The current venture of QLogic Corp.’s former chief executive has filed for bankruptcy.
Mel Gable, who led networking gear maker QLogic for two years until 1995, has put Santa Ana-based Indigita Corp. into federal bankruptcy court after racking up more than $1 million in debt, according to recent court filings.
Indigita, which Gable cofounded in 1995, designs chips and devices that help transfer video and other media files between electronic devices.
Gable didn’t respond to calls for comment.
Gable was an early technology leader in Orange County when he led what would later become QLogic under Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp., a maker of devices for storage networks.
From 1991 to 1993, he managed what was then the micro device division that sold hardware that helped connect computers and devices.
Gable oversaw QLogic’s break from Emulex in 1993 and its subsequent public stock offering early in 1994 as chief executive and president. Emulex and Aliso Viejo-based QLogic now compete to sell devices for storage networks.
In early 1995, QLogic had less than $60 million in annual revenue and profits were slim. Gable’s departure from QLogic was abrupt.
Within a matter of months, the board asked H.K. Desai to take over as chief executive. Desai, who still helms the company, had been QLogic’s vice president of engineering under Gable before leaving the company for a short period.
Since then, QLogic has bumped Emulex as the leader in its storage device market. QLogic has about $500 million in annual revenue and a market value of more than $3 billion.
Indigita also has ties to Emulex.
According to the bankruptcy filing, In-digita owes Emulex $795,000, including interest. Emulex easily is the company’s biggest creditor.
Indigita also owes $6,150 to Milpitas-based Maxtor Corp., a top disk drive maker, and another $17,826 to Westlake Village-based DemiCom Inc., a contract electronics maker.
The federal court will look to restructure Indigita’s debt under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. It won’t liquidate the company’s assets to pay off its debt.
In Indigita’s early days, the company focused on making digital videotape technology for media.
In 1996, a year after its launch, Singapore’s Flextech Holdings Ltd. took a big stake in the company, according to reports. Flextech lists Indigita on its Web site as one of its “passive” investments. Flextech is a contract electronics maker.
A year later, Indigita received some kudos at Comdex, a former top technology convention. Indigita was cited for its tape drives that could store multimedia files.
By 1999, the company was shifting its focus to FireWire, which has become a popular standard for transferring video files. Indigita’s chips and circuit boards can handle large media files used on digital video recorders or for recording DVDs.
These are relatively hot markets, and in the final quarter of 2004, the company landed $1.5 million in venture funding from unnamed sources.
Gable’s familiar with the ups and downs of running a business from his days at QLogic.
For the 12 months ended April 2, 1995, QLogic posted a 28% sales gain to $58 million, and net income of $2 million. The company eked out a profit of $35,000 in the quarter ended April 2. Sales grew 11% from the previous year.
Meanwhile, the company’s shares, which had more than doubled to $7.50 on their first day of trading in early 1994, rose as high as $9 before falling back to $5 by the time Gable left.
Gable said at the time of the earnings announcement that the company was hit by “unfavorable market developments.”
At the time, QLogic was working on new product tweaks, customers and cost-improvement plans that would help the company, Gable said.
But Gable would never enjoy the results of those efforts at QLogic.
Within months, Desai returned from a stint at Lake Forest-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp.
Gable, too, had a stint at Western Digital. He held various positions at the company from 1985 to 1990, including responsibility for local area network, systems logic and communications products.
