Carpinteria device firm gets big bucks
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, September 14th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Carpinteria device firm gets big bucks
In the biggest single round of venture capital financing announced this year in the Tri-Counties, Carpinteria-based medical device maker ValenTx raised $22 million Sept. 8. Founded in 2002 and operating quietly until now, the company is testing out a treatment for morbid obesity, a condition in which patients are typically overweight by more than 100 Read More →
BuenaVentura
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, September 14th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on BuenaVentura
When Banco BuenaVentura was rolled out in Oxnard less than a year ago, it catered almost exclusively to the area’s Hispanic community. But in light of its upcoming Sept. 21 closure, some are left wondering if the niche bank’s business plan is to blame for its collapse. The bank had a very clear goal when Read More →
$22M bankruptcy spotlights Montecito
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, September 14th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on $22M bankruptcy spotlights Montecito
A year after the worst market quake since the Great Depression, aftershocks from the credit crunch are rumbling through Montecito’s upper crust. Patricia Klink filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Aug. 17 with $29.3 million in assets and $22.2 million in liabilities. She is the wife of John Klink, a longtime high-level Vatican adviser whose anti-abortion Read More →
$50M dash for cash sealed Affinity deal
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, September 7th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on $50M dash for cash sealed Affinity deal
Just three days before scooping up failed Ventura-based Affinity Bank on Aug. 28, San Diego-based Pacific Western Bank gave a $50 million signal that it was in acquisition mode. At a time when banks across the nation were struggling to raise capital, PacWest Bancorp, the bank’s holding company, came up with $50 million. The capital Read More →
Pacificor revamps strategy
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, September 7th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Pacificor revamps strategy
Twenty months after financier Michael Klein died in a high-profile plane crash, his Santa Barbara-based hedge fund, Pacificor, is still working through the deals it struck before a private Cesna 172 he chartered flew into a mountain in Panama. Pacificor is still trying to repair its investment in troubled automobile parts maker Dura Automotive Systems, Read More →
Getting science right
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, September 7th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Getting science right
A group pulling world-class researchers together in Goleta wants to take the spin out of science in the public debate. Novim brings small bands of researchers to the University of California, Santa Barbara, to tackle global questions. The idea is to get 10 of the world’s smartest experts in a room for a week, cut Read More →
Calavo reports record-breaking third-quarter revenue
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Friday, September 4th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Calavo reports record-breaking third-quarter revenue
Santa Paula-based avocado distributor Calavo Growers said Sept. 3 that double-digit growth in fresh avocado sales fueled a 77 percent rise in profits to $2.5 million in the third quarter. Since the beginning of the year, Calavo’s profit has soared three-fold compared to 2008, from $3.7 million to $11.3 million. The third quarter earnings came Read More →
