Chip Maker Receives $3-Million Order
Paradise Systems, the specialty silicon-chip maker acquired late last year by Western Digital Corp. of Irvine, is scheduled to announce Monday that it has received a $3-million electronics order from Daewoo Telecommunications Co. Ltd., a leading Korean maker of personal computers.
The order, which covers 200,000 video controller boards, is among the largest ever received by the 3 1/2-year-old computer-chip maker. In addition, Paradise officials said the Daewoo order is expected to lead to further work for the Korean computer maker, including a potential assignment to design a video controller chip that fits on the board that directs the computer’s operations.
“It’s a strategic move for us, not just a single sale,” explained Lawrence Finch, Paradise’s president and chief executive.
Still, the $3-million order is also among the reasons Paradise is expected to post record sales of about $40 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30, more than double its rate in the 1986 fiscal year. Analysts are estimating that Paradise, a wholly owned subsidiary and separate division within Western Digital, will contribute about 8% to 10% of the parent corporation’s estimated total revenues of more than $400 million.
As a maker of video controller chips, the silicon squares that allow personal computers to create charts, pictures and other graphics, Paradise participates in one of the fastest-growing segments of the computer industry, a market that analysts have projected will more than triple to $1 billion in annual sales by 1990.
Additional Sales
Although the Daewoo contract was under discussion before Paradise was acquired in November, company officials said Friday that they expect to generate additional sales as a result of their affiliation with Western Digital.
Finch said he specifically sought out Western Digital as a potential parent corporation because of its worldwide sales force and support network. Paradise, which had fewer than a dozen sales people, now has access to a force of several hundred throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East.
Western Digital Chairman and Chief Executive Roger Johnson has said he wanted to buy Paradise because it gave his fast-growing company an immediate presence in the video controller market, eliminating at least one year of difficult and risky development effort. Western Digital already makes chips which allow personal computers to store information and to communicate with other computers.
