ZDNet Asia Top Tech 50 Symbol Technologies www.symbol.com

From the days of its first handheld laser barcode scanner in 1980, Symbol has come a long way in the enterprise mobility space. To date, the company holds more than 800 patents in all areas of mobile technology, including mobile computing, wireless infrastructure, radio frequency identification (RFID), mobility software, services and data capture.

A clear leader in its field, Symbol has worked closely with a long list of businesses and organizations worldwide. This year, it clinched a contract with Korea-based Asiana Airlines to install RFID tags and readers at six Korean airports. Symbol has also inked similar deals with other airport operators in the United States and Asia.

However, corporate scandals tainted the company's good work, when the U.S. Securities and Equities Commission charged Symbol for fraudulent accounting practices and misconduct between 1998 and early 2003.

Former Cisco top executive William Nuti, who has since left the company to join NCR, was appointed chief executive in 2003 to clean up the act. And he did so with a bang, by raising Symbol's revenues to US$1.3 billion, up 13 percent from the year before. Operating costs were also slashed by US$15.5 million.

Moving forward, Symbol's new interim CEO Sal Iannuzzi is confident about the company's future, after ending a long legal tussle with rival Intermec over RFID patents in September. Industry analysts have indicated that this settlement provides a good foundation for Symbol to go on.

This company is listed in Services.

Financials

Fiscal year-end Dec	FY05	FY04	FY03	FY02	FY01
Global full-year revenue (US$millions)	—	1,730.0	1,530.0	1,400.0	1,480.0
Global full-year net income (US$millions)	—	81.8	3.3	-44.9	-17.7

Average year-on-year revenue growth over 4 years	5.7 %
Average year-on-year net income growth over 4 years	777.5 %
Percentage of revenue from Asia	7.4 %
Percentage of Asian revenues from channel	—

Operations:

Founded	United States/1975
First Asian office	Singapore/1995
Global employees	5,000
Employees in Asia	211
Asian countries: Total 5	China, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Thailand
Notes	Data correct as at September 2005. Information was compiled by ZDNet Asia from sources such as official reports, corporate Web sites, and Hoover's. ZDNet Asia strived to get the latest information but does not guarantee the correctness or completeness of the data. The information provided on this site is for general informational purposes only and is not an offer to buy or sell any securities.

	Next Top Tech company in Services
	See all Top Tech 50
	Top Asian office location
	Fastest growing companies
	Special Mention: Google, eBay
	Editor's Note

Post your message here

Related News

	Fixing Symbol's woes - Thursday, January 01 1970 Symbol Technologies' high-flying CEO William Nuti recounted the company's "toxic culture" and what he did to weed out the mess.
	Symbol buys RFID rival Matrics - Thursday, January 01 1970 Consolidation begins in the simmering RFID gear market, as Symbol snaps up a leading vendor of radio tags and fixed readers.
	Symbol joins WiMax wireless broadband group - Thursday, January 01 1970 in brief Symbol Technologies has announced that it has joined the WiMax Forum, an industry group promoting the development of a wireless broadband technology.

ZDNet Asia Top Tech categories
Systems | Networking and communications | Storage management | Security | Software Infrastructure | Services | Business applications | Internet services