A recent round of earnings reports has highlighted the growing strength of Orange County’s tech sector, as four notable area companies reported record revenue.
Irvine-based Skyworks Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq: SWKS), the largest OC tech company by market value, said its fourth-quarter revenue rose 37% year-over-year to a record $1.31 billion, while adjusted earnings per share also increased.
“Looking ahead, Skyworks’ cash generation ability is funding capacity expansion and next-generation technology development,” Chief Executive Liam Griffin said in announcing the results on Nov. 4.
Costa Mesa-based MeridianLink Inc. (NYSE: MLNK), which provides cloud-based software for small credit unions and banks, said Nov. 4 third-quarter revenue rose 29% to $67.4 million, beating analyst estimates.
The company, co-founded by Vietnamese refugee Tim Nguyen, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange in July and is now valued around $2 billion. Nguyen won a Business Journal Innovator of the Year Award in September.
MaxLinear Record
Another chipmaker with a key hub in Irvine, Carlsbad-based MaxLinear Inc. (NYSE: MXL) reported record net revenue of $229.8 million in the third quarter, up 47% year-over-year and above analyst estimates. Net income was $9.3 million during the three-month period that ended Sept. 30, versus a loss of $36.6 million a year ago.
“We see continued growth in the fourth quarter and into 2022 across all of our end-markets,” MaxLinear Finance Vice President Nick Aberle told the Business Journal earlier this month.
The company expects revenue in the current quarter to grow to somewhere within a range of $240 million to $250 million, or at least 23% growth above last year’s fourth-quarter level.
“This momentum is fueled by our robust technology portfolio, and to keep this momentum we need to continue pushing best-in-class products to our strategic customers,” according to Aberle.
Indie Exceeds Expectations
Aliso Viejo-based automobile-tech company Indie Semiconductor Inc. (Nasdaq: INDI), which went public in June via a reverse merger and is now valued around $1.6 billion, reported Nov. 10 that third-quarter revenue was a record $12.2 million, up 60% from the year-ago period and ahead of analyst expectations.
Indie’s operating loss for the quarter ended Sept. 30 was $21.3 million versus $3.2 million in the same period of 2020, including transaction costs and stock-based charges.
“Despite continued global supply chain constraints, Indie exceeded third-quarter top and bottom line expectations driven by ramps of our highly innovative automotive solutions,” said Donald McClymont, Indie’s co-founder and chief executive.
Computer networking products maker Lantronix Inc. (Nasdaq: LTRX) of Irvine released its financial results on Nov. 10 and said its net revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 was a record $27.7 million, a 62% increase year-over-year.
Bad Game
One recent sour note came from Activision Blizzard Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), the parent company of Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment, which has the largest number of technology employees in Orange County.
Activision Blizzard earlier this month predicted a slowdown to $2 billion in net revenue in the current quarter, coming in well below the estimates of analysts who expected a typical Christmas boom for the gaming company.
Investors were jarred by the news that the Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 games will take longer than anticipated to finish, sending the share price spiraling downward to its worst one-day drop in 13 years. It still had an approximately $52 billion market cap as of Nov. 16.
Activision is currently facing allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination.
