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MegaPath Acquires Best Buy Tech Unit Speakeasy

Costa Mesa’s MegaPath Inc., a technology services outsourcing company, has made its second acquisition in as many months.

The company recently bought Speakeasy Inc. from Best Buy Co. Speakeasy is a Seattle-based provider of technology that allows for phone calls to be made over the Internet.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Best Buy is set to keep a minority stake in Speakeasy and have a seat on MegaPath’s board.

Speakeasy has about 300 workers and sees some $90 million in yearly sales, according to MegaPath Chief Executive Craig Young.

According to some observers, MegaPath may have snagged Speakeasy for a bargain price.

Best Buy at one point had big ambitions for Speakeasy, which it bought in 2007 for $97 million. At the time, the consumer electronics retailer was looking for ways to go after small and midsized businesses.

Speakeasy Chief Executive Bruce Chatterley is set to report to MegaPath’s Young and run the unit, which does direct sales to consumers and small businesses.

The Speakeasy deal follows on the heels of a combination with San Jose-based Covad Communications Group, a provider of broadband Internet services to corporations.

A private holding company was formed to purchase shares of each company and combine the operations of Covad and MegaPath.

Covad is owned by Los Angeles private equity firm Platinum Equity LLC.

The combined company, with Speakeasy included, is set to be run from Costa Mesa with expected yearly sales of more than $550 million, according to Young.

The Covad and Speakeasy deals are set to close in August.

Irvine Sensors’ Contracts

Costa Mesa’s Irvine Sensors Corp., a small maker of devices for the military, recently landed nearly $6 million in new and add-on contracts for its technology that helps shrink the size of electronics.

The company recently said its 3-D systems and technologies group received orders for a product that uses the company’s stacking technology, which packages electronic systems in a miniaturized cube.

The company didn’t disclose its customers but said the product was developed for a “government application.”

Irvine Sensors has had a tough time the past few years.

The company’s stock has been kicked off the Nasdaq exchange a couple of times—it received its most recent delisting notice in March.

Shares, now trading for just pennies, have been listed for less than a dollar for nearly two years.

A few weeks ago, Nasdaq approved Irvine Sensors’ request for an extension in order to get its stock trading for more than $1, per the stock exchange’s rules.

It’s weighing a reverse stock split, which must be approved by shareholders by the end of next month.

The company also has been dealing with several lawsuits surrounding a 2008 deal in which it sold off a unit to raise funds and pay off debt.

The company had a recent market value of about $5 million.

Ingram’s Hire

Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc., the world’s biggest distributor of technology goods, recently added a logistics veteran to its executive lineup.

Ingram hired Robert Gifford as the company’s executive vice president of global logistics this month.

Gifford is in charge of all of the company’s distribution centers and supply-chain operations.

He’s also set to run Ingram’s logistics business, in which it helps its reseller customers do shipping, storage and inventory for a fee.

He reports to Chief Operating Officer Alain Monie.

Gifford has three decades of experience managing and improving supply-chain operations.

His most recent post was at St. Paul, Minn.-based Ecolab Inc., which distributes goods used for cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection control in hotels, hospitals and restaurants. Ecolab sees some $6 billion in yearly sales.

Before that he was vice president of worldwide logistics at Hewlett-Packard Co.

WiSpry to Microsemi

In the June 6 column, I wrote about the departure of former chief executive Russell Garcia of Irvine-based chip startup WiSpry Inc.

He left the firm to pursue “other opportunities.”

Well, the other opportunity was just down the road at Irvine’s Microsemi Corp., the county’s third biggest chipmaker.

Microsemi hired Garcia as its vice president of marketing and sales. He’s set to report to Chief Executive Jim Peterson and head corporate marketing and worldwide sales.

Microsemi, which had a recent market value of $1 billion, makes chips for military, aerospace and industrial applications.

Garcia, with more than two decades in the industry, has hopped around some at local chip companies.

He went over to WiSpry in 2007 after six years as chief executive at Irvine’s u-Nav Microelectronics Corp.

U-Nav, a maker of GPS chips and software, was bought by Santa Clara-based Atheros Communications Inc. for $54 million later that year.

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