an article from yesterdays Palm Beach post....
gopbi.com
Business Monday, April 24
Applied Digital fast forwarding to fame
By Deborah Circelli, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 24, 2000
PALM BEACH -- If The Graduate were made today, someone would whisper "digital" in Dustin Hoffman's ear.
That someone could be Richard Sullivan, who sees a world where people can view a video store's movie selections and have a movie delivered by using a hand-held device on the drive home from work. A world where that same device, no bigger than the size of a television remote, can be used to order items via computer or TV without the use of a mouse or a keypad. It also can double as a telephone.
Sullivan, 61, chairman and chief executive of Palm Beach-based Applied Digital Solutions (Nasdaq: ADSX, $6.31), says his vision will come true in just three to five years away -- maybe less. He says his company will help make it happen.
"There will be a total sea change in the way we historically have conducted business," Sullivan said. "Man will converge more with technology. People will have to move from thinking three-dimensionally to 10-dimensionally."
Sullivan, a Boston native who has more than 30 years of experience in technology companies, has taken Applied Digital to $336.7 million in annual revenue today from $300,000 when it was founded in 1993.
The company provides e-business customers with networking and other software, voice messaging and telephone systems. It has built its package one step at a time, largely by buying other companies -- more than 40 since 1993, through both cash and stock deals. The company has grown to 1,900 employees in North America and Europe from six in 1993. Applied Digital has 18 employees at its headquarters in Palm Beach and 20 at its telephony division in Boca Raton.
In November, Deloitte & Touche's "Fast 500" report named Applied Digital the fifth fastest-growing technology company in the country. Its customers include AT&T, British Tire and Rubber, Polo Ralph Lauren and the Cleveland Indians baseball team.
"(Sullivan has) built the company virtually from nothing," said Jay McKeage, managing director of the New York brokerage Dominick & Dominick. "It is rapidly becoming a big player in the industry."
Sullivan founded Applied Digital after buying Axon Technology, a Missouri-based company that developed software for hand-held devices. He had been chief executive of several computer software and manufacturing companies and had developed expertise in buying and melding companies.
Sullivan moved Applied Digital to Palm Beach almost two years ago from Missouri, partly because of the climate, limited taxes and because the location here made his company more accessible domestically and internationally.
He also serves as chairman of Great Bay Technology, a holding company that is a large shareholder in Applied Digital, and he is managing general partner of The Bay Group, a mergers and acquisition firm. Angela, his wife of 14 years, serves as president of Great Bay and serves on Applied Digital's board.
"He's a visionary," said Connie Weaver, AT&T's vice president of investor relations who joined Applied Digital's board 18 months ago. "He knows what he wants to do, and he's very in tuned to some of the emerging growth areas. He is respected for doing very good deals and deals that create good value."
Applied Digital has spent the past year restructuring with a focus on Internet, telephony, network and applications.
It also owns the patent rights to Digital Angel, a microchip that can be placed under the skin of humans to help identify lost or missing individuals or to monitor medical conditions of at-risk patients. Digital Angel fits in with another company Applied Digital is buying -- Destron Fearing Corp., a leading developer of electronic identification devices that can be used in tracking cattle and diseases in animals.
Sullivan said Applied Digital is talking with pharmaceutical, medical and security companies about exclusive licenses and joint ventures. He said he expects that end of the business to grow rapidly in 2001.
Sullivan said Applied Digital's buying spree most likely will continue, and the company also will keep working to develop and buy patent technology.
He said he expects revenue to reach $850 million by the end of next year.
"Today, we are only seeing a thumbnail sketch of the enormity of what e-commerce and e-business will be as far as creating new business and new jobs," Sullivan said.
Sullivan predicts Internet sales will grow to as much as 18 percent of all retail sales in three to five years, up from less than 1 percent now.
"The Internet provides the ability for both new and mature companies to expand their reach," he said.
> deborah_circelli@pbpost.com |
