Charles --- this was posted on the Yahoo thread this evening, in response to your questions about company organization:
Subj: OSICOM Organization
By: Ozzie_Dilbert
Date: Jan 4 1998 9:24 P.M PST
Reply To: Msg. 478 by Ozzie_Dilbert
I think the structure is indeed muddy, and it has been in flux.
The 10-K basically describes the company in terms of the
acquired businesses:
"Networking division, N Whelan", the former Rockwell Network
Systems (a.k.a. CMC) in Santa Barbara, CA. This consisted of
the NIC business (R Miller) and the Remote Access group
(IQX200 and NetHopper). Basically, this has been dismantled.
At the time of the acquisition, there were about 100 people
in Santa Barbara; this is down to less than 20. The remote
access group has moved to a smaller building, and the rest
is closed down. Whelan left in July/August, and Miller was
laid off with the rest of the NIC group, whose assets and
products are now handled from Chicago (Mackey).
"Network Print Server Division, C Peterson", the former Digital
Products Inc is in Waltham, MA. They make print server plugin
cards for several printer manufacturers; I think including
Xerox and Lexmark. They have reduced that to a system-on-a-chip
which is the NET+ARM. I think they are about 60 people there.
"Switches and Hubs, R Mackey" in Naperville, IL (near Chicago)
was formerly known as DSI. They made a very succesful mini-
FDDI-hub ("the velcro strip") and has expanded into the
commodity market for fast-ether hubs and switches, and as
mentioned above, they have taken over the NIC (FDDI and
fast-ether) card products.
"Internet Division, PG Narayanan" is the former Cray
Communications in Annapolis Junction, MD. About 150 people.
This is the home of a line of T1 multiplexers and CSU/DSUs
as well as the RouterMate+ remote access products.
Their manufacturing plant builds most of the products for
the units mentioned above, and some major subsystems of the
IQX2000 and the GigaMux are also engineered there.
The broadband side in San Diego makes video switches and
fiber-to-coax CATV distribution amplifiers. This is the former
DynAir, and also has swallowed the former Meret unit which
is/was co-located with the corporate head office in Santa
Monica. X Chen is the president of this group. It is my
understanding that the radio frequency parts that are the
"meat" of the GigaMux come from this group, while the
packaging and "remote control" parts were done in Maryland.
The RF synthesis unit was formerly named Sciteq. Some white
papers would lead you to believe that they hold some patents
on DSP-based modulation of radio signals in the gigaHertz
frequency range, which up to now have mostly been used in
military radar applications, but could be fundamental to a
whole slew of wireless communication.
---
So the company is far-flung and wide-spread. Both in
technology and geographically. This means their day-to-day
operation is dependent on the same kind of technology they
make. This is good from a long-term perspective, because
this is where good product ideas come from. The flip side
is that they need to go through many (probably painful)
adjustments to bring these technology groups together and
make products that span the old division lines. IQX200 and
GigaMux seem to be examples that they are succeeding in doing
just that, at least on the design side.
---
If the above ... which was pieced together from much reading
of the websites and the SEC filings and a few talks with friends
on the inside ... is not correct, and someone has better
information, I hope they will enlighten us all. |
