Silicon Valley is all a twitter over Twitter as an IPO looms on the horizon.
From the Mercury-News' Jeremy Owens: "With Twitter's initial public offering on the horizon, Silicon Valley's IPO market is beginning to sizzle: A biotechnology company kicked off the action with its public debut Wednesday and two enterprise software companies increased the share price they are targeting in IPOs expected later this week."
"Five Prime Therapeutics, a South San Francisco biotech company that focuses on protein therapies, priced its initial batch of shares at $13 Tuesday evening, the middle of its expected range of $12 to $14, but increased the number of shares it offered from 4 million to 4.8 million. The 12-year-old company brought in $62.4 million, which it will use to fund clinical trials of its medical advances, according to the company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission."
"Upon reaching the Nasdaq trading floor Wednesday morning under the ticker symbol FPRX, Five Prime shares moved as high as $16, but decline from there to close just barely above the IPO price, at $13.08."
The feds are planning to study the impacts of fracking, under the terms of a newly reached, draft court settlement.
From the Chronicle's Bob Egelko: "The Obama administration has tentatively settled an environmental lawsuit over oil and gas drilling in Monterey and Fresno counties with an agreement to conduct a statewide study of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and its possible effects on water and wildlife."
"The tentative settlement was announced Monday in a federal court filing in San Jose. The filing did not provide details, but attorneyBrendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity noted that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management had promised in earlier court papers to conduct a new review of fracking after a magistrate blocked two oil leases in April."
"This will be the first statewide assessment of fracking in California," Cummings said. He said the study would probably take more than a year to complete, and environmentalists hope it leads to cancellation of the leases and new restrictions on the drilling practices."
Two communities northeast of Los Angeles have a problem -- a power plant.
From Capitol Weekly's Alex Matthews: "Nestled deep in the smoggy Antelope Valley north of Los Angeles are two peaceful California towns — Lancaster and Palmdale. But between those two quiet communities, a raucous fight is raging about a power plant on their border."
"Palmdale wants to build it. Lancaster wants to stop it."
"Lancaster officials say the Antelope Valley’s gusting winds will carry the plant’s 546 tons of pollution -- and the problems that will come with it – straight to Lancaster."
Boeing, the last man standing of Southern California's airplane assembly lines, is bailing out.
From the LAT's W. J. Hennigan: "Aerospace giant Boeing Co. said Wednesday it plans to complete production of the C-17 cargo jet and close the final assembly facility in Long Beach in 2015."
"The move marks the end of the last major airplane production line left in Southern California."
"Last Thursday, Boeing delivered its 223rd and final C-17 to the Air Force. Now, with few foreign orders to fill, company officials have decided to shutter the assembly line for good in 2015."
The Golden State isn't looking all that golden when it comes to its health care climate.
From the Bee's Cynthia Craft: "It’s really nothing to write home about: Overall, California ranks 20th of 50 states in health careclimate, according to a study that measures factors ranging from tooth loss to obesity to accessibility of health care."
"The Commonwealth Fund’s scorecard provides the first state-by-state, in-depth comparison between the health care experiences of low- and high-income Americans."
"The report defines low-wage earners as those making 200 percent of the federal poverty level or less: $47,000 annually for a family of four, or $23,000 per individual. Higher wage earners are defined as making 400 percent of poverty or more, with a baseline of $94,000 for a family of four."
