Analog Devices

Analog Devices, Inc. is one of the world's leading producers of precision performance electronic components, including linear, mixed-signal, and digital integrated circuits, which are used to help convert sensory data into a digital format that can be understood by computers. Analog's integrated circuits are used in laboratory test equipment, medical devices that sense information such as heartbeats, systems for controlling airplane cabin pressure, and controls on oil wells and military weapons. The company has also moved increasingly into the computer, communications, automotive, and consumer industries. Analog has helped develop integrated circuits for processing voice commands into personal computers and has introduced new digital signal processors that integrate voice, audio, fax/modem, and speech recognition functions for computer circuit boards. Analog's products are also used in laptop and notebook computers, as well as in advanced telecommunications systems, including the U.S. cellular phone network. The company's signal processing technology resulted in the development of a pocket-sized pager, which, when used with a satellite system, allows owners to receive messages anywhere in the world. Other cutting edge technologies include signal processors for electronic cameras, color scanners, digital copiers, and a unique crash sensor used to control automobile airbags. With nearly half of its sales in North America, 30 percent in Europe, and 16 percent in Japan, the company maintains manufacturing facilities in Massachusetts, California, and North Carolina, as well as Ireland, Japan, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Lorber and Stata had difficulty adapting to the daily administrative duties involved in running a growing company. When the company went public, Lorber sold half of his stock and moved on to other ventures. While Stata remained, he preferred to concentrate on developing and marketing new products, so he hired an outsider to take the job of president. After a year, Stata, the company's largest stockholder, found that he had to make the major financial and organizational decisions whether he wanted to or not, and he let his hired president go. In spite of his reluctance, Stata proved himself an adept manager, and several shrewd choices he made early in his career led the company through years of uninterrupted growth. Beginning in the late 1960s, Analog Devices established sales subsidiaries in Germany and France, and, in 1976, the company moved more substantially into the European market. Accepting 40 percent financial backing from the Irish government, Analog built its first manufacturing plant abroad, in Limerick, Ireland. The new facility made metal oxide semiconductor integrated circuits, which were first developed by Analog engineers in Santa Clara, California, and had become the company's single largest capital investment. The product line was quickly expanded to include multiple chip integrated circuits. Plans were made to turn the company around. In 1990, the company bought Precision Monolithics, Inc., a specialty circuit manufacturer, giving Analog new manufacturing technology and significantly expanding sales. Stata also undertook several organizational changes in order to streamline the company, combining several divisions into a single Industrial Electronics Division. Industrial automation, automatic test equipment, motion controls, and industrial controls, all of which were previously developed in facilities across the United States and the United Kingdom, came under one roof at corporate headquarters in Norwood, Massachusetts. European operations were also combined under a single European headquarters in Germany. In late 1990, the company cut about 600 jobs, bringing the workforce down by more than ten percent. In 1992, Analog's digital signal processing chips debuted in the personal computing market in Asia, and by the following year many major personal computer and component manufacturers, includi