There’s a new king of Orange County’s computer products hill: Kingston Technology Co.
The Fountain Valley-based memory products maker tops this week’s Business Journal list of the largest computer products companies here.
Kingston counts 976 local workers, up 2% from a year earlier. The list ranks makers and sellers of computers and related products by local employment.
The company, which makes memory products for computers and consumer electronics, grew 2004 sales 33% to $2.4 billion, the highest sales tally since Kingston’s 1987 founding.
The shift ends a long reign for Irvine’s Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., a maker of computers and other products that’s part of Japan’s Toshiba Corp.
With job cuts and gains by other companies, Toshiba dramatically fell from No. 1 last year to No. 5 with 648 local workers, a 28% drop from a year earlier.
Toshiba now is a shadow of its former self here: In 2001, the computer maker counted 2,300 local workers.
The bulk of Toshiba’s cuts in the past year came after it shed its wireless networking and cable modem businesses, eliminating 150 jobs.
The rest of the cuts came from “efficiency improvements” and other changes, the company said.
In 2000, Toshiba moved laptop computer production to Asia from Irvine, cutting 500 jobs from its local operation.
Toshiba had held the No. 1 spot since 1996.
The company’s fall was compounded by the gains of others. No. 2 Western Digital Corp., the Lake Forest disk drive maker, moved up a spot from last year with a 6% gain to 925 local workers.
Western Digital has been hiring with a push into drives for portable computers and consumer electronics.
Taking the No. 3 spot is Quantum Corp., the San Jose-based maker of drives and other storage products. Quantum moved up after buying Certance LLC of Costa Mesa, a former Seagate Technology unit, earlier this year for about $60 million.
Quantum’s entry includes Certance’s estimated 350 workers, plus another 420 at Quantum Storage Solutions Group in Irvine.
Rounding out the top five is No. 4 Unisys Corp., the Blue Bell, Pa.-based maker of servers and other big computers. The Business Journal estimates employment for Unisys at 750 people, down 6% from a year ago.
Unisys declined to provide local employment. The company laid off 1,400 workers companywide in October.
Like Toshiba, Unisys once was much bigger here, counting as many as 1,300 workers and ranking No. 2 on the list in the mid-1990s.
In all, the 25 companies on the list posted a 4% gain to 8,339 workers. The companies on last year’s list posted a 2% gain in employment, making this the second year of a rebound from the technology downturn that started in 2001.
No. 8 Gateway Inc., the Irvine computer maker, helped the higher jobs count. Gateway moved from San Diego to OC last summer after buying Irvine’s eMachines for $266 million in early 2004.
Gateway appeared as No. 14 on last year’s list, thanks to 150 workers inherited from eMachines,including Chief Executive Wayne Inouye and other top officials. With the move, Gateway added 231 more, including San Diego transplants, commuters and new hires.
No. 6 San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc. also grew, thanks largely to Irvine-based Linksys, a maker of networking gear for consumers. Cisco employed 542 people here at Linksys and at its own Irvine operation, up 17% from a year ago.
No. 7 Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp. was another gainer, with a 20% jump in employment to 537 local workers.
Targus Moves Up
Anaheim-based Targus Group International Inc., a maker of computer products and accessories, took the No. 15 spot, up from No. 17 last year, with an 18% gain in employment to 130 people. Targus makes carrying cases, add-on disk drives and other gear for portable computers.
Targus could be up for sale, for as much as $425 million. Greenwich, Conn.-based Saunders Karp & Megrue, Targus’ owner, is said to be shopping the company to prospective buyers.
Not all companies posted gains.
No. 10 Irvine-based Printronix Inc. moved some of its operations to a plant in Singapore, resulting in a 20% decline in OC employees to 380. Last year, Printronix ranked No. 5.
Big OC tech names not on the list include Broadcom Corp. in Irvine and Conexant Systems Inc. in Newport Beach. They appear on a list of chipmakers. And Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc., OC’s biggest public company by sales, is a distributor of computer products, and doesn’t qualify for this list.
Also excluded are contract electronics makers who make computer products for other companies. They have their own Business Journal list.
