Chipmaker MaxLinear Inc. is focused on expanding its management and operations in its key Irvine hub as their Orange County presence continues to grow, says Finance Vice President Nick Aberle.
“We are committed to increasing our Orange County team,” Aberle told the Business Journal last month. “Orange County is a critical growth geography for the company with a large portion of our employees and a majority of the executive team being based in the Irvine office.”
Carlsbad-based MaxLinear (NYSE: MXL) makes chips for diverse markets, including broadband, connectivity, and communications infrastructure. Like most semiconductor businesses, the company is dealing with supply shortages due in large part to effect of the pandemic on the supply chain.
The company has nearly 200 employees in Irvine, and ranked No. 6 on this year’s Business Journal list of top OC chipmakers. Company executives split their time between Irvine and Carlsbad, about an hour down the San Diego Freeway (I-5), according to Aberle.
Local Hub
The company has over 40 job openings currently available in Southern California specifically, with many of them for engineering talent to be hired in MaxLinear’s offices at 50 Parker in Irvine, Aberle told the Business Journal on Sept. 20.
The company’s Irvine offices, which count their share of former Broadcom employees, run about 50,000 square feet, while its headquarters are about 68,000 square feet, according to regulatory filings.
“We’re definitely looking for engineering talent as it will be necessary to support our next stage of growth,” according to the finance VP.
Shares in the company have risen more than 30% this year and were trading at $50.12 apiece as of Oct. 1 for a market cap of over $3.8 billion.
Despite the pandemic, the company’s second-quarter revenue rose 215% compared to the same period a year earlier.
Over 300
MaxLinear employs a little over 300 in total in Southern California split between Irvine and Carlsbad, according to Aberle.
The company has offices in San Jose and suburban Boston, as well as in locations around the world including Spain, India, Singapore, Japan, China and Israel.
Aberle says MaxLinear is “no different” from other companies that are also facing supply shortages.
“Demand for our products has been robust in the face of tight supply which has pushed lead-times out and has afforded us additional visibility,” Aberle said. “Our operations team has been working tremendously hard to support customers, and while we have seen improvement we have additional catching up to do.”
Revenue BoostÂ
The company’s revenue for the second quarter, which ended June 30, was $205.4 million.
MaxLinear in August predicted that continued strong demand would push revenue to between $215 million and $225 million in the just-ended third quarter for a sequential rise of about 7% at the midpoint.
The company is expected to release third-quarter earnings later this month.
“We believe our revenue growth is poised to expand as we increase deliveries to customers,” Aberle said.
The company is known as being “fabless,” meaning its chips are made elsewhere. The majority are made in Taiwan, according to Aberle.
“The end customers are the operators. So, on the cable side it’s folks like Comcast, Charter, and Cox Communications. On the fiber side it’s going to be companies like Verizon,” he said.
“While Q2 revenue was up 215% year-over-year, it still was muted by the ongoing industrywide manufacturing supply chain challenges,” Chief Executive Kishore Seendripu told investors on July 28.
He added: “However, our robust Q3 revenue guidance shows that we are steadily overcoming the impact of these supply constraints.”
Analysts are “highly optimistic” about MaxLinear, Zacks Equity Research said Sept. 27.
Â
