Power One history

1988 The plant opens in Mexico.

After heading Power CA's research and development division, he turned his attention to executive-level posts and supplemented his education by earning a master's of business administration from Pepperdine University in 1989.

Goldman led a management-team buyout of the company, now known as Power-One L.L.C., a Delaware entity that acquired Power CA in preparation for a sale, in September 1995, backed by the Little Rock, Arkansas investment firm of Stephens Group Inc. Its president, Fred Roberts, was a friend of Stephens chief executive officer, Warren Stephens, who was attracted to Power-One because its market was booming and sales were growing at a 30 percent clip, totaling close to $75 million in 1995.

Sales were strong in the first half of 1998, but economic conditions soured, due in large part to an Asian recession, resulting in poor sales during the second half of the year.

Power-One's increasing focus on the telecommunications market, in which the company hoped to ultimately achieve three-quarters of its sales, paid off in 1999.

To keep pace with demand, Power-One added about 275,000 square feet of manufacturing space to its Dominican Republic and Mexico plants, and in the spring of 2001 it replaced a small research and development center in Limerick, Ireland, with a new 35,000-square-foot facility.