Irvine software maker Kofax Image Products Inc., a unit of Britain’s Dicom Group PLC, picked up a chief executive from a competitor.
Reynolds Bish, 55, is set to head up Dicom. The company’s Irvine operation serves as its functional headquarters.
Dicom’s on-the-books headquarters is in the south of England. It trades publicly on the London Stock Exchange.
Bish’s replacing Rob Klatell, who’s set to retire in November.
The company, which got its start in 1985, makes information capture software used by businesses to get rid of paper and speed up work productivity.
Kofax’s software collects paper documents, forms, invoices, e-mail and photos and organizes them into a common, searchable database of electronic files.
With about 300 workers in Irvine, Kofax was bought by Dicom five years ago. Dicom has about 1,100 workers worldwide, including a unit in Europe that makes scanners and other devices.
Dicom counts sales of about $330 million a year. Software sales, including from Kofax, account for about $200 million, according to spokesman Michael Troncali.
The company doesn’t break out sales for Kofax, which sells mostly through resellers and other channels.
Customers include Wells Fargo & Co., FedEx Corp. and government agencies.
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Bish: oversaw sale of Captiva to EMC |
Bish hails from San Diego-based Captiva Software Corp., which he founded in 1989. The company grew to be a competitor of Kofax and was bought by EMC Corp. in 2005.
“My company was a very direct competitor of Kofax,” Bish said. “Because of that, I know the market, the industry and the technology. I can come up to speed much faster on the business than perhaps an alternative CEO.”
Bish served as vice president of EMC’s enterprise software group and helped oversee the integration of Captiva. He stepped down in 2006.
“I decided that I wanted to go back to work and find another CEO opportunity because I thought I was too young to retire,” Bish said. “My mind would turn to mush, or I would drive my wife crazy. Both of those things started happening after the end of 14 months.”
His heading up of a former adversary has been positively met by Kofax workers, Bish said.
“I told the (Kofax) employees, ‘I never thought I’d be here,'” he said. “But when you compete you get a different perspective. I actually developed quite a bit of respect for Kofax.”
His challenge is to spur revenue growth and to try selling Kofax’s software directly to customers.
“This company in the past year missed expectations and had flat revenue, but it was still profitable,” he said. “I think Kofax decided it needs to get closer to the customer and provide some of the solutions themselves.”
Bish wants to take things slow at first.
“There won’t be any significant changes right away,” he said. “I don’t want to break anything.”
Microsemi Settles
Irvine chipmaker Microsemi Corp. settled a patent suit with Santa Clara-based O2 Micro International Ltd.
Terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed.
The companies agreed to dismiss claims and not sue each other or their customers for four years.
The settlement was part of a case that stretches back to 2005 involving Japan’s Rohm Ltd. and Sony Corp.
O2 Micro said the two companies violated three patents related to Sony’s liquid-crystal display TVs that contain Rohm chips, according to a report by EEtimes.com, an online trade journal.
Infringement claims against Rohm still are pending and don’t involve Microsemi.
Broadcom, EA Pact
Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. said it struck a deal with Redwood City-based video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. to offer games for cell phones that work with Broadcom’s chips.
The games run on Broadcom’s latest VideoCore III processor, which supports high-definition graphics.
The chip allows games to be downloaded and played without using up all a phone’s power.
Handheld game players, such as Nintendo Ltd.’s Nintendo DS and others, have had an advantage over cell phones because of their longer battery life and better sound and picture quality.
Video games that look and sound as good on phones as they do on handheld game players could mean profits for game publishers and wireless carriers, according to Billy Pidgeon, program manager for consumer markets at Framingham, Mass.-based market researcher IDC Corp.
“Low power 3-D hardware graphics acceleration will allow developers to create games for convergent mobile devices that can compete with or surpass games for dedicated handheld gaming devices,” Pidgeon said in a Broadcom statement. “True high resolution 3-D graphics will entice consumers to download and play more mobile games, increasing revenue for publishers and operators.”
The newest generation of Broadcom’s processor hasn’t been designed into phones. The deal lets Electronic Arts deliver games on cell phones when they go to market.
