Frequency Electronics, Inc.

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 61 (1990) by Ed Dinger

Frequency Electronics, Inc.

55 Charles Lindbergh Blvd. Mitchel Field, New York 11553 U.S.A. Telephone (516) 794-4500 Fax: (516) 794-4340 Web site: http://www.frequencyelectronics.com

Public Company Incorporated: 1961 Employees: 340 Sales: $31.5 million (2003) Stock Exchanges: American Ticker Symbol: FEI NAIC: 334515 Instrument Manufacturing for Measuring and Testing Electricity and Electrical Signals

Based in Mitchel Field, New York, Frequency Electronics, Inc. (FEI) is a leading research and development company devoted to the advanced control of time and frequency. Precise timing is key to proper synchronization in communications and data transfer for spacecraft systems, military applications, and telecommunications networks. FEI makes such timing products as oscillators and distribution amplifiers based on quartz, rubidium, and cesium technology. For most of its history, FEI has served the government sector but in recent years has taken steps to apply its products to wireless communications systems. Because there is a growing demand for cellular service in the world, but a limited amount of bandwidth, precise timing becomes a crucial factor in the synchronization of voice and data transfer. To serve this market, FEI manufactures a Rubidium Atomic Standard, an atomic clock, and temperature stable quartz crystal oscillators. FEI also provides synchronization products for wireline systems such as fiber optic networks. Further, FEI manufactures several products used by satellites involved in communications, navigation, weather forecasting, and video and data transfer. They include master clocks, made from quartz, rubidium, or cesium; DC-DC power converters for instrumentation power control; hybrid assemblies used for onboard spacecraft command, control, and power distribution; and oven-controlled crystal oscillators, needed for satellite transmission and GPS systems. In addition to its main facility and headquarters on Long Island, New York, publicly traded FEI operates plants in Belgium, France, and China.

Company Started in 1961

FEI was founded and incorporated in New York in 1961 by Martin Bloch. A City College of NY graduate, he worked for seven years during the 1950s for watchmaker Bulova, where as chief electronics engineer he was heavily involved in the development of the Accutron, the world's first electronic watch. Early in the decade the first battery-powered watches came onto the market, but they still relied on a balance-wheel movement and were no more accurate than traditional spring-wound watches. Bulova researchers developed a tuning fork movement that was a revolutionary departure from previous methods and resulted in the first timing devices capable of providing the accuracy required by the emerging space program. Bulova launched the Accutron wristwatch in 1961, the same year that Bloch left to found his own company to apply new timing technologies to spacecraft.

During the first 20 years of its history, FEI, operating out of a facility in New Hyde Park, Long Island, concentrated on the development of timing devices to be used by the space programs of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, including the Apollo moon landings, all of which required pinpoint precision for navigation in space. In 1968 FEI reincorporated in Delaware and went public. A year later the company took a major step when it acquired the Atomichron product line from National Radio Company for $733,000 in cash and notes. National Radio had been in the electronics business since 1914, when it started out in the early days of radio producing shortwave and amateur receivers. During the 1950s National Radio joined the quest to develop the atomic clock and its pioneering efforts in quantum mechanics and nuclear theory led to the 1956 introduction of the Atomichron, the world's first commercial atomic clock. It was accurate to within one billionth of a second, and was the direct ancestor of today's cesium beam clocks found on GPS satellites.

During the 1980s FEI established an alliance with TRW, Inc., acting as a subcontractor on satellites built for the U.S. government. In 1987 FEI bought a TRW unit, TRW Microwave, paying approximately $16.7 million. This acquisition was the start of a shift away from dependence on business from the Department of Defense and an effort to fill the need for private-sector satellite hardware as well as ground-based communications systems. Also of note during this transitional phase was the establishment in late 1989 of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, which gave employees a 10 percent stake in the company.

Company Indicted in 1993

The costs associated with moving into the commercial sector led in 1991 to FEI reporting its first loss (nearly $6.4 million) since 1979. Annual revenues at this stage topped $56.5 million, but business did not pick up after fiscal 1991, dipping to $53.2 million in 1992 and $43.2 million in 1993. To make matters worse, FEI would soon be saddled with legal bills, which would average over $1 million a year over the next several years. In December 1993 the company was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly conspiring to defraud the government in connection with its subcontracting for TRW. In a separate action, Bloch and three other executives faced similar charges. The underlying point of contention was the 1988 termination by TRW of three of the six subcontracts on highly classified government space satellites it had with FEI. As part of the process, FEI submitted statements that laid out in detail the costs the company had incurred on these contracts and for which it was eligible for reimbursement. The FBI began looking into the matter in 1990, sealed indictments were then made in a complaint dated December 1992 and finally became known to FEI in November 1993. The government maintained that the company's officers agreed to defraud the government, submitted false bills, and destroyed records related to FEI's actual costs on the terminated contracts. The company vehemently denied the charges, which were soon matched by a civil suit by the government seeking damages, as well as a shareholder suit that sought reimbursement from the company's officers for the financial damage caused to FEI by their alleged actions. As soon as the government charges were made public, FEI's stock plummeted. In an attempt to maintain its government business, the company rearranged its top rank of officers. For his part, Block resigned as chairman and chief executive officer, and took a leave of absence as president, but he stayed on to serve as FEI's chief scientist. Replacing him as chairman and CEO was board member Joseph P. Franklin, a retired Army Major General who since his retirement in 1987 had been running a Spanish business consulting firm in Madrid, Spain. Despite the changes, a few weeks later FEI was banned from contracting with or acting as subcontractor with any agency of the U.S. government. Moreover, defense spending was already trending downward in the wake of the collapse of Communism.