BUSINESS TOLL TALES: FOR WHOM THE CASH FLOWS

You may not own a TollTag yet, but given the heavy measures of clout and luck that accompanied David Cook’s last high-tech business venture-Blockbuster Video-chances are you may own one before the year is out.

Cook’s Amtech Corporation manufactures and sells the tags that allow drivers to buzz through the toll way booth and deduct the toll from a standing balance kept with the company. The charges can even be put directly onto a credit card. But then, simplifying life at the point of purchase is something Cook and his associates, CEO Mike Corboy and finance committee chairman Ken Anderson, know quite a bit about. Along with heavy hitter investors like Ross Perot, Mort Meyerson, and Tom Tierney, they made Blockbuster Video worthy of its name.

In 1986, Blockbuster’s revenues were $8.1 million for a deficit net income of $2.9 million. Not bad for a startup. But by last year, the company had hit its stride and was bringing in $136.8 million for a net income of $15.5 million. In May of 1987, Cook sold out his interest in Blockbuster and directed his millions toward new ventures.

And his Amtech is headed in a similarly impressive direction. Revenues were $1.4 million in 1988 but are expected to leap to $10 million by the end of this year. The company is not public (though principals have considered the option), so net income figures are not released.

Those income dollars, though, won’t all come from the 20,000 commuters expected to be using the TollTags on the Dallas North Tollway by July of next year. Amtech’s fleet users like Security Couriers and DART will add to the pot. And the Dallas-based company has the Lincoln Tunnel, 3,000 New Jersey Transit Authority buses, and a twelve-lane bridge in New Orleans where 10,000 tags are in use. Given Amtech’s investors-Mitsubishi and American President Corporation, which owns a huge steamship line-the tags should make international prog-ress posthaste.