The median home prices dropped $15,000 from August in Orange County, in the month of September. And, as a result sales volumes continued to increase over year- ago levels.

Last month, the median price of an Orange County home was $425,000, and if we compare the price of August, it was a 3.4 percent decline from that. In August, the median home price was $440,000. Now, the county’s home prices are off $145,000 or 25 percent from a year ago and about 34 percent from June 2007, that which was county’s all-time high prices. (more…)

Orange County’s morning news program, “Daybreak OC,” that had been telecast on Santa Ana-based TV station, called KDOC has come to an end. The popular news show was launched to compete with various other news shows produced in Los Angeles and it first went on air on September 10, 2007. According to the owner of KDOC- TV Bert Ellis, the deteriorating economy, especially the sagging advertising market made the show too expensive to produce.

“We have tried to provide a voice for Orange County with ‘Daybreak OC,” said Bert Ellis. “Unfortunately, the L.A. advertising market has declined precipitously and is just too weak to support ‘Daybreak OC,’ which is an extremely expensive proposition for our station.” (more…)

Aliso Viejo based software maker Quest Software Inc., is helped by its own Buyback plan to defy Wall Street Selloff.

Quest Software shares closed up 5% on a market value of almost 1.2 billion dollars. A lot of people who were investing in the stock began to react to the company’s announcement that it is planning to buy back $135 million to $400 million worth of its shares.

Wall Street generally likes buybacks. It is due to the fact that buybacks boost a favorite number of analysts and investors—profits expressed on a per share basis. (more…)

The votes were held by the congressional members of the Orange County, as the revisions that were done to the financial bailout plan did little to sway their votes from Monday’s first pass at the plan.

There was a split of 3-3 for the delegation for the approval of the revised bailout that came out on Friday.

Loretta Sanchez, the delegation’s only Democrat and the one who represents parts of Santa Ana, Garden Grove and Anaheim, kept her “no” vote from Monday (more…)

The six U.S. representatives from Orange County split on the vote for the government’s emergency financial bailout plan, that was held on last Monday. Three representatives out of the six supported the legislation, while rest voted against the same.

John Campbell, who represents Irvine, parts of Newport Beach and South County voted for the emergency rescue package and urged his colleagues to support the legislation. “I desperately hope and pray that we as a body, Democrats and Republicans alike, have the courage to pass this bill,” said Campbell. Other two Orange County representatives who joined him were Ken Calvert and Gary Miller. (more…)

According to Employment Development Department, job losses in Orange County continued in August. The number of layoffs accounted for 26,600 non-farm workers last month, a decline of 1.8 percent compared to a year earlier. The county has a total of 1.48 million non-farm workers.

The 26,600 jobs loss over the last 12 months was however slightly tempered from July. August saw the second highest job loss in this year after July’s 30,000 job loss. Now, the local unemployment edged up to 5.8 percent, up from July’s 5.7 percent and 4.2 percent from a year earlier. The 5.8 percent is the highest jobless rate since August, 1994. (more…)

3M Co., the maker of Scotch Tape and Post-It Notes, is acquiring the famous Irvine-based car care products maker Meguiar’s Inc. As such, there have been no financial terms that are disclosed in front of the media.

The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter. It is likely to be very hefty as Meguiar’s Inc. has acquired a half yearly sales of more than $100million.

Meguiar’s, based in Irvine, Calif., employs 115 people, the companies said in a prepared statement today. The company manufactures products like Mirror Glaze polishes and waxes for professional use, as well as consumer products. (more…)

According to the Quarterly India Venture Capital Report released today by Dow Jones VentureSource, during the second quarter of this year, venture capitalists were keen to back the advertising start-up companies in India. Reportedly, about $89 million, nearly 37 percent of the region’s total quarterly investment went to five advertising/marketing companies. This was the highest percentage among any other sector. The quarter accounted for $238 million over 17 deals for India, an increase of 120 percent over $108 million invested in 12 deals during the same period in 2007. (more…)

Los Angeles-based Maguire Properties Inc. announced the sale of its City Plaza tower, a  327,000-square-foot office building in Orange County to Hudson Capital LLC. The  latter is a Los Angeles-based investment firm, founded by Victor Coleman, former president of Arden Realty Inc.

Maguire said that the disposition is part of the company’s previously announced plan to sell certain Orange County properties in order to eliminate project debt and funding obligations and improve Funds from Operations. (more…)

Edwards Lifesciences Corp.confirmed that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given approval for its heart valve to fix defective mitral heart valves.
 
This new device is based on an existing Edwards mitral valve, but it is designed in an all-together different manner, in order to match the asymmetric shape of the human mitral valve. According to the Irvine-based Edwards, the Perimount Magna mitral valve will be launched very soon. (more…)