Irvine chip startup WiSpry Inc. is set to add an executive to its lineup.
Mark Becker was named chief financial officer for the company, which makes machines that are thousandths of an inch in size and puts them on chips. They make a phone’s signal to cell phone towers more efficient and extend battery life.
Becker’s “expertise in cash management and driving operational efficiency is ideal for WiSpry as we drive toward revenue growth,” said Russ Garcia, the company’s chief executive.
At previous companies, Becker helped cut operating expenses and took part in fundraising, Garcia said.
The company has been making management changes in an effort to get out of the research and development phase and into production and shipping chips to customers, Garcia said in an earlier interview.
WiSpry’s chips are set to be in phones by the end of 2008, he said.
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Scene from “World of Warcraft”: Blizzard opening support center in Ireland |
Becker, 49, has a history working at tech startups.
He was interim financial chief for El Segundo-based TelAsic Communications Inc. and financial chief at another Irvine chip startup specializing in global positioning systems for mobile devices, U-Nav Microelectronics Inc.
In 2005, Becker was financial chief for Irvine’s Transdimension Inc., a maker of connectors for computers and other devices that now is Irvine-based Oxford Semiconductor Inc.
He cut his teeth at Jazz Semiconductor Inc. in Newport Beach, where he was promoted up from Jazz’s neighbor and former parent company Conexant Systems Inc.
At Jazz, Becker headed up a team of 20 workers who set up the chipmaker’s finance strategy.
Kissing the Blarney Stone
Irvine’s Blizzard Entertainment Inc., Orange County’s top video game maker, said it’s set to open a new European base in Ireland.
The company, best known for its “World of Warcraft” series of online multiplayer games, said it expects to hire some 100 workers in Cork City, in southern Ireland, according to ENN.ie, an Irish tech news Web site.
The Cork site is set to be a customer support center for European game players. About 9 million players subscribe to “World of Warcraft,” the company said.
Blizzard already has offices near Paris (it’s part of France’s Vivendi).
The word of the new jobs is a relief for Cork, which has seen a handful of U.S. companies shutter operations there of late.
Cork is Ireland’s third-largest city and is home to the famed Blarney Stone.
Gateway Deals
Federal regulators have given the green light for the sale of Irvine-based Gateway Inc.
Taiwan’s Acer Inc. said it agreed to buy Gateway’s retail business for $710 million several weeks ago.
Nampa, Idaho-based MPC Corp. is set to buy Gateway’s other business,selling computers to government agencies and corporations,for about $90 million.
There is typically a 30-day period in which the Federal Trade Commission and antitrust officials from the Department of Justice are allowed to request a review of possible antitrust violations.
Gateway’s buyers were granted “early termination,” meaning they weren’t required to wait a full 30 days for the sale to clear.
The deals are set to close within a few weeks, Gateway said in a statement.
Such formalities are common in the PC industry, which is shrinking as smaller players get bought out.
Gateway and Acer have another deal in the works.
The company is set to buy Packard Bell BV, the Netherlands-based PC maker owned by OC businessman Lap-Shun “John” Hui.
The strategic buy is designed to keep rival Lenovo Group Ltd. from buying Packard Bell as a way to gain entry into Europe.
Lenovo was said to be close to bidding for the company before Gateway exercised an option to buy Packard Bell from Hui, who sold eMachines to Gateway in 2004 for $290 million.
Hui, once Gateway’s second largest shareholder after founder Ted Waitt, sold his stake to buy Packard Bell last year. To do so, he struck a deal with Gateway to get out of a noncompete pact by giving Gateway the right of first refusal to buy any of his companies before selling to a rival.
So now Acer is set to pay for Packard Bell, though it’s technically being bought by Gateway.
