Top stories: Diedrich Coffee picks suitor, ex-subprime executives sued, Zucker and Roberts in D.C.
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It’s official. Irvine coffee wholesaler Diedrich Coffee Inc. has agreed to be swallowed by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., Jerry Hirsch writes this morning.
Green Mountain’s $290-million offer ended a nearly two-month bidding war with rival Peet’s Coffee & Tea Inc. Peet’s pulled out of the bidding Monday.
The battle for Diedrich was over control of the company’s license to make the single-use ground-coffee pods that fit into the popular Keurig single-cup brewers sold in department stores and household-goods suppliers such as Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond.
Green Mountain of Waterbury, Vt., owns the Keurig brewing system patent and has been buying the handful of roasters that hold licenses to make the ‘K-Cup’ cartridges for Keurig-style coffeemakers.
Read the story here.
Scott Reckard writes that three former executives of Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp. were accused by regulators of misleading investors as its subprime-loan business collapsed:
New Century was the nation’s second-largest lender to borrowers with spotty credit before its demise in April 2007 signaled an unfolding crisis in the mortgage and housing markets that set off a deep global recession.In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Brad Morrice, a co-founder and former chief executive of New Century; Patti M. Dodge, its former chief financial officer; and David N. Kenneally, its ex-controller, of securities fraud. Through their attorneys, all three denied wrongdoing and said they would contest the suit.The SEC complaint alleges that the executives failed to disclose dramatic increases in the rate of borrowers who were defaulting almost immediately on their loans. The defendants also didn’t disclose that investors who bought mortgages from New Century were increasingly demanding that the company buy back problem loans, the suit says.
Read more here.
Joe Flint writes in Company Town that Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker are headed to the Federal Communications Commission today.
On their agenda are sit-down meetings with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and three of the four commissioners, including Michael Copps, the veteran Democratic FCC commissioner, who has already said that Comcast’s deal to acquire majority control of NBC Universal from General Electric Co. will ‘face a very steep climb with me.’ Chairman Genachowski has kept his mouth shut on the deal, other than saying, “The FCC will carefully examine the proposed merger and will be thorough, fair and fact-based in its review.”
Read the full post here.
--Pat Benson