Yuen Searching for ‘2nd Miracle’ : Computers: Former AST Research president would like to put together a new company similar to the one he helped found.
Thomas C.K. Yuen, one of Orange County’s best-known computer entrepreneurs, said Monday that he is looking for a “second miracle” to match his success in co-founding what has become the county’s biggest personal computer manufacturer.
In his first interview since resigning 10 weeks ago as president of AST Research Inc. in Irvine, Yuen revealed that he is eager to start another company similar to AST, which, with its rags-to-riches history, has inspired many would-be entrepreneurs.
“I’m already getting restless,” he said in a phone interview Monday. “That shouldn’t surprise anyone.”
Together with two other engineers who came to the United States to chase the American dream, Yuen created AST in a garage in 1981 with borrowed money, using his home as collateral. By piggybacking on the personal-computer revolution, AST became one of the industry’s most profitable computer “clone makers.”
The company reported that for its fiscal year ended June 30--the day after Yuen left--its annual sales reached $944.1 million, putting it ahead of Western Digital Corp. in Irvine as Orange County’s biggest computer company.
Yuen, who turns 40 today, said he isn’t ready to talk about the circumstances that led to what was apparently a power struggle with his former best friend and his subsequent departure from AST.
Safi U. Qureshey, chief executive and the only remaining co-founder at the company, has also refused to talk about Yuen’s abrupt departure. Industry sources say his resignation was precipitated by an internal struggle after years of wrangling for control of AST.
Yuen said he has not spoken with Qureshey but has stayed in touch with Albert C. Wong, the third co-founder, who left AST in 1988. He would not comment on what he thinks AST’s future might be.
“My philosophy has been to keep silent about what happened at AST because it’s not wise to talk about the past,” Yuen said. “I’m looking to the future, thinking about a second miracle. I’m interested in creating something larger than my first company.”
In an interview in April, Yuen explained that he felt AST’s success as a clone maker was a financial miracle.
He said then that he wanted a health-related miracle to cure a severe kidney condition that has kept him on dialysis for more than a decade and has nearly taken his life twice.
But now, he said Monday, he has broadened his view again and is considering acquiring or starting another computer firm.
Yuen disclosed that he is not forbidden to compete with his former company and may do so if he finds the right firm, one in which he could invest the fortune he made while at AST. He once estimated his own net worth at more than $60 million. He still owns about 8.4% of AST’s stock.
“There are potential casualties in the computer industry shake-out that is happening now,” he said, a reference to severe price competition that has forced some companies out of the business. “With some innovative financing, I think some could be picked up at a cheap price and merged together.
“I helped turn AST around three years ago,” he said, referring to AST’s rebound from a slump in 1988-1989. “I think it would be a nice kind of career to turn around sick companies.”
Yuen said he recently traveled to Hong Kong, where he grew up. During that visit, which he said was partly business and partly pleasure, he invested an undisclosed amount of money in NuTek Computers Inc., a private Cupertino company that claims to have invented a clone of a Macintosh-style computer without violating Apple Computer Inc.’s patents.
He also said that, having lived in the region for 22 years, he expects to remain in Newport Beach, despite stagnation in California’s manufacturing sector.
“I’m still confident that this is the Golden State and that it has a lot of potential as the center of the Pacific Rim,” he said, adding that he expects Southern California to emerge from the recession stronger than ever.
Yuen acknowledged that his desire to create billion-dollar companies may be based on a nostalgia for the early days at AST. But his instincts, he said, which earned him a reputation as a PC marketing genius, tell him that there is plenty of opportunity left in the PC industry, even though it has become crowded. He said he feels that he has both the access to money and the risk-taking nature to take advantage of those opportunities.
Yuen said he will share his thoughts on the severe competition in the computer industry and some broadly defined future plans of his own at a forum sponsored by a computer data-processing group at Gateway Plaza Holiday Inn in La Mirada on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
