Tech companies signal good news

Paul Clinton

Quarterly earnings reports released Thursday from two local

technology companies pointed to a brighter future ahead.

Data storage company Emulex Corp., based in Costa Mesa, and

semiconductor producer Conexant Systems Inc., in Newport Beach,

released upbeat reports after the market close Thursday.

In a fairly cheery mood, Emulex, which has seen its stock price

drop more than 40% over the past year, said second-quarter profits

soared more than 50% over a year ago. Net income for the three months

ending Dec. 29 came in at $16.8 million, or 20 cents per share,

compared with $10.8 million, or 13 cents per share, for the same

period a year ago.

Emulex Chairman and CEO Paul Folino said the revenue growth was

driven by increasing demand for the company’s host bus adapters,

which are storage networking devices.

“Revenue growth in the December quarter was broadly distributed

across our ... customer base,” Folino said.

Emulex, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the

symbol ELX, saw its shares rise 7.4% to $21.37 Thursday, leading in

to the announcement of the report. More than 4.3-million shares

changed hands.

In Newport Beach, chip maker Conexant, which trades in the Nasdaq

exchange under the symbol CNXT, stemmed its bleeding by cutting its

losses by about 75% from last year.

The company reported a net loss of $52.2 million, or 20 cents a

share, for the quarter ending Dec. 27. A year ago, the company lost

$204.5 million, or 80 cents a share. Conexant grew revenue 4% from

the prior quarter, the company said in a filing with the Securities

and Exchange Commission.

Conexant shares, which have lost more than 87% over the past year,

rose 4.8% in Thursday trading to close at $1.74. More than 5.3

million shares were traded.

Conexant’s chips can be found in most of the world’s fax machines.