Emulex Lays Off 150 Employees in Past 90 Days : Jobs: Action comes as Costa Mesa computer parts manufacturer changes focus to software development.

Emulex Corp. has laid off 150 employees in the last 90 days as the computer parts manufacturer redirects its business more toward software development, company officials said Thursday.

As previously reported, the Costa Mesa company had confirmed 90 layoffs in mid-October.

Emulex officials said last month that the company expected to take a charge against earnings for the quarter ending Dec. 31 of between $4 million and $5 million. Robert N. Stephens, president and chief executive, said the charge would cover the cost of the recent layoffs and other cost-reduction measures.

At the company’s annual shareholders meeting Thursday, Stephens said the cost-cutting measures will mean developing fewer new products. Some of the products will be designed by the company’s software engineers, while others will be purchased from outside contractors. Emulex paid $3.5 million last month to acquire Interconnections Inc., a Bellevue, Wash., software company that develops programs for personal computer networks.

Stephens said legal costs associated with litigation involving Digital Equipment Corp., a Massachusetts computer company, have been insignificant so far. He said Emulex is not going to make the suit “a cause” since it appears that Digital is not aggressively pressing its suit against his company.

In August, Digital sought to bar Emulex and two other companies from making products based on its patented technology for connecting storage equipment such as disk drives to clusters of computer systems. Emulex countersued Digital last month, charging it with engaging in unfair business practices by monopolizing a segment of the computer storage industry.

While Digital-related products accounted for 15% to 20% of Emulex’s $153 million in sales last year, that share will shrink as Emulex shifts toward software development, a shareholder who attended the meeting said.