Webplan Names a New CFO; Boeing Looks at Mars
Some commentators and researchers see at least part of the chip industry coming back in the third quarter,an event that would surely benefit Broadcom Corp. and Conexant Systems Inc. The recent quarterly reports out of the two largest OC chip makers retold a grim story about stacks of unsold computer products preventing the two from pushing their own products out the door, dragging down earnings.
But personal computer sales may get a bounce by the third quarter as throngs of students heading back to school look to buy computers, say analysts. This could benefit both Conexant and Broadcom, which sell chips that go on analog and broadband modems,a market that is directly affected by PC sales.
“We believe there are some early signs of recovery in PCs,” Salomon Smith Barney’s Jonathan Joseph told industry publication EE Times. In fact, in a couple of months, the chip market should be heading upward, Joseph told the publication.
Still, there has been scant news to really make OC chip manufacturers smile. The huge glut of networking gear sitting on shelves at companies like Cisco Systems Inc., 3Com Corp. and Nortel Networks Corp. is keeping their orders for chips from Conexant and Broadcom down. In many ways, the recovery of these companies depends on the overall economy.
Cisco built systems for firms that anticipated more of their business would be done over the Internet. With dot-coms busting, many other firms cut back on their own Internet efforts,a trend that won’t change for another nine months or so, analysts say.
Execs See Declining Performance
Good attitudes can make all the difference in the world,especially in the tech sector. If a recent survey conducted by the University of California, Irvine is right, OC executives are bullish on the area’s ability remain relatively unscathed in the economic downturn.
According to the survey, 65% of OC executives anticipate improved financial performance in 2001, a drop from 80% last year. Firms reporting somewhat better or much better financial performance in 2000 declined to 61% from 70% in last year’s survey. However, the 22% reporting much better financial performance in 2000 remained about the same as in the 24% in the previous survey. Twelve percent of firms said their financial performance was worse in 2000 than in 1999, a slight increase from 9% a year earlier.
“On balance, Orange County still is a good place to do business. The county’s economy is quite diversified, and therefore resilient,” said UCI economics professor Dennis Aigner. “But issues loom on the horizon , employee housing, energy and labor costs. There are some pretty serious indicators that the manufacturing sector is declining. And Orange County’s attractiveness as a place to do business has definitely diminished.”
Webplan Hires Former Quest Exec
Looking to expand overseas, software maker webplan Corp. appointed former Quest Software Inc. executive John J. Laskey chief financial officer.
“Taking on the CFO position with webplan during this exciting time in the company’s history and under today’s economic conditions presents both opportunities and challenges,” Laskey said. ” I am looking forward to working with the webplan executive team to strengthen our position as the No. 1 provider of collaborative supply-chain trading networks.”
While at Quest, Laskey helped raise $25 million in venture capital and subsequently brought the company public in a $70 million offering. Laskey received his bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois and his MBA from Loyola University in Chicago.
Boeing Scoping Mars Mission
Boeing Co.’s Huntington Beach-based research facilities received one of four $1 million contracts from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena to look for a way to bring back rocks and sand from Mars. The contract runs through October.
“Selecting, collecting and returning samples from Mars is the most ambitious mission JPL has ever planned,” said Boeing program manager Brent Sherwood. “We now know that the most important sampling locations are precisely the hardest to land near and to operate robots within.”
Whittaker said upcoming technological advances will expand the role of robotics in future planetary exploration.
“The possibility for robots is far beyond our current thinking of a drone that merely responds to commands,” Whittaker said. “In the next few years, we’ll develop competent and capable agents that will work as partners in exploring other worlds.”
MindArrow Names Sales VP
Aliso Viejo-based MindArrow Systems Inc. appointed Steve Lair to vice president of sales and marketing. Lair will be responsible for the company’s global sales and marketing initiatives.
Lair “is viewed by industry insiders as an authority on technology marketing, and has extensive expertise building and leading global sales operations,” said Robert Webber, MindArrow’s president and chief executive.
“Steve has direct experience building and managing large sales and marketing organizations, as well as experience leading a high-tech start-up. We are confident that he will bring a fresh yet seasoned perspective to our sales and marketing efforts as well as to our overall business strategy.”
In the mid-1990s, Lair was vice president of worldwide marketing and sales for Texas Instruments Inc., supervising a global sales and marketing force of more than 800 people. Lair has a bachelor’s degree in engineering and an MBA in international marketing from California State University, Northridge.
