Access360 Bolsters Sales Force; ATI a Broadcom Shareholder
This is familiar territory. During the 1990s, I wrote the technology column for the Business Journal as a reporter for the paper. Now I’m back as editor and temporarily filling in on column duty. Our former tech writer, Peter Brennan, has gone on to Bloomberg LP in Los Angeles. In a few weeks, our new tech writer, Andrew Simons, will come on board. He hails from the news division of Scudder Weisel Capital, a venture of Thomas Weisel Partners and Scudder Kemper Investments in San Francisco. Before that, he covered tech for Bridge Information Systems Inc. Until then
Irvine-based Newport Corp. may be the best tech stock you’ve never heard of, according to Red Herring. The online version of the tech and venture capital magazine recently pointed out that Newport’s 400% gain on Wall Street last year was a standout in what was the worst year ever for the Nasdaq.
Despite a poor market for tech stocks, Newport could have more good times ahead, Red Herring said.
“Although it will certainly be tough for Newport to duplicate its incredible run of 2000, the company has actually been a solid performer for the past few years, gaining 59% in 1997, 20% in 1998, and 171% in 1999,” the magazine said. “This success is due in large part to the hiring of Robert Deuster as CEO in 1996.”
Deuster, pronounced doyster, has overseen Newport’s transformation from a sleepy maker of instruments for scientists and researchers to a high-flying supplier of production gear to Nortel Networks Corp., Lucent Technologies Inc., JDS Uniphase Corp. and others.
“When I came in, the company was focused on a thousand products for a thousand different customers,” Deuster told Red Herring at the Needham Growth Conference in New York earlier this month. “Newport lacked a strategy for growth.”
Recently announced buys of Richmond-based Kensington Laboratories Inc. and Sweden’s CE Johansson AB stand to help Newport in key areas, Red Herring wrote. Kensington, a supplier of robotics, metrology automation and optical automation equipment, is expected to add $38 million in annual sales to Newport’s top line. CE Johansson counts yearly sales of $18 million and makes measuring gear and systems.
Last month, Deuster told the Business Journal that Newport is looking for more deals.
“They are not easy to find,” he said. “We don’t tend to buy large companies. We buy companies that have specialized skills in terms of technology. We like the model of buying small to mid-size companies, integrating them quickly and getting a very fast return on that investment.”
So far, Newport has enjoyed a relatively open field. Most of the company’s competition comes from fiber-optic gear makers looking to boost production internally. But Red Herring points to San Jose-based Adept Technology Inc. and Cambridge, Ontario-based ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. as rivals.
Deuster says Newport isn’t concerned about 2001 being a bad year. This year, Deuster said, he’s told analysts to look for sales growth of around 50%.
“It won’t be quite as dramatic, but it’ll be healthy,” he said.
Despite troubles at Nortel, Lucent and other big customers, Newport hasn’t received any cancellations or significant delays on contracts, Deuster told Red Herring.
“This segment will grow at 50% a year over the next three to five years,” said William Potter, an ING Barings analyst. “Newport should perform at or better than the market.”
Access360 Expands
OC’s other hot tech company, privately held Access360 of Irvine, has beefed up its sales ranks as part on an overall expansion. This month, the network access software maker appointed Dan Jenkins vice president of business development. Jenkins previously worked with Logitech International SA and Lotus Development Corp., now part of IBM Corp.
Access360 also has hired Richard Rippy as vice president of worldwide professional services and John Tullie as vice president of sales, North America. Rippy and Tullie both previously worked for Continuus Software Corp. of Irvine, which recently was acquired by Sweden’s Telelogic AB.
In December, Access360 received $41.5 million in new venture funding, including investments from Oracle Corp. and Verisign Inc. The funding, led by New York-based Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc. and San Francisco’s Pivotal Asset Management, brought Access360’s total raised to $69 million.
Access360 has grown from 40 employees a year ago to 250 today. By March, the company expects to have around 300 people, according to Chief Executive Yuri Pikover.
Russian-born Pikover was a co-founder and executive vice president of Calabasas networking gear manufacturer Xylan Corp., which French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel Alsthom SA bought for about $2 billion in 1999.
A Broadcom Shareholder, for Now
Canadian graphics chip maker ATI Technologies Inc. now is the owner of about 1 million shares of Irvine-based Broadcom Corp. The stake, less than 1% of Broadcom’s shares outstanding, comes by way of ATI’s earlier investment in SiByte Inc. of Santa Clara. In December, Broadcom completed its buy of SiByte, in which ATI held an 11% stake. ATI, which doesn’t compete with Broadcom, said it plans to sell the Broadcom shares, though it hasn’t determined the timing.
Handy Award
Cypress-based Universal Electronics Inc. picked up honors at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for its Mosaic remote control, which features a liquid-crystal display screen. Mosaic received the Innovations 2001 Design & Engineering Honors Program award from a pool of new video products introduced in the past year.
The device allows users to control televisions and other home electronics by touching the icons on the display screen.
