S3 Inc

Shareholders of S3 Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based producer of multimedia accelerators for PCs, approved the company's acquisition of San Jose-based Diamond Multimedia Systems, a struggling supplier of microprocessors for its products, for about $180 million in stock. The combined company will consolidate headquarters and other facilities. About 100 employees at the two firms have been laid off in preparation for the acquisition, said Kenneth Potashner, chief executive of S3.

S3 has announced it is dropping its graphics chip business and at the same time picking up a new name: Sonicblue. Under the deal, valued at $323 million, chipset manufacturer Via Technologies will get S3's graphics chip business in exchange for returning the 15% stake it had in S3 and assuming other liabilities. The agreement replaces a similarly valued cash and stock deal that was held up by Taiwanese regulators.

Santa Clara-based S3 Inc. shares fell 16% after the maker of multimedia products said it will restate earnings for previous quarters because of errors in recognizing sales to international distributors. Shares fell $1.41 to close at $7.34 in Nasdaq trading. The shares earlier touched a 52-week low of $6.75. The stock was the 11th-most active in Nasdaq trading and the 20th-most active in U.S. composite trading.

Shareholders of S3 Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based producer of multimedia accelerators for PCs, approved the company's acquisition of San Jose-based Diamond Multimedia Systems, a struggling supplier of microprocessors for its products, for about $180 million in stock. The combined company will consolidate headquarters and other facilities. About 100 employees at the two firms have been laid off in preparation for the acquisition, said Kenneth Potashner, chief executive of S3.

S3 has announced it is dropping its graphics chip business and at the same time picking up a new name: Sonicblue. Under the deal, valued at $323 million, chipset manufacturer Via Technologies will get S3's graphics chip business in exchange for returning the 15% stake it had in S3 and assuming other liabilities. The agreement replaces a similarly valued cash and stock deal that was held up by Taiwanese regulators.

Western Digital Corp., a manufacturer of personal computer parts in Irvine, said Monday that it is introducing two computer chips, including one that it said would boost the speed of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 3.0 program by as much as 1,000%. The company's new WD90C31 graphics chip speeds Windows, the program that makes PCs easier to use by presenting data graphically, by shifting some of the workload from software to hardware, company spokeswomen Letty Ledbetter said.

Intel Corp. and Chips & Technologies Inc. said they received a request from the Federal Trade Commission for additional information on Intel's proposed $420-million takeover of the San Jose-based specialty chip maker. The companies said they will comply with the commission's request. They reached agreement July 28 for Intel to buy Chips & Technologies for $17.50 a share in cash.

Here are the Times 100 companies listed alphabetically, with rank. 3Com Corp.: 33 Aames Financial Corp.: 80 Adaptec Inc.: 10 Adobe Systems Inc.: 94 Altera Corp.: 25 Alza Corp.: 82 Amgen Inc.: 35 Applied Magnetics Corp.: 48 Applied Materials: 28 Ascend Communications: 39 Aspect Telecommunications: 75 Atlantic Richfield Co.: 31 Atmel Corp.: 49 Avery Dennison Corp.: 52 BankAmerica Corp.: 50 Beckman Instruments Inc.: 89 Bergen Brunswig Corp.: 81 BRE Properties Inc.

* Michael Brower has been named director of finance for Net-Strike Worldwide in Irvine, a subsidiary of Ernst & Young LLP. He has previously held management positions with Ernst & Young Consulting Services in finance administration. * Andrew Wolfe has joined the technical advisory board of Entridia in Irvine. He is chief technology officer at S3 Inc. * Wendy Gribb has been named director of research and media services for the Newport Beach advertising agency Lawrence, Mayo & Ponder.

UC Irvine is becoming the latest hot spot for finding good communication-chip engineers. Powerhouse firms Broadcom Corp. of Irvine and Conexant Systems Inc. of Newport Beach recruit heavily from there. So does Entridia Corp., the promising start-up chip developer based in Irvine. Launched in 1997, Entridia was founded by five graduate students from UCI's school of engineering. Today, 20 of its 48 employees--all of whom are engineers--are former Anteaters.

Santa Clara-based S3 Inc. shares fell 16% after the maker of multimedia products said it will restate earnings for previous quarters because of errors in recognizing sales to international distributors. Shares fell $1.41 to close at $7.34 in Nasdaq trading. The shares earlier touched a 52-week low of $6.75. The stock was the 11th-most active in Nasdaq trading and the 20th-most active in U.S. composite trading.

Companies with sales revenue of $50 million or more ranked by percentage increase in sales in 1996. The Gazelle 100 list on page 10 measures companies with sales from $10 million to $50 million. *--* 1996 1996 revenue revenue Rank Company (millions) % growth 1 Xylan Corp. $128 333% 2 Netscape Communications 346 310 3 Cymer Inc. 65 245 4 Osicom Technologies Inc. 81 201 5 Ascend Communications 661 196 6 Urohealth Systems Inc. 82 195 7 VISX Inc. 74 189 8 HS Resources Inc. 157 184 9 Calgene Inc.

TIMES STAFF WRITER What's in a name? For public companies in California, it was Datathis Inc. or Datathat Inc. back in the 1980s, when virtually every garage-based high-tech company was seemingly sprouting into a major publicly held company. In the feel-good '90s, try "For Better Living" or "Excite Inc." There's the bubbly "Affymetrix." And don't forget the friendly "Hello Direct Inc." or helpful "Edify Corp."