Acuson sales boom on global growth

Healthy scanner sales in internationalmarkets helped Acuson to a third consecutive quarter of positivesales and earnings, despite ongoing uncertainty in the U.S. market.In posting financial results for its third quarter of 1994 (end-October),the Mountain View, CA, vendor reported revenues almost $20 millionhigher than the same period last year.

Acuson's sales for the most recent period were $86.4 million,a 29% increase over the $67.1 million recorded in the same quarterlast year. Earnings were also up, with the company reporting netincome of $3.7 million, a gain of 64% compared to the $2.3 millionrecorded in the third quarter of 1993.

For the nine-month period, Acuson recorded sales of $267 millionover $221 million in the same period last year. Net income forthe year to date is $14.4 million, compared to $572,000 for thefirst nine months of 1993.

Acuson's strong results reflect the company's success in marketsin Europe, Asia and Latin America, according to CFO Stephen Johnson.Acuson started a sales and marketing effort in Latin America thisyear, and that market has shown more demand for premium systemsthan expected, Johnson said.

The U.S. market continues to be flat and shows no signs ofa recovery, although the fourth quarter is traditionally strongfor medical imaging vendors, according to Johnson. Acuson's performancedomestically has been helped by its Acoustic Response Technology(ART) upgrade, which has enjoyed sales of $24 million since itsrelease last year (SCAN 9/14/94).

Acuson also announced last week that it has begun clinicaltesting of its DICOM 3.0 interface for the Aegis ultrasound imagemanagement system. At the University of California at San Francisco,Acuson has linked Aegis to a hospital-wide PACS, while at theVirginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle an Aegis system is sendingimages from the ultrasound department to a Cemax multimodalityclinical workstation.

In other Aegis-related news, John Freund, executive vice presidentand head of the Aegis division, is planning to leave the companyin December. Acuson tapped Freund to lead the division last year(SCAN 12/29/93).

Freund joined Acuson from the investment banking field withthe intention of working for the firm for three years. He endedup staying six, he told SCAN.

Acuson COO Robert Gallagher and vice president of engineeringDonald Burch have been named co-managers of the unit on an interimbasis, although CEO Sam Maslak said Acuson is in no rush to finda replacement for Freund.

"John did just what he and I hoped he would do in termsof helping the division make the transition into a selling andmanufacturing organization," Maslak said.