Planning for the future
In fulfillment of that speculation, iGo on Jan. 11 announced the completion of the acquisitions of AR Industries, Inc. (d/b/a Road Warrior International) and CAW Products, Inc. (d/b/a Cellular Accessory Warehouse). iGo bought the two companies for $850,000 in cash and approximately 308,000 shares of iGo common stock issued to the former shareholders of the corporations.
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Ken Hawk said he sees the market for mobile accessories in North America alone growing from more than $5 billion this year to more than $8 billion in 2001. He said unlike some e-tailers such as Amazon.com, iGo is going to stay focused on its core business niche, the mobile market, and grow within that niche.
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Company executives hope some of this growth will come through partnerships with software makers, original equipment manufacturers and others. The company helps NEC Corp.'s online and offline customers with purchases of accessories for laptops and hand-held devices. Under an agreement with ReleaseNow.com, Release will build a software store for the iGo Website. A similar deal with MapQuest will create a virtual kiosk within MapQuest's Website that offers iGo products tailored to MapQuest visitors and provides links to featured areas of iGo.com.
iGo also recently announced what could prove to be two of its most important and profitable alliances. Gargantuan American Online just gave the company a slot on its shopping channel, and AT & T Corp. just approved iGo as a distributor of its Digital One Rate wireless telephone service.
All the e-commerce co-branding and cross-pollinating iGo is involved in is beginning to take on some of the complexity of the Web itself. But Ken Hawk wouldn't have things any other way. He wants iGo to dominate what he sees as the $10 billion plus a year mobile accessories market. Which means the company, expanding even further, might have to find an even bigger gleaming office tower to settle into.
Posted Feb. 6, 2000
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