In addition to the 15 new product announcements reported yesterday (CI No 1,028), top brass from Memorex Telex International NV used their Paris meeting to review the company’s post-merger progress, and outline plans for the future. President and chief executive Giorgio Ronchi reported first quarter profits of $45m, on a turnover up 14% at $580m, […]
In addition to the 15 new product announcements reported yesterday (CI No 1,028), top brass from Memorex Telex International NV used their Paris meeting to review the company’s post-merger progress, and outline plans for the future. President and chief executive Giorgio Ronchi reported first quarter profits of $45m, on a turnover up 14% at $580m, and claimed a debt reduction over the period of some $100m, bringing it down to a still burdensome $1,000m. The company says it has five years to repay the debt and hopes to achieve it in three. Important deals clinched since the merger include a $45m intelligent systems contract from Phillips Petroleum, a $7m communications equipment order from Telefonica de Espana, and a contract – value undisclosed – to supply the UK’s Norwich Union with 3,400 terminals. Overall, argued Ronchi, the merger had provided the combined companies with a stronger product range and a more balanced penetration of the world market, which, in corporate revenue terms, now breaks down to 45.9% from the US, 36% from Europe, 11% from the Canada and Australia, and 7% from Japan. Long-term, said Ronchi, the merger would also enable the company to attain its target of becoming the global supplier of plug compatible equipment – a theme developed by executive vice president of marketing and business development, Jean-Claude Zanolli. Surrounded by numerous la force globale banners, Zanolli insisted that Memorex Telex should – and would – become a major player in a market where it now claims a 20% stake. Until recently, he suggested, although well established in the IBM world, the two companies were relatively unknown: respective product ranges had not, he conceded, made the average person in the street jump up and down – the Ella side of Memorex, the consumer audio recording tape business, was long since sold to Tandy Corp. Post-merger, with established IBM plug-compatible capability, a wide product range, a truly global presence, and growing support and networking facilities, Memorex Telex would, he concluded, be pitching itself firmly at the MS-DOS micro and workstation market. The day’s product announcements, were he implied, simply a taste of things to come.
