Iomega Corp. said it has picked San Diego over Orange County as the relocation spot for its corporate headquarters.
The Roy, Utah-based maker of computer storage products plans to occupy 10,000 square feet of space, according to a representative of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp.
A company spokesman said Iomega plans to complete its move in six months and expects to do some hiring to fill out its San Diego staff.
In August, Iomega said OC was at the top of its list of relocation sites and had looked at space in Lake Forest, Rancho Santa Margarita and Foothill Ranch.
But Iomega already has ties to San Diego. Chairman David J. Dunn lives in La Jolla. Chief Executive Werner Heid,who took the top executive’s job in June,lives in San Diego. He is the struggling company’s fifth chief executive in four years.
In all, Iomega’s headquarters employs about 100 people. Marketing and some executive staff are set to come to San Diego. Other operations, including research and development, are set to stay in Roy, which is near Ogden.
Iomega has been working through a restructuring plan, which includes laying off 1,234 regular and temporary workers, or 37% of its staff. In the third quarter, Iomega lost $71 million on sales of $182 million.
Iomega is best known for its Zip drives and diskettes that store about 100 megabytes of data.
The company originally sold the drives and diskettes separately. But as sales slipped, the company struck deals with several computer makers, including Compaq Computer Corp. and Toshiba Corp., to include the drives inside their machines.
Sales through PC makers now are about 15% of sales. But the move hurt profits at Iomega, as PC makers have pushed for lower prices on the drives.
The company has diversified into other types of products, including personal audio players, digital image viewers and drives that store larger amounts of data than the Zip drive. n
Graves is a staff writer with the San Diego Business Journal.
