UC Irvine Takes Over OCMA

The former Orange County Museum of Art, now the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art 

UC Irvine says it has "competed its acquisition" of the Orange County Museum of Art. In other words, OCMA will be merging with the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art, and the University will oversee the combined institution. The merged museum will be known as the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art and will continues to operate both existing buildings—OCMA's Morphosis-designed structure in the Segerstrom Center and the Langson's much smaller space in Irvine. The university has a begun a search for an executive director of the merged museum.

Quick reaction: It sounds like less a merger of equals than a takeover. Was OCMA in worse financial shape than it seemed?

UC Irvine gets a readymade museum rather than having to raise money for a major new architectural project. But the Morphosis building is none too big for OCMA's existing programs and seems inadequate for the combined museum and its sizable collection. (The 6000-sf Irvine space hardly helps.) Two buildings are tough to make work. 

That new museum's name is a bear. UCILOCMA for short?