Apple Inc. was Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp.’s biggest customer in 2011, holding the designation for a second straight year.
The Cupertino-based consumer-electronics company accounted for 13.1% of Broadcom’s nearly $7.4 billion in revenue, which rose 11.1% in 2011, according to Broadcom’s recently filed annual report. That means Apple accounted for almost $970 million in revenue for Broadcom last year.
A large portion of Broadcom’s annual gains came in the mobile and wireless segment, where annual sales grew 20.6% to $3.4 billion last year.
Broadcom makes communications, radio and touch-screen chips that go into Apple’s iPods, iPhones and iPads, among other products.
San Luis Obispo-based technology website ifixit.com reported last June it had uncovered a Broadcom Wi-Fi transceiver and Bluetooth in Apple’s new MacBook Air.
South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. accounted for 10% of Broadcom sales last year, roughly flat from 2010.
Publicly traded companies must disclose any customer that accounts for at least 10% of sales.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. analysts said all of the Apple revenue and 60% of sales to Samsung—some $443 million—was generated in Broadcom’s mobile segment.
The $2 billion balance came from other customers amid surging demand for mobile devices, tablets and other emerging consumer products.
“We believe this growth from other customers illustrates that Broadcom’s mobile growth is broad-based and is likely to become even more diversified as Broadcom expands into low-end Android smartphones in both connectivity and basebands,” Deutsche Bank research analyst Ross Seymore wrote in an investors note.
Deutsche bank maintained its “buy” rating on Broadcom.
$2M Round
An Irvine startup has raised $2 million in early-round funding and landed its first chief executive.
Numecent announced earlier this month that it received $2 million from investors in a $10 million series-A funding round and tapped angel investor and entrepreneur Osman Kent to lead the company. The funding will help the University of California, Irvine spin-out develop a cloud-based technology to deliver software programs and other applications to end-users.
“I think at Numecent we can change how all software is delivered and deployed from the cloud,” Kent said during a recent business trip through Amsterdam and Spain.
Kent was an early investor in the company, putting $1 million into operations. He was originally tapped to serve as chairman, but the board asked him to head the company because of his prior experience on Wall Street.
The company had raised $7.5 million in seed funding before the latest investment round and counts more than 100 angel investor backers, Kent said.
“We have a very ambitious road map and a great vision of where we are going,” he said.
Kent splits his time between Orange County and the United Kingdom. He was the cofounder and chief executive of chipmaker 3Dlabs when its remaining shares were sold to Singapore-based Creative Labs in 2002 in a $170 million deal.
3Dlabs, based in Sunnyvale, went public in 1996 and specialized in designing chips for 3D graphics before it ran into financial troubles.
Numecent is in stealth mode and plans to unveil its technology in March.
Auspicious Start
The head of Irvine-based hybrid auto parts maker Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc. expects “significant” revenue growth in 2012 as demand for alternative fuel increases.
The company has struggled to find its niche in various business lines over the years but is off to a good start this year. It recently received new purchase orders totaling $750,000 for its ultra-light-weight, compressed natural gas storage tanks that will be installed in heavy-duty and light-duty fleet vehicles.
“We believe that revenues from the sale of CNG tanks will more than double in 2012 and combined with the expected Fisker Karma production ramp we are forecasting 2012 to be a year defined by significant revenue growth,” Quantum Chief Executive Alan Niedzwiecki said.
Those orders came on the heels of an engineering contract from Indian automaker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. to develop hydrogen systems for commercial vehicles. Quantum will modify Mahindra’s smaller engines to run on clean hydrogen under the deal and supply its ultra-light-weight hydrogen storage and fuel injection systems.
Mahindra sold a record 44,717 cars in January, mostly in India.
Quantum—a big supplier of hybrid powertrains to Anaheim-based hybrid luxury carmaker Fisker Automotive Inc.—reported $13 million in quarterly revenue through October. That represented a 233% increase from a year earlier fueled by increased orders from Fisker for hybrid drive systems.
