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Quest Expanding in Ireland, Plans for 150 Workers by 2013

Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software Inc., a maker of business software, is set to expand operations in Ireland.

The company said it’s starting a “shared services center” in Cork that’s set to open this month. The site in southern Ireland is set to have 150 workers by 2013, the company said.

“Quest has an ever increasing global presence which is helping to drive the success of our business,” Chief Executive Doug Garn said. “After a strategic review of our international operations, it was clear we could best position ourselves for future growth by centralizing key aspects of our international business activities.”

Quest already has operations in Ireland, including a sales office and shipping site in Dublin.

“Ireland was chosen due to the significant presence of other software technology companies, the high quality infrastructure, the availability of experienced and highly qualified professionals, multilingual talent and a pro-business environment,” Garn said.

Ireland’s low corporate tax rate has made it a magnet for foreign investment. The country’s 12.5% corporate tax rate—half or less than in neighboring states—also is a sticking point among some European Union countries that are supporting a bailout of Ireland and its failed banking system.

Other local tech companies that have operations in Ireland include Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp., Irvine’s Microsemi Corp. and Fountain Valley’s Kingston Technology Co.

Quest makes software that manages and improves on other business applications by Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp., IBM Corp. and others.

It is Orange County’s third-biggest software maker with some $700 million in yearly sales and a recent market value of $2.4 billion.

Tablet Sales Set To Double

Tablet PC sales are expected to more than double this year, according to projections from Framingham, Mass.-based International Data Corp.

The market tracker expects 45 million of the mobile, touch screen computers to ship this year, up from some 17 million shipped last year.

Apple Inc.’s iPad, which hit stores last year, has nearly 90% of the tablet market.

That’s good news for Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp., reported to have touch screen chips in the iPad.

A slew of new tablets is set to hit the market this year and likely take some market share from Apple.

“The media tablet market’s rapid evolution will continue to accelerate with new product and service introductions, channel expansion, price competition and experimentation with new use cases,” said Susan Kevorkian, research director for mobile connected devices at IDC.

Industry watchers have their eyes on tablets by Motorola Inc., Samsung Group, Research in Motion Ltd., Dell Inc. and others.

Data Storage Company Hires

Denver-based Latisys Corp., a newcomer to the county that landed on our radar last year when it broke ground on a big data center in Irvine, nabbed another executive from its top competitor.

Terry Brann was named lead electrical engineer for the company’s local data center operations.

Brann spent the past decade managing facility engineering and operations at Chesterfield, Mo.-based Savvis Inc.’s Southern California data centers.

He’s set to manage day-to-day operations, maintenance and growth at the Irvine center, which is expected to total about 150,000 square feet.

Latisys provides what’s called collocation and managed services for large corporations. The company runs warehouses full of servers and other data storage gear, and contracts with companies to store their databases and programs.

Latisys also handles monitoring, cooling and security for the data centers, allowing companies to cut down on costs.

AT&T Inc. and Savvis are Latisys’ main local competition.

In the past two years, Latisys has hired two local executives from Savvis, which has operations in Irvine. They include Western regional Vice President of Sales Tom Panarisi and Robert Martin, director of data center operations.

Latisys employs 155 workers, with about 40 in Irvine. The company doesn’t disclose financials. The Business Journal estimates it sees roughly $60 million in yearly revenue.

Broadcom Buy Has Potential

Broadcom may have tapped into something big with last year’s buy of Israeli chipmaker Percello Ltd. for up to $98 million in cash.

Percello makes chips, known as “femtocells,” that help extend mobile phone coverage indoors where signals typically are weak.

A femtocell is a small cellular base station, designed for use in a home or small business. The femtocell base station communicates to a wireless service provider’s network through a broadband connection.

The chips are attractive to wireless service providers because they can cheaply improve coverage indoors, where access otherwise would be limited or unavailable.

Nearly all of the country’s big carriers are set to roll out femtocell base stations this year, including AT&T, Sprint Nextel Corp., Verizon Wireless, part of New York’s Verizon Communications Inc., and T-Mobile USA, part of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG.

Other providers of femtocell chips include San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc., Massachusetts-based Airvana Corp. and Britain’s Ubiquisys Ltd.

Percello, which started in 2007, had raised some $20 million in venture funding from San Francisco-based Granite Ventures, Israel’s Vertex Venture Capital and T-Mobile Venture Fund, an investment arm of Deutsche Telekom.

Ruth Wertheimer, daughter of Israeli billionaire Stef Wertheimer, was an early investor.

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