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Chip Startups Funding Dropped 19% in 2007 to $3B

Funding in chip startups declined last year, according to statistics from the Global Semiconductor Alliance, a Dallas-based trade group.

For 2007, there were 206 deals that totaled nearly $3 billion in venture funding for chipmakers and their suppliers, the report showed. That’s down 19% from about $5 billion in 2006.

The average size of a deal last year was about $14 million.

California captured the lion’s share of investment deals in North America, accounting for more than half and totaling about $1.4 billion.

North America saw 68% of the deals, Europe scored 20% of the deals, Israel had 8% and Asia held 4%.

The overall outlook for revenue growth at chip companies this year is still pretty positive despite economic concerns.

Still, many researchers have either cut or expect to trim their 2008 estimates from what they had expected.






Gateway Tatoo: Matt Harris branded his stomach with the logo to win a computer

El Segundo-based iSuppli Corp. is the most bullish of the bunch.

ISuppli is looking for 7.5% sales growth from chipmakers this year on expectations that semiconductor companies will have a good handle on inventories, according to Dale Ford, vice president of market intelligence.

San Jose-based Carnegie Research Inc. is looking for 4% sales growth; Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. is looking for a 3.4% jump in sales; and Scottsdale-based In-Stat is expecting a 2.4% increase.


Branded by Gateway

Irvine PC maker Gateway Inc., which was bought by Taiwan’s Acer Inc. last year, picked the winner of its latest marketing gimmick, errrr, campaign.

Gateway held an online contest geared toward video game enthusiasts called “Show Your Spots”,a play on the company’s black-and-white cow print logo.

The company was looking for tech savvy gamers willing to “perform and film a crazy stunt” to win Gateway’s high-end desktop PCs that are specially outfitted with features for creating, downloading and playing video games.

The catch,the three-minute video must incorporate “a genuine or fake” Holstein cow (those black and white dairy cows).

The video entries were judged by a panel of Gateway workers and were scored according to humor, creativity, “level of daringness” and the number of views it got on video sharing site YouTube.com.

The winner was a bit daring, all right.

He also didn’t mind getting a corporate logo done in permanent ink.

Matt Harris “astonished” the Gateway judges by tattooing his belly with a large Gateway logo and the cow, the company said.

He won a not-yet-for-sale gaming PC that features advanced graphics cards, video cards, fast connection speeds for online gaming and more memory.

Gateway got 38 submissions, including more tattoos, a cattle rancher who slid through a pile of manure and another who ate something “unmentionable,” the company said.

A persistent teen from New Hampshire submitted multiple entries, displaying talents for hot sauce drinking and swimming in the Atlantic Ocean in the dead of winter.

Gateway has done similar contests in the past. One lucky guy won a 24-inch, high-definition flat panel display monitor for shaving off one of his eyebrows on video. Entries can be viewed at the “Show Your Spots” group on YouTube.


Lake Forest Taps Synoptek

Santa Ana-based Synoptek Inc., a business and technology consulting group, landed a government contract with the city of Lake Forest.

The privately held company didn’t disclose the value of the deal.

Other local cities have outsourced their information technology work to Synoptek, including Seal Beach, Fullerton, San Juan Capistrano and Westminster.

Last year, Synoptek was ranked ninth on the Business Journal’s list of fastest-growing private companies.

It’s set to see about $6 million in sales this year.

Synoptek has two lines of business. One is traditional business consulting for large companies in retail, consumer products, financial services and healthcare. The other is tech outsourcing with business consulting services geared toward companies with 50 to 500 workers.

Synoptek, which has some 30 workers, is a consultant to Allergan Inc., Walt Disney Co., ConAgra Foods Inc. and Starbucks Corp., among others.

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