ICU Medical Inc. which is a San Clemente Orange County-based medical device maker, reported a huge profit in the second quarter and met the expectations of Wall Street, despite of their revenues going flat. The company had a Q2 profit of $4.8 million which has almost doubled from the previous year. ICU, that manufactures connectors which are used in the intravenous delivery of drugs and other devices, recorded a huge amount of profit that met the highest projections of some well known analysts. (more…)

Lake Forest Orange County-based Comarco, Inc. announced, that it has completed the sale of its call box systems business to Case Systems LLC. Comarco is a leading provider of innovative mobile power solutions through its ChargeSource(R) line. The company makes mobile power products such as adapters that charge notebook computers, cell phones, Black Berry(R) smart-phones, iPODs(R) and many other mobile devices. Comarco is also a provider of wireless test solutions.

Sebastian Gutierrez, the general manager of Comarco’s call box business, is the founder, president and chief executive officer of Case Systems. (more…)

Still a good news for the U.S. private equity firms that, its fund raising continued in a firm pace, though dropping slightly from the last year record levels.

The equity firms in the United States raised $132.7 billion across 185 funds in the first six months of this year, just 3 percent less than the $137.2 billion, raised by 199 funds during the same period in 2007, according to the Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst report.

Jennifer Rossa, managing editor of Dow Jones Private Equity Analyst said, “For first time since 2003, we’ve seen year-over-year fund-raising actually decline as some of the bigger firms — Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, and Madison Dearborn Partners — ran into delays raising capital for their latest buyout funds.” (more…)

Costa Mesa-based Ceradyne Inc., a manufacturer of advanced technical ceramic products for military and civilian uses, announced to acquire privately-held SemEquip, Inc. for $125 million. The Massachusetts-based SemEquip makes equipment used in the production of semiconductors. 

SemEquip develops cluster ion implantation sub-systems and advanced ion source materials for the manufacture of logic and memory chips which owns a significant patent portfolio related to the use of cluster chemicals in semiconductor ion implantation. Ceradyne hopes that, the acquisition will expand  its Boron Products’ business and will extend the company’s market opportunity in the semiconductor industry.

Reportedly, Ceradyne acquired EaglePicher Boron, LLC in August 2007 for $69 million that produces chemicals used in the production of chips, mainly the boron isotopes 10B and 11B. EaglePicher Boron LLC is presently known as Ceradyne Boron Products, LLC. (more…)

Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp., a supplier of components for data storage networks raised its first-quarter outlook, as a result of the strong sequential sales growth in its network and host products. This has helped the company to make a significant jump in its market shares. Its stock rose nearly 8.5 percent at close of trading on a recent market value of about $2 billion.

QLogic is a leading supplier of high performance storage networking solutions, which include storage networking fabric switches, routers, controller chips and host adapters. These products are delivered to small-to-medium businesses and large enterprises around the world via the company’s channel partner community. The company earns almost 70 percent of its revenue from this business.

For its first quarter ended on June 29, QLogic now expects earnings of 30 percent to 31 percent a share, up from its previous forecast of 26 percent to 28 percent a share. (more…)

The imminent demise of the record industry has been predicted since Napster made its appearance in 1999.  And there’s good reason for worry.  Tower Records, the cornerstone of brick and mortar music distribution, closed its doors in 2006.  Sales drop every year.  High profile bands opt out of major label contracts and attempt, with varying degrees of success, to chart their own course. 

Yet music consumption is at an all time high.  Free downloads on the peer-to-peer (P2P) network comprise an incredible 70% of all traffic on the internet, with well over a billion music tracks being downloaded every month.  Sales at iTunes are responsible for turning Apple from a company many thought was doomed to fall before the onslaught of Windows-based computers into a bright star on the tech horizon.  It seems like everybody is listening to music all the time.  That begs some questions: how can the record industry take advantage of the high level of music consumption, and why has it not done so already? (more…)

The new round of funding for Initiate Systems Inc., a leader in master data management (MDM) solutions, ended up with $26 million funds. Two new investors- Dunrath Capital, EMC Corporation and Informatica Corporation also participated along with the existing investors, Sigma Partners, Apex Venture Partners and First Analysis Group. Paladin Capital Group led the round.

Bill Conroy, Initiate’s President and CEO, said, “Investors have been very enthusiastic about participating in this round of funding.” While talking about the benefits that these investors will offer, he added, “The influence of these investors is a strategic advantage, as we capitalize on new opportunities and extend our leadership in MDM. This funding empowers us in our mission: Helping customers unlock the value of their data assets.”  (more…)

An announcement has been made by the Crestwood Midstream Partners, LLC, regarding its new investors- The Blackstone Group (“Blackstone”) and GSO Capital Partners LP (“GSO”), both of which have acquired ownership interests in Crestwood. Earlier there were $150 million in the equity capital commitments, but now Blackstone and GSO, along with Kayne Anderson and Crestwood Management, LLC, will provide Crestwood with $500 million in equity capital commitments. This increase will help the company in  the acquisition and development of North American midstream assets and businesses.

Crestwood Midstream Partners, LLC, is a private midstream company, which was formed in November, 2007,  by a management team led by the renowned industrialist, Bob Phillips. The company’s headquartes are in Houston, Texas. It aims at utilizing management’s extensive industry experience and relationships to enable its growth through the acquisition of strategic assets, the recruitment of experienced midstream personnel and investment in organic infrastructure projects.
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A group of  current and new investors have signed an agreement with Alter-G, Inc., for providing a combined $2.5 million in Series A1 capital funding. And the company made an official announcement of this agreemant today. The key investors involved in this deal are Frog & Peach Investments of San Francisco, CA, Astrolabe Ventures of Palo Alto, CA, and Funk Ventures of Santa Monica, CA.

Lars Barfod, CEO of Alter-G, while expressing his delightment over this matter said, "We are pleased with the confidence our investors place in our significant opportunity and their trust in management’s ability to execute." Commenting on the technology, products and sales of the company he further added, "Over the past year we have substantially validated our technology, product and target markets. We will use the funds to expand sales and marketing activities, develop new products and intellectual property and conduct clinical trials." (more…)