There is a drop of $800 from the month of July in the median price for an existing Orange County home. It has been sold in August for $499,440. According to the California Association of Realtors, there is a decline of 2.3% from the previous year.

The existing price of OC homes has dropped below the $500,000 mark noticed in August of this year. The Orange County homes had seen a rise in price of more than $60,000 since April and is glad to see the reverse of increasing prices from the month of July. It has been stated that there is drop in sales by 9% but there is an increase of 6% from the previous year. The association has excluded the condominiums from these figures.

According to San-Diego based MDA Data Quick which is a unit of Canada’s Mac Donald Dettwiler and Associates, the price of OC homes which is inclusive of condominiums was $427,750 in August this year. There is an increase of $8,000 but a drop down of 3% from the previous year.

According to the Realtor association, there is an increase of 2.6% from July but a decline of 17% from the previous year. The price of OC homes in California was $292,960 in August. It is considered to be the sixth straight month which has seen an increase in the median price of the existing OC homes. The sales increased 9% from the previous year but were down 5% from July.

Irvine-based heart valve maker Edwards Life Sciences Corporation had seen a rise in share prices this Friday. The shares rose up to 3% with a market value of $3.9 billion. This rise had been against a back drop of a down day for Wall Street.

According to analyst Bruce Nudell, Edwards has improved its less invasive Sapien heart valve. The patients who will get a Sapien valve will reduce the chances of a new pacemaker. Edwards has gained an advantage over its competitor Medtronic Inc.’s Cone valve.

Nudell shared information that both the replacement valves require a pacemaker replacement but the chances have reduced for Sapien which will be more accepted than the Cone valve. It will be introduced in Europe next year and the higher percentage of general awareness of this added advantage will facilitate the use of Sapien XT over the Cone Valve.

Edwards is planning to conduct a major clinical trial for Sapien by seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration in late 2011.

San Francisco based private equity firms Golden Gate Capital and Vector Capital Corp. have been revealed as the mystery suitors in a bidding tiff for MSC.Software Corp. in Santa Ana. The New York based trade publication names deal.com revealed the story.

Golden Gate is focused on investing in technology and retail with an approx amount of $9 billion under management. Whereas, Vector Capital has $2 billion under management, which will be invested in technology companies that have at least $30 million in revenue. The firm also acquired Printronix Inc., an Irvine-based printer maker for $108 million.

Till now, MSC has not named the two firms in regulatory filings, but it will be done if MSC will enter into an acquisition agreement with either of the groups.

It is said that the duo is offering $367 million for MSC, which is more than the latest bid of $361 offered by Palo Alto based Symphony Technology Group LLC, a private equity firm.

The two suitors have made five higher offers together for MSC since September 9. Symphony will either increase its price or walk out of the bid until Monday.

MSC also informed that it is postponing the shareholder meeting that was fixed on September 30 just to vote on the original offer given by Symphony.

MSC is into the making of simulation software that is used for testing the designs of prototypes for aerospace, military and industrial uses. It is expected that the bidding war will protect the company from the troubles that it has been facing for the past 10 years. MSC was once counted amongst Orange County’s biggest software makers, but government probes and acquisitions invited failed turnaround attempts for the company.

Irvine based upscale Hybrid Electric Car maker, Fisker Automotive Inc. has got a loan of approximately $529 Million from the Energy department. The low-interest loan has been awarded to give a positive signal towards the development and production of its hybrid electric cars.

Fisker is planning to invest $170 million to complete the production of its Karma sedan. The Karma runs off on a combination of gasoline and rechargeable battery engine. It has been developed in collaboration with Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. It is set to start selling next summer for $88,000 before rebates.

The next project which is in the process is ‘The Sunset’ which is a sports car and has been Dubbed Project Nina. The rest of the loan will be used in designing hybrid cars for families and other users. Fisker has been able to raise a loan of approximately $100 million from investors. According to the Energy Department, the loan is expected to support 5000 jobs at Fisker’s company, its contractors and suppliers.

The federal money is raised to spur better fuel efficiency in cars. It is a part of the program which has also been offered to other automakers. Finish custom automaker Valmet Automotive OY has been contracted to produce the cars for Fisker as they also make Porsche AG’s Boxster and Cayman models.

Irvine-based automotive marketing company Autobytel Inc. is tense as they have received a letter from Nasdaq. They face the threat of delisting from Nasdaq due to a lower stock price that prevailed all round the year. According to Nasdaq rules, listed companies should require more than $1 to trade. They should not slip below the prescribed limit for more than thirty straight days.

Autobytel Inc. has time until March 15 to get its shares at $1 or more for a minimum of 10 days to avoid delisting. The officials can extend the deadline after observing the current situation. The company has a recent market value of about $30 million and they are taking possible actions to regain this compliance. The flexibility given to companies by Nasdaq officials is due to many stocks trading at lower prices and violation of exchange rules.

The company has faced a downturn due to a hit in online auto shoppers to dealers. Since the month of spring it is working in the company’s favor, there is a rebound in the market. Since April, the shares have been hiked to 150% when they traded for each quarter. In April, the company rejected a buyout offer from a major shareholder, Infield Acquisitions Inc. which is a part of Austin, Texas-based Trilogy Enterprise Inc. They had offered 30% higher than what the company’s shares were trading at.

Another private equity firm has topped the bidding war for acquiring MSC Software Corp. This private firm has offered $367 million, topping the latest offer of $361 million of Symphony’s for MSC.Software Corp.

Symphony Technology Group LLC which is a Palo Alto-based private equity firm started its first bid in July by offering $338 million to buy MSC. Since then, there is an ongoing bidding war between them. The two suitors have made five higher offers since September. According to MSC, Symphony has only five days to raise the price or walk away from the bidding war after the latest offer.

MSC software corp. is known for making simulation softwares which is used to test designs of prototypes for industrial, military and aerospace uses. They are not ready to disclose the names of the private equity firms behind this counter bidding war. The top officials said that they will do so if any of the corporations enters into an acquisition agreement with them. This new bid offer matches a run up since Symphony had made its first offer some months ago. The share of the company closed up about 1% on a market value of $377 million.

Orange County shows an improvement in August job losses in comparison to the previous year. There is an improvement of 4,400 jobs in August this year. According to the State Employment Development Department, the level of unemployment remains unchanged at 9.6% from the revised number for July.

The biggest cut was noticed in the local governments with a loss of 2,800 positions from July. The other industries like leisure and hospitality also saw a cut of 1,200 jobs. The non farm jobs in August was around 1.4 million which is a decline of 6,200 jobs since July. Orange County had seen a decline of 4.3% in the number of people employed from the previous year.

The downturn in development has eliminated nearly 12,000 jobs which is recorded on a yearly reporting. But the construction industry has seen a rise of 500 jobs from July in August. This is the second largest job loss which has been recorded on an annual reporting in professional and business services. It was followed by a 59% loss in jobs related to administrative and support services. It also includes the temporary help firms. The manufacturing industry has reported a loss of 10,100 jobs from the previous year.

The median home price of Orange County properties rose by about $8,000 this August from July as prices of lower-priced foreclosures continued to fall. The San Diego based MDA DataQuick, a unit of Canadian firm MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates quoted the price of a median Orange County home to be $427,750 as in August this year.

Though this price is the highest in 10 months, it is still lower by about 3% than compared to last year which itself was down by 30% from its all-time high in June 2007 when an Orange County home cost about $505,000.

However, in terms of sales, the August sale dropped by 3% since July but this an improvement of nearly 3% upon their sale a year back. In Southland, the August sales fell by about 11% from that of July, mainly due to the weakening inventory of foreclosures and the lingering financial uncertainty among potential buyers. With the economy showing signs of recovery lately, sale and purchase of property are soon expected to gain momentum.

The new health care bill announced by Senator Max Baucus (D. Mont), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is a really welcome step. The lower than expected Medicare cuts in the reform policy has already shown a positive impact in the share market with the share prices of Skilled Healthcare and Ensign Group Inc.- two leading names among nursing home operators showing a rise.

The shares of Skilled Healthcare – a Foothill Ranch-based company, rose by 8% with a market value of about $322 million on Wednesday, while that of Irvin-based Sun Healthcare group rose up by 5% with market worth of $403 million. Another major nursing home operator, Mission Viejo-based Ensign Group rose by 2% with a market value of $316 million on the same day. With the shares in the health care industry picking up, the economy may be said to be slowly getting out of the dark days of recession.