Irvine? Aktino Inc., a startup maker of telecommunications gear, was acquired recently by Canada? Positron Inc. for undisclosed terms.
Montreal-based Positron makes high-voltage isolation gear that protects telecommunications equipment from lightning and other hazards.
Aktino is set to become a subsidiary called Positron Access Solutions. It will continue to operate here.
Chief Executive Lonnie Martin, who was brought on last year to grow the company, is out.
Founder Hossam Salib now is the top local official, heading marketing and product management. Willen Lao will continue to head engineering.
Aktino?hose name is Greek for ?ay of light?sells equipment that increases the bandwidth of older copper wire networks.
The company sells modems that hook up to each end of several copper wire loops. The modems connect multiple loops and effectively increase the bandwidth of the wires to allow for more data traffic to flow.
It sells the gear to telephone companies, which can save money by getting the most out of the copper they already own without installing new fiber-optic cables.
The Business Journal estimates the company sees annual sales of about $6 million.
Last year, Aktino landed a $14 million round of venture funding.
The company, which has about 25 workers here, has raised some $41 million to date and isn? profitable.
Investors include Corona del Mar-based Miramar Venture Partners, Costa Mesa? Innocal Venture Capital, Crosspoint Venture Partners, which has an Irvine office, and Silver Creek Ventures of Dallas, among others.
Aktino? Salib, along with some alums of PairGain Technologies Inc., formed the company in 2003.
Another founder is Ray Nagele, a former product manager at Tustin-based PairGain, now part of Minneapolis-based ADC Tele-communications Inc.
Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. cofounder Henry Samueli worked at PairGain before moving on to form Broadcom with Henry Nicholas, who also worked at PairGain.
OptionEase? Fundraising
San Juan Capistrano-based startup OptionEase Inc., which makes software that helps companies manage stock options accounting, raised $2.5 million from a private equity backer.
Irvine-based private equity firm GADS Option Fund led the round along with past investors.
OptionEase? software helps companies track stock options grants for better accounting that adheres to the government? reporting regulations.
Customers pay a yearly subscription fee to license the software. Fees are calculated based on how many employees?compensation packages need to be tracked.
The company has some 350 customers, mostly private companies including banks, retailers and restaurant groups.
OptionEase, which started in 2006, has 16 workers here.
Chief Executive and Cofounder Kim Kovacs started the company ?n response to new accounting rules related to stock options that were really challenging for companies to adhere to.?
?e brought together a team of software experts and built an application that? written from the auditor? and CFO? point of view,?she said.
OptionEase plans to use the money to add features to its software.
The company doesn? disclose financials but is profitable, Kovacs said.
It got off the ground in 2007 with a $1 million angel round of funding from an eclectic group of investors.
The first was Scott Schiffer, principal at Irvine-based accounting firm Kieckhafer Schiffer
& Co.
Other early investors are Myron and Jan Scholes. Myron Scholes is one of the authors of the Black-Scholes equation, which can be used to determine the prices of options in derivatives trading, for which he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1997.
Award Show
Tech companies large and small were honored May 14 at the 16th annual high-tech innovation awards presented by the Orange County and Inland Empire unit of TechAmerica, a tech trade group.
Some local technology winners include:
Fountain Valley? D-Link Systems Inc., Costa Mesa? Syspro, and Michael Hajeck, chief executive of Aliso Viejo? SiliconSystems Inc., which now is part of Lake Forest? Western Digital Corp.
Irvine? Kofax PLC, which makes software that helps companies cut down on paper, racked up two awards, for outstanding public company and for outstanding public company chief executive, naming Reynolds Bish.
A handful of other locals got nods for innovative products, including Irvine? Teridian Semiconductor Corp., Santa Ana? Powerwave Technologies Inc. and Santa Ana? SRS Labs Inc.
