Viewsonic to float

MONITOR MAKER Viewsonic is to float on the Nasdaq stock exchange, as strong sales push its profits upwards in an increasingly difficult LCD market.

Viewsonic saw a growth of 30 per cent in sales last year and a doubling in its raw profitability. Bizarrely, so successful was its American operation that the VP of Viewsonic Americas earned more than the companies CEO in the same time frame.

Increasingly, the company has pushed more and more mainstream products, with a monitor-and-iPod-dock combo amongst its popular sellers.

This comes as the market for LCDs gets a little more expensive - those in the know say that panel prices could rise by as much as $5 in July as demand booms in the back to school season.

Many monitor manufacturers are having a hard time, as the increasing commoditisation of consumer electronics forces prices downwards and competition upwards. However, Viewsonic is proving that there is still money to be made somewhere. µ