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THE TIMES 100 : The Best Performing Companies in California : Potpourri

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COMPILED BY JAMES BATES

NOW WE KNOW WHY

-- The first Times 100 in 1988 listed the most “undervalued” and “overvalued” companies based on income as a percentage of their book value. Among them:

* Columbia Savings & Loan, a Beverly Hills thrift that failed in January, was the most undervalued.

* First Executive Corp., whose main insurance units were seized in April by regulators, was the eighth-most undervalued.

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* Imperial Corp. of America, which filed under Chapter 11 last year after regulators seized its now-defunct Imperial Savings unit, was the 11th-most undervalued.

* The most overvalued that year was Carter Hawley Hale, now operating under Chapter 11.

SAPLING AMONG THE REDWOODS

Amgen, a Thousand Oaks biotechnology firm, on April 12 had a market value of $5.3 billion, just a shade below that of Westwood oil giant Occidental Petroleum Corp.--which is 72 times the size of Amgen in revenue.

STRANGEST NAME

Boole & Babbage

WORST SPELLED COMPANY NAME

Quiksilver Inc.

APPAREL APPARENT

Companies on The Times 100 list could wrap you from head to toe: sneakers (L.A. Gear), everyday clothing (Gap Inc. and Ross Stores), surf wear (Quiksilver Inc.) and lingerie (Fredericks of Hollywood).

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TRENDY NO LONGER

Among the biggest losers in stock price from April 12, 1990, to April 12 of this year were L.A. Gear (65% drop), Sharper Image (down 63%) and Westwood One (also 63%).

REALLY RAD HOMETOWN

Nearly one-third of the companies on The Times 100 are Silicon Valley-area firms. And the smallest headquarters city is Hercules (pop.: 16,829) in the Bay Area. It’s the home of Bio-Rad Labs, an instrument maker.

IS THE TIMES 100 A JINX?

An alumni update shows some of the companies that have finished near the top of previous Times 100 lists fell on hard times soon after. They include:

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* Ashton-Tate (No. 8 on the 1988 list): Edward M. Esber resigned as chief executive of the Torrance software maker last year 1990 after the company botched the introduction of a newer version of its most successful software product.

* Micropolis (No. 27 in 1988): Chatsworth disk-drive maker lost $50 million in 1989 after encountering problems with its newer products, although it rebounded strongly last year.

* Brajdas Corp. (No. 4 in 1989): Woodland Hills electronic component firm began losing money after making the list and has withdrawn from the semiconductor business.

* Carl Karcher Enterprises (No. 69 in 1989): Founder Carl N. Karcher and six of his relatives the following year settled civil chargers of insider trading with the Securities and Exchange Commission by paying $664,000.

But not all the news was bad. . .

* Television mogul Aaron Spelling (whose Aaron Spelling Productions ranked No. 7 on The Times 100 in 1989), finally finished his 56,500-square-foot Holmby Hills mansion.

* C&R; Clothiers (No. 29 in 1988) finally found five new guys to use as models in its TV ads.

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