6111 N. River Rd., Rosemont 60018; 847-698-3000
Website: www.comdisco.com
Founded: 1969
Employees: 2,266; 1,125 in Illinois
Year-end: Sept. 30
Foreign sales: 24 percent of $2.43 billion
Chief executive: Jack Slevin, 60, since 1994
Cash compensation: $1,089,425 up 35 percent
Options granted: $5,096,295, up 262 percent
Options, stock appreciation rights exercised: None
Shares owned: 352,432 of 48.7 million
Largest shareholder: FMR Corp., 12 percent
Stock: 365-day close as of April 15, 1997
High: $33
Low: $21.25
April 15: $29.12
April 18, 1997 value of $1,000 in company stock:
Purchased April 18, 1996: $1,327
Purchased April 18, 1992: $3,443
Comdisco provides leased equipment–from mainframe computers to photocopiers and desktop PCs–to large and midsized companies.
The company had another year of solid growth last year, due to the move toward supporting so-called client/server computer networks that are taking over many duties that once were handled by mainframes.
This year, the company says it will expand such services as actual programming and systems integration for businesses. A bright spot is Europe, where companies are just starting to move onto the platforms that Comdisco does best.
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A guide to the Top 100 profiles
The Tribune’s business staff profiles the Chicago area’s Top 100 companies, based on market capitalization as of April 15, 1997. Here’s a quick primer on the information you’ll find.
– The CEO’s cash compensation, including bonus and other compensation paid in 1996, 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.
– The company’s largest shareholder, as listed in the proxy statement.
– Estimated current values of stock options granted the CEO, as reported in the proxy statement, and the change from the 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 April 18. 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.
