SiteLite Takes Up in University Research Park; Sage Licenses Accounting Code
It pays to sell military wares during a war. Just ask Irvine’s Microsemi Corp. The chipmaker just landed a $4.5 million, two-year contract with a European-based global systems, defense and aerospace company. The contract marks the first one from this particular company, Microsemi executives said.
Under the terms of the contract Microsemi plans to sell what it calls “military grade” chips from all its product lines. Contract options could expand the contract by $2 million, to $6.5 million.
“Microsemi sees long term military and aerospace spending increasing at an above-average rate,” said Microsemi Chief Executive Jim Peterson. “This newly awarded contract comes on the heels of a tragic event which has spurred long-term activity in our military-aerospace customer base.”
Microsemi acquired two military chipmakers in New England earlier this year to help bolster its product line and to eliminate competitors in that market. Microsemi chips go to a wide swath of industries. The company gets 29% of its revenue from military and aerospace uses; 20% from handheld devices; 14% from telecommunications; 13% from computer products; 13% from industrial gear; 8% from medical devices; and 2% from automotive equipment.
Over time, Microsemi has shifted away from its lower-margin businesses such as computer products to more lucrative businesses such as telecommunications or the automotive sector. Analysts praise Microsemi for its diverse sales activity. While other chipmakers have seen their businesses slow down, Microsemi has come through the past year relatively unscathed. Even if Microsemi’s computer products business slows, the company’s sales to defense industries are likely to increase.
SiteLite Lands in URP
Tech consultancy SiteLite Inc. recently opened a new facility at the University Research Park in Irvine. The 30,000-square-foot facility is a support operations center and further expands on space the company has for its corporate headquarters,also in the URP. The company folded another support center in Rancho Santa Margarita into the Irvine site. The company also has a similar facility in Dublin, Ireland.
The company made the move to accommodate what it calls “unprecedented growth” in its staff, which has jumped companywide by 50% to more than 170 employees. SiteLite executives expect the total employee count to grow to 230 by year-end, and say they expect to expand office space to accommodate a staff of 400.
Sage Gives License
Trying to give its popular accounting software a boost, Sage Software Inc., an Irvine-based software company, licensed the source code,or basic set of code for software,of Fargo, N.D.-based Intellisol International Inc.
The Intellisol source code will be a major addition to Sage’s basic productivity software, enabling certain accounting functions for service organizations. Sage hopes the product will appeal to executives looking for immediate information about how companywide projects are progressing.
“We are pleased to add the project accounting modules to our Sage Enterprise product suite,” said David Butler, president and COO of Sage Software. “Project accounting is a rapidly growing market and we believe our customers will be best served if the module is developed and maintained by Sage Software.”
Kudos for Quest
Quest Software Inc., a maker of software that manages large corporate databases, received recognition from industry think tank Gartner Group for its software. This is the second year in a row Gartner has said Quest is one of few leaders in the market for this type of software.
“Gartner’s recognition of our market leadership is another validation point that Quest excels at meeting our customers’ needs with intuitive user-friendly information management solutions that ensure a quick return on investment and reduce future technology expenses,” said Quest Chief Executive Vinny Smith.
On an unrelated Quest note, the company’s shares had climbed some 70% as of the middle of last week since hitting their 52-week low Sept. 27. The company’s shares had been sliding since the summer and dove sharply following the Sept. 11 attacks.
