Berry good: Fruit coating technology wins startup contest
Results from UC Santa Barbara’s New Venture Competition on May 9.
First California rejects PacWest takeover bid
Westlake Village-based First California Financial Group has spurned an unsolicited takeover offer from Los Angeles-based PacWest Bancorp. First California, a $2 billion bank whose profits dropped drastically in the first quarter, is under pressure from three major shareholders to sell itself and has hired an investment banking firm to help evaluate its options. The company Read More →
Vitesse widens loss
Vitesse Semiconductor Corp., a Camarillo-based company that makes chips for carrier and enterprise networks, reported a second-quarter net loss of $6.2 million, or 25 cents per share on May 8. The generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, numbers were lower than the 7 cent per share loss predicted by analysts. On a non-GAAP basis, the Read More →
CalAmp signs $25M contract
Oxnard-based wireless products maker CalAmp Corp. has signed a $25 million contract with Navman Wireless for fleet-tracking products. CalAmp said May 7 that under the five-year deal, it has purchased several products and technologies from Navman and set up a research and development center in New Zealand that is staffed by 14 employees brought over Read More →
Ojai Community Bank reports record Q1 earnings
Two months after Ojai Community Bank bucked a federal regulatory order, the bank reported first-quarter profits of $250,000, almost three times more than its earnings a year ago. Ojai Community, which also owns Santa Paula Community Bank, said the quarter’s earnings are a record. Total deposits have climbed 2 percent since the beginning of the Read More →
LTC earnings jump 122%
[wikichart align=”right” ticker=”NYSE:LTC” showannotations=”true” livequote=”true” startdate=”08-11-2011″ enddate=”08-05-2012″ width=”300″ height=”245″] Real estate investment trust LTC Properties reported $12 million in first-quarter profits, a 122 percent increase over the $5.4 million it earned a year ago. Per diluted share, the Westlake Village-based company earned 40 cents in the most recent quarter, compared to 20 cents in the Read More →
Rupert predicts flat GDP growth in Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara County is expected to see flat or even negative GDP growth over the next year, and the long-term outlook for its jobs market is gloomy. That was the prognosis from the team of forecasters at UC Santa Barbara’s annual Santa Barbara County Economic Summit, which held events for the southern and northern halves Read More →
