Military Testing Chemical Detectors From Acacia Unit
Skyworks Hits Milestone Out of the Chute; MindArrow Planning Acquisition
TECHNOLOGY by Andrew Simons
CombiMatrix Corp., a Seattle-based unit of Newport Beach’s Acacia Research Corp., recently put the finishing touches on an electrochemical detection system that it hopes to sell to the Defense Department.
The system centers on a handheld “biochip” that detects chemical and biological agents used in war. The Defense Department funded the research, though the company didn’t disclose the amount.
“Delivery of these fully functional prototype units for the U.S. Department of Defense testing and evaluation is an important milestone in the commercialization of our system for the detection of chemical and biological warfare agents,” said Donald Montgomery, technology chief at CombiMatrix. “We understand the urgent need for this capability in homeland defense applications, and our goal is to pursue this application of our technology through additional collaborations.”
CombiMatrix develops technology for making customizable tests for drug companies and research labs to analyze genetic data.
The company has received much of the attention from parent Acacia, which has several other businesses,including one that developed the V-chip for TV sets.
CombiMatrix has about 40 patent applications for its products and is gearing up for its own public offering, once the market for new issues comes back, according to chief executive Paul Ryan.
“CombiMatrix is in solid form for an IPO,” Ryan said in an earlier interview.
CombiMatrix also has gotten the attention of several big companies, including Swiss drug maker Roche Holdings AG. CombiMatrix recently struck a 15-year deal in which Roche will help with research into micro arrays and then market the finished product. Roche is set to pay royalties and fees to CombiMatrix in the first three years of the deal.
But if Acacia’s prospects are good, Wall Street hasn’t noticed. The company’s shares peaked last year and are down some 50% from the start of the year.
Acacia recently relocated from Pasadena to Newport Beach. The company’s new space in Newport Center is about 10,000 square feet, roughly the same size as its Pasadena facility. The location is more convenient for many of Acacia’s executives, including Ryan, who live in Orange County.
Skyworks Hits Milestone
Reading some recent news from Skyworks Solutions Inc.,a venture formed last month by Woburn Mass-based Alpha Industries Inc. and Conexant Systems Inc.’s wireless division,you’d think the company had been in business forever.
Skyworks recently said it reached a milestone with the shipment of its 10 millionth GSM chipset to Samsung Electronics Co. Chipsets are a grouping of chips that perform a specific function, in this case inside wireless phones using the global system for mobile communications standard.
Skyworks was ecstatic about the news.
“This key milestone marks the initial success of our comprehensive design approach,” said Murthy Renduchintala, a Skyworks vice president. “We are especially pleased that this shipment was to Samsung, our first system level customer.”
But it hasn’t been all easy going for Skyworks.
Right after the merger closed, the company cut 350 workers. Some of the shuttered operations were at the company’s wafer fabrication facility in Woburn, Mass., as well as Skyworks’ assembly and test operation in Mexicali. The company’s Newport Beach facilities were consolidated into one spot in Irvine.
MindArrow Making Buy
Huntington Beach-based MindArrow Systems Inc. and Salt Lake City-based Category 5 Technologies Inc. plan to join forces, the companies recently said.
The combined company would make a suite of products for online marketing and communications.
The deal would allow the two companies to combine sales, marketing and distribution workers and sell each other’s products.
“The two companies fit together very well strategically and operationally,” MidArrow Chief Executive Robert Webber said. “The merger significantly expands our client base and provides us with the opportunity and resources to market a host of complementary applications through new channels.
A date for the shareholder vote hasn’t been set.
Category 5 shareholders are set to own 60% of the new company, though Webber and other MindArrow executives are set to run the combined company from Huntington Beach.
Syspro Gets Magazine Nod
Costa Mesa-based Syspro Impact Software Inc. got a tip of the hat from Start Magazine, a manufacturing publication, which ranked it among its “Hottest Companies of 2002.”
“We are proud to recognize Syspro, for the third straight year, as one of the vendors who persevered and prospered this past year,” Start publisher Peggy Smedley said in a letter to the company.
Syspro makes a special brand of software,called enterprise resource management software,that allows technology workers in large companies to manage a company’s applications and processes.
