ORANGE COUNTY

Diceon Layoffs: Diceon Electronics Inc., a maker of computer circuit boards, said Friday it will lay off about 160 employees, 80 of whom work at the company’s Irvine headquarters. All operations and administrative departments will be affected by the 14% reduction in Diceon’s 1,130-person work force, Chief Executive Officer Peter Jonas said. The layoffs will result in a one-time charge of about $600,000 for the three months ended Dec. 31. That quarter’s results will be announced at the end of January, the company said. “We hope this action will turn things around and get us back to profitability,” Jonas said. For its 1993 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, Diceon reported a loss of $16.3 million, or $3.18 a share, on sales of $99.2 million. And in December, the company was de-listed from the Nasdaq market because of insufficient capital. Its stock now trades at about 25 cents a share over the counter. The other employees to be laid off by the company work at offices in Mountain View in Northern California and in Nashua, N.H.