Content area
Full Text
(Photograph Omitted)
When it came to picking the Business Journal's 1998 Businesspeople of the Year, about the only question was which of Broadcom's two Henrys to list first. (By virtue of his role as CEO, Henry Nicholas gets top billing over his co-chairman. Henry Samueli.; besides, Nicholas name is first alphabetically, too.)
The Irvine-based chipmaker went from private company to $5 billion in market capitalization in less than eight months. In the process. more than 240 Broadcom workers have become millionaires, at least on paper, and the Henrys have seen their worth top $1 billion. At year's end the company was trading at around $120 a share, a staggering 130 times its projected 1999 earnings.
In separate interviews with the Business Journal, the two Henrys gave their take on the amazing year that landed them in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans.
(Graph Omitted)
Captioned as: BROADCOM ON A ROLL
Both agreed that Broadcom's finest day was April 17, the company's first day of trading. The stock opened at $62 a share and soared as high as $70 before closing near $54.
"The IPO, of course, was the event of a lifetime," Samueli said. "You instantly are put on the map."
Broadcom's arrival on Wall Street was welltimed. As investors were developing what would become an insatiable appetite for the Internet, Broadcom presented a compelling business: semiconductors that allow information to travel faster over existing networks telephone, cable and satellite. In some products, like cable modems, they have almost the entire market.
The first day of trading was one big party, beginning at 6:30 a.m. at Broadcom's office, where underwriters had set up a stock ticker so employee's could watch the first quotes. The celebration continued into...