Workers at Brea’s AMT Buy Their Company

BREA — Employees of a 15-year-old high-tech electronics firm in north Orange County have swapped a big chunk of their retirement funds for an ownership stake in the business.

The 51 employees at American Microwave Technology Inc. beat out four competing corporate suitors to purchase their company in a cash transaction that was completed late last month.

The purchase price isn’t being disclosed, but is believed to be less than AMT’s $6 million in annual revenue.

“It’s exciting,” said David Hawke, a manufacturing engineer and the only employee to have been with the company since it was founded in 1982. The average employee tenure at AMT is five years.

Hawke, who will turn 65 this year, said he has no qualms about trading a piece of his 401(k) retirement fund for a stake in the place he works. “Retirement isn’t part of my vocabulary,” he said.

The deal took five months to put together after Brea-based AMT’s parent, Spectrian Corp., notified workers that is was putting the business on the block and would entertain an employee buyout.

“They said that as long as it was competitive, they had no problem,” recalls Greg Wood, vice president and chief financial officer.

The buyout was organized by Wood and William P. Clark, AMT’s president and chief operating officer. The two men dipped into their personal savings and executive stock option plans from Sunnyvale-based Spectrian to come up with 25% of the purchase price. They joined the other 49 employees in cashing in a portion of their 401(k) plans to fund an additional 20% of the price. The Costa Mesa branch of Imperial Bank loaned the employees the remaining funds.

Clark, who joined the company in 1989, said employees never questioned the wisdom of hitching their futures to the company’s. “Everyone signed up right away and no one tried to back out,” he said.

AMT makes radio frequency power amplifiers used in wireless communications, medical imaging and scientific research instruments. While the company’s sales don’t put it on the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s biggest businesses, Clark said it is profitable and growing steadily.

In the 13 working days since the sale closed on April 23, he said, “morale is really up. Everyone knows that this is their company, now, not part of someone else’s.”

He said he expects to see an increase in productivity that will boost earnings in coming quarters. “We all have a lot of incentive now to work harder.”

While employee benefits and wages were not affected by the buyout, one big change is in the works, Wood said. “Our lease is up, and we’ll be moving to Anaheim soon.”