Growth in TV Access, Capabilities, Driving Demand for MaxLinear’s Technologies

A seemingly insatiable demand for technology that can process TV signals and accommodate proliferating technical needs is helping to drive the growth at MaxLinear (NYSE: [[ticker:MXL]]), according to Kishore Seendripu, chairman and CEO of the Carlsbad, CA-based semiconductor design company.

In a presentation yesterday afternoon at Roth Capital Partners growth conference for small cap companies, Seendripu said demand for MaxLinear’s wireless and “system-on-a-chip” semiconductors is being driven by a host of forces in broadband video and cable TV, including:

—The continuing conversion from analog to digital television broadcasting, which requires integrated circuits that can process either signal.

—The increasing availability of high-speed broadband and wireless connectivity, which is driving demand for wireless TV receivers in chipsets targeting a host of devices.

—Rapid improvements in display technologies.

—The transition from standard to high-definition TV

—The proliferation of multimedia content about programming, actors, sports, and movies, which is accessible through terrestrial broadcast digital TV, satellite, cable, and telecommunications carrier services.

MaxLinear competes in with such U.S. chipmakers as Irvine, CA-based Broadcom (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BCOM]]) and San Diego’s Entropic Communications (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ENTR]]), although MaxLinear sells nearly all of its chips to consumer electronics and device makers in Asia.

Seendripu told investors and analysts that consumer electronics manufacturers, cable TV operators, and others want to integrate more TV receivers and the ability to process data from multiple channels in the chipsets they are designing for set top boxes, personal computer TVs, and other devices. “For us, the opportunity is to take these multiple-channel boxes and dramatically scale down the size, power, and cost requirements, Seendripu says.

Last year MaxLinear’s sales increased 34 percent (to $68.7 million from $51.6 million in 2009); Seendripu says he expects the company will continue to experience annual sales growth between 30 percent and 50 percent over the next three years.

The company also went public just over a year ago. While MaxLinear had what Seendripu called “a great IPO,” he told investors and analysts that market conditions were very bad. “We executed on our quarters, but the overall market came down,” he said, adding that the market for mobile TV has not met expectation.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.