Could Gateway Inc. impress Wall Street this quarter?
Maybe. At least it seems so from Rod Sherwood, the Irvine-based computer maker’s chief financial officer. Sherwood told Dow Jones Newswires that “in terms of the PC business, we are not seeing weakness at all on the retail side of things.”
Gateway is seeing a “major” opportunity in notebook computers, Sherwood said. Notebooks would pass desktops in terms of sales in the U.S. market, he said.
That sounds better than a few months ago, when Gateway issued a forecast for the current quarter that fell below analysts’ expectations.
Last year, Gateway bought Irvine discount PC maker eMachines for some $266 million, bringing the company from San Diego to Orange County.
But it’s unclear whether Gateway, which has had a string of losses in the past three years, is in for the same sort of turnaround as eMachines saw before being acquired.
Gateway is a lot bigger than eMachines, for one. It’s going up against Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. And a new rival looms with IBM Corp.’s pending sale of its personal computer business to China’s Lenovo Group Ltd.
But at least Sherwood’s proselytizing is promising.
More Sanmina
Here’s another thought about the future of the massive Costa Mesa printed circuit board plant owned by contract electronic maker Sanmina/SCI Corp.
The facility, which is one of the San Jose-based company’s largest, was the point of a Business Journal story three weeks ago. With Sanmina possibly shifting production overseas, the future of the facility comes into question.
We wondered whether TTM Technologies Inc., based in Santa Ana, would want to buy the facility. After all, the company blamed a recent quarter-to-quarter drop on “capacity constraints” at its Chippewa Falls, Minn., facility late in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter.
Scott Robertson, an analyst with Stanford Financial Group (which was incorrectly spelled “Sanford” in the Business Journal story), noted that TTM has been interested in pursuing business with government agencies and the military.
Sanmina’s facility near John Wayne Airport is approved as a producer of military components, Robertson said. That could appeal to TTM.
Up to 13% of the production capacity for circuit boards in North America could be erased this year as big players move work to Asia, according to a recent report by Credit Suisse First Boston LLC.
Consolidation actually could benefit other circuit board makers here, including TTM and Anaheim’s DDi Corp. and Multi-Fineline Electronix Inc.
Unlike Sanmina, which makes a range of computer products for other companies, TTM, DDi and Multi-Fineline just make circuit boards.
Bitfone Bid
Apparently one of the first tasks for new Qualcomm Inc. Chief Executive Paul Jacobs was to sign off on the release of news that the wireless technology company had invested in Laguna Niguel-based Bitfone Corp.
Jacobs, son of Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, was named Qualcomm chief on March 8, the same day the company announced its investment in Bitfone.
The companies didn’t say how much money was involved. Gene Wang, founder and chief executive of Bitfone, called the investment small but strategic. Qualcomm is set to have an observer seat on Bitfone’s board, he said.
Bitfone plans to use the money to pursue patents on its software, Wang said.
The company makes software that allows wireless service providers to send software updates to a user’s phone via their networks.
Bitfone’s product allows phone makers and service providers to try and fix defective phones with software, rather than having to replace them.
Existing Bitfone investors include Finland’s Nokia Corp., Westwood, Mass.-based Prism Venture Partners and Singapore’s Flextronics International Ltd.
Bitfone had about $57 million in funding before the Qualcomm deal, making it one of the county’s best-funded technology startups.
The company licenses software to customers and also provides support services. Rivals include Britain’s Insignia Solutions PLC and DoOnGo Technologies Inc. of Silicon Valley.
Broadcom Expands
Broadcom Corp. again is expanding abroad with a design center.
The Irvine chipmaker is opening a design center in Europe, the company’s first there.
Broadcom said it plans to develop chips for handling photos, video and audio on mobile phones at the center, which is planned for Denmark.
The site in Copenhagen is near the Scandinavian headquarters of phone makers Nokia and Telefon AB LM Ericsson, as well as Germany’s Siemens AG.
Mobile phone chips are a big potential market for Broadcom, said Robert A. Rango, group vice president of the chipmaker’s mobile and wireless group.
Broadcom is set to staff the center with electronics and software engineers who specialize in mobile phones. The company also expects to handle some customer support from Denmark. The design center is Broadcom’s second abroad. The company opened one in Taiwan in 2003.
