San Clemente-based business software maker gen-E has inked a deal with Virgin Media Inc., strengthening its position in Europe.
“It’s a huge deal for us,” said Chief Executive Casey Kindiger. “We’ve secured three of the largest and most important brands in the telecommunications market in Europe.”
The London-based communications giant, which provides Internet, cable, land line and mobile phone services to more than 15 million customers, posted sales of more than $6 billion in 2012.
Gen-E also has Hutchison 3G UK Ltd. and British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC as major customers in Europe.
Virgin Media will use gen-E’s Resolve software, which is billed as automating up to 90% of manual information technology tasks, improving response times and speeding up workflow, among other features.
“We can build a lot of wins in Europe,” Kindiger said. “We’re in a good place, and we’re poised for growth.”
Gen-E was one of the fastest-growing private companies in Orange County in 2012, with a 30% sales jump in two years to $24 million.
It targets companies with annual revenue of about $200 million and has seen the greatest adoption of its software in the telecom and financial services industries, according to Kindiger.
“Our intention is to go broader,” he said.
Gen-E was founded in 1999 as a service provider and shifted last year to software sales and development.
The company has about 100 employees in offices in Chicago, where it got its start, as well as Dallas, San Francisco and Ireland. About 60 people work in San Clemente.
Last year, Newport Beach-based private equity firm Solis Capital Partners LLC acquired a substantial stake in gen-E, attracted by the company’s top management and recent track record.
“We like that [Kindiger] has built a service business that was highly successful and growing—all the things that investors like,” Craig Dupper, a partner at Solis Capital, told the Business Journal at the time of the deal.
The investment was the first acquisition under Solis Capital’s second fund, which has raised about $60 million.
They Blinded Them With Science
Fourteen-year-olds River Grace of Melbourne, Fla., and San Diegan Eitan Acks were among the big winners of the 2013 Broadcom MASTERS national STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) competition.
Grace won a $25,000 Samueli Foundation Prize for his study on endangered tortoises, while Acks won $10,000 for his project on speech therapy devices.
The Rising Star Awards went to Menifee resident Krystal Horton for her project on beetle infestation and Sean Weber of Sequim, Wash., for his study on the impact of ocean waves on mussels. Both will attend Intel ISEF, the world’s largest international high school science fair competition, in May as U.S. Broadcom MASTERS International delegates.
STEM award winners included:
• Science Award: Keoni Gandall of Huntington Beach for his project on engineering pink salt.
• Technology Award: Austin McCoy of Rochester, Minn., for his project on disease-detection lab equipment for developing countries.
• Engineering Award: Mihir Garimella of Pittsburgh, for his project on digitally recreating smells.
• Mathematics Award: Johann Kailey-Steiner of Denver, for his project on rocket design.
A panel of scientists and engineers selected the winners from the 30 top finalists, who were narrowed from thousands of nominees.
