2 Top Executives at Diceon Resign; 45 Jobs in O.C. Cut

IRVINE — Diceon Electronics, a maker of circuit boards and back panels for computers, said Monday that its president and senior vice president have resigned and that it has cut about 15% of its work force.

The Irvine-based company said that its board of directors elected Chairman Milan Mandaric to the additional posts of president and chief executive officer after Peter Jonas resigned from those positions. Jonas will remain with the company as a consultant and as a member of the board.

Senior Vice President James Barton has also resigned, Diceon said.

The company said it will take a $1.5-million charge for the quarter ended Oct. 1 to cover the cost of reducing the size of its West Coast operations.

About 125 employees, most of them administrative and operations workers, were laid off in the past month. Most of them worked at Diceon’s plant in the Silicon Valley community of Mountain View, said Michael Shimada, chief financial officer. About 45 jobs were cut in Orange County, he said.

The cuts were driven by a need to lower operating costs, Diceon said. It now has about 210 employees in Orange County at a circuit board plant in Irvine.

For its latest fiscal year, Diceon reported a loss of $16.3 million on sales of $99.2 million.

The company’s stock closed unchanged Monday at $1.31 a share in Nasdaq trading.