Newport Beach chipmaker Mindspeed Technologies Inc. is betting on chips for voice over Internet protocol, which allows users to place calls using Internet lines instead of phone lines.
For the three months ended Oct. 3, Mindspeed reported sales of $51 million, double the revenue it saw during the same period a year earlier.
Mindspeed’s top line got a boost from the $12 million it netted in a sale of some intellectual property and patents.
The biggest bump in sales came from its voice over Internet protocol processor chips, which it sells to corporations and telecommunication companies.
Voice over Internet protocol chips made up some 40% of the company’s total sales during the quarter, up 11% from the previous sequential quarter.
“We were encouraged by continued VoIP growth,” Rick Schafer, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, said in a research note. “Both enterprise and carrier applications contributed nicely, growing double-digit percentages. In our view, VoIP remains the key to Mindspeed’s long-term growth.”
Excluding charges for income tax, stock compensation and other items, the company posted profits of $11 million, up from a loss of $1 million a year earlier.
Despite the good news during the most recent quarter, Mindspeed’s troubles are far from over.
Its shares are off about 80% in the past year.
Analyst Schafer lowered his price target on the company recently on a worse-than-expected outlook for the current quarter.
He’s looking for Mindspeed’s shares to command $5 each, down from $6, and said the company is “a speculative investment appropriate for risk-tolerant investors.”
The stock was trading around $1.50 last week with a market value of about $30 million.
For the current quarter, the company said it expects revenue of $34 million to $37 million.
It’s anticipating that it will not turn a profit,but will report break-even results,due to charges for restructuring.
Mindspeed’s customers include Alcatel Data Networks SA, Fujitsu Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co., Sonus Networks Inc. and others.
STEC’s Snags CFO
Santa Ana’s STEC Inc., a maker of flash memory storage devices for corporations, snagged a finance executive from Mindspeed.
The company recently named Raymond D. Cook as its chief financial officer.
Cook, 48, replaces Dan Moses, who retired earlier this month.
Moses is set to stay on to help with the transition and will hold his seat on the company’s board of directors.
Cook was the vice president of finance and corporate controller at Mindspeed. He also was its interim chief financial officer this year, before Mindspeed hired Bret Johnsen in June.
Johnsen replaced Simon Biddiscombe, who left in April to take the finance chief post at Aliso Viejo’s QLogic Corp.
Cook held finance posts at Newport Beach chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. and at Rockwell International Corp., which spun off its chip arm to form Conexant in 1999.
Mr. 3,000
Somebody give Broadcom Corp.’s engineers a high five.
The Irvine-based chipmaker announced a few weeks back that it received its 3,000th U.S. patent.
In addition to domestic patents, Broadcom holds more than 1,300 foreign patents and has some 7,600 additional patent applications pending.
Wireless technology patents account for about a third of the company’s total and about half of its more recent filings, the company said.
Broadcom’s initial claim to fame were patents for chips that went into the world’s first cable modems and TV set-top boxes back in the early 1990s.
In 1999, Broadcom held just five patents. By early 2004 the number grew to more than 500. The company received its 1,000th U.S. patent in 2005 and its 2,000th in early 2007.
Emulex in Ireland
Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp., a maker of electronics for data storage networks used by banks, brokerages and insurance companies, opened a European outpost in Dublin, Ireland.
The new site, which has 11 workers, is set to be an operational headquarters and manage business with Emulex’s customers outside the U.S.
Some of its functions include supply chain management, purchasing, testing, shipping and receiving, financial reporting, credit collections, customer support and sales, the company said in a statement.
It’s the fourth office Emulex has opened in Europe,the others are in Paris, Munich, Germany and Britain.
It’s also the only office outside of its local headquarters to have finance and administrative functions.
Ireland is a popular choice for U.S.-based companies looking to set up offices abroad because of tax breaks and other incentives.
