Irvine-based Broadcom Corporation reported unaudited results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2009. Broadcom is a major technology innovator and a leading chip maker for wired and wire less communications.

The company’s net revenue for the second quarter of 2009 was $1.04 billion, an increase in net revenue of 21.9 percent compared to the $853.4 million for the first quarter of 2009, but a decrease of 13.4 percent from the $1.201 billion reported for the same period a year ago. The net revenue beat the analysts who were expected $982 million on average.

Broadcom’s net income for the second quarter includes a charitable contribution expense of $50 million and a $65 million gain from a recent legal settlement with San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc. It was announced in April that both companies were entering into a settlement and multi-year patent agreement. As per the agreement, Qualcomm would pay Broadcom $891.2 million over a four-year period. Thus, in connection with the agreement, Broadcom received a $65.3 million on settlement last quarter and $67.3 million in royalties from Qualcomm.

“Despite the continued global economic uncertainty, Broadcom’s results for the second quarter reflected a return to a more stable ordering pattern and the ramp of new products from our end customers,” said Scott A. McGregor, Broadcom’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “In the second quarter, Broadcom generated strong sequential revenue growth, with product revenue near the top end of the range provided in April. We are pleased that research and development and selling, general and administrative expenses once again increased less than anticipated from the first quarter of 2009, reflecting our continued focus on maintaining solid financial discipline. In addition, we generated strong cash flow in excess of $325 million from operations,” he added.

“Our operating strategy for 2009 remains focused on managing our business to gain share and generate positive quarterly cash flow from operations. Based upon the customer activity we have experienced to date we anticipate that future revenue growth will be broad based with slightly stronger growth within our mobile and wireless targeted end market, driven by new product ramps and the upcoming holiday season,” McGregor continued.

Irvine-based Resources Connection Inc., a provider of accountants, lawyers and other consultants to companies on a project basis made a sudden change in its management board after the company reported a disappointing quarterly results last week.

Resources connection’s chief executive Thomas Christopoul is being replaced by Donald Murray. Latter is the founder and former chief executive of the company who stepped back to executive chairman last year. Christopoul had been the chief executive for past year, who resigned and intends to pursue other interests.

Resources Connection reported a surprising loss and lower than expected sales for the three months through May 30, 2009. It was a loss of $6.3 million, versus a profit of $15.9 million for the same period of 2008, as well as analysts’ expectations of a $1.8 million profit.

The company sold $132 million for the period, a decrease of 44 percent from a year earlier. It also fell short of what analysts were expecting- $143.6 million. According to Resources Connection, down economy, in which companies have cut back on the use of outside professionals had took a toll on their sales and thus is the worse-than-expected results!

Shares of Aliso Viejo-based network equipment maker QLogic Corp. dropped after the company released the results for its fiscal first-quarter, which saw a heavy decline in profits. Investors sent the stock down more than 4 percent in afterhours New York trading on a recent market value of about $1.7 billion.

QLogic’s fiscal first-quarter results fell short of analysts’ profit expectations, however they beat analysts’ sales expectations. For the three months through June, excluding charges for stock compensation, acquisitions, income tax and other costs, the company posted profits of $15 million or 13 cents per share, down about 53 percent from $31.6 million or 24 cents per share in the same period a year ago. Analysts expected $21 million in profits.

Including the charges, QLogic reported profits of $24 million, down 42 percent from the same period a year ago. QLogic revenue fell 27 percent to $133 million, but it beat analysts’ expected sum of $128 million in revenue.

Irvine-based drug makers, Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Allergan Inc. announced Tuesday that they received ‘Fast Track’ designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their bladder cancer drug candidate. The fast track designation is designed to speed up the development and review of drugs that intended to treat serious illness or demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs.

The FDA granted a faster review of the companies’ drug, EOquin or apaziquone which is intended to treat bladder cancer that has not spread deep into a patient’s muscle layer. According to Spectrum and Allergan, the non-muscle invasive bladder cancer accounts for an estimated 70 percent of new bladder cancer diagnoses and it affects more than a million patients in the U.S. and Europe.

“We are pleased that the FDA has accepted apaziquone for bladder cancer under its Fast Track program,” said Rajesh C. Shrotriya, M.D., chairman, president and chief executive officer of Spectrum. “In a marker lesion study, where patients had previously failed multiple therapies, apaziquone produced a 67% complete response and was well-tolerated. We look forward to continuing with Phase III studies evaluating the efficacy and safety of apaziquone, while working with the FDA to expedite the drug’s development, review and approval process so we can help address the substantial unmet needs of patients suffering from non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.”
Last October, Allergan paid Spectrum $41.5 million in order to get the rights to market EOquin as a bladder cancer treatment in the U.S., Europe and Canada. Spectrum would get an additional amount up to $304 million if the drug advances through development and is approved by the regulators and reaches certain sales milestones. Besides, Spectrum is also likely to receive royalties on sales of EOquin outside the U.S. Both companies plan to co-promote the drug in the U.S., with Allergan covering most of the development costs. Spectrum owns rights to EOquin in Asia.

Spectrum shares closed up 12 percent with a market value of $220 million, while Allergan’s shares were flat with a market value of $15 billion.

Orange County continued to lose jobs last month at par with the worst of the 1990s recession. In the month of June, the county lost 70,800 non-farm jobs versus a year earlier, a decline of 4.7 percent, according to the state Employment Development Department. With this June marking the fifth straight month of 70,000-plus yearly job losses.

In June, Orange County's unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent, up from a revised 8.8 percent in May and 5.2 percent a year earlier. However, last month's total of 70,800 lost jobs was better than the 71,100 and 72,600 jobs lost on a yearly basis in May and April respectively. Reportedly, the county's employment remained unchanged at 1.4 million workers from May to June. (more...)

An ex-Boeing Co. employee and Orange resident was convicted by the U.S. court on spying for the People’s Republic of China and stealing technology and trade secrets since the 1970s. China-born Dongfan "Greg" Chung, 73 and a U.S. citizen has been found guilty of stealing trade secrets from Boeing and selling them to China.

The former employee of the defense and space unit of Rockwell International Corp., which was taken over by Boeing in 1996 was convicted of multiple counts of economic espionage. He retired from Boeing in 2002 and worked as a consultant until 2006. The U.S. Department of Justice had charged him with economic espionage and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the People’s Republic of China. His trial was billed as the first economic espionage trial in the U.S. (more…)

Santa Ana-based flash memory storage products maker STEC Inc. signed a deal with one of its largest customers to supply solid-state drives for $120 million, sending its shares up more than 15 percent to an all-time high. STEC’s shares had already been soaring!

Even though STEC did not disclose the name of the customer, the company expects revenue from the sale of the product called ZeusIOPS solid state drives to exceed $220 million in 2009. The company’s overall revenue in 2008 was $227 million. STEC’s customers include EMC Corp., Hitachi Data Systems Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., IBM Corp., and Fujitsu Ltd. (more…)

Newport Beach-based chipmaker Conexant Systems Inc. announced that it has filed a universal shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) but is yet to become effective. The chipmaker is seeking the approval of the SEC to sell $20 million worth of its shares.

Once the shelf offering statement is approved by the SEC, Conexant will have the option to offer and sell, from time to time or whenever it wants, up to $20 million of its common stock, preferred stock, warrants, or any combination of such securities.

Conexant wants to use the net proceeds raised from the sale of stock and securities under the shelf registration statement for general corporate purposes, such as repaying, redeeming, or repurchasing existing debt, working capital, capital expenditures and acquisitions. The company’s shares closed down more than 2 percent on Monday on a market value of about $65 million. Conexant had about $110 million in cash at the end of the March quarter.

Shares of Irvine-based Spectrum Pharmaceutical Inc. closed up 6 percent Monday after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted an application for review of the company’s response on a new use for its cancer drug, Zevalin. Spectrum’s plea has been accepted as a Class 1 submission, which means the regulators would review the drug within 60 days.

Spectrum is seeking the approval to expand the use of Zevalin to treat more patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL,) a blood disease. Earlier this month, the FDA had asked for more clinical trial information on the drug maker’s application for the approval.

Zevalin is already approved as treatment for patients with more advanced forms of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, with relapse or refractory and who have been treated previously with other drugs. But, Spectrum hopes to see the drug approved as an early treatment for the disease. The U.S. health regulators is expected to deliver its decision on the drug on September 7.

Reportedly, Spectrum Pharmaceutical Inc. is the fourth company to own Zevalin since it was approved in 2001. The drug’s previous owners include Idec Pharmaceuticals; the former’s successor, Biogen Idec Inc. – Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Seattle-based Cell Therapeutics Inc.

Irvine-based medical device maker, Masimo Corp. said it settled a lawsuit pertaining its blood monitoring device technology with Respironics Inc. The latter is a unit of Royal Philips Electronics, Netherlands. As per the settlement, both the companies will dismiss all claims and counterclaims against each other.

Masimo said in a a statement, ‘Respironics and Masimo have agreed upon a schedule for the phase-out of the MARS oximetry technology that was in dispute.’ Masimo’s Rainbow SET medical device which measures oxygen and blood constituents, uses the aforesaid technology over which the companies were fighting.

Masimo which makes devices used to monitor patients’ oxygen and other levels has a recent market value of $1.4 billion. Its shares had closed at $24.27 Thursday on Nasdaq .