Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Trimble Navigation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ManyMoose who wrote (2741)	9/2/1998 12:22:00 AM
From: David	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3506

Here's perhaps the last interview Charlie Trimble did as CEO: From the August 10 "Traffic Report" out of England, some excerpts: "[T]he company has a turnover of US$272 million (around a third of the US$900 million worldwide commercial market) . . . . "Trimble Navigation is currently the only publicly held company entirely devoted to GPS, making it the widely accepted number one in the marketplace with a share of 27 per cent, not that that interests its founder particularly. 'We can't apply that label to ourselves. I had a strategy some time ago that I wanted to get to the point where we could invest more R&D than anyone else would want to -- I think that occurred in 1988. This year we'll be spending around US$45 million on R&D and more than half of that is on software.' . . . "As car navigation systems are becoming increasingly popular it can only be a matter of time until the majority of family saloons, and not merely the luxury car market, will be fitted with them as standard. 'The model we've been using is that two things have to happen before an option becomes a standard in a car,' says Trimble. 'It can't cost more than air-conditioning and it has to be popular as a dealer install option. With the fact that the cost of electronics is coming down by 30 per cent per year, we're within the two-three year time frame of meeting the US$700-1,000 cost that would be required to have a full volume option.' . . . "The Trimble strategy is surprisingly simple. It all about making the best use of the company's energy and resources. 'We're not spending all of our time fighting off competitors. When we see new applications for the use of the information, we move into those areas. It's easier to gain market share by creating new markets than by taking it away from someone else. We find ourselves in the opposite situation, forming alliances with people who have distribution into markets, like with Philips, Siemens, GEC Marconi, and we are making alliances on both the semiconductor and platform owners end of the markets.'" * * * I thought this gave a few insights into his thinking. Apparently his investment in R&D was more than even the TRMB Board was willing to take.