6111 N. River Rd., Rosemont 60018; 847-698-3000
Founded: 1969
Employees 2,000; 1,130 in Illinois
Foreign sales: 23 percent of $2.2 billion
Year-end: Sept. 30
Chief executive
Jack Slevin, 59, since 1994
Cash compensation: $807,074, up less than 1 percent
Options granted: $1,407,370, down 31 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised, $144,521
Shares owned: 282,442 of 52.5 million
Largest stockholder: Nicholas Pontikes, 24 percent.
Stock 365-day close
High: $25.125
Low: $18.81
May 1, 1996: $25.125
May 1, 1996, value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased May 1, 1995: $1,329.78
Purchased May 1, 1991: $1,532.73
Boom conditions on the nation’s corporate computing scene allowed Comdisco to make 1995 its best year ever in its core business of leasing new and refurbished computer equipment to big and midsized corporate customers.
A big part of the success came as the company joined in on the rush to transform traditional mainframe product line and service offerings into so-called client/server networks rather than the centralized arrangements of the past.
During 1995 Comdisco increased its portfolio of leased computer equipment designed for client/server systems to 30 percent of its entire stock.
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A guide to the Top 100 profiles
The Tribune’s business reporting staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of May 1, 1996. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find.
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1995, along with the change from the prior year. The figure for the CEO’s stock holdings includes shares the CEO had the right to acquire within 60 days of the proxy statement’s issuance.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, as reported in the proxy statement, and the change from the previous or prior year, as well as options and stock appreciation rights exercised during the year. In most cases, the current value of options granted is based on the assumption of a 5 percent annual rate of stock price growth.
– Theoretical total-return investment results for shares purchased for $1,000 a year ago and five years ago. The date on which those calculations are based is May 1. The results assume reinvestment of dividends on a quarterly basis.
The information in the profiles was obtained from the following sources:
– Company reports, including annual reports, public stock offering prospectuses and proxy statements.
– Interviews with company officials.
– Reports by securities analysts.
– News reports.
– Dow Jones News/Retrieval, an on-line service of Dow Jones & Co., New York.
– Bloomberg Business News, New York.
– TMS Stocks, a subsidiary of Tribune Media Services Inc., a unit of Tribune Co., Chicago.
– Morningstar Inc., Chicago.
– “First Chicago Guide,” published by Scholl Communications, Deerfield.
– “Hoover’s Handbook,” The Reference Press Inc., Austin, Texas.
