Tech companies still dominate the Business Journal list of Orange County’s fastest-growing public companies, but their hold has weakened as the sector’s downturn stretches into its second year.
Seven tech or tech-related companies are among the top 10 on this year’s list, down from nine last year. Twenty-six of the 75 companies on this year’s list are tech or tech-related, compared with 34 of 70 on last year’s.
Of course, the ebbing of tech opened slots for companies in other sectors, such as Irvine-based California Coastal Communities, a residential developer, which made it to the list for the first time at No. 5, or Irvine-based Endocare Inc., a surgical device maker that moved up to No.7 from No. 28 last year.
The list ranks OC public companies by three-year revenue growth as of June 30. It includes New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and AMEX issues, and a few companies traded over-the-counter. This list was compiled for the Business Journal by Newport Beach-based Roth Capital Partners LLC.
Five of the top 10 fast-growing companies on last year’s list don’t appear this year because they were acquired, moved or experienced steep declines in revenue growth. Twenty-five companies moved up in the rankings, and 32 fell. Eighteen companies debuted on the list this year.
Of course, any list of fastest-growing firms tends to favor smaller companies, since they’re starting from a smaller base and ramping up sales to establish themselves. This list is no different. No. 3 Irvine-based Broadcom Inc. is the only company in the top 10 to have revenue of more the $100 million in the base period starting in 1998.
The top five are: No. 1 Santa Ana-based Starbase Corp., a Web-design software maker that was at No. 4 last year and posted 1,481% growth in revenue in three years; No. 2 Micro General Corp., a Santa Ana-based financial software company that was No. 1 last year, up 1,063%; Broadcom, up 946%; No. 4 Biolase Technology Inc., a San Clemente-based maker of medical and dental laser systems, up 673%; and California Costal Communities, up 491%.
Among the top 20 companies, 11 are tech or tech-related, down from 14 in the top 20 of last year’s list. These include software developer DPAC Technologies Corp. of Garden Grove at No. 13; Irvine-based Newport Corp. at No. 15; and Yorba Linda-based netGuru Inc. at No. 16.
Of the remaining nine companies in the top 20, three are in the healthcare sector, two are residential construction companies, and two are in the financial sector.
Fidelity National Financial Inc. of Irvine, with revenue of $3.3 billion, rose to No. 11 after the company acquired Chicago Title Co. to become the nation’s largest title insurer. WFS Financial Inc. of Irvine, rose to No. 12 from No. 41 last year as the company tripled its revenue in the three-year period. WFS Financial focuses on auto lending and is a subsidiary of Westcorp. Inc., a publicly traded financial services holding company ranked No. 26 this year.
The two other companies in the top 20 are Newport Beach-based Emergent Information Technologies Inc., a defense contractor at No. 17, and at No. 20 Anaheim-based surfwear retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc.
The 75 companies in the list had aggregate revenue of $95 billion in the 12 months ended June 30 and a combined revenue growth of 53% from the 1998 period. Last year, the 70 companies on the list had doubled their aggregate revenue in the three-year period.
The top 25 companies in this year’s list had aggregate revenue of $10.5 billion and growth of 208%. Last year, the top 25 companies grew their aggregate revenue by 195%.
Interestingly, employment growth did not necessarily track revenue growth at the companies on the list. List leader Starbase added seven employees in OC in the past year, a 5% increase; but the company did increase its headcount nationwide by 92%.
Fourth-place Biolase shrank its workforce in OC by 5% while adding 31% more people companywide.
Fifth-place California Coastal Communities had a 34% reduction in OC employees and 21% reduction in its companywide workforce. No. 39 Nexell Therapeutics Inc. slashed 83% of its workforce in OC in the past year, lowering its payroll here to 25.
Overall, the 75 companies employed 38,285 in OC, up 2% from last year. Companywide, the 75 firms employed a total of 189,312, up 9% from last year.
In percentage terms, Chicago Pizza & Brewery Inc. of Huntington Beach added the most employees in OC in the past year. The company increased its OC payroll by 453 people or 168%, opening a restaurant in Huntington Beach and moving some administrative workers here from Seattle. Second-place Micro General Corp. added 59% more people to its OC operations, while No. 31 Lantronix Inc. of Irvine, added 67% to its local workforce. Eleven companies had at least 25% growth in their OC payrolls, while 37 companies had flat or decreased OC staffing. n
