When DSL Construction Corp. wanted to replace its antiquated computer system, it turned to an information technology that has been in business for less than two years. Faster Planet not only switched the property management firm from a Unix-based system to a Windows-based system but was able to put the expertise of co-founder Jeff Baugher to use. “We really didn’t know how bad it was until we started the conversion,” DSL Chief Financial Officer Charles Laing said. “Luckily Jeff knew a lot about Unix and that turned out to be a huge asset.” Founded in July 2004 by Baugher and partner Dan Spencer, Winnetka-based Faster Planet is living up to its name as its revenues have tripled and its staff doubled. That growth is not on pace to slack, Spencer said, as Faster Planet works to establish itself as a one-stop business for technical support, development and projects. “We do everything possible,” Spencer said. “We’ll install a printer, look at spyware on a computer, talk about a network upgrade. “We’re also a good resource for knowledge and once a client is satisfied we give sound advice they’ll ask us non-technical, non-business questions,” Spencer said. Spencer and Baugher formed Faster Planet after working together for several years at another information technology company which served smaller companies. The pair wanted to apply that philosophy to their own venture, Spencer said. “There are a lot of smaller companies that don’t have need for a full-time IT person and they get lost in the ozone layer,” Spencer explained. “We found those companies of 30 to 50 employees need somebody four to eight hours a week but not more than that.” DSL Construction receives half-day visits twice a week for maintenance on its computer system, Laing said. “They have a good model and plan of how they want things set up and we don’t vary from that,” Laing said. Satisfied customers like Laing are a key to Faster Planet’s success as much of their business is generated by referrals and recommendations. Word of mouth The company tried radio ads and mass mailers to drum up clients to “zero results,” Spencer said. “Computer people have a stigma against them and people don’t know if they can trust us,” Spencer said. “Or they don’t have the experience to make a change even if they are dissatisfied with their current provider.” The company started out with just two clients and has grown to 24 stretching from Torrance to Ventura County. Louis Weiss, director of information technology at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, another Faster Planet client, said that his past experience working with and for small businesses made him aware of how important word of mouth was to attract new customers. “It works a lot better than an ad,” Weiss said. “Absolutely I would recommend them because of the quality of their work and the kind of people Dan and Jeff are. They are tech savvy but not lacking in communication skills, which is nice in the tech world.” When competing for clients, Faster Planet does not often go up against multiple vendors, Spencer said. And what makes their service stand out for the clients is their responsiveness, a pro-active approach and the resources to have the right person for the job, Spencer said. “We have the ability to put somebody in place that is familiar with a specific system or has daily working knowledge with that system,” Spencer added. This year, Spencer anticipates adding more clients and company revenues to hit the $500,000 mark. Future plans for Faster Planet include expanding the number of its employees to a dozen or more and working with larger companies on extended projects that may take up to months to complete, Spencer said. The company is also targeting school districts to provide repair service and preventative maintenance. “Schools are in a tougher situation than general business because they are faced with limited budgets,” Spencer said. “Decisions on equipment are much more critical for them.” Faster Planet Year Founded: 2004 Employees 2004: 2 Employees 2006: 5 full time; 2 part time Revenues 2004: $110,000 Revenues 2005: $325,000 Driving Force: Need for IT service at small- to mid-size businesses.

This is one of a series of regular columns where Valley attorney Ira Rosenblatt will answer questions from readers concerning business legal issues. Please e-mail your questions to Business Journal Editor Jason Schaff at [email protected]. Question: Are oral contracts enforceable? Answer: Subject to certain exceptions outlined in the California Corporations Code and commonly referred to as the “statute of frauds,” oral contracts in California are every bit as enforceable as written contracts. In fact, business executives routinely enter into “hand shake deals,” which is fine if everyone lives up to their end of the bargain and has a perpetual, defect-free memory. Unfortunately, life teaches us that either one or both of these assumptions frequently does not hold true. As a result, when executives enter into oral contracts, often their next move is to obtain counsel to reduce the agreement to a comprehensive written contract. There are good reasons why better business practices dictate that agreements be reduced to writing. For one, if you ever have to sue to enforce a contract or seek damages caused by another party’s breach, you will first have the burden of proving that a contract existed. If you cannot satisfy this burden, you will be out of luck. A written contract can also help prevent litigation in the first place by memorializing specifics of an agreement that one party or the other may otherwise claim to “forget” (either innocently or by design) over time. Moreover, they can confer rights and remedies which are often otherwise unavailable (e.g., granting the prevailing party the right to recover his attorney fees.) The bottom line is that although oral contracts are enforceable, there is a good reason you’ve heard the old saying “oral contracts are not worth the paper they are written on.” If a deal is worth making, it is worth papering. Reduce your important business deals to writing. Q: My partners and I have been in business for four years and things are going well. We do business as a partnership. In connection with year-end, I noticed that our partnership agreement does not contain a buy-sell provision. Do you suggest we have a buy-sell agreement drawn up? What benefits would it confer? A: First, I commend you for taking the time to review your core business agreements. It is a good business practice. Business, like life, is a dynamic process and things are consistently changing. It is important to ensure that your core business agreements are still relevant and consistent with your intent and business objectives. To your question, I strongly suggest you take action. You and your partners may either revise your Partnership Agreement to include buy-sell provisions or have a separate Partnership Buy-Sell Agreement prepared. Buy-sell provisions are often a critical part of any business relationship (although your business is a partnership, buy-sell provisions although different in structure are equally important for corporations and limited liability companies). They offer predictability and control in the event that a partner either dies, withdraws, becomes disabled, is expelled, or seeks to sell his or her partnership interest (any one or more of these events are sometimes referred to as “trigger events”). If your business is a service business, what happens in the event of a trigger event may be even more critical than if your business is less dependent on your partner’s direct involvement (e.g., a partnership invested in real estate may not require the active management participation of all partners). In fact, if you don’t act, not only might you find yourself without a partner one day, worse yet, you might find yourself with a partner you had never contemplated (e.g., your partner’s wife or husband in the event your partner should suddenly pass away). As a partnership, you and your partners have a choice. Either you can get together to discuss, agree, and document what you want to occur in the event of a “trigger event,” or the government will decide for you. That’s right. The Uniform Partnership Act of 1994 contains a buy-sell provision that applies by default in the event a general partner “dissociates” from a partnership, unless the partners previously agree otherwise or elect to dissolve the partnership within 90 days of the dissociation event. Do your partners (and business) a service and bring this issue to their attention. Get their approval, and retain a business lawyer to assist you in this process. It will be more economical to engage one lawyer to handle this matter, but understand that absent agreement by you and your partners on a single lawyer (and waiver by each of you of the conflict of interest created by the representation of each partner by a single lawyer), you and your partners have the right to each seek independent counsel. Q: In an effort to minimize the exposure of sexual harassment claims, we are thinking of implementing a policy preventing our managers from dating other employees. What do you think of this policy? Is it enforceable? A: With all the attention sexual harassment is getting these days, it is no surprise that practically all California employers have sexual harassment on-the-brain, so to speak. However, exactly how far employers can go in restricting or prohibiting employees’ off-duty behavior is currently a subject of heated debate at both the state and federal level. Policies that reach too far risk violating individual’s constitutional rights to privacy. Courts consider the precise policy at issue, how clearly the employer publishes its policy, what specific rights the policy seeks to restrict, and how much of those rights are in fact restricted. The policy your question contemplates is commonly referred to as a non-fraternization policy. Recently, the California Supreme Court upheld a California employer’s non-fraternization policy even though the fraternization between the two employees only occurred during nonworking hours. The court noted that employers have a legitimate interest in avoiding sexual harassment claims. Significantly, the court reasoned that since the employer published its policy, the supervisor employee had notice that his conduct violated the company no-dating policy, and thus he had a diminished expectation of privacy. This area of the law continues to evolve. Whether your policy will hold up to judicial scrutiny will turn on the facts and circumstances of the particular case. To increase your odds, your policy should be unambiguously drafted, equally applicable to employees of both sex, published in handbooks and the like, grounded in sound business judgment (e.g., restricting managers from dating subordinates), and enforced in a non-discriminatory fashion avoid double standards such as enforcing the policy as to mid-level managers but not high-level managers. This column contains general information and under no circumstances constitutes legal advice. This information is not provided in the context of an attorney-client relationship and nothing herein creates an attorney-client relationship. Readers should not act upon this general information without first seeking professional advice. Ira Rosenblatt is a business and corporate lawyer and a co-founder and Director of Stone, Rosenblatt & Cha, a business law firm in Warner Center. Rosenblatt has earned Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating (“AV”) for legal ability and ethics and is listed in Martindale-Hubbell’s National Bar Register of Pre-eminent Lawyers. He can be reached at [email protected].

At the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, one of its more important features cannot be found in the exhibits on the 40th president’s life and political career. Outside the glass-walled pavilion housing the jet that took Reagan on overseas visits are 16 micro-turbines that provide the power for the entire facility from which the heat exhaust from the turbines is then captured and used in the air condition system for the Air Force One Pavilion. Library Executive Director Duke Blackwood said the use of the micro-turbines brings economical benefits, is good for the environment and a more efficient way to generate electricity. “It’s the right thing to do even with the high price of natural gas,” Blackwood said. “I would encourage like facilities to consider this type of system because it’s such a positive.” The library and museum were rewarded for their effort at energy efficiency by The Gas Co. through a $823,000 incentive check that will go toward offsetting the $3.5 million cost of the turbine system. The system went online in October when the Air Force One Pavilion was opened. The library estimates that the cost savings over five to seven years will recoup what was spent for the system, Blackwood said. The self-generation incentive program the museum participated in is just one of three offered to businesses through the California Public Utilities Commission and administered by the state’s four utilities, including The Gas Co., said Andy Carrasco, a company spokesman. It is the company’s hope that a high-profile user such as a presidential library will spur businesses to try similar measures that promote efficiency and independence from utilities, Carrasco said. “This is one of the largest projects for the company that highlights co-generation,” Carrasco said. The 16 micro-turbines made by Chatsworth-based Capstone Turbine Co. will generate 95 percent of the electricity used by the museum and library campus. Other incentive programs for businesses involve the use of solar energy, wind turbines, and renewable fuel cells to reach a goal of a savings of $5 billion statewide in energy costs. “The name of the game over the next three years is energy efficiency and conservation,” Carrasco said.

The past few months have seen major insurers across the country and in the San Fernando Valley upgrading their Web sites in order to give members more resources to manage their health, and while it may be too early to say what long-term impact the improvements will have, patients are flocking to the sites. For the last several months, Health Net has been heavily promoting its Decision Power program, a service that allows members to keep track of their health information, research conditions and treatments and talk to a personal health coach about medical decisions. “We are seeing a steady increase in our overall Web traffic,” said Health Net spokesman Brad Kieffer. “Much of that increase can be attributed to Decision Power, which offers personalized health coaching and other services. We’ve been promoting it pretty heavily among our customers for about the previous year or so.” The first generation of interactive Web tools for members on many of these Web sites were services like hospital comparisons. Although useful, patients are now looking for much more personal information for just about any medical question they can think of. Web site usage data suggests efforts to offer more personalized information is working. Kieffer said that Health Net saw the number of registered users on its Web site double in 2005. Registered users can get information as basic as copayment schedules and drug formularies or its more involved, personalized health coaching. More than 80 percent of Decision Power users, he said, have said their experience was a positive one, and Health Net is hoping that eventually more patients will get into the habit of doing online research before appointments. Health plans are of course aware that some of the most expensive medical conditions, like diabetes and heart disease, can be brought on and sustained by lifestyle choices. They’re also very expensive to treat. Health plans are betting that if patients can’t be counted on to make regular doctor appointments, today’s computer savvy patients may be more amenable to logging onto a Web site to discover their health risks and set up an online fitness program. In some cases, members can set up their own Web sites in order to monitor their activities and hopefully prevent serious health problems. WellPoint, represented in Southern California by its subsidiary Blue Cross of California, provides online health information to its 34 million patients with a group of sites that it runs in partnership with WebMD Health. WebMD’s library of over 20,000 articles is available to WellPoint members. The Web site directs users to the most pertinent information, and then takes things a step further by allowing members to develop a fitness program that can be monitored automatically by the Web site. Dr. Michael Belman, Medical Director for Quality Management at WellPoint West Region, said the goal of the new Web site is to make sure patients aren’t spending too much time looking for the information that’s pertinent to them. “The new generation (Web site) aims to personalize health information further,” Belman said. “It’s really designed so that rather than have people hunting around for a piece of information, (the Web site) will push the information to people coming to the site that’s of interest to them. Belman said the Web site’s function that allows patients to keep a virtual health record of information like family disease history and past treatments could eventually be integrated with physician records to allow members an even more accurate health picture, although that idea is not definite yet. Ultimately, if these personalized health Web sites prompt real change in patients’ behavior, health insurers will feel the impact in their bottom line. “Personalized information leads to better, higher quality and more cost-effective care,” said Kieffer.

Office Sales Leader Thomas P. Bohlinger Senior Vice President/Investment Properties CB Richard Ellis In just over 10 years since Tom Bohlinger joined CB Richard Ellis he has represented a roster of clients that reads like a who’s who of real estate investment. For such clients as Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance and Prudential Realty Group, Bohlinger has transacted such deals as the sale of Glendale Plaza for $136.5 million. Last year, Bohlinger handled $575 million worth of office sale transactions, with 80 percent of those deals, or $480 million, coming out of the San Fernando Valley. Bohlinger did not begin his professional career in real estate. When he received his MBA from the University of Southern California in 1975, the job market was tight. And Bohlinger took a job as a mortgage banker. The job provided a front row seat to the workings of the real estate industry and Bohlinger recalls that he could not help but contrast his narrowly defined role with the entrepreneurial nature of the real estate professionals he dealt with. “I was really intrigued with the entrepreneurship of real estate and I wanted to be involved in and build and create Los Angeles,” Bohlinger said. A specialist in institutional investment since he joined CB, last year Bohlinger represented CB Richard Ellis Investors in the $109 million sale of the 320,000-square foot office building at 505 North Brand Boulevard to LaSalle Investment Management, and he represented Tishman Speyer Properties Inc. in the disposition of the 350,000-square-foot office building at 101 N. Brand Boulevard to Principal Global Investors LLC for $104.3 million. He also represented the buyers, M. David Paul & Associates, in the purchase of NBC’s Catalina site in Burbank, a premier property that was said to fetch about $55 million. Ask Bohlinger what keeps him in real estate and he will rattle off a long list of reasons, everything from the people he meets and works with to the marketing of a property and even the glitches that come up in a transaction. Under it all, one perhaps more simple reason stands out: Bohlinger thinks its fun. “It’s like a game. You get some of the same thrills as if you’re competing on the athletic field,” he said. “You’re always out there competing for the business and you are competing against other brokers, and if you get the deal, you have the challenge of, are you going to be able to achieve your objective. There’s a bit of suspense to it because sometimes you are wondering if you are going to come through. Then you throw that last minute ‘Hail Mary’ pass, and it’s done.” Industrial Sales Leader Barbara L. Emmons Executive Vice President Institutional Group CB Richard Ellis Barbara Emmons’s biggest problem is an enviable one. “The hardest part of my job is managing so many different transactions at one time,” she said. “At any time we’re working on 15 to 20 deals. Sometimes they all come down at once.” Last year, Emmons transacted some $1.4 billion in deals with $93.9 million of that total coming from San Fernando Valley properties. She also brokered the largest industrial deal in the greater Valley in 2005, the sale of 3935-3949, 3990 Heritage Oak Court in Simi Valley to The Prudential Insurance Co. The 331,574-square-foot property fetched $38.2 million. Last year she also became the top producing broker in the company’s history. And in 2004, she won CB Richard Ellis’s Endurance of Spirit award, given for mentoring and philanthropy. Among her volunteer efforts, Emmons serves on the board of directors for the brokerage’s women’s network, where she helps to recruit women into the company and the field. A 17-year real estate veteran, Emmons followed her older sister into the field at a time when very few women entered commercial real estate. “When she first started, she had to put up with a lot of stuff,” said Emmons. “Fortunately, when I got into it, it was a lot more progressive.” Emmons and her sister both had a little encouragement from their dad. “He would always tell us women can do exactly what men can do,” Emmons recalled. “And he’d say that you can never rely on your husband to be your provider.” Emmons figures she transacted more than 60 deals last year, but surprisingly, negotiating is not one of her strong suits, she said. “My favorite thing to do is, I’m the peacemaker,” said Emmons. “But my partner loves negotiating. My skill set is I’m tremendously organized.” She began her real estate career as an in-house broker for Prudential recruiting tenants for a business center the company owned. Once the property was fully occupied, the company sold it and Emmons found herself out on the street. “I had to reinvent myself,” she recalled, “and once I did that, I went from making X to making five and 10 times X. It was a very positive thing.” Emmons’s business has increased 20 percent to 25 percent each year for many years now with many large institutional transactions now on her resume. Her secret? “You always do the right thing and because you do the right thing business begets business,” she said. Retail Sales Leader Ron Feder Principal Lee & Associates-LA North/Ventura Inc. Ron Feder has spent most of his career as a broker transacting industrial sales and leases, but he can’t resist a good deal. So with several clients flush with cash and looking for retail properties to invest it in, Feder went to work. In 2005, he transacted more than $29.7 million worth of retail property sales in the San Fernando Valley. The largest was a 77,000-square-foot shopping center at 19450 Rinaldi St. for $16.5 million. Feder works mostly with family trusts and private investors, a market that’s been flush with opportunity of late. “The last couple of years I’ve been selling quite a few (retail properties),” Feder said. “It’s come about through relationships and them deciding to sell tons of real estate downtown and having tons of cash and wanting to spend it. You don’t say no to that kind of work.” Feder’s been selling since he was 15 and the 1980s skin-tight denim craze was in full swing. “I had every 15-year-old boys dream job,” he said. “I was selling Sergio Valente jeans when all the girls would lie down on the ground and you had to take a pair of pliers to zip up the pants. That was my first job. It was very motivational.” Motivational perhaps, but when Feder found himself married and starting a family it was time to put a little reality into the dream. He went to work as an industrial property broker. After working at what is now GVA Daum, Feder moved on to Lee. Several years later, he decided to strike out on his own, forming RJ Feder & Associates Inc. “I did it at the time because I felt empowered through my experience at Lee to do my own thing,” Feder recalled. But he ultimately felt stifled by some of the administrative tasks of running his own operation. “I thought I’d have an easy time recruiting and that was one of the headaches,” Feder said. “Recruiting at a boutique firm is more difficult, and if you can find the talent you have to give them an 85 percent split.” Feder decided to return to Lee. His clients have included many owner-users, from Gold’s Gym to Pipedream Products Inc., along with the private investors he represents. “I love the people, the hours, the opportunities,” he said. “It’s all good.” Land Sales Leader Michael D. Foxworthy Sr. Executive Vice President/Principal GVA DAUM Westlake Village is likely to be among the hottest commercial real estate markets in the coming year, and Mike Foxworthy Sr. is right in the thick of it. Last year, Foxworthy transacted the sale of Westlake Park Place, a 1.2-million-square-foot parcel of land, for $27 million, among the largest sales in the area. Foxworthy, who also manages Daum’s Conejo Valley branch office, began his professional career as a cost accountant in the aerospace industry, but he had a hankering for the entrepreneurial bent of real estate. “I wasn’t happy crunching numbers and being in an environment where seniority was the only reason you were promoted,” Foxworthy said. “I liked the tangible nature of real estate and the creativity and earning potential.” When he decided to make the switch, Foxworthy had a mortgage and three kids, but he forged ahead anyway, joining Charles Dunn Co. and rising to president of the brokerage’s commercial brokerage division before joining Daum in 1998. A Conejo Valley resident for the past 28 years, Foxworthy specializes in development, acquisition and disposition strategies for office product in the Ventura County area. “I just like the whole process of creating something from nothing,” he said, “communicating a vision to a potential developer, then getting a project approved and having it constructed and leasing it.” He has been involved with the Westlake Plaza Centre site since the late 1980s when he handled leasing on behalf of the previous owners. Most recently, the third phase was acquired by Steadfast Business Properties and Amstar Group. The new owners plan to build Westlake Plaza: Steadfast Signature Collection, a complex with 482,215-square-feet of offices in eight buildings. Foxworthy will market the properties as well. Retail Sales Leader Chris Jackson Vice President Industrial Group and Investment Services Grubb & Ellis Shangri-La, a 53,692-square-foot shopping center in Santa Clarita, is a strip center like many others in the community. But when Chris Jackson sold it last year, it fetched a price in excess of $300 a square foot. Jackson takes investment sales personally, literally. About four years ago he began making property investments himself. The decision was motivated by more than the promise of additional income. “I and my partner, Todd Lorber, own stuff as well,” said Jackson. “So we understand what things are worth, and consequently we understand how to do things.” His own investment experience helps Jackson to identify properties that may be undervalued such as the Shangri La center. At the time of the sale the tenants were paying about $1 a square foot under market rates, and the leases were all due to be renegotiated in the next couple of years. The upside persuaded the buyers, a local investor out of Woodland Hills, to buy the property for $16.5 million. Jackson was attending law school when he decided to pursue a career in real estate brokerage. He left about seven years ago and joined Grubb & Ellis. “My family was in the development side of real estate back in Chicago,” said Jackson. “I decided law wasn’t what I wanted to do so I came straight into real estate.” At first, he primarily handled leasing, but Jackson soon realized that the same companies he was representing as a leasing broker were going to another agent when they decided to buy or sell property. He wanted to capitalize on his existing relationships and transact the investment side as well. “It’s worked well,” he said. “We’ve been getting business from our clients that we do leasing with, and we’ve been getting the investment side. And it’s kept the money here with us.” Jackson figures his business has grown by about 50 percent each year for the past three years. “We get a lot of respect from the investors,” he said. “They even call us and ask us our opinion on deals we’re not involved with.” Land Sales Leader Craig R. Peters Executive Vice President Industrial Specialist CB Richard Ellis Craig Peters figures that in the course of any given year he is involved in something like 80 different transactions. “And none of them are boring,” he said. With his partner, Doug Sonderegger, Peters represents the massive Valencia Gateway for its owners LNR/Newhall Land and Farming and other clients. The continually evolving master-planned development keeps delivering something fresh to sink his teeth into. “If you think about our practice, we’re involved in a lot of ground up development work,” said Peters, “so it gets down to the very early stages of the land planning process and then planning buildings and seeing those go from concepts to all of a sudden the crane is out and you’re seeing the finished product we envisioned taking shape.” Last year, Peters and Sonderegger sold some $49.8 million worth of land, transactions that will start that process over yet again. He has earned the brokerage company’s honor of No. 1 sales professional in the San Fernando Valley for eight of the last 11 years. Peters entered the brokerage business after he graduated from Princeton University in 1985, and he has never looked back. He’s also never changed companies, starting in what was then the Coldwell Banker Commercial training program and remaining with the brokerage through the acquisitions and mergers that created today’s CB Richard Ellis. Peters moved up to the Santa Clarita region in 1986, working as a runner for Sonderegger. Back then, the pricing in the Santa Clarita Valley was well below what buyers and tenants were finding in the San Fernando Valley, but companies were reluctant to make the move north in spite of the price advantage. “Back in the late ’80s, maybe one out of 10 companies would consider Valencia. Today somewhere between eight and nine will consider Valencia,” Peters said. “Somehow Valencia feels a lot closer today than it did 20 years ago.” One thing, he notes, that has helped to encourage businesses to make the move is the addition of luxury housing in the Santa Clarita area. The senior executives now residing in the area are anxious to locate their companies closer to their homes. Although rival brokerage companies have increasingly added offices in the area, Peters notes that the market has continued to grow, and he and Sonderegger still command the lion’s share of the business. “We still exclusively represent (LNR/Newhall),” he said. “We took the Lockheed property (Rye Canyon Business Park) to market. We sold it all out. The only other significant project in the area besides those two is Centre Point. But keep in mind that we’re the ones that sold that years ago. So I would say our market share is as strong as it’s ever been, and the level of activity and number of transactions we’re involved in continues to grow.” Land Sales Leader Douglas R. Sonderegger Executive Vice President Industrial Specialist CB Richard Ellis A lot of his peers scratched their heads when Doug Sonderegger made the move to the Santa Clarita Valley in 1983. “Back then it was considered quite a ways away, and with very limited activity going on,” Sonderegger said. “A lot of the senior brokers didn’t have the vision that it would become what it’s become.” As it turned Sonderegger’s decision has helped to make him CB Richard Ellis’s No. 1 selling broker in the San Fernando Valley division for eight of the last 11 years. Last year, with partner Craig Peters, Sonderegger transacted $49.8 million worth of land sales in Santa Clarita, deals that will result in new businesses relocating to the area bringing jobs and residents. That is just the type of scenario that got Sonderegger interested in the field. “You have information that you’ve gathered and you can see that idea turn into a development project,” Sonderegger said. “People move in; jobs are created. Your ideas and creativity and hard work bring prosperity. That’s where a lot of satisfaction comes out of doing what we do.” Sonderegger was working in finance when he met up with a broker from Cushman & Wakefield who had just closed a very large transaction. It was the first time he realized that the real estate field included more than residential sales. He entered the training program run by what was then Coldwell Banker Commercial, considered the best training ground in the business at the time, and stayed with the brokerage through the many incarnations that ultimately created CB Richard Ellis. Sonderegger was working in the San Fernando Valley when he realized that the region’s future growth would be to the north. At the same time, Newhall Land and Farming was moving forward with its master-planned community, and Sonderegger saw considerable opportunity in the development. “I thought the opportunity to work with a master planned business park and a major land holder was beneficial,” Sonderegger said. “I was just starting the business and my dad told me you can’t hurt yourself falling out of a basement window.” In those early days Sonderegger recalls, there was little to show a potential tenant market data was hard to come by and there were virtually no comparables. But he figured that if he could convince people to take a look at the area, he could make a sale. Today, some 1,500 companies call Valencia home, and Sonderegger continues to be the dominant broker in the area. “Once we got companies up there, they never called and said can we go back,” said Sonderegger. “It’s definitely a widely accepted, desirable market.”

John Dilts has left his position as president of the Keiretsu Forum chapters in Westlake Village and Los Angeles to form a new angel venture group. In March Dilts will launch Maverick Angels, a venture capital, training and support organization with its first chapters in Westlake Village, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. Like Keiretsu, Maverick Angels is a for-profit venture with revenues generated from training programs, consulting fees and presentation and membership fees. But unlike the traditional models for angel investor groups, which are often loosely aligned organizations, Dilts hopes to provide a more formalized approach. “We developed some new due diligence software, Maverick Link, which is a back-end infrastructure software to support collaboration,” Dilts said. The software will allow members to receive more complete information on potential investments, and it will facilitate communication between investors so that members can better understand each other’s investment decisions and goals. “I think there needs to be more value for money,” Dilts said. A separate boot camp for entrepreneurs will be open to the public. But those who wish to make a presentation to the investment group will be able to use the boot camp and coaching services to prepare for the presentation. “If someone doesn’t get meaningful traction after the boot camp, we will refund their money minus an administrative fee,” Dilts said. Dilts, who was trained as an attorney, formed his first venture fund while taking his bar exam and began a career coaching entrepreneurs and consulting. He has taught entrepreneurship at corporations around the world and served as the head of the local Keiretsu chapters for the past two years. He decided to form Maverick to try to improve the information flow to potential investors and better nurture and train entrepreneurs. “The challenge for many angel groups is it can tend to be a free for all,” he said. “There is no ongoing infrastructure that can focus on facilitating due diligence. It’s hit and miss.” Maverick is expected to launch with 40 to 50 members, who will each pay an annual fee of $3,000. Within the next two years Dilts said he hopes to solidify membership levels at all three chapters at around 50 and open another chapter in Silicon Valley.

For the fourth quarter of 2005, Westlake Village-based ValueClick Inc. reported earnings of $13.6 million, or 13 cents per diluted share, on revenue of $116.6 million, analysts’ expected 13 cents per share on revenue of $115.8 million. The company withdrew its fourth-quarter 2004 results because of an error involving its income tax benefit and deferred income tax assets. It will have to restate results for all of 2004 and the first three quarters of 2005. These restatements will have no impact on the company’s previously reported operating results for revenue, income from operations, income before taxes and minority interest, net cash flows, EBITDA or adjusted-EBITDA for any period. ValueClick increased its 2006 revenue expectations to $490 million to $500 million from $480 million to $500 million. Analysts are looking for a profit of 59 cents per share on sales of $494.1 million.

The recent acquisition by Waat Media of one of Europe’s top mobile game developers was described by the company president as “critical” to Waat’s speeding up its move toward providing more mainstream mobile entertainment. Sherman Oaks-based Waat acquired Charismatix Ltd. & Co. KG, headquartered in Germany. Waat is one the world’s leaders in providing late night mobile entertainment through its partnerships with such companies as Vivid Entertainment, Mantra Films, producer of the “Girls Gone Wild” series, Playboy TV, and recently announced a deal with Card Player Media, publisher of Card Player magazine and other publications. Many of those brands are now moving toward more mainstream products, said Ian Aaron, president and chief executive officer of Waat Media. “Vivid has a club at The Venetian (in Las Vegas). There are other products they are marketing from clothing to tires on wheels,” Aaron said. “In return our company is evolving in a similar fashion. “Our acquisition of Charismatix was critical in our acceleration for our branded partners,” Aaron said. Aaron made the announcement of the Charismatix acquisition on Feb. 12 at the 3GSM World Congress 2006 in Barcelona. Waat provides images, games, video and mobile TV for 750 million subscribers in 25 countries, doing about 90 percent of its business overseas, Aaron said. Bringing Charismatix into the fold allows Waat to expand its offerings with video chat applications and additional casino games including Caribbean stud and draw poker, Texas Hold-em, and slots, Aaron said. Charismatix-developed technology will also allow for multi-player gaming in which players in different locations can play against each other, Aaron said. “People are looking to engage with other people and gaming will be no different,” Aaron said. The company’s content is geared toward men, women and couples, Aaron said. “Depending on the content, it then narrowly defines the audience,” Aaron added. “In general it is 18 years and older.” Waat Media was founded in 2001 as an offshoot of Powersports-Powerdocs, an international and domestic entertainment distribution and licensing company also based in Sherman Oaks. In Europe, the company worked with mobile communications operators to develop a 33-tiered ratings system to distribute content in a way they are comfortable with, Aaron said. A similar process is now underway with U.S. operators with some testing of the system expected in mid-2006 and glamour-oriented programming being made available in the latter part of the year, Aaron said.

Countrywide Financial Corporation, a Calabasas-based home loan lender, has signed three-time Grand Slam champions Bob and Mike Bryan to endorsement deals. The Bryans have agreed to wear the Countrywide logo during all their matches and make public appearances on behalf of the company, including Countrywide’s charity Rebuilding Together which works to preserve homes and communities. The Bryans won the Countrywide Classic, held every summer at the Los Angeles Tennis Center at UCLA, in 2001 and 2004. They recently won the Australian Open. The twin brothers won their Gland Slam title at Roland Garros in the 2003 French Open.

San Fernando Chamber, Board of Directors Meeting 9:00 a.m. Providence Holy Cross Medical Center, 15031 Rinaldi Street, Mission Hills 91346 Contact (818) 361-1184