Purchases Give Network Firm Connections

Although it was founded in 1981, Osicom Technologies Inc. is essentially a new company.

Originally a supplier of disk drive components, the Santa Monica firm entered the red-hot data-networking business in 1993 with the acquisition of Meret Optical Communications Inc. Since then, Osicom has acquired six more companies--four of them in 1996--and positioned itself as a provider of a broad range of products used to route information over the Internet and other computer networks.

Last year’s acquisitions sent the company’s revenue soaring to $33.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 1997, up from $2.7 million a year earlier. The company now has about 500 employees worldwide, with about 150 of them in the Southland.

Osicom remains a relatively obscure firm, even as data-networking giants such as Cisco Systems Inc. and highly touted start-ups such as Calabasas-based Xylan Corp. are making headlines in the financial pages.

But the company’s products are used by institutions ranging from Nasdaq to the Internal Revenue Service to AT&T; Corp..

“If you live and work in America, you probably use Osicom products,” Osicom President Sharon Chada said. “This is the first year that all our products are going to fly under one flag.”

With that array ranging from remote-access servers and print servers to local-area networks, Chada and her husband, Osicom Chief Executive Par Chada, believe the company is poised for rapid growth. Its strategy is not to compete directly with Cisco but to provide a complementary line of products.

“The more successful they are, the better for us,” Sharon Chada said.

Analysts believe Osicom, which trades on Nasdaq, is in a good spot. With last year’s acquisitions, “they have put together a pretty complete list of products for the networking industry,” said Joe Gladue, an analyst with Chapman Co. “They added expertise and distribution channels. They have a lot of very cutting-edge technology that seems to be a step ahead of their competitors.”

And with the networking industry growing at about 40% a year, Osicom is likely to experience healthy growth even without taking market share away from the industry giants, Gladue said.