Acquisitions and rebounding demand helped Broadcom Corp. strengthen its grip on the top spot among local chipmakers during the past year.
The Irvine-based communications chipmaker reported a 13% jump in Orange County workers to 1,313 people, according to this week’s Business Journal list of the biggest local chipmakers.
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Broadcom’s revenue for the 12 months ended June 30 was up 10% to $2.3 billion.
In all, the 20 chipmakers on the list recorded a small dip in employment at 4,831 local workers during the past year. A year ago, the companies employed 4,860 people locally.
Revenue at the companies, which includes big players Intel Corp. and Toshiba Corp., rose 7% to $93.6 billion. The list includes chipmakers based here or with operations in the county.
No. 3 Newport Beach-based Conexant Systems Inc., which long topped the list before being overtaken by Broadcom in 2003, drove the decline in workers. The maker of chips for modems, set-top boxes and networks continued to cut jobs with a 19% decline to 485 workers.
Conexant has quickly grown its operations in India in the past year in a bid to cut costs. The move seems to be paying off: Last week Conexant said it posted a profit in the quarter ended Sept. 30, its first quarterly profit in more than a year.
The good news for the industry is that global chip sales are on the upswing. Sales in August rose 3.2% to $18.3 billion from a year ago, according to the San Jose-based Semiconductor Industry Association.
Strong demand for consumer electronics, including digital music players and wireless phones, and a rebound in computer sales, spurred the gain.
“The outlook for semiconductor sales remains strong,” said George Scalise, president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, in a statement.
One sign of potential weakness is consumer sentiment, which declined sharply in the wake of the hurricanes and rising interest rates. That could impact spending on electronics.
At Broadcom, third-quarter sales of $695 million were up 7.5% from a year ago and ahead of analysts’ estimates. Net income in the period more than doubled to $144 million, easily topping estimates.
No. 2 on the list is Newport Beach-based chip plant operator Jazz Semiconductor Inc. with 825 workers,flat from a year ago.
Jazz, a Conexant spinoff, is one of the only companies to make chips here, along with No. 5 Microsemi Corp. of Irvine. The others on the list design chips here and contract out for production.
Microsemi, which makes chips for the medical and defense industries, cut 2% of its local workforce in the past year to 450 people. Microsemi’s sales are up 25% to $286 million in the past year.
Analysts say Microsemi, which is in the midst of a restructuring, could see more demand for its chips used in notebook computers, a market that’s seen strong sales this year.
At No. 4 is another Conexant offshoot, Woburn, Mass.-based Skyworks Solutions Inc., a maker of radio frequency chips for wireless phones.
Skyworks’ Irvine operation reported a 2% rise in workers to 479 people. The company has seen sales slump in the past year, down 21% to $618 million for the 12 months ended Sept. 30.
No. 6 Newport Beach-based Mindspeed Technologies Inc., yet another Conexant spinoff, slipped two spots on the list on an 18% decline in workers to 390 workers.
The company is working to get back to profitability by the middle of next year, spokesman Tom Stites said.
The staff cuts reflect Mindspeed’s bid to scale back development of some products that don’t hold a lot of promise for future growth, he said.
Mindspeed, meanwhile, has been hiring in other areas, including chips for Internet-based phone calling and those that speed up connections to the Internet for homes, Stites said.
Toshiba America Electronics Components Inc. in Irvine is the No. 7 chipmaker in the county after losing 12% of its workers last year. Toshiba has 122 workers in OC.
The cuts partly were a result of shifting some warehouse and logistics workers to a sister company, Toshiba Logistics America Inc. in Irvine, said Stephen Marlow, executive vice president.
Toshiba America Electronics, a unit of Tokyo-based Toshiba, also wrapped up an engineering project with Sony Corp. and IBM Corp.
