Several big gainers on this week’s Business Journal list of 50 smaller public companies helped drive an 8% revenue gain to $1 billion for 2008.
The companies are ranked by revenue for the most recently reported 12 months, usually through December.
In all, 28 companies saw increases in revenue, 19 saw decreases and three were flat.
Big revenue gainers on this year’s list include a local search engine company, a maker of devices for ballooning blood vessels and a drug maker.
Notable revenue decliners include a designer and seller of data storage and other computer products, a maker of cancer fighting drugs and a bank.
This week’s list is part of our annual ranking of the largest 125 public companies based here. Nos. 1 through 75 were published on April 6.
This year’s second-tier 50 featured 12 newcomers, as many companies that were part of last year’s smaller 50 moved up to the largest 75 or were bumped off the list because of acquisitions, moves, going private or other reasons.
And, like the largest public companies here, this year’s group of smaller companies came in with less revenue than their counterparts on last year’s list. They had sales of $1.3 billion.
No. 89 Irvine-based Spectrum Pharma-ceuticals Inc. was the biggest revenue gainer on this week’s list of smaller 50 companies by actual dollar amount.
The drug maker upped its revenue by 274% to $29 million for 2008.
The revenue jump is partly due to Spectrum selling its rights to make a generic sumatriptan injection, which is used to treat migraine headaches, to New York-based Par Pharmaceutical Cos.
Spectrum also upped its revenue with sales of Fusilev,the former generic drug maker’s first branded drug,which is used to treat a rare cancer.
Like many companies on our list, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals lost money in 2008. It reported a net loss of $15 million, up from a net loss of $34 million in 2007.
The drug maker was one of 36 companies that weren’t profitable last year. An additional eight companies made less money than the year earlier.
In total, the 50 smaller public companies lost $380 million last year, widened from a loss of $347 million in 2007.
No. 82 Irvine-based Local.com Corp. was the second biggest revenue gainer on the list by dollar amount, boosting its sales by 78% to $38 million.
The company, which hosts Web sites that help users search for local businesses and products, generates revenue through companies that advertise on its sites.
The company lost $8.6 million in 2008, up from a loss of $18 million in 2007.
Local.com is looking for profitability in 2009.
“We are bullish for 2009, projecting approximately $50 million in overall revenue and a return to net income for the entire year,” said Heath Clarke, Local.com chief executive.
No. 95 Irvine-based I/OMagic Corp. was the list’s biggest decliner by dollar amount. The maker of data storage and other computer products saw revenue drop 40% to $21 million in the 12 months through September.
The declines came with lower sales of the company’s magnetic data storage, optical data storage and media and entertainment products, I/OMagic said.
The company saw a loss of $6.5 million for the 12 months through September, widened from a loss of $2 million a year earlier.
I/OMagic is “presently experiencing a lack of liquidity and may have insufficient liquidity to fund its operations for the next 12 months or less,” the company said in its September Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
As always, this year’s list featured a motley mix of companies, including an operator of drug and alcohol treatment centers that started out as a buyer, seller and racer of thoroughbred horses; an authenticator and grader of coins, sports cards, stamps and other collectables; and a company that buys patents and collects licensing fees from companies.
Top 75
The top 75 public companies are a bit more predictable with large technology and healthcare companies dominating the group with a sprinkling of real estate and financial companies that managed, at least for 2008, to survive the crash.
Revenue at those companies was flat at $92 billion.
There are some corrections to the first list.
Elephant Talk Communications Inc. was mistakenly listed as No. 75 with $47.4 million in revenue.
The company is actually Dutch and is thus ineligible for our list.
Irvine-based New Motion Inc., which also is known as Atrinsic, should have been No. 59 on our first list with $113.9 million in 2008 revenue, up 208% from a year earlier.
The digital advertiser and marketer saw a surge in revenue when it acquired Pearl River, N.Y.-based Traffix Inc., an online database marketing company, in February of last year, New Motion said.
The company lost $116 million in 2008, widened from a loss of $4.1 million a year earlier.
Cavico Corp. of Huntington Beach should have been No. 72 on our first list. The contractor, which builds hydropower plants, dams, bridges, tunnels, roads and other pieces of infrastructure in Vietnam, saw $58 million in revenue for the 12 months ending in December, up 60% from a year earlier.
Work on Vietnamese hydropower plants helped drive that growth, the company said.
The contractor made $632,000 for 2008, compared to a net income of $6 million a year earlier.
