Madge NV North American president Marc Jones believes that the now thoroughly multinational but British-born company can keep up the pace of growth it achieved in the fourth quarter of last year, when it saw sales rise 61% to $44.7m (CI No 2,342). We would hope to at least be able to keep up the pace that we did in exiting ’93 and hopefully accelerate that some, Jones told Reuters. Madge specialises in Token Ring boards and software, and ranks number two behind IBM Corp itself in sales of adaptors for Token Ring – and IBM is estimated to have 60% of the market, Madge, 13%. Wall Street 1994 earnings estimates for Madge range from $0.69 to $0.80 per share, against $0.56 a share last year and $0.27 the year before. Based on the 1993 earnings report issued last week, one analyst raised his 1995 estimate to $1.10 per share from $1.00.Jones said adaptor boards accounted for 85% of the company’s sales last year, while other networking products accounted for much of the rest – but this is the part that the company is relying on to fuel continued growth. It accounted for $5m in sales in the fourth quarter or $20m at an annualised rate. Its software is used by Cisco Systems Inc and Wellfleet Communications Inc and other key networking companies to improve the speed and performance of their networking hubs and routers.Frederic Cohen, analyst at Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co Inc, said Madge seems well placed to continue growing at IBM’s expense on the back of its strong technology partnerships with other networking companies. IBM really hasn’t done anything that suggest they have a strategic plan for the Token Ring business, he says: Under the circumstances, Madge appears to be taking over in the market. The Chalfont St Giles company floated in the US last year, and is now registered in Netherlands.
