Dimmer Prospects for Corning’s Fountain Valley Facility?
Stomp Opens Headquarters After Fire
Rainbow Working With Entrust
‘Harry’ on Buy.com
TECHNOLOGY
by Andrew Simons
Just as Corning Inc. opened the doors on its new Fountain Valley facility, the Corning N.Y.-based maker of fiber optic cables and components said it plans to cut nearly 4,000 more jobs.
So after letting go nearly a quarter of its OC staff last year, local operations could face more cuts.
“We haven’t determined where we’re going to make the cuts yet,” a company spokesman said.
Corning said it expects to spend $600 million to rework its overall operations during the next two quarters. Corning cut 12,000 jobs in the last year.
Seventy-five of Corning’s OC workers lost their jobs in the past year, leaving its local roster with 220 workers. Those layoffs were part of wider cost-cutting in Corning’s networking components business, which has facilities in Rochester, N.Y., Boston and now Fountain Valley.
Even so, Corning has big hopes for its Fountain Valley complex, which consolidates its Cypress and Garden Grove facilities. At 120,000 square feet, the building houses production, research and development and executive offices. Workers are developing a special regulating product that controls wavelengths of light in fiber cable.
Corning executives are hoping to expand in Fountain Valley. The new building sits on a 7-acre parcel, but Corning has worked out a deal to buy the adjacent 7- and 6-acre parcels.
The company eventually could employ 2,400 people in OC, officials say. But those projections are the most optimistic and predate much of the recent turmoil in the telecommunications sector.
Stomp Opens New HQ
Not one to pass on touting a product line, Irvine’s Stomp Inc., said it was able to recover soon after its headquarters burned to the ground earlier this year, because of its “data protection practices.”
Stomp, a maker of compact disc labeling and recording software and storage cases, originally started with a product that literally “stomped” labels onto CDs.
The company since has sold the product to Pasadena-based Avery Dennison Corp., but still carries data protection products.
“We are constantly reminding our customers of the importance of safeguarding valuable data by routinely keeping a backup because disasters and mistakes can, and clearly do, strike at any time,” said Mike Hummell, Stomp’s founder and president.
“While devastating to see the company ‘home’ in ruins, we are thankful no one was injured and that we did not lose any of the invaluable data and intellectual property that our team has invested so much time, energy and expertise into creating,” Hummell said.
Stomp’s new 30,000-square-foot facility is at 2302 Barranca Parkway in Irvine. It houses all the company’s operations, including sales, marketing, finance, support, product development and production.
Rainbow, Entrust Develop Tokens
Irvine-based Rainbow Technologies Inc. and Dallas-based Entrust Inc. are testing security tokens, a software code that helps data transmission securely travel across a network.
The tokens would be embedded inside Entrust’s new authentication software.
Putting Rainbow’s security token into Entrust’s software would help keep the hackers away, the companies contend.
If the testing goes well, it could mark a welcome win to boost Rainbow’s 35% share of the security token market.
The overall market could reach nearly $276 million by 2005, up from $28 million last year, according to market researcher International Data Corp.
But, like other software makers, Rainbow hasn’t been immune from the technology slowdown.
The company’s 2001 sales de-clined 15.9% to $137.3 million.
Buy.com Pushing Harry Potter
Aliso Viejo-based buy.com Inc. knows how hot “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” is. The Internet retailer said it sold more than 10,000 preorder copies of the 2001 movie in 24 hours recently. The film is due out on video next month.
Buy.com also recently signed a pact with Warner Bros. to begin running hundreds of movie trailers on its Web site. Earlier this year, Buy.com also launched the display of DVD menu screenshots, giving customers a sneak peek into the look and feel of each disc.
“With so many highly anticipated home entertainment releases expected throughout the remainder of the year, we are confident that our ability to offer advance ordering for DVDs and videos will drive an increasing number of consumers online to reserve their copies,” said Scott Blum, buy.com’s founder.
