Employment at Orange County’s largest software makers grew modestly in the past year amid a spate of mergers, consolidations and restructurings.
The 26 biggest software companies with local operations added 213 workers for a 2.7% year-to-year uptick to a total 8,014 employees, according to this week’s Business Journal list.
The list, based on employee figures as of April, includes locally based software makers, as well as subsidiaries and operations of big companies such as Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and IBM Corp.
This is the first year the list was ranked by local employees and not revenue.
Eight companies on the latest list added workers, three cut staff, and five had work forces even with a year earlier. Ten entries were based on Business Journal estimates.
Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM topped the list with an estimated 1,700 employees, the same as in 2010. The Business Journal estimated the company’s employment.
The company’s Costa Mesa operations include content-management, enterprise content and information-technology divisions.
No. 2 Irvine-based video game maker Blizzard Entertainment Inc. has an estimated 1,600 employees. The Business Journal estimated the company cut 100 jobs after Blizzard announced plans in February to cut 600 employees from its global operation for the “long-term health” of the company, according to Chief Executive and cofounder Mike Morhaime. Blizzard notified the state this month that it planned to cut a third of that total in Irvine by April 28.
Setbacks
Blizzard has faced setbacks recently.
Sales slipped 25% in 2011 to $1.24 billion.
Blizzard did not release a game last year, which accounts for some of the decline, but subscription drops for its flagship World of Warcraft franchise is an ongoing concern.
About 900,000 gamers have dropped Warcraft subscriptions the last two quarters. Some 10.2 million customers pay roughly $15 a month to play the game online.
The company announced in January it would skip its regular fan event BlizzCon this year. A month later it unveiled plans to launch two Blizzard titles this year.
Blizzard told the Business Journal late last year it had planned to launch three games in 2012 for the first time in its history, a claim the company touted during BlizzCon. This month it announced plans to release Diablo III on May 15 in 11 countries, with Russia and Latin America slated for June releases.
Blizzard is a unit of Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard Inc., which is part of Vivendi SA in France.
Equity Buy
No. 3 Quest Software Inc. maintained flat hiring in the last year with 600 local employees. The Aliso Viejo-based company is slated to be taken private in a $2 billion sale to New York-based private equity firm Insight Venture Partners.
Quest makes software that manages and improves on other business products from Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft, Oracle in Redwood Shores, IBM and others.
No. 5 Oracle added 187 employees for a total of 462 OC workers—68% more than a year earlier in the highest percentage increase of any company of the list. The world’s largest business software maker hired more than 1,700 sales personnel companywide in the last six months of 2011, as it launched new cloud and customer-relations management software products.
No. 10 Epicor Software Corp. cut 50 positions in the last year as part of a consolidation, employing 200 people through March, down 20% from a year ago. Epicor, formerly based in Irvine, was acquired last May by London-based private equity firm Apax Partners in a $976 million deal and combined with Northern California-based Activant Solutions Inc.
“The decrease of total employees in OC was due to moving accounting functions to our offices in Austin, Texas, to combine the accounting departments of Epicor and Activant,” spokesperson Lisa Preuss said.
No. 11 Quality Systems Inc. added 50 employees for a total 200 people, up 33%.
The company, which makes software for dentists, physicians and hospitals, has benefited from the federal government’s stimulus package that incentivized health care providers to create digital records for patients and internal operations.
The five-year stimulus package was extended through 2015, so it appears the company has room to grow.
Most of the job gains were in the corporate ranks, as Quality Systems’ executive team is based in Irvine.
“We’ll probably see some growth in the next three years in terms of personnel,” Chief Executive Steven Plochocki said. “We’re also looking to do some things internationally.”
No. 12 Smith Micro Software Inc. cut 53 local positions to 157 people, down 25% from a year ago. In October the company announced plans to cut about 20% of its work force—more than 100 employees—and close some offices as part of a restructuring plan.
It shed 180 positions companywide to 367 people, down nearly 33%.
Smith Micro makes software for cell phones and connecting mobile devices to wireless networks.
