Technology and healthcare companies long have held a dominant role in Orange County’s economy. So it’s no surprise they’ve fueled a growth spurt among publicly traded companies here.
That’s according to this week’s Business Journal list, our annual account of the fastest-growing public companies here by sales for the past three years.
Real estate companies also played a part in driving growth and dominated the top of our list in recent years. But the slowing housing market has caused some to slip lower on our list this year.
The five real estate related-companies on this year’s list made up nearly 40% of the collective revenue of the 50 companies.
William Lyon Homes Inc., which had held the No. 6 spot last year, disappeared from the ranking after going private earlier this year.
Eight of the top 10 companies were technology, drugs, mortgage related-companies as well as one homebuilder.
Throughout the list, there were 19 technology companies, 12 in healthcare and the five tied to real estate.
The Business Journal’s list was compiled by Newport Beach-based investment bank Roth Capital Partners LLC. It ranked companies by revenue growth for the 12 months through June 30, 2003, through the same period this year.
The 50 companies on the list reported combined sales of $43.8 billion for the 12 months through June 30, up 101% from what they posted three years earlier.
This year’s top 50 companies had 19% more revenue than last year’s crop. They boosted local employment by 6% to 24,625 people in the past year.
Companywide job numbers grew even faster, rising 11% to 162,638 people.
This year’s list included 13 companies that weren’t on last year’s ranking.
Taking the No. 1 spot was Acacia Research Corp., a Newport Beach-based company made up of lawyers and engineers who buy patents and then seek licensing fees from users.
Acacia’s 12-month sales through June 30 were $35.9 million, up 143,536% from $30,000 three years ago. The gain makes Acacia the fastest-growing OC public company since the Business Journal began compiling the list in the late 1990s.
No. 2 Ista Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is developing drugs to treat eye ailments, slipped from the top spot last year, where it debuted.
Irvine-based Ista, which raised $56 million in a public stock sale last year to fund its drug development, saw revenue grow to $20.4 million for the 12 months through June 30, up 5,921% from three years ago.
No. 3 Irvine-based Commercial Capital Bancorp Inc. debuted on the list this year. But don’t look for the savings and loan on next year’s.
The company, California’s fastest-growing thrift in the past three years, was bought by Washington Mutual Inc. for $983 million in October.
We decided to list Commercial Capital since it was independent for the period covered by our list. The thrift had revenue of $317 million for the 12 months through June, up 783% from three years earlier.
No. 4 Irvine-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide Inc., a designer of parts for alternative fuel engines, also debuted on the list.
The company’s 12-month sales through June were $192.7 million, up 715% from three years ago.
No. 5 Mindspeed Technologies Inc., a Newport Beach-based chipmaker, also appeared for the first time this year. It saw revenue of $134.8 million for the 12 months through June, up 567% from three years ago.
Three real estate companies, all based in Irvine, slipped in the top 10 rankings: No. 7 Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc., a mortgage real estate investment trust that ranked No. 3 last year; No. 9 homebuilder California Coastal Communities Inc., which ranked No. 8 last year; and No. 10 New Century Financial Corp., a subprime mortgage lender that ranked No. 4 last year.
No. 6 Ceradyne Inc., a Costa Mesa-based maker of ceramic body armor for soldiers and their vehicles, saw sales jump 562% in the past three years to $434.8 million. But the company couldn’t keep pace with others at the top of list, falling from the No. 2 spot last year.
Small to midsize companies made up most of the list, though some bigger names appeared throughout.
The biggest: No. 40 First American Corp., the Santa Ana-based title insurer, with $8.4 billion in yearly sales, up 67% from three years earlier.
Irvine drug maker Allergan Inc. returned to the list after 2000 and 2003 at No. 42 this year. The company’s yearly sales have grown 63% to $2.6 billion in the past three years, thanks to wrinkle remover Botox and, more recently, this year’s $3.2 billion buy of Inamed Corp.
Including William Lyon, a handful of companies from last year’s list don’t appear this time around.
Bid adieu to last year’s No. 5 Irvine-based Micro Therapeutics Inc., which Minnesota’s ev3 Inc. bought for $115 million earlier this year.
Others didn’t meet the cutoff for this year’s list: Costa Mesa-based Emulex Corp., last year’s No. 42; Irvine-based Edwards Lifesciences Corp., last year’s No. 40; and Aliso Viejo-based QLogic Corp., last year’s No. 34.
