Irvine fast grower Xelleration LLC will gain access to new markets and regions with its recent sale to Albuquerque-based IT services provider Speridian Technologies.
“We’re able to broaden our footprint,” said Chief Operating Officer Brendan Neary.
Xelleration, established in 2001, is one of about 75 Microsoft managed partners across the U.S. As part of the designation, the software giant provides resources and support for customers, and in some cases, even funding.
Speridian, which is much larger than Xelleration, is an Oracle specialist with a strong presence in the government and healthcare sectors. Xelleration focuses on app development for business processing and work-flow automation, with a customer concentration beyond healthcare in the education, finance and manufacturing industries.
“Optimization is what it’s all about,” Neary said.
Xelleration posted revenue of $7 million in the 12 months through June, up 27.3% from two years earlier. The increase ranked 56th among firms with sales under $10 million on the Business Journal’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies list published last month.
The gains were driven by newer services geared for artificial intelligence and Internet of Things, two of the hottest tech segments.
Financial terms of the sale were undisclosed.
The management team and most of the company’s 90 employees will be retained, Neary said. About 60 are based in Irvine. Speridian, by comparison, employs about 1,100.
Xelleration was founded by Chief Executive Mo Khan, a former director of worldwide distribution and accounting systems at Irvine-based computer maker AST Research, which holds a deep legacy in Orange County that dates back to the heyday of PC manufacturing in the U.S.
Xelleration operates an app development hub in both India and Khan’s native Pakistan.
IT Jobs Grow
Cloud services and cybersecurity, two other sizzling tech segments, have another IT provider eyeing OC for a hiring push to meet demand.
Scottsdale-based vCOREÂ Technology Partners, which has an operation near the Irvine Spectrum, plans to double local employment to about 75 over the next two years.
“Cybersecurity is exploding with vCORE and everywhere,” said founder and Chief Executive Steve Leavitt, who moved the headquarters from Huntington Beach to Arizona about four years ago for family reasons.
It secured a partnership about three years ago with Irvine-based cybersecurity software maker Cylance Inc. after one of its clients in the entertainment industry was compromised by hackers who released sensitive information and emails involving roughly 47,000 celebrities, contractors, and current and former employees.
Cylance, which recently entered the consumer market, is one of the most closely watched companies in OC’s developing cybersecurity hub.
VCORE has about 125 customers and concentrates in the healthcare sector. Revenue has been growing at a 50% clip the past few years as the company nears $100 million in annual sales.
It plans to hire 200 to 300 workers in the next few years in a North American expansion beyond its current presence in California, Hawaii, Washington, Colorado, Georgia and Alberta, Canada.
“A lot of the growth over the next few years will be Southern California based,” Leavitt said.
Cylance on Equifax
While on the subject of major breaches, it appears Cylance hasn’t been contacted by Atlanta-based credit score and report services provider Equifax Inc.
“We are not doing anything with them,” Senior Vice President of Marketing Shaun Walsh told the Business Journal in a rare customer disclosure.
Atlanta-based Equifax, one of the country’s largest credit rating and report services providers, is under intense scrutiny after hackers breached its database, compromising the names, social security numbers and home addresses of more than 145 million Americans.
Equifax Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Smith, who held the top post since 2005, abruptly resigned late last month as federal prosecutors investigated potential insider trading by three Equifax executives who sold $1.8 million in shares between the time of the breach in May and when it was first disclosed on Sept. 7.
CalAmp Expands
Irvine-based telematics products maker CalAmp Corp. has expanded business in Latin America through a distribution agreement with Car Security, a LoJack licensee in Argentina.
Under the deal, Car Security will offer CalAmp’s vehicle risk management services for insurance companies and consumers in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. More specifically, the agreement includes CalAmp’s CrashBoxx service, which provides near real-time information on car crashes to insurers.
The wireless services provider and products maker last year relocated its headquarters from Oxnard to Irvine, where it employs about 50, including IT, human relations, legal and some supply chain operations personnel.
The move provided a boost in OC’s middle-market roster of publicly traded tech companies, a key corporate segment that has lost several big players in the past few years to global consolidation.
The company posted revenue of $351.1 million and a net loss of about $7.9 million in the 12 months through February, the end of its fiscal year.
It established an Irvine office in 2007 through its $19 million acquisition of Aercept.
