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TWST: Let's start with a brief overview of Powerwave Technologies ' the
company's history, products, services, and customers.
Mr. Edwards: Powerwave was founded in 1985 and began producing power
amplifiers for the specialized mobile radio or SMR marketplace. The SMR
market basically handles two-way dispatch communications utilized in
taxis or emergency vehicles, and Powerwave was responsible for building
some of the power amplifiers utilized in the base stations for those
systems. In the early 1990s, we saw an opportunity based on some of the
products we were developing to work in South Korea as they were
beginning to build out their digital cellular network. Powerwave had
developed a multi-carrier amplifier that had the ability to handle both
analog and digital calls through the same amplifier. We were successful
in providing this product to some of the key OEMs of base stations in
South Korea. Our customers included companies such as Hyundai, LGIC, and
Samsung Electronics. It was about this time that Powerwave really did
begin to see some large market opportunities for these types of
amplifiers. In the 1996-1997 time frame, we began to add customers such
as BellSouth Cellular and Nortel Networks. In 1998, while the
predominant part of our business was still in South Korea, and the
country went through its economic difficulties, we continued our plans
of expanding our customer base. In the latter half of 1998, we acquired
a division of Hewlett-Packard. While at this time Powerwave had a
growing presence in the multi-carrier amplifier market and the CDMA
single carrier market, Hewlett-Packard had a strong position within the
TDMA and GSM single carrier marketplace. With the acquisition, we were
now able to provide a full complement of both single and multi-carrier
amplifiers to our customers. Since the acquisition, the company has seen
some benefits in its market position, as we were able to attract
additional customers or existing customers started to buy different
products from Powerwave. For example, in fiscal year 1999, Powerwave
posted record sales of 292 million, nearly tripling 1998's total. This
growth was due in large part to the continued expansion of Powerwave's
product and customer base. Sales to Nortel Networks have increased from
2 million in 1997 to 120 million in 1999. In addition, Ericsson and
Lucent Technologies have also increased their businesses with us during
1999. And with the improvement in the Asian and South Korean market,
where Powerwave has enjoyed a strong supplier position, sales to
Hyundai, Samsung and LGIC doubled in 1999 when compared to 1998. We
believe we will see continued growth in our overall revenues in 2000 as
we continue to build our relationships with the key base station OE
Tickers included in this excerpt: PWAV
For more information call (212) 952 7400. The
Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does
not make stock recommendations.
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