Irvine-based Sage Software Inc., the North American headquarters of Britain’s Sage Group PLC, could be breaking out of a two-year slump.
The company’s software, which streamlines accounting, purchasing, payroll processing and other day-to-day tasks, saw a double-digit sales spike in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to Chief Executive Pascal Houillon.
Houillon, who took the top spot in January, didn’t disclose Sage’s first-quarter sales. The North American arm has about $1 billion in yearly sales.
Sage, which focuses on small and midsize businesses, was hit hard during the downturn as many customers held off purchases. Sales largely have been flat for the past few years.
That could be changing as small-business owners begin to invest again in software and other technology.
“I think they will invest a little more,” Houillon said. “I don’t think they’re going to go back where they were four or five years ago. But we see they’re more confident.”
Houillon is in charge of the biggest piece of Sage as chief executive of the North American division. It makes up about 40% of its parent’s total.
He said he’s optimistic revenue will be up again when the current quarter closes.
“We think the second quarter will be stronger than the first one,” he said. “We see good momentum in the market.”
Set-Top Chip
Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. recently unveiled its latest chip for set-top boxes.
The chip is designed to foster high-definition and interactive services in growing economies in Brazil, Russia, India, China and Africa, according to Broadcom.
“Broadcom’s new set-top box technology delivers the ability to upgrade subscribers from standard definition to HD at minimal cost, transforming the satellite pay TV market in emerging countries,” said Nicholas Dunn, vice president of marketing for the company’s set-top chip business.
The rollout comes as emerging markets continue to switch to high-definition broadcasting through pay TV operators such as British Sky Broadcasting Group’s Brazilian operation, Russia’s NTV Plus and India’s Dishtv.
The percentage of satellite set-top box shipments that support high-definition in Brazil, Russia and India is expected to grow from 13% in 2010 to 57% in 2016, according to New York-based ABI Research.
Broadcom’s chip is being sampled by set-top box makers, according to the company.
The company designs chips for the largest makers of set-top boxes including Motorola Inc. of Illinois, France’s Technicolor SA and Britain’s Pace PLC.
The boxes are sold to pay TV companies, Internet service providers and others, which typically lease them to customers along with service.
Broadcom’s set-top box chips, which date back to the earliest days of the company, have had to keep up with changes in networking and entertainment.
In many cases, broadband routers have stolen the thunder of set-top boxes and emerged as the common link for household devices that connect to the Internet. But market watchers say the set-top box’s evolution still is unfolding.
Emulex Promotion
Margie Evashenk has been promoted to chief development executive at Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp.
Evashenk now oversees all of the networking electronics maker’s engineering, a role that had been temporarily held by Jeff Benck, Emulex’s president and chief operating officer.
Evashenk reports to Benck.
“I look forward to leveraging our broad and deep talent pool to further Emulex’s position in current markets, while also investing in building out new and emerging product areas,” said Evashenk, who joined Emulex in 2006 with the acquisition of Northern California’s Sierra Logic, where she was a cofounder.
Evashenk most recently served as senior vice president of engineering at Emulex, responsible for application-specific chips, devices and embedded products.
She has held various management posts in engineering and research and development at Hewlett-Packard Co. and Santa Clara’s Agilent Technologies Inc.
Emulex makes adapter cards, switches and other gear that speed the flow of data on corporate storage networks.
In late April, Emulex beat Wall Street expectations with a 10% rise to $112 million in revenue for the March quarter. It posted a net loss of $18.6 million, versus $13.3 million in profits a year earlier.
Western Digital Drives
Irvine-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. has rolled out its latest line of drives for storing video, music and other audio.
The 2.5- and 3-terabyte drives are designed for digital video recorders, video surveillance, media servers and as external drives for storing music, videos, photos and other files.
The big drives require some checking beforehand. Some computers running Windows XP can’t support drives larger than 2.19 terabytes. Computers with 32-bit versions of Windows Vista or Windows 7 require drives larger than 2.19 terabytes to be used as secondary drives.
The 2.5-terabyte drive sells for about $160. The 3-terabyte drives goes for $180.
For the March quarter, Western Digital reported $2.25 billion in sales, down 14.7% from a year earlier and in line with analysts’ expectations.
The company fell slightly short of profit expectations at $146 million, down 64% from a year earlier.
Western Digital saw a smaller decline in the number of drives sold in the March quarter at 50 million, down 2% from a year earlier.
