The international business magazine Forbes reports in its forthcoming issue that Taiwan's Matthew Miao (苗豐強), CEO of two of the world's largest electronics distribution companies, "is making a mark in distribution."
Synnex Information Technologies Inc in Fremont, California, and Synnex Technology International Corp in Taipei, Taiwan claim to be the world's No. 3 electronics distributor, after Ingram Micro Inc in Santa Ana, California, and Tech Data Corp in Clearwater, Florida. Both firms are part of the Mitac family of companies, of which Miao is the head.
The report says that Synnex began in Taiwan's crowded field in 1980. Trying to differentiate itself from its rivals, the company soon built a successful business with speedy deliveries from its warehouses.
Emboldened by Synnex's success in Taiwan, Miao entered the US market in 1992. The California-based Compac Microelectronics Inc took on the Synnex name two years after Miao's Mitac International Corp (
Last year, Synnex ranked 40th in the Forbes top 500 private US companies and in February the company received the IBM "distributor-of-the-year" award.
Synnex Information Technology's sales jumped by almost one third from a year earlier to reach US$3.7 billion in 2000. It fell back to US$3.3 billion last year, partially because of the losses from the sideline of assembly work.
"The company has succeeded in the United States by picking its targets carefully," according to the Forbes report.
Acquisitions have helped too. New sales and distribution sites from acquired firms have enabled Synnex to expand its presence.
The report points out that globally, the distribution business is growing. as producers of networking products, software and peripherals tend to use distributors as a way to reach a fragmented customer base, the distribution business is expected to keep growing in the years to come.
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