Forecasters:
The San Luis Obispo County economy won’t get much worse this year and will likely start improving next year. But the scope of that recovery will depend on decisions coming down from Washington, D.C., and Sacramento. That was the message delivered Nov. 6 to nearly 500 attendees at a 2010 economic outlook conference in San Read More →
Former DA lands at Ventura law office
Michael Bradbury, the former longtime Ventura County District Attorney who made headlines busting the Hells Angels, has joined Ventura-based law office Anderson Kill Wood & Bender, the firm said in a release Nov. 4. Anderson Kill Wood & Bender specializes in representing companies against their insurers to recover money when insurers deny claims. But the Read More →
Pacific Capital loses $40.7M in third quarter
Santa Barbara-based Pacific Capital Bancorp turned in a $40.7 million loss in the third quarter driven by another round of setting aside cash to deal with soured real estate loans. At 87 cents per share, the loss was slightly larger than the 80-cent loss expected by three analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial Network. The results Read More →
Nasdaq may boot area bank
The parent of Solvang-based Los Padres Bank, the third-largest banking firm in the Tri-Counties with 13 branches, faces potential removal from the Nasdaq exchange if the firm doesn’t boost its stock price. Harrington West Financial Group, a $1.1 billion-asset firm and the holding company for Los Padres, said in a release Nov. 2 that Nasdaq Read More →
Sieg Borck finds niche in aerospace
Sieg Borck is not a rocket scientist, but he certainly knows a lot of them. Products built by his Camarillo-based company, Hi-Temp Insulation, have helped carry astronauts into space and every day they keep thousands of airliners flying by dissipating the heat from their high-tech engines. As Stephen Nellis reports on this page, his 500-person Read More →
Small businesses get into acquisition mode
The most obvious effect of a recession is that some businesses go away. Weak business plans, poor management or just being in the wrong industry at the wrong time can force companies under. But a recession also offers strong businesses large and small an opportunity to expand and to grab market share and offer customers Read More →