Blood Service Companies Scrap Merger Plans

HemaCare Corp., a Sherman Oaks provider of blood-related services and products, said its proposed purchase of Pacific Plasma Inc., a Woodland Hills blood plasma concern, was canceled by the mutual agreement of both companies.

The tentative merger agreement, whose value was not disclosed, was announced in October. But HemaCare Chairman Thomas M. Asher said Monday that “both sides felt they were better off” remaining apart.

HemaCare concluded that Pacific Plasma “was too dependent” on its president, Eric Jarrett, and Jarrett--who had sought HemaCare to obtain more cash--decided he was “giving up too much just to have the comfort of having the capital behind him,” Asher said.