– 181 W. Madison St., Chicago 60602, 312-541-5000
– Founded: 1921
– Fiscal year-end: Dec. 31
– Chief executive
Donald Rumsfeld, 60, since 1990.
1992 cash compensation: $1,227,917, down 1.8 percent from 1991.
Shares owned: 669,507 of 59.4 million common shares.
– Employees: 9,200; 20 in Illinois
– Foreign sales: 32 percent of $1.07 billion total in 1992.
– May 1, 1993, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased May 1, 1992: Not applicable
Purchased May 1, 1988: Not applicable
– As a pioneer in digital television technology and cable TV systems, General Instruments appears poised to benefit from changes making telephones, televisions and computers more and more alike.
– General Instrument was the first concern to propose an all-digital technology for high-definition television in the U.S. Two of the four systems vying to become the U.S. standard for high-definition TV were proposed by General Instrument in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Even though commercialization of high-definition TV is a few years away, General Instrument is benefitting from the new technology through sales to cable and satellite television systems.
– The firm’s digital compression products will be deployed in the move to provide cable customers with a choice of 500 channels, an intention announced by Tele-Communications Inc. General Instrument intends for its technology to be in the thick of multi-media applications such as shopping and teaching electronically.
