Circuit city folds
Circuit City, the nation’s second-biggest consumer electronics retailer, announced Jan. 16 it failed to find a buyer and will liquidate its 567 U.S. stores. With 30,000 employees, the retailer’s closure may send them into the ranks of the unemployed. The company had been seeking a buyer or a deal to refinance its debt, but the Read More →
Teledyne
Thousand Oaks-based defense conglomerate Teledyne Technologies snapped up seven companies in 2008, up from the two it acquired in 2007. The acquisitions – for which Teledyne is expected to have spent more than $130 million, compared to just $50 million on business purchases in 2007 – came from a range of industries that reflects the Read More →
Ventura gets an upgrade
The city of Ventura has received a boost in its credit rating from Standard & Poor’s. On Jan. 9, the agency raised Ventura’s public facilities financing authority from an A rating to a AA- rating, two notches below the top grade for its kind of debt. High ratings let the city borrow money cheaper and Read More →
Home on the ranch? Developers face opposition to Santa Margarita project
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors has approved the first part of the controversial Santa Margarita Ranch development, which, if fully implemented, would change the face of a small community located just north of the Cuesta grade. The phase of the project voted on late last year would carve 111 lots, each 1.5 Read More →
Concordia puts 20% stake in Harrington
Solvang-based Harrington West Financial Group, the holding company for Los Padres Bank and its division Harrington Bank, announced Dec. 30 that it completed the second closing of its private placement of shares of common and preferred stock to Beverly Hills-based Concordia Financial Services Fund. As a result of the second closing, Concordia now owns 20.1 Read More →
Chamber changes the guard – Levett hands reins to Lederer in Thousand Oaks
After 20 years of self-diagnosed “chamberitis,” Janet Levett, president and chief executive officer of the Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village Chamber of Commerce, will retire Jan. 30. Levett started in 1989 with the Westlake Village Chamber and was a key figure in merging it with the Thousand Oaks Chamber in 1999. In the past decade, she has Read More →
