North Bay Business Journal

NAPA — Fifty-four rental townhomes and a 124-unit apartment complex on the Sheveland Ranch property in south Napa sold to a San Francisco real estate investment firm for $39.5 million.

BODEGA — Patty Karlin’s Bodega Artisan Cheese for nearly 30 years has helped put the North Coast on the map for handcrafted quality foods, but when faced with mounting costs of keeping her small-scale goat dairy in business, she turned to a startup funder of artisan food startups to take her products to a wider market.

NORTH BAY – At a time when many businesses are experiencing better cash flow after the worst of the recession, North Bay experts in mergers and acquisitions said that owners looking to sell their business could increase the likelihood of a successful acquisition by clearly depicting a number of key metrics related to their business assets and activity.

HEALDSBURG — Santa Rosa-based land surveying company Cinquini & Passarino has added a wine focus by merging in Howard Brunner’s 16-year-old surveying business in Healdsburg.

The record-sized winegrape harvest of 2012 hasn’t crushed demand building over the past year for wine producers to lock in fruit supplies and places to turn it into higher-end wines that have been enjoying a resurgence in sales.

Assessing the value of a wine investment opportunity is the key to a good purchase.

The due-diligence process provides an opportunity for a buyer to identify an asset’s unseen potential — and possible pitfalls — in order to gain a better understanding of value.

SONOMA — The Cline family who make two Sonoma Valley wine brands purchased The Olive Press, an olive mill that produces gourmet oil, food and personal-care products from olives.

The business has its mill and a tasting room in Sonoma and a tasting room at Oxbow Public Market in Napa.

WINDSOR — Two family-owned Bay Area packaging and janitorial products supply companies are coming together under the same roof of a new 42,000-square-foot distribution facility.

SAN RAFAEL — Autodesk Inc., (NASDAQ: ADSK) today said it completed the acquisition of a Wyoming-based developer of software for design and analysis of composite materials.

GEYSERVILLE — Francis Ford Coppola Winery today confirmed it purchased the Geyser Peak winery facility and surrounding vines in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley winegrowing region to expand wine production.

The two largest wine label printing companies in the North Coast have been expanding through acquisition, organic growth and equipment upgrades in the past year and a half as sales of wine bottles have been accelerating.

SAN RAFAEL — BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (Nasdaq: BMRN) on Thursday reported its fourth-quarter and 2012 net losses about doubled from a year before.

Rumors have been circulating that BioMarin is an acquisition target, but the company CEO fended off that speculation recently.

NAPA — Tapp Label Technologies Inc., a printer of wine and spirits labels from plants in Napa and Canada, today said it acquired Ben Franklin Press & Label Co. of Napa.

SANTA ROSA — California Parenting Institute announced it has merged with New Direction School in Santa Rosa.

William “Bill” Price III, co-founder of private investment company TPG Group and a financier of North Coast wineries such as Kosta Browne, purchased the 138-acre Gap’s Crown pinot noir and chardonnay vineyard in the Sonoma Coast appellation east of Rohnert Park.

Securing enough North Coast grapes to supply growing consumer demand for wine is spurring growth in staffing and services among some North Bay law firms that serve the industry, all of which is helping the legal industry rebound after several years of static business.

Novato-based Winery Exchange continues to expand beyond its roots as a worldwide creator of wine, beer and spirits brands with the acquisition of a portfolio of certified-organic and sulfite-undetectable wine brands, led by Our Daily Red and Orleans Hill, from Nevada County Wine Guild. …

St. Helena-based Trinchero Family Estates on Wednesday announced a strategic alliance with vintners Charles Smith of Walla Walla, Wash., and Charles Bieler of New York City to manage sales, distribution and marketing of their joint-venture brand Charles & Charles. …

Safe Harbor Wine Storage (707-252-9690, safeharborwines.com), a bulk cellaring business opened five years ago by two notable Napa Valley winemakers and two owners of Sausalito-based oak stave insert maker StaVin, has outgrown its 50,000-square-foot south Napa winery and is moving forward with plans to expand down the street. …

Because the original comment period for the proposed vineyard waiver program for rainwater runoff in the Napa River and Sonoma Creek watersheds ran through the winter holidays, the State Water Resources Control Board extended the comment deadline and rescheduled the public hearing. …

DH Wine Compliance of Windsor this month launched Wine Compliance Academy. …

After two decades as president of Lake County Winegrape Commission, Shannon Gunier left the organization this month. … To replace Ms. Gunier, the board of the Lakeport-based trade group chose Debra Sommerfield from more than 30 applicants. …

SAN RAFAEL — Three-dimensional-design software maker Autodesk Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), today said it finished the acquisition of PI-VR, a privately held German developer of simulation software for automobile manufacturers.

SAN RAFAEL — BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BRMN) today said it has acquired San Diego-based Zacharon Pharmaceuticals, a private biotechnology company focused on developing small molecules targeting pathways of glycan and glycolipid metabolism.

NAPA — The owner of The Meritage Resort & Spa has purchased land across the street as part of a plan to enhance the experience for the tens of thousands of visitors the recently expanded 323-room facility brings to Napa Valley each year.