It’s been a busy couple of weeks for Costa Mesa’s Emulex Corp., a maker of electronics that speed up the flow of data on corporate storage networks.
Emulex bumped up Jeff Benck to the president post, solidifying him in the No. 2 spot at Emulex. Benck was hired in 2008 as senior vice president and chief operating officer.
Benck oversees engineering, marketing, business development, operations and sales.
He also helps with corporate strategy and is focused on diversifying Emulex’s products.
The promotion is a subtle one. But it puts Benck clearly as the next in line to Emulex’s Chief Executive John McCluney.
McCluney had served as chief operating officer under former chief executive Paul Folino, who’s now chairman.
Until Benck was hired, there wasn’t a chief operating officer at Emulex for a few years.
Before landing at Emulex, Benck was recruited from IBM Corp. to take a similar post at Aliso Viejo’s QLogic Corp., a top Emulex rival.
He left after less than a year over the timing of what was then a planned succession to take over as chief executive.
QLogic Chief Executive H.K. Desai still is heading the company he has run for some 15 years.
Last month, Emulex completed its acquisition of Sunnyvale’s ServerEngines Corp. for about $159 million in cash, debt and stock.
The two companies have close ties.
Emulex worked with ServerEngines a few years ago to break into a market known as converged networking.
Emulex’s converged network adapters—circuit boards with chips that bring the speed of specialized data networks to everyday networks of servers and desktop computers—contain ServerEngines’ Ethernet chips.
Converged networking is seen as the biggest development in corporate networks in years.
ServerEngines was founded in 2004 by former Broadcom Corp. engineers who came to the chipmaker when it bought Silicon Valley’s ServerWorks for $1.8 billion in 2001.
Broadcom and Emulex are rivals in converged network adapters.
Raising Money
Irvine-based CardLogix Corp., a maker of smart cards and software used by businesses and governments, is looking to raise its first round of outside funding.
“We are growing fairly fast and we are in the process of looking at our plans to determine how much we’ll need,” Chief Executive Bruce Ross said. “We will be on the prowl for money soon.”
Ross estimates CardLogix will look to raise a modest amount—somewhere between $1 million and $2 million.
CardLogix plans to use the money to add workers and get into new markets, including gambling and other government security projects, Ross said.
The privately held company, which sees an estimated $20 million in yearly sales, has been self-funded until this point.
Its smart cards contain a chip, housed within a credit card-like plastic case. The chips can store just about anything—money, points, documents, access to buildings and even a person’s fingerprint. Some use an embedded antenna or radio frequencies to communicate to servers on a network. Others have a tiny computer inside.
A big growth area for CardLogix is healthcare.
“Healthcare cards typically carry electronic health records and they often are used to prove that the patient was there so they can stop any kind of fraud in claims processing,” Ross said.
They also help reduce costly transcription errors.
“Using cards saves hospitals money and many man hours,” Ross said.
The cards are popular in countries with government-run healthcare, he said.
CardLogix’s customers include the government of Zambia and two other African nations.
Bits and Pieces
Attention “Farmville” addicts! You are not alone. According to a recent report from market researcher NPD Group Inc., some 20% of Americans report having played a game on a social network in the past three months. About 35% of social network gamers are new to computer games. Females and older age groups are more likely to be new players … Irvine-based communications chipmaker Broadcom said its Bluetooth chips powered the latest gadget from Tivo Inc., a maker of digital video recorders for consumers. The Tivo Slide is a Bluetooth-enabled remote control with a full keyboard, which allows users to search for Internet content via their TVs without leaving the couch … Walnut-based ViewSonic Corp. said recently it’s transitioning all of its PC monitors to include light-emitting diode displays by the beginning of next year. The move is part of a push to develop energy-saving electronics. ViewSonic also designs liquid-crystal display TVs, computers, projectors, digital photo frames, digital signs and media players.
