Conexant Wireless Bringing Samsung Along to Alpha
Irvine Gauss Boss Now Company Head; Aspeon Settles With Shareholder
TECHNOLOGY
by Andrew Simons
The wireless business at Conexant Systems Inc., which is being spun off and combined with Woburn, Mass.-based Alpha Industries Inc., has a new big-name customer.
Conexant’s wireless business recently started shipping power amplifier chips for mobile phones to Samsung Electronics Co. The handsets are billed as some of Samsung’s edgiest yet, with a color screen and compatibility with the long awaited third generation mobile wireless technology, or 3G.
“This order represents new business with Samsung, an industry innovator and a long-term Conexant customer,” said Moiz Beguwala, head of Conexant’s wireless business. “We intend to ramp production to well over 1 million units over the next several quarters.”
Conexant and Alpha unveiled the name of the new company,Skyworks Solutions Inc.,last week. The wireless business is the shining star at Conexant after the market downturn scuttled plans to spin off the company’s networking chip unit, Mindspeed Technologies. The wireless unit has been the fastest growing at Conexant, which made its name selling chips for modems.
But as computer sales slowed and modems began to get faster, Conexant’s sales from the personal computing chip division faltered, declining 64% in the March quarter from a year earlier.
Wireless, on the other hand, ended what’s set to be its last quarter as part of Conexant with a bang. The unit saw sales jump 69% to $95 million from a year earlier, accounting for 40% of Conexant’s total sales. The majority of sales, 53%, came from Conexant’s broadband access division.
Alpha and Conexant’s wireless business could see some competition from Broadcom Corp. Irvine-based Broadcom in April announced plans to buy Santa Clara-based MobileLink Telecom Inc., which makes chips for mobile phones. Broadcom also quietly bought two wireless companies last summer.
“This order represents new business with Samsung, an industry innovator and a long-term Conexant customer,” Beguwala said. “We intend to ramp production to well over one million units over the next several quarters.”
Gauss Exec Moves Up
Ron Vangell, the Irvine-based vice president for German software maker Gauss Interprise AG, has been appointed chief executive of the entire Hamburg-based company.
But Vangell won’t be leaving OC.
“He’ll just be spending more time over there,” Gauss marketing analyst Ken Burns said. “He wants to keep his home in San Clemente.”
Gauss makes software that helps companies manage online and network data. Its VIP software package allows companies to handle online content, create personalized enterprise portals, and track workflows and data on Web sites and other company documents.
Almost 60% of the company’s sales come by way of its Irvine operations,a big factor in why Vangell was tapped.
“He’s proved his ability to generate some success,” Burns said.
Part of Vangell’s charge is to make a more unified company out of Gauss, which essentially operates as two separate entities,one German, one American.
Aspeon Settles Dispute
Irvine’s Aspeon Inc., a seller of point-of-sale systems used by retailers and fast food chains, took a step out of the woods by settling a dispute with an owner of preferred Aspeon shares.
Aspeon paid an undisclosed sum to the shareholder in exchange for Aspeon being relieved of its duties under the preferred shareholder agreement.
The settlement takes $19 million off the company’s liabilities tally.
“The liability represented by these shares has been a major barrier to resolving the financial challenges the company has been facing and the removal of this barrier will give us a much improved basis for seeking additional financing,” Aspeon financial chief Don Rutherford said.
The company, which hit troubles in late 2000, has made several moves to raise cash. Two months ago, the company sold its British unit Javelin System Ltd. to a European investment bank.
“In addition to providing working capital for Aspeon Inc., this transaction has the benefit of permitting the UK companies to have a broader product offering,” Chief Executive Robert Nichols said at the time.
In the past year and a half, Aspeon has looked to sell off several businesses to raise money. Last year, the company couldn’t close on the sale of its foodservice application service provider business.
The company said the sale fell through “due to the inability of the parties to agree on acceptable terms.”
D-Link, TI Team
Taiwan’s D-Link Corp., which has its U.S. arm in Irvine, recently struck a deal with Texas Instruments Inc. Under the pact, D-Link will put TI’s wireless chips into its LinkAir product, which allows for retail outlets to easily access data wirelessly.
“With the TI chip we can deliver extended reach and range at even faster speeds when the TI-based D-LinkAir networking products are connected to each other,” said Steven Joe, president of D-Link in Irvine.
D-Link makes networking, connectivity and data communications hardware.
It also makes hubs and switches as well as adapters, print servers, routers, and transceivers.
D-Link and TI didn’t put a value on the deal.
