The bottom has rather fallen out of Singapore’s highest of one-time high flyers, Creative Technology Ltd’s world with the fading of the market for its sound boards and its $24m fiscal fourth quarter loss (CI No 2,725). It responded with a major restructuring that will see it split into five independent groups in an attempt to refocus it onto areas where it can be competitive. The five divisions include a new focus on graphics products, and groups dedicated to audio products, video conferencing, advanced computer peripherals, and communications products. It ended production and development of multimedia CD-ROM software, and terminated its product development alliance with 3DO Co Inc, which was to have seen the creation of a board that would enable Windows boxes to run Interactive Multiplayer games. Last month, co-founder and chief technical officer Ng Kai Wa resigned. The fourth quarter loss was exacerbated by write-off of double speed CD-ROM drives, but Creative now has its own sextuple speed CD-ROM drive, and its own Creative Quadratic Modulation music synthesis chip, to replace the FM chip bought in from Yamaha Co.
