A ROUNDUP OF SAN FERNANDO VALLEY NEWS Continental Buys Medical Mart Continental Home Healthcare Ltd. of Glendale has acquired the assets of Medical Mart of Las Vegas, a home medical business with current annual revenues of $1.4 million. Continental acquired the assets and liabilities of the company with no cash payments but assuming $180,000 in debt. The purchase price is likely to be reduced further as a result of negotiations concerning vendor agreements. The principal and founder of Medical Mart, Tom Gray, will remain with Continental. The business is across the street from Las Vegas’s largest medical facility, the Columbus/Sunrise Hospital, and has constant walk-in traffic as a result. Medical Mart has operated in Las Vegas for 19 years and specializes in rehabilitation products and supply of ostomy, urological and woundcare products, areas that will augment the current product offering from Continental’s Las Vegas branch. The expanded product offering through the acquired supply line provides additional marketing opportunities to Continental’s preferred provider contract with the 130,000-member, Las Vegas-based Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union Welfare Fund. In addition, the company has a large contract with Pacific Care, an insurance organization, to provide rehabilitative products and supplies to its customers. City OKs Airfield Project The Los Angeles City Council has voted to allow Los Angeles County to build a large industrial park at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima. The council gave preliminary approval to the construction of six industrial buildings, with a combined 300,000 square feet, at 12653 Osborne St. The county owns the 18.3-acre site, which represents nearly 10 percent of the airport property, but because it is within city limits all development must be approved by the city of L.A. County officials will seek private bids from developers, who would build the industrial park and lease the land from the county. The site is within a federal empowerment zone and a state enterprise zone, both of which provide tax credits to companies that locate in high-poverty areas. Because the site includes some steep slopes, the size of the development may have to be scaled back to 200,000 square feet to avoid significant grading work. The effort to develop surplus land at the airport began in 1997 when Arc Machines Inc. moved into an industrial building there, keeping 250 jobs in the area. The firm, which makes high-precision welding equipment, moved from an older site in Pacoima. Syncor Acquires Radpharm Scientific The Australian subsidiary of Syncor International Corp. of Woodland Hills has acquired Radpharm Scientific Pty Ltd., a distributor and manufacturer of diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals used in nuclear medicine and medical imaging. Radpharm, based in Canberra, Australia, distributes products to more than 160 nuclear medicine practices in Australia and exports to New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong. The acquisition gives Syncor presence in Canberra, complementing its existing Australian radiopharmacy sites in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane. Playboy Buys Vivid TV Channels Playboy Enterprises Inc. has agreed to acquire three X-rated sex channels from the owners of Van Nuys-based Vivid Video, one of the largest producers of porn movies, for $70 million. The three channels it is acquiring Vivid TV, Hot Network and Hot Zone carry more extreme programming than anything on Playboy’s three X-rated networks Playboy TV, Spice and Spice 2. Playboy’s strategic about-face underscores the growing acceptance of racier sex on television. Hard-core pornography has become increasingly popular and hugely profitable for satellite and cable operators, forcing Playboy to give up its singular devotion to soft-core programming. Negative EIR on Oakmont An environmental impact report released last week indicates building more than 57 homes in the Verdugo Mountains would have a negative effect on the air, wildlife and scenic vistas of the Glendale hillside area. The Oakmont V development “would directly eliminate at least 177 acres of ecosystem,” while “loss of the existing stream, riparian forest and oak woodland would be irreversible,” stated the study ordered by the Glendale City Council. The report was a revision of a previous environmental study that was determined last year to be inadequate. Its release begins a 45-day public review period.