Scooting along
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, August 31st, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Scooting along
Tri-county consumers are cutting back on extravagant toys as their investments diminish and jobs grow less secure. But while big motorcycles may be experiencing a slump in sales, those looking to lower their expenses are seeking out small scooters as a pragmatic way of around-town transportation. “We’re seeing a lot of inconsistency,” said Carlin Dunne, Read More →
Court revisits financier
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, August 31st, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Court revisits financier
A wrongful death lawsuit unfolding in a Santa Barbara courtroom is shedding light on the final days in the life of the late Michael Klein, the fast-rising Santa Barbara hedge fund manager who died along with his daughter and a pilot in an airplane crash in Panama on Dec. 23, 2007. Kim Klein, Michael Klein’s Read More →
Trustee: Hertel assets found
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, August 31st, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Trustee: Hertel assets found
A U.S. Trustee has moved one step closer to recovering some of the $2.8 million that creditors to bankrupt developer R.W. Hertel & Sons say they are owed. In a document filed in bankruptcy court Aug. 31, Trustee Sandra McBeth said she’d located assets of R.W. Hertel & Sons and planned to divvy them up Read More →
State order targets PRstore sales pitch
By Stephen Nellis / Thursday, August 27th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on State order targets PRstore sales pitch
[Editor’s note: This story appeared in the Aug. 21 print edition of the Business Times. Ira Distenfield’s response, attached below, will appear in the Aug. 28 print edition. Source documents used to report this story are also attached below.] Ira Distenfield, the Santa Barbara man who built up and sold legal services franchise We the Read More →
Waiting estates
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, August 24th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Waiting estates
Developer Erik Behman faces an Aug. 24 deadline to get his allegations that San Luis Obispo County officials tripped up his 77-lot project before a state appeals court. “This appeal can pull Maria Vista Estates out of its Chapter 7 bankruptcy,” Benham wrote in motion to the bankruptcy court asking to let him take over Read More →
Dole IPO gets nod at Inphi
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Monday, August 24th, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Dole IPO gets nod at Inphi
In coming months, investment bankers and fast-growing start-ups, including a few from the Tri-Counties, will be hoping the initial public offering market literally goes bananas. In what analysts say will be a bellwether for whether the IPO markets are back from the dead, Westlake Village-based Dole Food Co. filed regulatory papers Aug. 14 to raise Read More →
Pacificor, Terminator producers wrangle in court
By Pacific Coast Business Times Staff / Friday, August 21st, 2009 / Top Stories / Comments Off on Pacificor, Terminator producers wrangle in court
Santa Barbara-based hedge fund Pacificor has grappled with hard-money lenders and auto-parts firms. Now it’s going up against the Terminator. The producers who own the Terminator franchise – whose “Terminator Salvation” film, released earlier this summer, raked in $370 million at the box office but hasn’t yet come out on DVD – filed for Chapter Read More →
