Business Briefs: Reliance Steel, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Jacobs, First Consulting Group, Cogent

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– Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.

announced that its subsidiary Precision Strip Inc. signed an agreement to acquire certain assets and business of Flat Rock Metal Processing L.L.C. a move expected to expand the L.A.-based metals service center’s processing capabilities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.


Upon completion of the acquisition, which is expected within 60 days, Flat Rock’s two facilities in Perrysburg, Ohio, and Eldridge, Iowa will operate as Precision Strip locations that process and deliver carbon steel, aluminum and stainless steel products on a “toll” basis, processing the metal for a fee without taking ownership of it. The Flat Rock, Mich.-based toll processing company is privately held and was founded in 2001.



– Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

said it will deliver movies for its Blu-ray format high-definition DVD players on May 23. Sony and MGM Home Entertainment will first release eight Blu-ray titles, followed by another eight in mid-June. The first titles include “50 First Dates,” “The Fifth Element,” “Hitch” and “House of Flying Daggers.” The company said in a statement that the date would coincide with the launch of the first commercially available Blu-ray disc player by Samsung Electronics Co.


Toshiba Corp. will begin selling its competing format HD DVD players in March. That format has the backing of about half the film industry, including Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Brothers Entertainment and less support among technology companies. Blu-ray is backed by studios including Walt Disney Co. and technology companies including Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Philips Electronics.



– Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.

said that subsidiary companies have been selected for three contracts. Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.


One received a contract from Florida’s Pinellas County Utilities to provide construction management services for a $64 million water treatment/blending facility. The project, which replaces obsolete treatment and pumping infrastructure, includes the construction of a 72-million-gallon-per-day municipal water plant that blends treated water, provides chemical treatment and pumps the water into the existing distribution system.


Another subsidiary received a contract from Total Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland GmbH to provide engineering and construction management services at Total’s refinery in Spergau, Germany. The contract has a one-year base period and possible extensions for up to three years.


Pasadena-based Jacobs’ Canadian subsidiary company was awarded a contract from North West Upgrading Inc. to prepare a process design package for a sulphur recovery unit at North West’s proposed facility, located in Sturgeon County, near Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This area is referred to as Alberta’s “Industrial Heartland” due to its heavy concentration of petrochemical businesses.



– First Consulting Group Inc.

reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $8.8 million (36 cents per share), compared with income of $2.2 million (9 cents) for the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the Long Beach-based provider of software and services for the health care industry fell 4.5 percent to $73.1 million from $76.5 million in the year-prior period.


The company expects first-quarter revenues of $60 million to $63 million.



– Cogent Inc.

reported fourth-quarter net income of $20.7 million (22 cents per share), compared with $9.9 million (11 cents) for the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the South Pasadena-based automated fingerprint identification systems provider rose 46 percent to $46.2 million from $31.8 million in the year-prior period.


Excluding the effects of stock-based compensation, fourth-quarter adjusted net income was $21.8 million (23 cents per share), compared with $10 million (11 cents) a year earlier.

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