Kinetics’ Yorba Linda Plant Set to go With Spinoff
Intrigue Behind Procom’s Executive Shift; Tech Coast Loses Sign, Gains Space
TECHNOLOGY by Andrew Simons
An 83,000-square-foot chip equipment facility in Yorba Linda is going public.
Santa Clara-based The Kinetics Group Inc. recently unveiled plans to include its Yorba Linda facility as part of Celerity Group Inc., the pending spinoff of the company’s semiconductor process control business.
So far, Kinetics has said little about its plans for the spinoff and the Yorba Linda facility, which is one of 15 facilities slated to go with Celerity. But the new company, set to be based in Milpitas, could have a market value of around $1.3 billion after a public offering that could generate an estimate $300 million for Kinetics.
Celerity is a spin-off of Kinetics’ fluid systems group, which supplies valves, filters and regulators that control chemicals and gas vapors used to make chips. The company is set to employ 900 people. Last year, Celerity posted about $195 million in sales, down 60% from the prior year, according to its registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Yorba Linda plant formerly was Unit Instruments Inc., which Kinetics bought in 1999. Kinetics itself recently underwent a management buyout from former owner USFilter Corp., part of France’s Vivendi SA.
Procom Intrigue
There’s some question whether Irvine-based Procom Technologies Inc. executive vice presidents and co-founders Alex Aydin, Nick Shahrestany and Frank Alaghband were ousted. But there’s no question the three were looking to set up a new company in the months leading up to their resignations.
Since January, the three were seeking $12 million to $14 million to start a new company around a router and a switch that allow for what techies call storage virtualization, a more efficient way to access stored data.
Typically, a server gets data by accessing a specific computer. With storage virtualization, several computers making up a storage network are seen as one.
“We hope to spin it off into a separate company,” Aydin said of the networking company in an earlier interview. “That’s why we’re looking for that much money.”
Officials had shopped the networking technology around to several OC venture capitalists, including Palomar Ventures and Crosspoint Venture Partners in Irvine, Costa Mesa’s Innocal Venture Capital and Corona del Mar’s Miramar Venture Partners. The company also hit up TL Ventures in Los Angeles. Company officials couldn’t be reached for comment on whether there’s any connection between plans for a new company and the executive shakeup. The three departed executives, along with Chief Executive Alex Razmjoo, own 37% of Procom.
The management shift comes at a rocky time for Procom.
The Securities and Exchange Commission recently notified Procom it was looking into $375,000 the company paid to Brighton Capital Ltd.,a fund run by Westminster, Hope & Turnberry Ltd. in the Bahamas. The money was paid to the fund for introducing Procom to Houston-based Montrose Investments Ltd., which bought Procom’s 6% convertible debentures last year.
Procom warned it might have to give back the $15 million to Montrose if regulators say the fee was improper. The company said it doesn’t know whether it will be able to recover the $375,000 it paid to Brighton.
Tech Coast Moves
You may have seen the residue from where Tech Coast’s sign used to be on its former offices along the San Diego (405) Freeway next to John Wayne Airport.
But don’t worry, the group, which hopes to brand Southern California as the “tech coast,” just moved into 2,500 more square feet in a building next door. Tech Coast now has 5,000 square feet..
The reason for the move: an undisclosed party offered cash for Tech Coast’s former high-profile space.
Started in 1997, Tech Coast, envious of northern neighbor Silicon Valley’s branded image, started with a single goal,to create an investor-friendly shorthand for the swath covering Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Orange County and San Diego.
Proponents of the concept argue Southern California is in some measures bigger and wealthier than Silicon Valley, lacking only a definable image that draws in venture capital and tech-savvy workers. But the concept has not taken off the way Silicon Valley’s image has.
Still, Parker says attendance at Tech Coast events, which range from executive dinner cruises to venture capital lunches, has steadily increased. Parker points to Tech Coast opening new offices in Long Beach and San Diego as a sign of its vitality.
“We’ve been busy over here,” Parker said.
Parker said he even would like to create a sort of “Avenue of the Stars” for technology here.
“One thing I’d like to do is get a street and call it Tech Coast,” Parker said. “That’s always been something we’d like to do.”
SMC Expands
Irvine-based SMC Networks recently opened the doors on two offices, one in Mexico and another in Brazil.
Company officials also hope their presence will allow the company to build business. The company plans to have 20 employees between the two offices.
