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THE DAILY NEWS OF LOS ANGELES
21 REGIONAL FIRMS ON BIG-GAINS LIST

Friday, September 17, 1999
Section: Business - Edition: Valley - Page: B1

When a business achieves revenue growth of more than 78,000 percent and comes in second, you know the competition is tough.

Even though a Valley business wasn't on top, local firms - 21 of them - were all over the Deloitte & Touche Los Angeles Technology Fast 50 list revealed Thursday night.

EarthLink Network, a Pasadena-based Internet service provider, stood squarely atop the list with five-year revenue growth of 158,405 percent.

Xylan Corp. of Calabasas, an independent company when the information was compiled but now a division of the French communications firm Alcatel, was second on the list with revenue growth of 78,361 percent for the five-year period.

The rankings are based on revenue growth among technology companies in the five-county Los Angeles region. The competition is limited to firms that manufacture technology products or use technology primarily in their business. Competitors also must be more than 5 years old and have had 1994 revenues of at least $50,000.

The competition was fierce, said Gary Dickey, a partner in the Los Angeles office of Deloitte & Touche. ``Revenue is just one measure, but if you look at the number of technology companies and the increase in that number over the past five years, that's been at a very strong rate,'' Dickey said. ``We're seeing a lot of strength in the Southern California technology marketplace. We're seeing more venture capital flowing into the Southern California area.''

The picture is constantly changing, Dickey said. Of the top five firms, none was even on the list last year. Three, however, were listed last year as jump-starters, firms whose growth rates would have placed them on the list if they had met the five-year eligibility requirement.

This year's jump-starters include Dental Medical Diagnostic Systems Inc. of Westlake Village, which had revenue growth of 8,600 percent, enough to qualify for third place. The company will be eligible for listing next year, Dickey said.

Just being on the list is a huge honor, said Govind R. Vaghashia, president and chief executive officer of Delta Circuits Technology of Van Nuys, a circuit-board maker whose products are in the international space station and Mars Pathfinder. ``Whatever the number or whatever the position, that's great, but we will be pursuing . . . first place,'' said Vaghashia, who was contacted before his company's 34th-place ranking was revealed. ``What it takes is the teamwork with the employees and state-of-the-art equipment.''

Bob Kassel, chief administrative officer of Northridge-based Soligen Technologies, said his company's success can be attributed to a new way of thinking about manufacturing.

The company, with a licensed process developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has reduced the time it takes to bring cast-metal products to production, Kassel said. In the past five years, Soligen's revenue has increased 3,948 percent, good for fifth place on the Fast 50.

TOP OF THE CHARTS
The Valley and adjacent areas are well represented on this year's Deloitte & Touche Technology Fast 50 list, with 21 Valley and Ventura County companies on the list, including seven in the top 12:

RANK, COMPANY, GROWTH (collective five-year revenue growth), HQ
2. Xylan Corp. - 78,361 - Calabasas 5. Soligen Technologies -3,948 - Northridge 7. Advanced Recognition Tech - 3,157 - Simi Valley 9. THQ Inc. - 1,518 - Calabasas 10. MRV Communications Inc. - 1,407 - Chatsworth 11. View Tech Inc. - 1,315 - Camarillo 12.Nova Development Corp. - 1,294 - Calabasas 19. jeTech Data Systems - 530 - Camarillo 21.EOS Corp. - 467 - Camarillo 26. Vitesse Semiconductor - 392 - Camarillo 28. Optical Comm. Products - 368 - Chatsworth 30. Sound Source Interactive - 363 - Calabasas 31. Rifocs Corp. - 347 - Camarillo 33. ACT Networks Inc. - 334 - Calabasas 34. Delta Circuits Tech. - 333 - Van Nuys 35. Ampersand Corp. - 328 - Glendale 36. No. American Scientific - 318 - Chatsworth 37. MiniMed - 282 - Sylmar 38. BioSource International - 250 - Camarillo 44. Irvine Optical Co. - 183 - Burbank 35. DataDirect Networks - 169 - Chatsworth

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