Broadcom Corp. Chief Executive Scott McGregor still has faith in Nokia Corp., which recently warned investors about sales and saw a report predict it’ll lose its crown as top cell phone maker.
“Nokia is a good customer, and I think they’re doing a number of things to reengineer their product strategy,” McGregor said during a conference in New York earlier this month. “As much as there is bad news on the Street about Nokia, they’re still No. 1 in the cellular space. If they were to lose half of their market share they would still be one of the major cell phone players.”
Late last month, Finland’s Nokia warned investors that second-quarter sales are expected to be “substantially” below its prior forecast.
That led Standard & Poor’s to cut the company’s debt rating and project a 10% revenue drop for Nokia’s devices and services segment.
Then last week, Japanese investment bank Nomura Holdings Inc. came out with a report that predicted Nokia would lose its spot as the largest maker of cell phones to Samsung Electronics Co.
Samsung also is a Broadcom customer.
McGregor said he sees plenty of opportunity with Nokia’s smartphones, which are set to use Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone 7 operating system.
“We have design wins at both of those divisions of Nokia,” McGregor said. “There’s a tremendous opportunity as they roll out other products in Microsoft Windows going forward. We believe we’re a good partner for them and will work hard for their success.”
Investors have sent Broadcom shares down about 20% in 2011, partly due to its exposure to Nokia and other phone and wireless gear makers.
The company had a recent market value of about $17 billion.
In April, Broadcom forecast second-quarter sales of $1.75 billion to $1.85 billion, short of the $1.9 billion analysts had been expecting.
Boost Boosters
Employees at Boost Mobile LLC, part of Sprint Nextel Corp., were given free phones and service last week to push for the company in the streets.
The campaign is expected to supply some 200 workers at Boost’s side-by-side buildings in the Irvine Spectrum with the free goods.
The employees at the prepaid cell phone service provider are armed with a 25% phone discount card to give potential customers as they make the case to switch carriers.
The company’s prepaid plans start at $50 a month and can go as low as $35 a month with a discount after 18 on-time payments.
“We’re giving them free phones and services to leverage their device to start a conversation,” said Andre Smith who was tapped to head Boost as its vice president late last year. “It doesn’t take much to strike that conversation.”
The company went through a lot of upheaval after Sprint bought Warren, N.J.-based prepaid competitor Virgin Mobile USA Inc. for $483 million in late 2009. It took some time for the acquisition to shake out.
Tech Awards
Steven Plochocki, chief executive of Irvine healthcare software maker Quality Systems Inc., and Irvine TV seller Vizio Inc. were among the big winners at TechAmerica’s 18th annual Orange County High-Tech Innovation Awards last week.
Plochoki was awarded the outstanding CEO honor. Vizio, one of the top makers of flat TVs, won the nod for outstanding technology company.
Huntington Beach’s Greenway Design Group Inc. received the Harvey Mudd College Green Engineering Award.
Other winners included Aliso Viejo software maker Evantix LLC; Tustin-based flash drive storage provider ViridiStor LLC; Irvine startup data cruncher WiseWindow Inc.; Irvine-based medical device maker Masimo Corp.; Irvine-based chipmaker RFAxis Inc.; Costa Mesa-based networking electronics maker Emulex Corp.; and Santa Ana wireless gear maker Powerwave Technologies Inc.
In the education category, winners included Brea Olinda High School’s Rahia Zaidi, emerging student innovator; JSerra Catholic High School’s Betty Cappelletti, high impact teacher in science, math and technology; and Davis Magnet School principal Kevin Rafferty, innovation school program in science, math and technology.
The event at the Hyatt Regency Irvine drew some 350 guests from the technology, financial services, government and academic sectors as well as students and investors. Before the award presentation a tribute was given for TechAmerica volunteer Gregg Gallagher, a writer, photographer and tech executive who died of cancer in April.
Ingram Nod
The U.S. division of Santa Ana-based Ingram Micro Inc., the biggest distributor of computers, software and other technology products, was named the fastest growing distributor of document imaging for Japan’s Fujitsu Ltd. for the second straight year.
The Fujitsu Annual Channel Awards, presented last month at the One Capture Alliance Premier Partner Conference in Hawaii, recognizes top-performing resellers, distributors and integrators that notch the highest sales and top business performances.
