According to the Commerce Department, spending by U.S. consumers slowed sharply in July, as the personal income fell and at the same time the impact of the tax rebates faded and inflation mounted.

In July, the personal income dropped 0.7 percent, the sharpest decrease since a 2.3 percent plunge in August 2005. Consumer spending rose 0.2 percent in the month of June, the weakest gain since February.

On the inflation front, consumer income slipped 1.7 percent in July, a 2.6 percent decline in the prior month. Spending dropped 0.4 percent, extending a 0.1 percent decline in June. The July inflation-adjusted decline was the deepest drop since June 2004. Price-adjusted purchases of durable goods, such as autos, furniture and other long-lasting items, dropped 1.6 percent and spending on non-durable goods decreased 0.9 percent. And services, which account for almost 60 percent of all outlays were unchanged. Read the rest of this entry »

Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. is all set to buy the digital TV chip business of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. for about $192.8 million in cash.

Advanced Micro Devices is an American semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California. The company’s TV chips receive over-the-air broadcasts and process the signals to improve picture quality. They are used in flat-panel and
rear-projection sets. Customers of the AMD include Sony Corp. and Samsung Group.

AMD is selling the unit of its business to reduce debt and improve profitability, according to Dirk Meyer,  President and Chief Executive. Read the rest of this entry »

Irvine-based Hines Horticulture Inc. filed bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, in the United States Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware. It has listed debt of as much as $500 million and assets of less than $50,000.

According to the company, its bankruptcy filing was a result of the economic and housing downturn, high costs for materials and fuel, poor weather and pressure for lower prices from customers. Read the rest of this entry »

Orange County, in the past year, has witnessed potential growth in both its revenue and population in all its 34 cities. One city that has outshone the rest in this competition is the city of Irvine, which has replaced Huntington Beach to take the #3 spot.

The parameters taken into account while making this decision were, the annual revenue, city workers and large employers.

The population growth in Orange County reflected a 1% increase (30,555 people numerically), with Santa Ana, Anaheim, Irvine, Huntington Beach and Garden Grove, standing tall as the five biggest cities and accounting for more than 40% (1.28 million) of Orange County’s overall population. Read the rest of this entry »

Olen Properties Corp. has started the construction of its new apartment at its Olen Pointe Brea office campus. The new project is a 260-unit apartment and it is going to be the largest in the North County city in the past decade.

Olen Pointe Brea is a 29-acre office complex that is located at the northwest corner of Lambert Road and Wildcat Way. The complex comprises of office buildings, parking structures and four restaurants. This is one of the largest office complexes in Brea.   Its office structures occupy about 4.1 million square feet of total area. Read the rest of this entry »

After heavy decline of jobs in June, Orange County again lost a significant number of jobs in the month of July. The Employment Development Department reported that, the county lost 29,900 jobs, a decline of 2 percent as compared to same period a year ago.

Reportedly, Orange County started losing jobs last year. And July posted the highest loss since late last year. Of late, it marks the county’s first time job loss in a yearly and monthly basis. Read the rest of this entry »

The acquisition of Jazz Technologies Inc. located in Orange County by Israel’s Tower Semiconductor Ltd. is expected to close by next month, said both the companies on Wednesday.

Tower Semiconductor Ltd. has signed a deal on May for the acquisition of Jazz Technologies Inc., in order to expand its efforts in the specialty foundry arena.

Newport Beach, Orange County-based Jazz Technologies is the parent company of Jazz Semiconductor, Inc., a leading independent wafer foundry focused on Analog-Intensive Mixed-Signal (AIMS) process technologies. The company’s broad product portfolio includes digital CMOS and specialty technologies, such as RF CMOS, Analog CMOS, Silicon and SiGe BiCMOS, SiGe C-BiCMOS, Power CMOS and High Voltage CMOS. Read the rest of this entry »

Endocare Inc., which is an Irvine, Orange County, California based medical device maker, has a buyout proposal from HealthTronics Inc. of Austin. The offer is worth 26.9 million dollars.

Endocare said in a statement that its board would review and consider the offer. The offer is 20% more than what Endocare was valued earlier.

HealthTronics excels in manufacturing urology products, including prostate cancer treatment, and is planning to buy Endocare so that it can exceed in the motto of widening its treatment offerings in the medical field. Read the rest of this entry »

Newport Beach Orange County, California based Downey Financial Corp., the parent company of Downey Savings and Loan Association said on Monday that its customers are withdrawing cash at a much faster rate, for the last month or so. Newport Beach-based Downey, said that "After the end of the second quarter the bank experienced elevated levels of deposit withdrawals."

The company further elaborated on the statement that they might not be able to handle these ever increasing debts, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The losses from bad loans are increasing day by day and they are mostly because of those customers who borrowed adjustable rate mortgages, which became really unaffordable when the rates were set at a much higher level. Read the rest of this entry »

Shares of Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc. fell on Thursday before the company could announce its second quarter results. The Irvine Orange County, California -based ophthalmic pharmaceutical company’s shares were down 35 percent at the close of Thursday’s trading on a market value of about $45 million. Ista’s shares have depressed since April due to disappointing drug results.

The same day the company reported its financial results for the second quarter of the year 2008, where it narrowed its loss as compared to the same quarter last year. Ista’ posted a net revenue of $17.8 million for the quarter, a 31 percent increase over the same quarter of the year 2007. The net loss for the quarter was $8.5 million or $0.26 per share, as compared to a net loss of $8.7 million or $0.32 per share for the same period in the year 2007. Read the rest of this entry »