A U.S. unit of a German network security services company is set to open an Orange County office.
Integralis AG, which is publicly traded in Germany, said it plans to open a small sales office in Aliso Viejo this month.
The company handles security tasks such as maintaining firewalls, authentication servers and other sensors on clients’ computer networks. It has its U.S. headquarters in East Hartford, Conn.
Integralis is looking to land customers in Southern California, according to Marc Brungardt, vice president of sales.
“We looked at numerous sites in California, but selected Orange County because of the rich variety of businesses in the area,” he said.
The office is about 2,000 square feet, with just five engineers to start.
The company plans to add three more engineers and a local sales manager by the end of the year.
“Our U.S. operation is currently the fastest-growing unit within the company,” said Robin Mayo, president of Integralis’ U.S. operations. “The new office also gives us inroads into the Asian market.”
Integralis has similar sales offices in England, France, Sweden and the United Arab Emirates.
The company, which got its start in 1988, does about $160 million in sales. It doesn’t break out sales figures for the U.S. It has 17 offices in seven countries.
Shareholders Sue
Shareholders have filed two lawsuits over Irvine-based Gateway Inc.’s pending sale to Acer Inc. of Taiwan.
The suits take issue with Gateway’s $710 million sale price.
Gateway once was valued in the billions, before the tech bubble burst and the company lost ground to bigger rivals.
In a class-action suit filed a few days after the Acer deal was announced in August, stockholders and their lawyers alleged that the sale price was “inadequate and unfair.”
The lawsuit charges that Gateway directors “breached their fiduciary duties to stockholders” by approving the buyout and that the transaction is “both unfair and coercive to the public stockholders,” according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
The 25 shareholders who filed the suits aren’t named.
The suits are unlikely to derail the deal, unless Gateway’s biggest shareholders start to take issue with the price of the deal. There’s been no indication of that so far.
Big shareholders include company founder Ted Waitt and institutional investor Harbinger Capital Partners LLC.
Eco-Friendly Gear
Anaheim’s Targus Inc., which sells laptop computer cases and accessories, is jumping on the “green” bandwagon.
It recently launched a line of eco-friendly gear, including messenger bags, backpacks and laptop carrying cases.
All are made of materials that are PVC-free. PVC, the main component in vinyl, is harmful to the environment because it releases chemicals into the air over time.
The plastics used to make the cases are recyclable, the company said.
The move is part of Targus’ push to be more environmentally conscious.
The company is also starting a paper recycling program and looking to use less packaging for its products.
On the Vangard
Rancho Santa Margarita-based Vangard Voice Systems Inc. was picked by NetworkWorld, a trade magazine, as one of its nine wireless companies to watch.
Vangard designs software that makes voice recognition software easier to use by helping other programs decide quickly where a voice command should go. It helps distinguish between homonyms, such as the words “for” and “four.”
This can save other software developers time and effort,and give them the ability to sell a simple voice recognition software package.
Vangard has inked distribution deals with Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc. and Tempe-based Avnet Technology Solutions Inc. in recent months.
About a year ago, Vangard landed $3 million in its first round of venture funding after five years of existence.
The company is working on four customer contracts, according to Chief Executive Bob Bova.
One contract is with the government, another is with a city and two are with private companies that are looking to add speech recognition to their applications, Bova said in an interview with SoCalTech.com, a tech Web site.
SiliconSystems Expanding
Aliso Viejo-based SiliconSystems Inc., a maker of data storage devices that use flash memory, said it’s set to double its space by moving to a nearby building.
The company plans to move into the 36,000-square-foot building in November and is looking to add about 80 workers during the next year or so.
SiliconSystems got its start in Chief Executive Michael Hajeck’s home in San Juan Capistrano.
Once it outgrew that, the company moved to a low-rent space in Hawthorne.
SiliconSystems was looking to move back to OC in 2004 and chose Aliso Viejo, mainly for its proximity to the San Joaquin Toll Road and Hajeck’s home in San Juan Capistrano.
SiliconSystems’ existing office was expanded last year.
Some departments were moved offsite, the company said.
The new office is set to bring them back into the fold.
Aliso Viejo boasts the second-biggest number of tech companies after Irvine, according to an informal count by the Business Journal.
