Content area
Full Text
Remember Joe Parkinson?
The co-founder and former CEO of Micron Technology, Inc., is building again.
This time, Parkinson's corporate task is with Silicon Valley video teleconferencing systems maker 8x8, Inc.--where he is the chairman of the board and CEO.
The 10-year-old Santa Clara, Calif.-based company (NASDAQ: EGHT) made its first public stock offering July 2, a little more than two years after Parkinson's arrival.
Three weeks after the company's first 4.14 million public shares sold at $6.50 apiece and brought in post-expense revenue of $24 million, 8x8 announced that its "ViaTV Phone" would be sold by big time office products retailer Staples on a nationwide basis.
And although Parkinson isn't ready to predict that 8x8 will grow to become a multi-billion dollar success like Micron, he expressed excitement about the company's telephone video technology, priced at $499 per unit for mainstream business and consumer use.
"I don't think I would ever be able to replicate Micron, but it's a very strong technology," Parkinson said, then praised 8x8's 107 employees. "And it's not the technology, it's the people. They're great people. That's the way it was at Micron."
8x8's stock price Thursday afternoon was $10.
Parkinson...