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Amnon Landan of 5 4 . 9 9 / CANADA $ 6 . 9 9
Mercury Interactive
Garmin
54-year-old chief execu-
Found: Mm Kao of Garmin Ltd.
tive, are a mini Paul
in Olathe, Kans. (North, 38
Allen and Bill Gates.
degrees, 51.333 minutes; West,
94 degrees, 47.941 minutes). Both made it onto
Users of its GPS receivers
The Forbes 400 for the
never have to ask
first time this year, thanks
for directions.
to Garmin's remarkable
growth through the tech
recession. With the com-
pany's market value at a
recent $4.5 billion, Kao is
worth $970 million and
Burrell, $810 million.
Revenue is up 23% annu-
ally since 1996 to $465
million this year. Profits,
now at $142 million, have
kept apace. Together Bur-
rell and Kao control 45%
U
NLESS YOU'RE A PILOT, AN AVID locations to within feet—American tax- gauges and indicators with sleek flat-panel
hiker or hunter, or own a car payers paid the $15 billion bill to launch displays.
with a navigation system, you the 27 GPS satellites that orbit 11,000 miles But these are tricky times for Kao.
may not have noticed that one above the Earth and help pinpoint terres- Just as he is beginning to enjoy a taste of
of the fastest-growing sectors trial locations—has become a plaything the mass market, he has to begin fend-
in the otherwise chilly technology busi- for the leisure class. Civilian GPS users ing off the big electronics giants such as
ness is gadgets to help lost people figure now outnumber military ones 100-to-l. Sony and Toshiba, which are licking their
out where they are. The greatest financial beneficiaries chops at Garmin's 58% gross margins
Sales of Global Positioning System, or of this giant public works project are and imposing market share. Prices for
GPS, receivers—in handheld devices, cars, two folksy engineers: Gary Burrell and GPS chips have dropped from $100 per
planes and boats—will reach $4.7 billion Min Kao, the founders of Garmin Ltd. 1,000 to $20 in the past five years. Sony
in North America this year and more than of Olathe, Kans. Garmin's easy-to-use has a GPS receiver built into its Memory
double by 2008, according to research devices are the closest thing the GPS Stick, aimed at users of its Clie hand-
firm Frost & Sullivan. What began as a world has to Windows. And Garmin's helds, while Toshiba has done the same
way for missiles and troops to peg their Burrell, 66, now retired, and Kao, the with its Secure Digital cards.