SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY : Amplicon’s the Ticket for Many Firms When They’re Buying High-Tech Gear

How do Fortune 1000 companies finance new computers and other high-technology gear?

Some go to their bankers or pay cash if they have it. Others turn to a Santa Ana company called Amplicon that specializes in financing big-ticket purchases of high-tech equipment.

The 10-year-old firm has enjoyed strong growth during the past several years, with its revenues swelling from $34 million in fiscal 1984 to $74 million in the year ended March, 1987.

On Monday, the company said sales rose 32% for the quarter ended December, to $21.6 million. Earnings tripled to $3.28 million, from $1.09 million a year earlier.

“I think it’s going to be an excellent year,” said Patrick E. Paddon, president of the publicly held firm. “It’s hard to complain when your earnings are up this much.”

The 80-employee company finances electronic gear throughout the United States, drumming up new accounts through a 50-person telemarketing staff in Santa Ana. Because of its growing business, Amplicon plans to add 20 to 30 new sales reps by July. The firm added 12 sales people in January.

Most of Amplicon’s customers are subsidiaries or divisions of Fortune 1000 companies. Most of the purchases it finances are for equipment ranging in price from $50,000 to $500,000, Paddon said.

Amplicon, which recruits primarily at leading university business schools, hopes to benefit from last October’s stock market crash.

“Traditionally,” Paddon said, “we compete for talent with investment firms, and the well-publicized cutbacks on Wall Street should improve our opportunities.”

But the stock market crash wasn’t as kind to Amplicon’s stock.

The company sold shares to the public for the first time in April, 1987, at $12.25 per share. The stock traded above $16 last summer, fell as low as $7 after the crash and closed Monday at $11.