Bret Johnsen is leaving as chief financial officer of Newport Beach-based chip maker Mindspeed Technologies Inc.
Word is Johnsen left the company for a private startup outside the chipmaking industry.
Johnsen and Mindspeed declined comment on his new job.
Johnsen joined Mindspeed in July 2008 and won plaudits for helping get the maker of networking and telecommunications chips through the recent recession. He played a key role in efforts to cut costs, rework debt, sell stock and raise cash through patent sales.
The moves helped reposition Mindspeed for profitability and brought renewed attention from Wall Street.
Johnsen will be replaced on an interim basis by Kristen Schmidt, currently Mindspeed’s executive finance director effective May 6.
“I leave Mindspeed with a strong finance team, a significantly improved balance sheet and with a market leading platform of products that I believe will continue to drive growth for the company,” Johnsen said.
Mindspeed has initiated a search for a permanent chief financial officer with an executive search firm, the company said.
UCI Research Draws $3M
San Jose’s SoundCure Inc. recently raised $3 million in a financing round with any eye toward developing commercial applications for a tinnitus therapy developed by researchers at the University of California, Irvine.
SoundCure’s therapy is based on technology that uses patented algorithms to produce sounds that inhibit tinnitus, a condition marked by noise or ringing in the ears.
The therapy has been pioneered by UCI’s Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng with research funded by the American Tinnitus Association.
It’s seen some success in providing relief to those with tinnitus, which affects 262 million individuals worldwide, according to the group.
There is no cure for tinnitus, but treatment can reduce or mask the noise.
The financing round was led by Boston-based Allied Minds Inc., an early stage capital investment firm that manages more than $250 million in assets.
The technology uses tones and sounds customized to an individual’s case of tinnitus to help quiet the ringing.
“The university is pleased with Allied Minds’ continued commitment to developing this important technology that resulted from academic research into a therapy that has the potential to benefit patients suffering from tinnitus,” said Ronnie Hanecak, assistant vice chancellor at the office of technology alliances at UCI.
The office fosters faculty and private industry partnerships and commercial applications of UCI technology for the public benefit.
Western Dig Holds Lead
Irvine-based disk drive maker Western Digital Corp. held its market share lead by a narrow margin over archrival Seagate Technologies LLC of Northern California in the March quarter.
Western Digital shipped 50 million hard drives compared to 49 million for Seagate.
Seagate maintained its lead over Western Digital in terms of revenue, generating $2.7 billion in the quarter, with net income of $93 million.
Western Digital reported revenue of $2.25 billion and net income of $146 million.
Seagate’s focus on more costly drives for corporate computers typically brings higher sales compared to Western Digital, which specializes in drives for computers and consumer computers.
Seagate boosted unit sales of its drives while Western Digital’s shipments slipped last quarter.
John Coyne, chief executive of Western Digital, attributed the decline in unit sales to the aftermath of the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan and disruption of computer shipments by Intel Corp.
Western Digital is set to be the undisputed leader in drives—and a more significant player in the corporate segment—once its pending $4.3 billion buy of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Ltd. is final.
That deal appears to have prompted Seagate to strike a deal of its own.
Seagate announced last month it is paying $1.4 billion for Samsung Electronics Co.’s disk drive business.
The move, which gives Seagate access to Samsung flash memory chips used in solid state drives that use chips instead of spinning disks to store data, was seen by many industry observers as a response to Western Digital’s deal for Hitachi.
The Seagate deal isn’t as big as Western Digital’s proposed buy.
Hitachi now is the No. 3 maker of drives with about 18% of the market.
Samsung is No. 5 with about 10% market share.
Adding Samsung’s disk drive business would give Seagate about 40% of the market, versus 49% for Western Digital with Hitachi.
