The county’s largest software makers grew employment by 5.1% in the 12 months through April as several emerging companies joined the ranks of the largely mature local industry.
The 39 largest companies with local operations in the diverse segment added 417 jobs for a combined 8,532 positions, based on this week’s Business Journal list.
It’s the fifth straight year the sector, which includes locally based software makers as well as subsidiaries and operations of big, primarily U.S. companies, posted job gains since the Business Journal began ranking companies by local employment rather than revenue.
Eighteen companies added staff, three made cuts, and four were flat from a year earlier. The Business Journal estimated figures for 14 companies that didn’t provide enough information for yearly comparisons.
• Perennial No. 1, Blizzard Entertainment Inc., has about 2,000 workers at its iron-gated headquarters at Irvine Spectrum, flat from a year earlier. The company on May 24 will release the first-person shooter “Overwatch,” its first new title in 18 years. The game will be available for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One—its first release for the console developed by Microsoft Corp.
Blizzard, which has lost more than 4.5 million “World of Warcraft” subscribers since the end of 2014, could get a significant subscription bump this summer with the June release of the full-length movie “Warcraft” and the game’s sixth expansion set, “World of Warcraft: Legion,” which will launch around the same time.
The company posted sales of $1.56 billion last year.
• Kansas-based Lexmark Enterprise Software moved up one spot to No. 7 after adding 21 employees, up 7.5% to 300 local workers. The company acquired Irvine-based Kofax Ltd. about a year ago for $1 billion, one of several local takeovers since early last year that has thinned OC’s fast-shrinking cadre of publicly traded technology companies.
• No. 19, Alteryx Inc., is among seven newcomers to the ranking. It employed 120 local workers, up 69% from a year earlier. The fast-growing Irvine-based analytics software maker attributes its growth to the increased adoption of self-service data analytics and the rise of the modern business intelligence and analytics market, a company spokesman told the Business Journal.
Alteryx is doubling its headquarters in a move next month to a 45,000-square-foot office at the Park Place campus. The expansion comes about seven months after it raised $85 million in a venture capital round led by Iconiq Capital in San Francisco and prior backer Insight Venture Partners in New York. The proceeds, earmarked to boost sales and marketing efforts in the U.S. and overseas, followed a $60 million funding round in 2014 that included Vinny Smith’s Toba Capital, which is based in Newport Beach.
• Irvine-based data management software maker Vision Solutions Inc. dropped two spots to No. 20 with an estimated 100 employees, flat from a year earlier. The maker of software that backs up data and keeps servers running during maintenance or in the case of a disaster recently was listed in “Troubled Company Prospector,” which identifies U.S. and Canadian businesses showing early signs of strain or difficulty. The red flag followed some poor grades from major credit agencies on secured and first-lien loans.
• Irvine-based Verys LLC, which debuted on the list last year, moved up one spot to No. 27 after adding 19 employees to 53 workers, a 56% jump. The IT provider and custom software builder has been a hot streak since opening its doors in 2012, hiring to meet demand from new customers, such as Blizzard, Option Care in Illinois and Huntington Beach-based Surfline.com, while expanding accounts with Kia.com, Active Network and American Airlines.
“It is a result of not only the overall increase in IT and web development spending but consistent growth with both our new and existing clients,” said President Mike Zerkel.
• No. 30, Eon Reality Inc., is another newcomer, with 40 local employees, up from 32 a year earlier. The software maker’s push into virtual and augmented reality is attracting a mix of new customers to its expanding library of digital content that exceeds 7,000 applications—one of the largest inventories anywhere—that are helping users across the world tackle problems through virtual simulations delivered online or via a smartphone clipped onto crafty cardboard cutouts.
The company employs 400 in research and development hubs in Sweden and Singapore, new centers in Mexico and South Africa, and offices in Kansas City, Mo.; the U.K.; and Laval, France.
