VALLEY BRIEFS Local Franchise Sold A FASTSIGNS franchise in Studio City has been sold to Connie and Wade Palmer for an undisclosed sum. The Palmers are relocating from Dallas where Wade Palmer had previously been director of technical support at FASTSIGNS International Inc.’s corporate offices in Carrollton, Tex. The location has operated in Studio City since 1991. FASTSIGNS includes more than 480 franchises throughout the U.S. and internationally. The company develops and designs signs, banners and other graphics for businesses. PS Acquires Property PS Business Parks Inc. has acquired Fairfax Executive Park in Virginia. The Glendale-based real estate investment company paid $22.4 million for the property, a 165,000-square-foot complex that is 82 percent leased. PS Business Parks owns about 18.5 million square feet of commercial space in California, Texas, Florida, Oregon and Maryland as well as Virginia. Alliance Forms Think Tank The Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley has formed the Mulholland Institute, a think tank that will consolidate the organization’s research and analysis efforts. “We’ve been doing research since the Almanac came out,” said Bruce Ackerman, president and CEO of the Alliance of the organization’s four-year-old research efforts. “We realized we had this great resource and we weren’t packaging it as such.” The Alliance, which produces a variety of reports and analyses about the Valley with the assistance of economists, business leaders and academics, will continue to issue those reports under the Mulholland Institute moniker. The organization is also planning a new report, Prosperity 2020, which will seek to identify some of the prospects for and impediments to long-term economic growth in the area and potential strategies to meet the challenges. Toward that end, a task force including Robert Scott, lawyer, businessman and executive vice chair of the Alliance, Joel Kotkin, senior research fellow of the Davenport Institute and Michael Shires, assistant professor, both at Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, along with Dan Blake, who heads the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center at California State University Northridge, are conducting roundtable discussions with business leaders in entertainment, manufacturing, real estate development, financial services and international trade. The report will be published and presented at the Alliance’s InfoSummit 2004 during the fourth quarter of the year. Northridge/Porter Ranch Chamber Moves The Northridge/Porter Ranch Chamber of Commerce has moved to 9401 Reseda Boulevard. All phone and fax numbers, e-mail and Web addresses will remain the same. New Pat & Oscar’s Restaurant Sherman Oaks-based Worldwide Restaurant Concepts, Inc. announced that its Pat & Oscar’s Division has opened a new restaurant in San Bernardino. This is the second restaurant to open during the company’s 2004 fiscal year and expands the brand’s presence in Southern California’s Inland Empire to four locations. The company also announced that it has closed its only Phoenix location. Semtech Sales Up Semtech Corporation, a Camarillo-based producer of high performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors announced that net sales and income for its first quarter of fiscal year 2005 increased significantly over the fourth quarter and prior-year period. Net sales for the first quarter that ended April 25, 2004 were $61.9 million, up from $44.0 million in the prior year first quarter. Net income for the first quarter of fiscal year 2005 was $14.8 million or 19 cents per diluted share, up from $8.3 million or 11 cents per diluted share in the prior-year period. Right at Home in Woodland Hills Right at Home, a national home care company, recently opened an office in Woodland Hills. The West San Fernando Valley office is located at 19710 Ventura Blvd., Suite 201. The office will serve the San Fernando Valley and the surrounding area. Right at Home is a national franchise organization offering in-home care and assistance to seniors and other adults to help them continue living independently. Right at Home care providers are trained, bonded, and insured professionals who provide services from a few hours per week to around the clock, based on individual needs. Boeckmann to Receive Proclamation Karl Boeckmann will be receiving a proclamation at the Pierce College graduation ceremony on June 8. An accounting graduate of USC, Boeckmann served in the army for two years after which he worked in a private accounting firm for five years. He then began working at Galpin Motors where he is currently the vice president. An active member of the community, Boeckmann is very involved with Pierce College. As a member of Pierce College’s Auto Tech Advisory Committee, he has been instrumental in the expansion of Pierce’s Automotive Services program. In addition to donating equipment to Pierce College, he initiated the creation of the new Ford Technician Training Program, which will begin in fall 2004. Advanced Bionics to Be Acquired Valencia-based Advanced Bionics Corp., a medical device company controlled by Los Angeles businessman Alfred E. Mann has agreed to be acquired by industry giant Boston Scientific Corp. Advanced Bionics develops miniature devices for deafness, pain and neurological disorders. It has only one product on the market, a hearing aid implant, and had sales of $53 million in 2003. But the company is preparing to launch an under-the-skin device for chronic back pain and is working on other applications for its technology, including treatments for migraines, urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Boston Scientific will pay Advanced Bionics shareholders $740 million upon the deal’s closing, which is expected within days. The company also would make additional payments over the next 10 years based on the success of Advanced Bionics products. The companies said the total payouts could reach $4 billion if Advanced Bionics sales touched $1 billion in the next decade. North American Scientific Results Chatsworth-based North American Scientific Inc. reported second quarter net sales of approximately $3.5 million, a 20 percent increase as compared with net sales of $2.9 million for the second fiscal quarter of 2003. The net loss for the second quarter of 2004 was $3.9 million, or $0.38 per share, as compared with a second quarter 2003 net loss of $2.4 million, or $0.24 per share. The increase in net loss reflects a one-time gain of $600,000 in the fiscal 2003 quarter stemming from the sale of an investment in non-marketable securities, as well as an operating loss from an investment in a variable interest entity during the second quarter of fiscal 2004 of $200,000.