When Scott McGregor first was tapped to run Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp., he said he couldn’t find Orange County on a map.
“To be honest, we didn’t quite know where OC was,” McGregor told a crowd of more than 100 businesspeople and high school students at the nonprofit Orange County Forum a few weeks ago. “I came to Orange County with my wife a little less than five years ago and we sort of thought it was LA. But we’ve found that it’s definitely not LA.”
The soft-spoken executive gave a talk that addressed different perceptions of OC, including a big one that’s sometimes overlooked—that the coun-ty’s a great place to do business.
“OC has had a tradition and a history of really providing a great environment for business—strong education and the entrepreneurial character of all the people in the area,” he said. “We have a culture of creativity and innovation, everything from chip design, finance, car design and fashion.”
Before becoming Broadcom’s chief executive, McGregor ran the chip arm of Royal Philips Electronics NV in the Netherlands.
Living in Europe “was a very interesting experience as an American,” he said. “To be the alien in a different culture where you don’t speak the language and where you are the outsider is an interesting experience that many Americans don’t get to have.”
McGregor talked up Broadcom’s practice of hiring engineers and workers with higher degrees as one way to “keep that entrepreneurial spirit going” at the maturing company, which makes chips that go into networking gear, cell phones, set-top boxes and consumer electronics.
“It’s against this backdrop that Broadcom has grown from a very small startup to a leadership position in a number of markets today,” he said.
Ingram Deal
Santa Ana’s Ingram Micro Inc., the largest distributor of computers, software and consumer electronics, inked a deal that’s set to help its resellers push networking gear made by Cisco Systems Inc.
Ingram signed a contract with Cisco that “standardizes terms and conditions across all regions,” Ingram said.
Ingram Micro, which has yearly sales of about $30 billion, is the biggest distributor of Cisco products. The company provides Cisco networking products to technology consultants that install and service them.
The “new global contract with Cisco allows our resale partners to take full advantage of business opportunities on a worldwide scale,” said Ken Bast, vice president of vendor management. “Now, our customers will be able to expand into new markets, as well as support their existing global clients with quicker product availability, which will ultimately shorten their sell cycle and positively impact their balance sheets.”
The contract applies to the more than 150 countries in which Ingram Micro supports Cisco sales. The company also started a help desk specifically for Cisco customers.
Skullcandy’s Digs
Park City, Utah-based Skullcandy Inc., a maker of brightly colored headphones and earphones marketed to the under 30 set, recently opened an office in San Clemente as its West Coast hub.
The office aims to sell Skullcandy’s wares to those who are into surfing, skating and other action sports.
It’s set to have 10 workers to start and will be headed by the company’s new marketing director, Mike Carter.
Carter is an Orange County native and was one of the founders of San Clemente-based Electric Visual LLC, a maker of sunglasses and snow goggles. Costa Mesa-based Volcom Inc. bought Electric Visual for $25 million last year.
Carter also managed another OC institution, Laguna Surf & Sport.
Year of the Reader
Next year is expected to be a watershed year for sales of electronic book readers, according to data from Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. That’s when they are likely to move from neato curiosities to popular consumer electronic devices, according to Gartner.
The market researcher anticipates electronic book reader “mania” for the 2010 holiday season.
Several new players have jumped into the fray and are looking to push their own electronic readers after the success of Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle, which debuted in 2008.
There’s the Nook by Barnes & Noble Inc. and Sony Corp.’s E-Reader. Intel Corp. announced a high-end reader last month designed for the blind, as it reads digital files aloud.
Gartner said that the price will be a big factor in consumer adoption.
Right now, the lowest-priced electronic book reader goes for about $200.
Gartner analysts estimate that prices will need to drop closer to $100 to gain popularity with consumers.
Bits and Pieces
Laguna Hills-based Blytheco LLC, a reseller of business software made by Irvine’s Sage Software Inc., has again been named the Sage North America business partner of the year. Sage, which makes software that handles accounting, payroll and other back-office tasks, is a unit of Britain’s Sage PLC … Ingram Micro’s plans to grow faster than the market are “achievable,” said Raymond James & Associates Inc. analyst Brian Alexander said in a recent note to clients. Alexander met with management earlier this month at an analyst day at the company’s Santa Ana headquarters … Lake Forest disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. will be slowly moving to its new digs in Irvine’s Park Place near the John Wayne Airport, according to a spokeswoman for the company. It’s set to do a “phased move” as its other leases come due. Some workers won’t relocate for another two years, she said.
