Download the 2010 OC’s Top Second-Tier Public Companies list (pdf)
The economic woes of the past two years or so played out on the Business Journal’s list of second-tier public companies.
The list, which normally features 50 companies—those ranked Nos. 76 to 125 based on yearly revenue—has 35 companies this year.
This week’s list is part of our annual ranking of the largest public companies based here. Nos. 1 through 75 were published April 5.
No. 110 Newport Beach-based Team Nation Holdings Corp., a title insurance and escrow company, is the final entry on this week’s list. It reported $2.6 million in revenue for the 12 months through September, up 191% from a year earlier.
Several companies that were on last year’s list don’t appear this year for various reasons. Some were acquired, went private, moved out of the county or just closed up shop during tough times.
Several canceled their publicly traded shares, saying in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission they no longer could afford the cost of being public.
Overall, the list’s 35 public companies saw $506 million in 2009 revenue, down 9.4% from a year earlier.
The 50 second-tier public companies on last year’s list saw $1.3 billion in sales in 2008.
This year’s companies, which are ranked by revenue for the most recently reported 12 months, usually through December, lost $205 million in 2009.
The loss was narrowed from $232 million a year earlier.
Twelve companies on the list saw revenue grow, 22 saw declines, and the revenue for one public company—No. 80 Irvine-based telescope and optical equipment maker Meade Instruments Corp.—was a Business Journal estimate.
Only 10 companies on the list saw profits in 2009.
The companies on the list employ 1,668 people locally, up 1% from a year earlier.
Overall, the companies employ 3,043 people throughout their worldwide locations, down 2.5% from a year earlier.
No. 76 Tustin-based drug maker Peregrine Pharmaceuticals Inc. was the list’s biggest revenue gainer by actual dollar amount.
It saw $31.4 million in sales for the 12 months through January, up 181% from a year earlier.
It lost $10.4 million for the period, narrowed from a loss of $19 million a year earlier.
The company, which makes drugs for cancer and viral infections, was the Business Journal’s fastest growing public company this past June.
It posted a 380.4% revenue growth rate for the three years ended last June.
The drug maker went from $4.9 million in revenue for the 12 months ended June 2007 to $23.3 million for the same period ended June 2009.
Despite its growth, the drug maker doesn’t yet have a commercial drug on the market.
In 2008, the Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency awarded Peregrine a contract worth up to $44.4 million to develop and tests its bavituximab drug and another antibody as treatment for viral hemorrhagic fevers, which can cause high fevers, shock and death.
The Ebola virus is categorized as a viral hemorrhagic fever, which various military personnel throughout the world are exposed to.
“Our record revenue, decreased net loss and increased cash position (for the three months ended January) are consistent with our strategy of managing our financial resources to support the development of our clinical-stage products as we move toward potential commercialization,” Chief Financial Officer Paul J. Lytle said in a recent statement.
No. 84 Lake Forest-based Comarco Inc. was the list’s second biggest revenue gainer by dollar amount.
It saw $20.5 million in sales for the 12 months ended October, up 174% from a year earlier.
It saw a loss of $729,000, narrowed from a loss of $11 million a year earlier.
Comarco designs and markets slim power adapters that charge notebook computers, digital cameras, cell phones and other mobile gear.
In 2008, the company sold two of its three business lines in an attempt to begin making a profit.
It sold its business making and servicing emergency roadside call boxes for about $3 million in cash in a management-led buyout.
It also sold its unit that made equipment to test and maintain wireless networks to Switzerland’s Ascom Holding AG for $13 million.
The company was having a hard time juggling the three unrelated product lines, it told the Business Journal in 2008.
Comarco’s results for the three months through October “demonstrate that the strategy we have put in place is working and Comarco is well on the path toward achieving its goal of profitability,” said Chief Executive Sam Inman in a statement.
No. 86 Irvine-based Netlist Inc., a maker of specialized memory products for computers, was the list’s biggest revenue decliner by dollar amount.
It saw $18.5 million in revenue for the 12 months ended December, down 72% from a year earlier.
It lost $13 million, narrowed from a loss of $15 million a year earlier.
Its revenue decline was due to weakened demand and falling memory chip prices, which in turn crimped the prices of Netlist’s products, according to the company’s most recent quarterly report.
It also stopped selling some of its products in 2009, the report said. Netlist now is focusing on memory boards with specialized controller chips that help manage other memory boards within servers.
This year’s list of second-tier public companies, always a work in progress, featured three newcomers.
Newport Beach-based Rubicon Financial Inc. debuted at No. 97 on the list.
The provider of insurance, mortgages and real estate services saw $10.8 million in revenue for the 12 months ended September, up 269% from a year earlier.
Irvine-based Bluefire Ethanol Fuels Inc. debuted at No. 106 with $4.3 million in revenue, up 302% from a year earlier.
The maker of biofuel was the list’s biggest revenue gainer by percentage.
Team Nation Holdings debuted as the list’s final entry, No. 110.
Download the 2010 OC’s Top Second-Tier Public Companies list (pdf)
