Audiovox 1999 Annual Report Download - page 4

Fiscal 1999 was by far, the most exciting year in our Company’s history.
For the first time our sales exceeded 1 billion dollars increasing by 88%
over fiscal 1998. Our share price increased 362%, closing at $29.75 on
November 30, 1999 and subsequently has reached as high as $58.38 per
share. Our market valuation, which was $125.7 million at the beginning
of fiscal 1999, rose to $597.6 million at year-end and is over $1.2
billion today. In February we completed a follow on offering that has
increased our public float by 2.3 million shares. And, after the close of
our fiscal year, we moved from the American Stock Exchange to the
NasdaqT. As a rapidly expanding leader in the telecommunications and
consumer electronics industries, we now find ourselves trading along-
side other high tech companies.
The growth experienced throughout our fiscal year can be attributed
to the success of both our operating groups and the increasing demand
for our products. Audiovox Communications Corp. (ACC), our majority-
owned wireless subsidiary grew 110% and reached record sales of 6.1
million phones. Our digital handset sales rose from 18% in fiscal 1998 to
56% in fiscal 1999. Dataquest currently ranks ACC number three in over-
all North American wireless handset market share and the number two
supplier of CDMA handsets in North America. CDMA is the wireless
industry’s fastest growing platform.
We achieved our stated goal to begin supply of TDMA and GSM
phones during 1999, and we expect to ramp up shipments of these tech-
nologies during 2000. We have introduced a full line of GSM dual band
phones scheduled for shipment in fiscal 2000 and expect that these new
products will increase our market share in Europe and Southeast Asia
where GSM is the strongest technology.
The outlook for our wireless group is good. We estimate wireless
industry worldwide growth between 48% for year 2000 and 36% for
2001. Our intent is to build on our role as a major branded supplier both
here and abroad, while gaining increased market share. In addition, we
will continue to introduce new products, such as smart phones for
data/web applications, as new technologies that support them develop.
Our electronics division also had a very good year, posting a strong
31% growth over fiscal 1998. Our FRS two-way radios first introduced in
1998 gained substantial acceptance and captured a 20% market share
during the year. Our Mobile Video sales grew an outstanding 420% to
approximately $52 million. We recently announced a contract with
Nissan to supply an OE version of our EZFIT center console as standard
equipment on the Nissan Quest 2000. We continued our commitment to
AUDIOVOX
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Chairman’s Letter to
SHAREHOLDERS