Three L.A. tech firms buy out-of-state companies.

Recent announcements by three Los Angeles-based electronics businesses that they are each acquiring their respective out-of-state competitors could signal a resurgence of the area's technology sector, analysts and local economists said last week.

The acquisitions, two of which are complete and one of which is slated to close in early 1997, involve an electronics distributor, a semiconductor equipment maker, and a wireless communications company.

The aggregate value of the deals is in excess of $400 million and suggests renewed vigor in L.A.'s technology sector, said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Economic Development Corp. of L.A. County.

Increasingly, technology firms "either shut down, move away or get acquired," Kyser said. "Now we're doing some of the acquiring. It's a turning point."

The purchases "reflect that (L.A.) companies are achieving critical mass," said Neal Bradsher, an analyst at Campbell Advisors in New York. "They're reaching a stage where they're becoming acquirers, and that's a natural step in the (local industry's) progression."

Headlining the recent deals was the Nov. 27 announcement by Bell Industries Inc. of Los Angeles, a distributor of computer chips, semiconductors and resistors, that it would buy competitor Milgray Electronics Inc. of Farmingdale, N.Y. for $100 million in cash.

Last year, Bell saw profits of $17 million on revenues of $619 million, and will be the sixth-largest electronic parts distributor in the nation when the deal closes in early 1997. Together, Bell and Milgray posted $887 million in sales for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

Analysts viewed the announced purchase positively, largely because Milgray's three distribution centers in Canada will significantly expand Bell's distribution in that country. Bell shares rose $1 a share to $21 on news of the deal.

In a separate deal, Chatsworth-based Plasma & Materials Technologies Inc., which produces advanced etching equipment for making semiconductors, bought Electrotech of Britain for $75 million, plus 5.6 million shares of PMT stock. Electrotech also makes semiconductor etching equipment and machines that lay the thin layers of metal onto silicon chips, which etchers then bore into.

That deal, which became final Nov. 18, is seen as a step into the big leagues for the decade-old PMT, which pioneered the use of plasma gas for cutting the grooves on silicon wafers to produce integrated circuit semiconductors.

By purchasing Electrotech, PMT expands both its product line and international sales force. "Now, PMT has nearly as broad a product line as (etching equipment giant) Applied Materials," said Theodore O'Neill, vice president for research at investment finn H.C. Wainwright & Co. "It's an absolutely terrific opportunity" for both PMT and Electrotech.

PMT's founder and CEO Greg Campbell - who developed the plasma technology as an engineering student at UCLA - will continue in that role, while Electrotech CEO Nigel Wheeler will serve as president.

In the third deal, which became final Dec. 4, INTEK Diversified Corp. of Torrance bought Britain's Securicor Radiocoms Ltd. in exchange for 25 million shares of INTEK common stock, valued at about $150 million.

Both companies produce two-way wireless communication equipment used by emergency response service providers, such as police and fire departments and by companies with sprawling facilities that need to communicate with their employees.

Kyser said further consolidations are likely.

"Our technology industry is going through a transformation, symptomatic of what's going on in the tech sector globally," he said. "People are examining what their competitive position is, and that's driving a lot of mergers and acquisitions."