Dell Inc. is placing a big bet that its $2.4 billion purchase of Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc. in late June offers a foundation to grow software sales past the $5 billion mark.
John Swainson, president of Dell’s Software Group, told Reuters the Round Rock, Texas-based company has targeted that revenue figure in the years ahead as it diversifies product offerings beyond computers.
That would be quite a jump for Dell, which won’t hit $2 billion in software sales until at least 2016, according to Swainson.
Quest is one of Orange County’s biggest software makers, with $857 million in sales in 2011. It has nearly 3,900 workers overall and 600 here. Quest makes software that helps manage and improve other business products from various companies, including Washington-based Microsoft Corp., IBM Corp. of New York, and Redwood Shores-based Oracle Corp.
Dell, the third-largest computer maker in the world, has not disclosed what the local impact will be as it folds Quest under its umbrella.
The Federal Trade Commission last week approved the deal, quelling antitrust concerns and clearing a regulatory hurdle as it winds through customary closing conditions. The acquisition is expected to close this quarter.
Camera Sales
San Juan Capistrano-based IQinVision is seeing a sales shift for its line of high-performance HD cameras.
Orders typically running in the range of a few dozen cameras have swelled and are now regularly in the hundreds. The increase has been fueled by growing demand in the public sector and health care industries.
“We’re growing in the size of deals,” Executive Vice President Rob Ledenko said.
Ledenko touted the company’s latest contract to supply Elkerliek Hospital in the Netherlands with 150 cameras for IP video surveillance. That came on the heels of a $1.8 million deal in Louisiana to supply some 2,500 cameras at schools and buildings, a record for IQinVision.
The company’s cameras retail between $400 and $1,200, depending on the size and features. The products are designed in San Juan Capistrano, manufactured in Asia and brought back to Orange County for final testing.
The company employs about 50 people, with 38 based here. IQinVision recently opened an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, “to support design and help channel partners in the region get more influence to buy our product,” Ledenko said.
It also operates a European sales office in the Netherlands. The company uses a mix of direct sales and resellers to distribute its products.
IQinVision, which was established in 1998, also targets consumers, banks and retail outlets. It counts the San Juan Capistrano School District, Subway and Amazon as customers.
Funding
808 Renewable Energy Corp. has raised nearly $470,000 in venture capital, according to a filing this month with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Huntington Beach-based startup didn’t disclose how it plans to use the proceeds.
The company is focusing on cogeneration plants, which are small power stations that produce electricity for buildings and capture steam and exhaust to heat or cool water and/or fuel a building’s heating and cooling system.
The plants, which are smaller than those run by a utility, are powered by natural gas and capture heat or exhaust gas that would otherwise be wasted. 808 acquires the plants, fixes them up with engines, steam boilers and turbines, and then sells power back to the building operator.
It has spent at least $10 million buying and retrofitting power plants, then-Chief Executive Pascal Lorthioir told the Business Journal last year. Two of those deals were slated for Orange County at 3200 Park Center Drive in Costa Mesa and 333 S. Anita Drive in Orange.
Mixer
David Kappos, U.S. undersecretary of commerce for intellectual property and director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, was in Orange County last week for a networking mixer and chat.
He offered a 90-minute talk centered on the patent office’s goal to approve intellectual property policy and enforcement and said the office also should cut down the lengthy application and approval process.
The visit to Powerwave Technologies Inc. in Santa Ana was Kappos’ first visit to California since the patent office announced its plans to open satellite sites in San Jose, Dallas and Denver. The first site opened this month in Detroit, marking the agency’s first expansion since its inception in 1790.
OC wasn’t among the 600 original applicants to submit a bid to host a regional office.
The event was sponsored by TechVoice, a newly formed partnership between the Computing Technology Industry Association, the Technology Councils of North America and regional technology groups.
TechVoice recently established a Southern California chapter.
