Acquicor Technology Inc., the Newport Beach company started by Apple Inc. alums, recently wrapped up its $260 million buy of Jazz Semiconductor Inc., the Newport Beach chipmaker.
In the process, Acquicor bought out Conexant System Inc.’s 42% Jazz stake for $98 million. Newport Beach-based Conexant split off Jazz in 2002.
But don’t look for Conexant to be completely removed.
As part of the deal, Conexant made a $10 million investment in Jazz, giving it about 1.7 million shares.
Acquicor was formed last year by Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak, former chief executive Gilbert Amelio and Ellen Hancock, Apple’s technology chief under Amelio.
They formed it as a “blank check” company intent on buying a technology business.
With the deal, Acquicor now is known as Jazz Technologies. Jazz Semiconductor, which runs Conexant’s former chip plant in Newport Beach, lives on as a subsidiary.
The Jazz investment isn’t surprising for Conexant. Chief Executive Dwight Decker is the driving force behind the Orange County Technology Action Network and helped start Okapi Venture Capital LLC, which raised $30 million to fund startups.
The investment was disclosed shortly before shareholders voted on the acquisition of Jazz by Acquicor. The $10 million investment was a show of support for the new company, Acquicor spokeswoman Kate Sidorovich said.
The acquisition gives Jazz Semiconductor financial flexibility and a stronger balance sheet, Chief Executive Shu Li said.
Jazz, which twice filed to go public on its own in recent years, now is publicly traded as “JAZ” on the American Stock Exchange after taking over Acquicor’s publicly traded status.
Logical Deal
Irvine-based business software maker LogicalApps Inc. has acquired a product line from New York’s Applimation Inc., adding 30 workers to its 100 and doubling its number of customers, according to the company.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.
Privately held LogicalApps sells software that helps companies automate financial controls and compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley accounting reform act of 2002.
LogicalApps is buying Applimation’s Integra for Change Management software, which allows network managers to track access to data and detect security breaches among other things. The software is used to monitor changes and access to database software from Oracle Corp.
Founding chief executive Chris Capdevila, now senior vice president for strategy and corporate development, started LogicalApps after working as a consultant at Pricewaterhouse Management Consulting Services. He helped install large software systems, including from Oracle, for companies such as Walt Disney Co.
When companies switched to Oracle, they got rid of older, custom software with its own set of internal controls to regulate who has access to sensitive data or how information is distributed.
LogicalApps was started to fill the gap, according to Capdevila. Its customers include Agilent Technologies Inc. and Motorola Inc.
It started in 2000 and raised $14 million in funding in 2005. Chief Executive Jim Zierick came aboard last month with a 20-year background in executive management, most recently as executive vice president of worldwide field operations for San Diego-based Peregrine Systems Inc., which sold to Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2005 after a crippling accounting scandal.
What attracted Zierick to LogicalApps?
“It’s a combination of what the company is capable of doing and the market opportunity,” he said.
“Our competitors allow you to run reports after the fact,” he said. “What we’re really doing by embedding our software in their system is making sure those policies are enforced as they’re entering those transactions. What we can say is we want to be sure the address is accurate or the amount that we’re billing is in fact equal to what you agreed to. We’ll interrupt that transaction at the time and say, ‘Hey, this data is not right,’ or we’ll route it to someone for investigation and approval long before the customer sees a mistake or long before it gets baked into your financials and an auditor has to find it.”
More Powerwave
I wrote here a few weeks ago about the struggles of wireless network gear maker Powerwave Technologies Inc. of Santa Ana. Times have been tough since it fell well short of expectations last fall, drawing dozens of lawsuits filed on behalf of shareholders.
Fourth-quarter results posted recently didn’t give them a lift.
Beset by slowing sales, Powerwave swung to a $115 million loss in the fourth quarter on a big drop in revenue. A year ago, Powerwave earned $19 million.
The loss includes nearly $85 million in acquisition, restructuring and other charges related to last year’s acquisition of Britain’s Filtronic PLC for about $185 million.
Sales for the maker of amplifiers and other wireless gear fell 32%, or by nearly $80 million, to $169.7 million.
Powerwave has lost more than half its market value in the past year, now standing at about $750 million.
