ORANGE COUNTY

Lasermed Corp. of Costa Mesa has signed a tentative agreement which could give Staar Surgical Co. of Monrovia controlling interest in the company. Under terms of the proposed agreement, the cash-short manufacturer of eye surgery equipment would sell warrants for an undisclosed amount that could give Staar majority interest in Lasermed.

The agreement also requires Staar to raise equity funding for Lasermed and for Lasermed shareholders to approve the deal.

The two companies also agreed in principal to establish cooperative business activities, according to Jim Ashby, Lasermed’s vice president of finance. Staar makes lenses used by patients following cataract surgery. “We have the same customers, so hopefully we can serve them together,” Ashby said.

AST Research Inc., the fast-growing Irvine computer equipment maker, has raised $12.9 million from the sale of 800,000 shares of common stock at $17 per share.

The offering, which was fully subscribed, was the second stock sale for the company, which became publicly held in December with the sale of $13 million worth of stock at $7 per share. The sale brings the company’s total outstanding shares to 11.2 million.

In additiuon, AST’s three founders, as well as several other AST executives, sold a total of 600,000 shares in Tuesday’s offering, collecting a total of $9.7 million.

According to the prospectus, four-year-old AST Research plans to use the funds it raised for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

AST Research stock was recently accepted to trade on the NASDAQ National Market System.

Petrominerals Corp. has authorized the additional purchase of up to 35,000 of its own 8 million shares of common stock. The Stanton-based company, which believes its stock is undervalued, has bought back 250,000 of its shares over the last five months.