Springs & Co. An inside look at local business
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October 31, 2008 - 8:22PM
THE GAZETTE
CEO looks forward
Emile Geisenheimer, Spectranetics Corp.'s longtime chairman who was named last week to replace John Schulte as president and chief executive, offered some insight into his management style during a recent conference call with investors and analysts.
He said he has "less of an appetite for mergers and acquisitions" than Schulte and that he would be "more focused on managing growth so it leads to growth in earnings." He said he and his wife plan to buy a condo in Colorado, but also plan to keep their home in Connecticut, where he managed a private-equity capital-investment firm.He said he believes the company's stock price will recover as the company's sales and profits continue to grow.
Firms make state list
Colorado Springs landed five companies on Deliotte LLP's Colorado Technology Fast 50 list, an annual ranking of the state's fastest-growing firms. But don't expect to see all of them return for next year's list.
Intelligent Software Solutions Inc. was the top-ranked Springs-area company on the list, ranking 10th with 619 percent revenue growth from 2003 to 2007, followed by Spectranetics Corp., ranked 19th with 197 percent growth; Insurance Technologies LLC ranked 20th with 176 percent growth; Simtek Corp. ranked 21st with 169 percent growth; and Ramtron International Corp. ranked 36th with 78 percent growth. Boulder-based Circadence Corp. topped the state list.
ISS has made the list six consecutive years, which is difficult to accomplish since growth rates slow as companies get bigger. Simtek made the list each of the first seven years it was compiled, 1997-2003, and for the past two years.
Simtek won't be on the 2009 list after it was acquired in September by Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
Inventor tweaks tool
Colorado Springs-area inventor Mario Salazar has made his digital miter gauge talk so it can be used by a blind woodworker from New Jersey and plans to market the device later this year so any visually impaired person can buy and use it.
Louis Scrivani, a plumber and electrician who lost his sight in a construction accident, asked Salazar about three months ago to modify his digital mitre gauge so it would announce the angle of the cut it was measuring. Salazar said he and software consultant Jay Burgan designed a new circuit board and software that will send information through a USB cable to a laptop equipped with software that reads and announces information.
Salazar hopes to deliver the talking digital mitre gauge to Scrivani within days and eventually sell a similar product through his company, Salazar Solutions, for $450, or $89 more than the price of his gauge without that feature. |
