. (Accounting)
September 9, 1991... David Krickl of Anaheim has been promoted to partner of the Irvine office of Corbin & Wertz, a certified public accounting and business consulting firm. Krickl, who has been with the firm three years, is now responsible for all tax services at...

Kathryn E. Terry & Associates. (branch)(Law)
September 9, 1991... The law firm of Kathryn E. Terry & Associates has opened its doors in Tustin. The firm will target legal services to the international and immigrant community in Orange County, with an emphasis on immigration, estate planning and personal...

Zoltan A. Stacho. (named president of Holmes and Narver Inc.)(People)
September 9, 1991... Zoltan A. Stacho, an internationally respected engineering and construction industry executive who has had prominent roles in building some of the nation's major mass transportation systems, has been named president of Holmes & Narver, Inc....

Langdon Wilson Architecture Planning. (selected architect of record for the new Discovery Science Center)
September 9, 1991... Langdon Wilson Architecture Planning of Newport Beach, whose credits include the new Richard M. Nixon Library & Birthplace in Yorba Linda and the renowned J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, has been selected architect of record for the new...