Irvine’s Sage Software Inc., a unit of Britain’s Sage Group PLC that makes software for small and midsize businesses, saw a drop in sales for the 12 months through September.
The company saw North American sales of $889 million, down 10% from a year earlier.
Sage didn’t report profits for its North America business unit. The company said it took some $16 million in charges related to a big restructuring program that primarily focused on the Irvine office.
British parent Sage Group reported revenue of $2.2 billion for the year through September, up 11% from a year earlier.
It reported earnings before interest, taxes and amortization of $495 million.
Sage said it added some 245,000 customers worldwide and 123,000 customers in North America during the period, for a total of about 6 million in all.
Sage has been hit hard during the downturn as many of its small business customers opt to hold on to their cash and defer payments and purchasing decisions.
Roughly 70% of Sage’s revenue comes from maintenance and support contracts.
Sage, which has about 400 workers here, has been plowing through a major restructuring for the better part of a year.
Chief Executive Sue Swenson, who came on board in 2007, has cut hundreds of jobs across Sage’s disparate business units. She’s also hired a handful of executives in Irvine.
The company focused on tightening up its operations and consolidating redundant positions after nearly a dozen acquisitions and ramping up its sales efforts.
Sage’s software streamlines tasks for companies, including accounting, purchasing, payroll processing and other day-to-day operations. Most of its software is sold through a network of local resellers that install the software and provide service.
Micro Machines
Irvine-based chip startup WiSpry Inc. recently nabbed another U.S. patent for microscopic machines that are thousandths of an inch in size and built on chips.
Mems, as the machines are called, are designed to be part of cell phone chips by WiSpry.
WiSpry’s Mems technologies help cell phone makers build phones that are less expensive, smaller in size and use less power.
WiSpry, one of Orange County’s best-funded startups, has raised nearly $50 million to date.
The closely held company is producing and shipping chips for one of the top three cell phone makers, but it hasn’t disclosed the customer.
“We continue to aggressively pursue protection for key technology that enables our breakthrough product roadmap,” said Art Morris, cofounder and chief technology officer.
Recent investors in WiSpry include Washington, D.C.-based Paladin Capital Group and Japan’s MuRata Manufacturing Co., a maker of ceramic capacitors that go into cell phones, medical devices, computers and other electronics.
Countersuit for Chips
Irvine’s Netlist Inc., a maker of specialized memory chips for computers that’s in the midst of reworking its business, was slapped with a countersuit by a competitor over a disputed patent.
The lawsuits surround a chip that “supercharges” the most common type of memory chips found in computers.
The controller chip is a design that comes out of a patent Netlist filed in 2004, which stemmed from a custom job it did for Apple Inc.
In September, Netlist filed a lawsuit against Westlake Village-based chipmaker Inphi Corp. alleging that Inphi infringed on its controller chip patent. Netlist is seeking damages and an injunction.
Inphi countersued earlier this month. It alleges that Netlist’s memory chips infringe on two of its patents related to memory interface technologies used in corporate data storage networks.
Netlist said the action “is without merit and appears to be in response to the patent infringement action filed by Netlist in September.”
Netlist still is a tiny player among larger competitors, such as Northern California’s Smart Modular Technologies Inc. and Fountain Valley’s Kingston Technology Co.
The outcome of the lawsuit could make or break Netlist’s latest venture—making boards with specialized controller chips that help manage other memory boards within servers—as it business hangs on that single patent.
Correction
A few weeks ago I reported on Mindspeed Technologies Inc.’s future move from its long-time headquarters in Newport Beach to new digs in Aliso Viejo.
The twin, 10-story buildings at 4000 MacArthur Blvd. have changed hands many times.
My story should have said that in early 2006, real estate investor and coin dealer John Saunders and other investors bid on the two buildings, known as Koll Center Newport, but the deal never closed. Ultimately, the buildings were bought by 4000 MacArthur LP from KBS Realty Advisors LLC for $133.5 million.
