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2017 Preview: TECHNOLOGY

The past year was marked by a wave of consolidation in the local technology sector as several big-name companies were taken over. OC lost some sizeable corporate headquarters, in the companies that helped diversify the business landscape and attract top engineering talent over the years.

The consolidation slashed more than 1,000 tech jobs in the past year, so it bears watching if some of those displaced executives and engineers launch their own companies and fuel the active startup community here.

A couple of clear trends that could help offset those job losses and then some are worth keeping an eye on in the new year, including:

n The growth of the local e-sports scene, which has several big players including Blizzard, Kingston, the University of California-Irvine and the Esports Arena in Santa Ana.

n The developing cybersecurity hub in OC, which is led by several growing security software providers and UCI, which recently named national intelligence expert and corporate attorney Bryan Cunningham to lead its new Cybersecurity Policy and Research Institute.

Company to Watch

Microsemi

Aliso Viejo-based Microsemi Corp. could be the next domino in the round of consolidation in the local and global chip sector.

Word is out that it hired Bank of Montreal to drum up potential buyers after Skyworks Solutions Inc. expressed interest in buying the company.

The two know each other well.

Woburn, Mass-based Skyworks, a rare acquirer, went all in last year for PMC-Sierra Inc., but ultimately lost a bidding war to Microsemi, which acquired the Sunnyvale chipmaker for $2.5 billion.

The deal was Microsemi’s largest to date and provided entrée to the growing and hotly contested storage products market.

The company is OC’s fourth largest chipmaker by local employee count, with about 240 workers. It had record revenue of $1.65 billion in the 12 months through September—the end of its fiscal year—and a recent market cap of about $6.5 billion, making it the fifth largest public company based here.

Microsemi is considered an influential player in the chip sector, but certainly not a titan, which puts it in the precarious position of a takeover target.

Person to Watch

William Wang

The leader of OC’s most recognizable consumer electronics brand could enter the new year out of the picture at the company he founded and grew to prominence.

Chinese conglomerate LeEco is set to acquire Irvine-based Vizio Inc. in a $2 billion deal that calls for Wang to cede his role there and become chairman and chief executive of the company’s developing data business, Inscape, which will spin out and operate as a separate, privately owned company.

Wang will retain a 51% stake of the burgeoning data business line, which aims to monetize data collected from millions of consumers who own Vizio TVs.

It’s a new path for Wang, who masterfully fused a deep supply chain and quality-built TVs with a network of big-box distributors, a skill set that doesn’t clearly transfer to big data and monetization.

Inscape and Wang will keep their home base in Irvine.

There’s been some recent buzz that the deal with LeEco could fall apart, but Vizio representatives have maintained it should go through by Dec. 31.

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