Rebounding Conexant Being Showcased Once Again
Broadcom Bumps Intersil in Motorola Modem; Access360 Gets Oracle Bragging Rights
TECHNOLOGY
by Andrew Simons
If you’re a troubled technology company, you know the dark days could be nearly behind you when your advertising agency holds you up as a success. Just ask Conexant Systems Inc.
It seems the Newport Beach-based chipmaker is a marquee name again. New York-based Siegelgale Inc. included Conexant among its success stories when making story pitches to the media, taking hefty credit for everything from naming the former semiconductor division of Rockwell International Inc. “Conexant” to helping to lead the company to profitability.
“When the semiconductor business of Rockwell International wanted to spinoff and redefine itself, it came to Siegelgale, a leading branding and interactive consulting firm, to help position it as the driver of what to expect next in technology,” said a marketing communiqu & #233; from Siegelgale. “The new company, named Conexant, was launched at Comdex ’98 and was considered the hit of the show.”
That’s not all.
“In 2000, Conexant made a strategic business decision to spinoff its network infrastructure division, named Mindspeed, for it to focus on getting its customers to market faster than any other provider.”
Only nine months ago, not even a vending machine outlet would have wanted to associate itself with Conexant, which had seen faltering sales, massive losses and the spinoff of Mindspeed delayed.
Company officials modified the Mindspeed spinoff by giving shares directly to Conexant shareholders. They also struck a deal to sell Conexant’s fast-growing wireless division and sold the company’s Newport Beach fabrication facility.
Now Conexant seems to be near the edge of the woods. After year of plunging sales and big losses, Conexant recently reported a 5% sequential revenue gain in the recently ended quarter,the company’s first in a year. Conexant’s market value is growing gradually, climbing to $3.3 billion at a recent check, up from $2.1 billion a year ago. At least that’s something to brag about.
Broadcom Wins and Loses
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. At least that’s what Broadcom Corp. learned recently when, according to an analyst, Motorola Inc. chose its chips for a wireless networking and broadband cable modem over fellow Irvine chipmaker Intersil Corp. and then lost a design win from Motorola to Texas Instruments Inc. Broadcom shares dove 18% following news of Broadcom’s loss to Texas Instruments.
“It looks like they have lost a design win at Motorola’s cable business,” Cody Acree, an analyst with Dallas-based Frost Securities, told Reuters. “It is not an immediate impact, but over next few quarters Motorola is going to be a major player in the cable modem business.”
Access360 Broadens Oracle Tie
Irvine software company Access360 Inc. recently struck a joint marketing pact with Oracle Corp., which has been working with Access360 for a year and is an investor in the company.
The deal allows Access360 to advertise that its software, which determines which employees get access to what information on a corporate network, works with Oracle’s popular database software.
“This stems back over the last 12 months,” said Brian Anderson, Access360’s chief marketing officer. “The relationship has gotten even tighter. Before, it was a classic small company-big company relationship where we didn’t receive some of the benefits.”
Under the pact, Access360’s sales force is set to make sales calls along Oracle counterparts.
National Water Gets Roth Exec
Wonder where some of those executives from Roth Capital Partners LLC ended up?
One of them turned up at Santa Ana’s National Water & Power Inc., a venture-backed provider of billing and utilities management services.
Scott Southron, who used to head Roth’s technology investment banking practice, joined National recently as the company’s chief financial officer. Roth has been trying to land business with National.
National also hired John De Simone, an alumnus of Westlake Village’s HomeStore.com Inc., as the vice president of corporate development.
“These executives will bring significant knowledge, expertise and experience to their positions, particularly in positioning the company for long-term financial growth, raising public and private equity, evaluating strategic options and opportunities and in building the financial and operational performance metrics required for a market leading company,” said Randy Lintecum, National’s chief executive.
I/O Magic Gets Nod
Santa Ana-based I/O Magic Corp. received some nice comments from David Shen, an analyst with stock researcher Investrend Communications Inc. Shen reiterated a “buy” rating on I/O Magic with a 12-month price target of 3.25, up from less than a buck last week.
“NPD Intellect, the leading retail market data tracking service in North America, ranked I/OMagic,through sales of all three of its brands,as the No. 1 company for all optical storage drives and the fourth-largest company for all data storage products, surpassing over 25 competitors, during the fourth quarter,” Shen said in his report.
Shen specifically cites the growth of I/O Magic’s optical storage gear division.
Ritz Acquires CameraWorld
Ritz Interactive Inc., Irvine, which runs a series of photography Web sites, recently struck a deal to acquire another,that of online camera retailer CameraWorld.com. CameraWorld’s large Portland retail store is not a part of the acquisition.
The acquisition comes only a month after Ritz acquired PhotoAlley.com, another online photo retailer. Ritz acquired WolfCamera.com in October of last year.
“We look forward to expanding upon the qualities that have earned Camera World.com its loyal customer base,” said Ritz Chief Executive Fred Lerner. “Our plan is to retain the elements that have made this site so popular, along with the CameraWorld.com brand and URL, and provide consumers with even greater selection, functionality and service.”
